Trotting on the roads... Opinions please

Kateyb33

Kateyb33

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Hi all,

Would just like to know everyone's views on lots of roadwork. I took my mare out on hound exercise last month and must of trotted for about 2 hours or more on the roads, the whole time i was cringing as to what it was doing to her legs.... but she was fine!! Is it as bad as we think??
 
I try to avoid too much trotting on the roads, but I try to avoid too much trotting on really soft ground as well. So it's hard to find nice ground to ride on at all to be honest.

I think that as roads are nice and flat it's good as long as it's in moderation and not everyday
 
In moderation I think its fine.
I prefer walking on roads anyway as if my horse has a spook in a walk I can stay on but in a trot its a lot faster and harder to correct.
 
I don't trot an awful lot on roads,but some reasonably long stretches. I would trot a lot less with a shod hoof as there's just too much concussion on joints for my liking.
 
Only tend to do trot work uphill, less concussion and was advised to do this by my vet after my mares tendon injury. Never a mad pace, nice collected in bridle trot.
 
Nice steady bursts of trot when I roadwork. Problems may not be immediate, but give it a few years and your horse will eventually be ruined. :(
 
blazingsaddles said:
. Problems may not be immediate, but give it a few years and your horse will eventually be ruined. :(
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This is what i feel about it :( I only ever trot on roads if I'm coming through a blind bend or if I meet something big and it's dangerous for me to continue walking the horse (lesser of two evils!!)

I always wince when i see horses in films and they're always trotting or cantering and hammering up roads!!! Argh!!!
 
I will be interested to see if any hunting folk post on this, when i worked on a hunting yard we did a LOT of trot roadwork in their fittening regime, i dont remember any of the horses being lame from it and they went on for years and years (i regularly go to back to the yard and some of the same faces are still hanging over the stable doors).

Horses need to be conditioned on all ground to be physiologically strong.
 
i never trot my lad on the road after he got a concussion injury from just spooking at a digger. i will trot on verges (country lane verges not nicely kept verges if you catch my drift) if needed.
 
Well, I have always trotted on roads (I am not a hunting person in case you were wondering! Lol). Trot for fair periods, find it's good for fittening as we have a faior few decent hills near us. None of the horses we have ever owned have suffered leg problems from this wor. I have had my pony 17 years and my horse 16 years and they have not suffered any bad effects at all. My horse also competes SJing and eventing (fun, amateur level eventing).

I actually think more issues are caused by people doing too much schooling work on soft, sand school surfaces than are caused by road work. The concussion/vibration caused by road work/work on firm surfaces actually helps to build bone density.

Sustained work in arenas causes much more strain on tendons and ligaments in my opinion than working on roads or a firm grass surface.
 
In moderation, as with most things, I think it's fine.

A sedate trot down on tarmac, is fine and will build muscle nicely (when we hack out more in the summer I swear hacking is what brings on the extra muscle). But, banging down the road going like the clappers....is not!

Nice and steady and for short periods and not every day, and if you can make sure it's on a hill, you're working a lot of different muscles in one go!!
 
years ago we only had roads or the beach to ride on, the one road had a lot of sand blown on to it which made it very inviting! we used to trot quite a bit and never once had an injury. since having my lad i've been more aware of things, i don't trot him on the road unless i have to such as a sharp bend or holding up traffic and a gateway up ahead to pull into! i also only trot when going uphill as he finds it easier to get up the hill.

i too was brought up around the hunting scene and would often see horses trotting on the roads for either exercise or actual hunting, they always looked happy and i would see them for a fair few seasons so guess they never had problems.
 
This is my first season hunting, and I've been a long distance hacker before that. I've always trotted on the roads, and have done a fair bit of fast road work while with the hunt this winter.

The key thing to me is ONLY do it when the legs are conditioned and the body is fit - weeks in walk on the roads before trotting on the roads. Then build it up. From my observations of mine and others horses, it does no damage SO LONG AS the horse and it's legs are fit and strong.
 
Mmmm, seem to remember from another thread a while ago on here ..... that going barefoot causes less concussion apparently, much less so that with shoes on - and that (if going barefoot) its OK to canter on the roads, and that actually canter causes the least concussion of all the paces if going barefoot. Sorry, just chucking spanner in the works!

Personally I wouldn't be too keen on a lot of trotting on the roads, however my boy can be a total loon for the first ten minutes of a hack and a total plod for the rest of it, so I tend to trot him on for the first mile of any hack just to sort him out and get his fizz out, then walk a bit more later on, plus a little canter if we're going on the bridleway route.

I used to keep him on working livery where we could ride on a common and it got very dry and hard up there if there hadn't been any rain, and although it wasn't flinty stones, it was still very hard and IMO great care was needed, but you'd always see people up there galloping like crazy even though the ground was like rock.

I think too it depends on the sort of trot you're doing; if the horse is lobbing along on the forehand you're gonna get a lot more concussion on the front feet, whereas if the horse is going from behind and is nicely collected and balanced, there's surely less likelihood of concussion.

I do tend to err on the side of caution however, as I know you can get laminitis develop as a follow-on from concussion.
 
I think the idea of excessive trotting on the roads being harmfull dates back to cart horses doing 6/8 hours of road work per day. I think we need to do more roadwork and hacking.
 
