The water level is adjustable and weight bearing can be reduced by up to 60% when the treadmill chamber is filled to a horse’s elbow height.

This makes the water treadmill very useful for rehabilitation, as injured legs can be gradually reintroduced to full weight bearing and impact in a safe, controlled environment.

Muscles have to work harder walking through water, creating a much higher intensity exercise than moving at the same pace on land or on a dry treadmill.

Achieving a higher rate of exertion while moving at a slower pace combined with reduced weight bearing means horses can be exercised intensively without being overstretched.

A 30 minute session of walking on the water treadmill can be as effective as 1 hour of equivalent exercise on land at a much faster pace.

Healthy horses can improve cardiovascular fitness, strength and flexibility while minimising the stresses and strains of training on hard or deep going.

For horses that need to lose weight the process of getting in shape can be safely speeded up.

Horses with relatively minor injuries like bruised soles can continue to exercise without losing valuable training
time.

Horses recovering from more serious injuries can be gradually and safely prepared for training on land.

The water treadmill is also very useful for improving topline and gait as it encourages horses to move long and low, building muscle strength and flexibility in the shoulders, back and hindquarters.

The treadmill can be used to modify a horse’s movement pattern by adjusting the speed of the treadmill belt, which can be set to run at between 1 and 7 mph and by adjusting the water level to create more or less buoyancy and resistance.

Our experienced handlers carefully control each session on the water treadmill to suit your horse’s needs and we keep a record of your horse’s progress.

Clear viewing panels allow us to observe if horses are moving equally with all 4 legs, sufficiently engaging the hind limbs, moving in balance through their topline and if they are tending to lean to one side or the other.

Identifying and correcting problems is important not only for improving horses’ performance but also to help prevent chronic injuries that can develop from continual exercise with an unbalanced posture.

For horses new to the water treadmill, introductory sessions last for 5 to 10 minutes.

There are doors at both ends of the unit so horses can be loaded and unloaded without having to back out.

The exercise chamber takes about 3 minutes to fill and 3 minutes to empty.

Exercise sessions are always designed to suit the particular needs of each horse but once horses have become accustomed to using the water treadmill, a typical session would be 5 minutes walking for horses recovering from injury and 15 to 20 minutes walking for very fit horses.

Click the video screen to download a water treadmill clip.

Video clip length = 22 seconds.

Download time is approximately 30 seconds with a broadband
internet connection of 1100 kbps.

The clip can be viewed on Windows Media Player and Real Player.

Click here to return to the top of the page.