Taking horses swimming in pool - Has anyone?

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andreo

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Hi just as title I am thinking of taking my 4yr old to our local centre that takes horses for rehab or just fitness, two reason, fisrt I though it would help get him fit in the weather, second as I intend to event him and he isn't keen on water I though it would help build his confidence with water. Has anyone else done this would you recommend it
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I have. It really knackers then out and my horse over reached quite badly.
If they don't swim properley with the back lifted then it doesn't so them much good I believe.
 
It isn't possible for the horse to swim with their back lifted.

As someone else said a water treadmill is better as it makes the horse bascule (n shape) whereas when they swim they hold their heads up high using the muscles beneath their neck in a u shape.

Swimming is a great way of performing non weight bearing exercise and it is aslo good fitness. But as part of a fitness routine I would use it no more than once a week.

If your horse has lost fitness due to the weather then you would be better off starting a walk program and building the fitness up that way.
 
QR- Yup used the local equine physio pool with our pacers and have had good results and not so good - not bad though I would hasten to add!
For one mare it was brilliant we used it regularly with her if she'd ran a hard race or on hard ground as we found it really helped loosen her up. She'd actually pull to go into the pool and the handlers had to try and slow her down!!
For our gelding it was kind of indifferent, and we didn't notice much difference with him.
For our other mare - she hated it, took her once and she stood on her hind legs and walked through, there was no point having a fight with her over it so we've never taken her back. So not a bad experience - she just didn't like it.
The centre we've used is really good - the horses are booted up and they walk them into a straight pool - can't remember how long it is - and they get walked through about 3 times I think, it provides a good workout and then they come out and go under heat lamps to dry off. They've also got a salt water leg bath thingy but we've never used that.
 
I take my ment to be event horse swimming quite alot as he strained his DDFT and cant cope with the hard ground in the summer.

It is very hard work for them as its the equiv of galloping so would only take something that was reasonably fit.

I also read the new research that swimming can be bad for them as in lifting their head above the water can put excess strain down their back. I spoke to a chiro, vet and equine sports massager and the general idea was that it was ok as long as not everyday, I was told once a week would be ok.

Esp for me it was the toss up of not being able to work him on the hard, so the swimming (in my case) was the better option.

My horse isnt fussy about jumping in water but he LOVES swimming, he normally trots in and tries to jump in, silly creature, probably doesnt help the back strain lol.

Hes swimming in my signature on the right....
 
Treadmills are probably better than swimming for the reasons given above.

If you do take your horse swimming, make sure the people operating the pool and handling the horse are experienced and insured - a lot can go wrong otherwise. The horse should wear boots all round including overreach boots.

Swimming can be great for horses which have been injured and are not able to do much weight bearing exercise, but it does make their action change - eg racehorses which have been swimming only for a while find it very difficult to gallop until they work out where their legs should be going again!
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I used to work at a therapy centre and we swam several horses a day - I found it very stressful as a handler, and I don't really think the horses enjoyed it much
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Had a little palomino mare who loved it and it really worked on her fitness as well. Was a straight pool so she did lengths walking up the ramp and turning round at each end. She used to do 15 lengths once a week.

Took several horses there and the mare got the most benefit but it was good for others to, also those that struggled with swimming all turned out to have underlying problems so quite a good test to see how well your horse is.

More recently took Mac to the local water treadmil as part of his PSD recovery, worked really well for him as being a big lad it was a good way to work him without too much strain on his suspensories.

That went well untill he started to struggle coming up the ramp on the way out , turned out he'd developed navicular infront, nothing to do with the treadmill but again another good pointer to a problem.
 
We took one of our homebreds for exercise after an injury and he almost killed himself, panicking as he entered the water and getting his legs caught through the fencing. It was a horrible experience and one I would not like to repeat, but I am aware that this type of happening is in the minority.
 
Water treadmills are a lot better from experience. Have also heard several reports from other professionals where swimming has 'gone wrong' such as event horses misunderstanding the idea behind water jumps having gone swimming. I guess it depends on what you want to do with your horse in the long term but would definitely sway towards the idea of the water treadmill
 
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