I am not keen on too much trotting on roads. I do not really do it with my girl on tarmac as she has rotation in one of her fronts. The only time I will do it is to cross a road. If she had good feet I would happily do a little more, I think often everything is ok in moderation
 
Mike007 said:
I think the idea of excessive trotting on the roads being harmfull dates back to cart horses doing 6/8 hours of road work per day. I think we need to do more roadwork and hacking.
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Totally agree with this. I think to see what excessive trotting on the roads actually means, you need to watch the travellers at one of their gatherings showing off their horses to each other. Now there is a place where you will see "excessive trotting" (and lame horses being hammered regardless).

I do trot ours on the roads, I don't see anything wrong with it actually, they go off road a lot of the time too. The faster we go, the less time we have to spend on the road holding up the drivers and irritating them... I do walk too.
 
just done 3rd season on my 7 year old, hunt every week and never had a problem ! we often trot / canter on roads for long periods of time ! and yes i agree the hunts horses last for years and years trotting and cantering on roads with no probs - i think some people are a bit over paranoid about it sometimes ! i was told not to hunt my 4 year old as the trotting on roads might give him splints - he was fine all season !
 
My Grandpas horse is an ex trotter(with gypsies :(:o) before we got him (quite sucessful we've been told) so he's had a good battering up and down roads at speed. He's 18 now we've had him 5/6 years and last year was the first time he went lame, he's fine now goes hacking every week at fast pace(on soft ground with strict instruction from me :D)
I don't think trotting on roads is too bad if you don't overdo it, I have to ride on roads a lot and through busy areas to get to bridleways etc and my horse can get quite fizzy due to me not having much time during the week to ride, so between the bridleways I trot her to get fizz out, but said if there's a grass verge I'll put her on there before the road.
 
My pony's fatal navicular was probably caused by being hammered up and down on roads or other hard surfaces at a young age.

I dont have a problem with a bit of trotting on roads, just not excessive.
 
IMO Mike007 is right, and a proper trot, as opposed to hammering the horse down the road, uncollected and on the forehand, does no harm whatsover to a horse and its legs. We have got a few horses into their old age and everyone of them has trotted on the roads, not one has gone lame as a result, we have had them shod, unshod, half shod amd all have been ridden in collected trot on the road. :)
 
ladyt25 said:
Well, I have always trotted on roads (I am not a hunting person in case you were wondering! Lol). Trot for fair periods, find it's good for fittening as we have a faior few decent hills near us. None of the horses we have ever owned have suffered leg problems from this wor. I have had my pony 17 years and my horse 16 years and they have not suffered any bad effects at all. My horse also competes SJing and eventing (fun, amateur level eventing).

I actually think more issues are caused by people doing too much schooling work on soft, sand school surfaces than are caused by road work. The concussion/vibration caused by road work/work on firm surfaces actually helps to build bone density.

Sustained work in arenas causes much more strain on tendons and ligaments in my opinion than working on roads or a firm grass surface.
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I have to agree LadyT25, perhaps Yorkshire roads have special qualities.
We don't hunt either and have kept horses well into their 30s without a day's lameness. I think really the secret is to ride a collected trot -which not everybody does.
 
Allover said:
I will be interested to see if any hunting folk post on this, when i worked on a hunting yard we did a LOT of trot roadwork in their fittening regime, i dont remember any of the horses being lame from it and they went on for years and years (i regularly go to back to the yard and some of the same faces are still hanging over the stable doors).

Horses need to be conditioned on all ground to be physiologically strong.
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I dont hunt but totally agree with you!Have owned my lad all bar 8mnths of his life,he is 16 this yr,always start his fittening work on the roads and tracks,yes we trot on roads but not for lengthy periods and in a nice collected trot!Never had a days lameness,Until this yr,he had 7wks off with the bad weather(he normally has 3mnths off over the winter,before we start hacking)and we started him in the school,2 wks later he had pulled himself!Physio and 3 wks off he right again now!Maybe coincidence,but I doubt it,sticking to my roadwork routine to harden and fitten before I touch the school!
ETA...In all his yrs of doing roadwork,he hasnt a splint or blemish to show for it :D
 
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I trot my pony on the road. Sometimes for quite long periods of time. She's 14 and show's no sign of pain or problems. I think trotting on the roads is good for them. Certainly good for fitness trotting uphill. As someone else has mentioned I think more injuries are caused by schooling horses on too soft deep sandy surfaces.
 
I don't do an awful lot of trotting when out hacking (if I'm on grass I would rather canter than trot, much more comfortable!) and when I do, it's uphill so less concussion. I am quite happy to trot along with everyone else out hunting though.
 
I do steady trots on the road, nothing too long and nothing downhill. Went for a hack with a friend yesterday, and they hammered their horse in trot, going along at 100mph, mine kept breaking into canter to keep up (and he's a big striding 16.1hh horse) and I was cringing the whole time, and hoping he doesn't ask me to hack with him again. However he has owned this horse for about 10 years, the horse is about 16 - I assume they have always ridden like this, and their horse is sound as a pound.

I would have thought cantering on the roads would put less stress on them, is it because it's slippery that no-one does this?
 
If your horse is fit and it's legs have been hardened up, it should be fine.

We buy horses to enjoy. In the pursuit of our enjoyment, they do sometimes get injured and may be forced into a less demanding job, but ultimately, they're there do what WE want. All we have to do is make sure they're up to that job
 
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