roadwork..a poll

Is your horse/pony 'security tagged' be it Freezemarked or Chipped etc?

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madhector

madhector

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12 December 2006
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Location
soon to be up north!
www.darlingdressage.co.uk
whats everyones view about trotting on the road, just interested as my old yard owner was totally against it, and would never trot on the road, i dont trot hector as he has problems with concussion anyway and doesnt do much trot work, but one of the yards i work at do a lot of trot work, so i was just interested in what everyone does on here
 
I dont do much at all. I sometimes find it easier to trot to get out of way of cars so we not holding them up, Not all the time though depends on the situation, but usually walk.
 
If i'm in a rush to get home or maddie's being a lazy sod i will trot but not much and really try to avoid it esp. in summer as her feet crack very badly.
 
I never did much trotting on roads in England and over here I never have any need to go on roads so ..... never.
 
My horse has very upright legs and after much research on gait analysis recently for uni I have made a resolution not to trot on roads any more as I just cannot afford the unnecessary wear and tear it causes! I will only ever trot on roads now unless I am catching up with a friend or if I am going uphill. It's just not worth it otherwise.
 
I put a little but not much. We don't really hack on the roads much because we don't have to but I wouldn't have a problem with trotting on the road a lot if we did have to.

If the horse is sound and has good legs and feet then I don't think it does them any harm.
 
He doesnt get much coice lol. As he's taken to sticking his backside on the road when we wait for a car to pass he now has to trot to a safe place. Oh, and he's unshod.
Hasnt had a problem with it, not been lame or bruised.
 
I think quite a few of us need to trot on roads to fitten our horses up - Donkey needs uphill trotting to strenghten her - she does 30 mins every evening in the school but I don't think that replaces distance for fittening. At the moment most of the land around us is water logged and unsuitable for trotting and as we are one of the highest points of the county I feel very sorry for people lower down, their fields have turned to swamps!
 
Unless I box somewhere, all my hacking is road work and in order to get and keep my horse fit (and slim) we do loads of trot work on the roads. We do more trot that walk and when I am getting him fit for pleasure rides/endurance we will only walk on down hill sections, the rest in trot.
I hear what people say about concussion, joint wear etc but there are as many views to say don't trot on the road as there are that say it is rubbish and get on with it! My view is that you should get away with it if you have a horse with good strong legs, well put together conformation and short non upright pasterns...but that is my choice and I also ensure he is not hamering along at a fast pace too.
 
I put a little but not much. I do try to avoid it as much as possible, but we don't have a school and at the moment our off-road hacking is very, very wet, so am having to do some trot work on the roads.
 
In moderation. IMO it helps fitness, and if done in a controlled pace, and only on level or uphill ground, is invaluable for fitness work. I do it about 1-2 a week max though, were lucky because we can do alot of our fitness work on a slightly sandy surface, so slightly more forgiving than tarmac. But still do "proper" road work too.
 
i didnt vote as there wasnt really an option for me.

Bloss gets hacked out once/twice a week and included in that is a short bit of roadwork which i trot her on.

Archie gets hacked out the same, and has just started a small amount of roadwork too, he had his first short burst of trot on the road on saturday.

We dont have to do roadwork at our yard if we dont want to as we can just stay off the roads, however i think its good for them to see different things, not just trot around the fields not seeing another sole/car/bicycle etc.
 
We do a lot of trotting on the roads. The hunters and the comp horses. Never had splints, gone lame or got navicular.

All are ridden correctly, in a good steady rhythem and never aloud to slam along.

I know that some people are very against it - but have never seen it to be a problem.
 
We do alot of trotting on roads. I dont trot downhill on the road but lots of uphill and on the flat. It is really the main way we get our horses fit, and i think it really is the best way for hardening up tendons. We dont pound them along the roads but just a nice steady trot. Round here if you want to go hacking you have to go on the roads to get to any tracks, i dont have a school or much land so i dont have a choice about wether i go on roads or not.
 
Have always been against trotting on the roads. However YO trots a lot and if we go for a hack we compromise lol
I will trot more since moving to the new yard as we have one or two hills where as before we were on totally flat ground.
But with winstons problems its not good for him, plus I guess im worried the same thing would happen to snoopy.
Mind you we have a walker on a tarmac surface and this helps condition the legs.
 
If you look at a typical bhs style fitness programme for a hunter or eventer it will say that building up trot work on roads is fundmental. I always do it with my horses (never had one with concussion injuries) but at a controlled pace and generally up hills. A German lady once told me she was horrified that Brits trot their horses on roads as they would never do so over there. Don't know how true that was.
 
Tend not to trot as my lad does not like it - is VERY pottery on roads fiull stop - only tro if traffic tailing back a way - and even then don't always !!lol
 
I do a fair amount of trotting uphill (lucky to have several good hills round our yard) as part of fitness work, really does make a difference to ned's stamina.

Admittedly I to avoid to much trotting on the flat or downhill, there isn't enough off road hacking to avoid it really.
 
I do quite a lot of trotting on the roads, not excessively though

i have no school and i will trot down a nice long flat roads or uphill
i can only hack when i ride and the footpath/track back up to the stables is very steep and the horses automatically break in trot up that anyway.
 
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