Trotting on the road

debsflo

debsflo

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Im currently on a yard for first time in years as i have a young horse so often looking for hacking buddies ,however everyone trots on the road and i have always been told not to overdo trotting other than a few minutes on tarmac or up hills.
Is this normal ,someone is going to trot for the whole hack 1-2 hours to prepare for the eventing season but i am really careful with my horses legs and not sure if im being too precious or things have changed.
Makes it tricky to find someone for a nice hack ,im not opposed to trotting and cantering in the right conditions .
 
We do trot on road

1] going round the corner prior to entrance of yard as if you walk round your out of vision of the cars coming down the road and entrance just round the bend. If you go round the bend at a walk and have to stop for on coming vehicle your in grave danger of being wiped out from behind so we trot as we start to go round left hand bend hands out and cross and cars 99% stop and let us cross
 
I trot on the roads but only for a couple of minutes at a time and then mostly uphill.
Trotting for a whole hour or so is madness, and impossible around me as it is so uphill and downhill.
 
I do trot on hacks but, like Dixie, I tend to only do it up hills or on narrow bits of road that I need to get through quickly. I certainly don't trot for any more than a few minutes per hack but I do insist on a marching walk from my horses.
This has worked fine in getting my event horses fit for eventing when mixed with appropriate schooling and a weekly trip to the gallops.
 
There was a study done that shows that trotting on roads is beneficial if done in small 5minute doses for young horses to harden bones and for horses that have had soft tissue injuries as the concussion causes more blood to flow to the leg and promote healing. Trotting an older or uninjured horse on the road doesn't do anything special. In the long term it is detrimental to joints. Shod or not makes no different.
 
I know people don't like it but I can only judge by my own experience trotting my horse about for years (she is whizzy and likes to trot non stop) and the riding where I am is mostly road unfortunately so I don't have alot of choice. She has a bit of hock arthritus now, but she is 24. Never been lame apart from foot absesses.
I did ride with people once who cantered on the road but I draw the line there that is too nutty even for me!
 
On a yard with no school and limited off road hacking I trotted up every hill I could find and at a fair pace too as preparation for hunting. Rides were around 50% trot with the odd canter on a bridleway and the rest walking. Average ride would be one and a half hours twice a week and hunting twice a week too.
 
I've always trotted on the roads - not for 2 hours (I'd be exhausted 😯), but certainly for a decent amount of time.
 
EKW said:
There was a study done that shows that trotting on roads is beneficial if done in small 5minute doses for young horses to harden bones and for horses that have had soft tissue injuries as the concussion causes more blood to flow to the leg and promote healing. Trotting an older or uninjured horse on the road doesn't do anything special. In the long term it is detrimental to joints. Shod or not makes no different.
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I don't believe it can make no difference. It may not be good for barefooted horses, but it has to be worse for shod horses.
 
FfionWinnie said:
I don't mind trotting mine on the road as they aren't shod. .
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What difference does that make? Read David Marlin.

BAREFOOT horses are at a similar risk from roadwork as shod horse with respect to forces transmitted up the leg (the difference between shod and unshod is in how the force travels through the foot). With our current knowledge, there is no reason to conclude that barefoot horses are at a lower risk of concussive damage from roadwork
 
If you trot in a sensible manner, not hammering along on the forehand, you should not do your horse any harm. I couldn't trot for an hour, these days though. We did, back in the day when the weather was bad and we couldn't have a lesson at RS.
 
gunnergundog said:
What difference does that make? Read David Marlin.

BAREFOOT horses are at a similar risk from roadwork as shod horse with respect to forces transmitted up the leg (the difference between shod and unshod is in how the force travels through the foot). With our current knowledge, there is no reason to conclude that barefoot horses are at a lower risk of concussive damage from roadwork
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Would you mind giving the name of the publication/study/writing of David Marlin, his website seems quite interesting but can't find what your referencing.

I would assume that trotting on the road would be less concussive without shoes as the steel would have a detrimental impact of the hoof shock absorbing role but would be interesting to read anything to the contrary.
 
I do a lot of roadwork by choice as the lanes round me are all hills so good for fitness, I also have an extensive bridleway network but bizarrely that is mostly flat once you are on an actual route (hills to and from them). My mare does have hock arthritis now (age 18) and so I have reduced her trotting but to be fair she will sometimes pick her own pace and jog along happily. I don't hammer them but a good working trot for a good while up hill or on the flat.

Mine aren't shod but my previous ponies were and I still did the same work, as far as I know there hasn't been any detrimental effect on them, my boys 17 & 13 have no problems and have done the same work as my mare.

To be fair I don't see the difference in trotting on the road or trotting on a sun baked bridleway and my bridleways have been sun baked concrete for the last few summers as has my grass working arena and I still work on them.
 
I usually only trot up hills and we have plenty of those. I was hunting yesterday and noticed they do seem to trot on roads probably to prevent hold ups but I wasn't keen when they came to the brow of a hill and carried on trotting down it at a brisk trot the road was quite frosty too.
 
I've read his article, not sure what you are getting so wound up about gunner because he says practically what I said, perhaps you didn't read his postscript.

It would be ludicrous to say there is no difference between a metal structure and no metal structure when it comes to concussion. Of course shod horses will suffer more. Similarly a good angled BF hoof with a nice meaty frog and a heel first landing has got to be the best thing to land on a hard surface with. Are you really going to argue that that is wrong?
 
My old girl spent much of her life trotting on roads, broken at 3 she worked as a rag and bone pony for 9 years, heavy road trotting, spent a few years just riding with me then we drove again and used to drive out for 2-3hrs mostly in trot. Lost her at 21yrs to aggressive cancer, she had a touch of arthritis in one back leg as a result of being hit by a car when she was 5/6, and a couple of windgalls that never bothered her but other than that was entirely sound. She was jumping open cross country fences a couple of weeks before she became ill.
Most driving ponies and horses do a lot of roadwork, the majority of those I know have not had a problem with it and work to an old age - certainly comparable to riding horses and ponies I know.
It goes against my gut feeling to trot heavily but I'm not sure it is any worse than jumping/cantering on hard ground which happens, and my experiences suggest it isn't as detrimental as I think it ought to be.
 
It's a balance of risk usually - I think that working on lots of circles, sharp turns and the such like on a surface is far more likely to cause injury than controlled trotting on the road.

I do fair amounts of trot on the road when the horses are fit, they are barefoot.

I saw someone share the David Marlin article - I cannot see how he can say the effect on shod and barefoot horses is the same, try driving a car with and without suspension over potholes and tell me there is no difference. Same force, dissipated in a different manner.
 
samlf said:
It's a balance of risk usually - I think that working on lots of circles, sharp turns and the such like on a surface is far more likely to cause injury than controlled trotting on the road.

I do fair amounts of trot on the road when the horses are fit, they are barefoot.

I saw someone share the David Marlin article - I cannot see how he can say the effect on shod and barefoot horses is the same, try driving a car with and without suspension over potholes and tell me there is no difference. Same force, dissipated in a different manner.
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Did you see the bit at the end where he contradicts the bit which was quoted earlier in this thread. Can't copy it when I'm on my phone I'm afraid. I usually think he speaks a lot of sense but he needs to rewrite the middle of that article imo.

Also I agree about surfaces and circles!
 
FfionWinnie said:
I've read his article, not sure what you are getting so wound up about gunner because he says practically what I said, perhaps you didn't read his postscript.

It would be ludicrous to say there is no difference between a metal structure and no metal structure when it comes to concussion. Of course shod horses will suffer more. Similarly a good angled BF hoof with a nice meaty frog and a heel first landing has got to be the best thing to land on a hard surface with. Are you really going to argue that that is wrong?
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Bottom line. Just because a horse is barefoot doesn't mean its ok to do hours of roadwork at trot. Quote Marlin.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Did you see the bit at the end where he contradicts the bit which was quoted earlier in this thread. Can't copy it when I'm on my phone I'm afraid. I usually think he speaks a lot of sense but he needs to rewrite the middle of that article imo.

Also I agree about surfaces and circles!
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Just opened the link - the postscript bit you mean?

Also, thinking about it further if we were to draw parallels with studies in barefoot running in humans (not ideal but as no-one is funding barefoot research...) we perhaps could argue that the forces on a barefoot horse trotting on the roads are lower than shod from the outset as they take shorter strides on harder surfaces. I still dont agree with his postscript point, if a force is applied to a larger area (beefy frog, digital cushion in barefoot horse vs metal shoes peripheral loading) there is less force per square inch therefore less likelihood of injury - yes the TOTAL force is the same, but that is almost irrelevant.

Edit - to help articulate my point visit this link, the difference between force and pressure http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-force-and-vs-pressure/
 
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Roadwork was always considered the best for all hunters and Racehorses. EKW I too saw that study very enlightening it compared injuries in young horses that did roadwork as routine against those that didnt and the conclusion was roadwork actually helped strengthen the bone and particularly in TBs they suffered less fractures in racing than those that didnt
 
gunnergundog said:
Bottom line. Just because a horse is barefoot doesn't mean its ok to do hours of roadwork at trot. Quote Marlin.
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I think you'll find that's what I said but you are still picking and choosing the bits you like to try and make your point. Have at look at the video see how that makes you feel. Certainly puts my teeth on edge.
 
Probably the case that there is a lack of scientific evidence either way analysing barefoot as a variable. Our local horsepital was doing a study a while back on the impact of bridleway surfaces using various sensors to analyse the forces. Local riders was invited to take part but horses had to be shod all round to be eligible.

What I will say on a horse that was shod and then barefoot is that barefoot he tends more to adapt his stride to different surfaces and offers big trots on smooth tarmac finding it easy to work on.

I do like to trot up steep hills when I find them but that is shorter bursts as they are limited in length and then followed by an equally steep downward stretch I walk down.
 
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