Hello! I’m just looking into building a walker. No idea really where to start. Any resources would be helpful. Definitely would prefer to be on the low end of prices but any information would be helpful. I’m not the barn owner but looking into having it done as a gift.
You mean, a horse walker like training barns have for light exercise and warm up and cool down horses?
A little more information would help, like which kind and how much DIY you meant to do?
Commercial horse walkers come in different kinds, one with arms that go in a circle you tie horses to, like these:
https://supremewalker.com/About_Us/index.html
Another the newer “european” exercisers where horses walk loose in a fenced track, can be round or oval.
Horses are separated by moving panels that keep them walking on, like these Priefert walkers:
http://horsewalkers.priefert.com/walkers
Mechanical horse hot walkers require electricity to run a motor and are not really that safe for DIY engineering.
I have seen circular ones where someone used the back axle of an old vehicle and add a motor to make the long arms go around.
Is that what you intend to do?
It is a good idea to help your barn by providing one of those, nice of you.
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Thank you! And yes to the first question. Even just a small one for a few horses to walk for an hour or so on for extra fitness.
I honestly have no idea where to even start and have very limited DIY skills. Probably not going to be able to do it honestly but just want to know how to go about doing it.
I’ll caution you about installing a small one. I know several people who stopped using theirs because they believe the small circles were increasing their lameness issues. The people I know that are happy with theirs have 16-20 meter circle sizes.
We’ve gone to a treadmill so the horse can walk straight, but obviously only one horse at a time.
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“…and have very limited DIY skills” Dream on dreamer. 
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Best I remember, our walker when raising and training race horses was a smaller one and had 18’ arms, as it required about a 36’ circle.
We used it to train youngsters to walk on it and to warm up and cool off while training.
It was never at more than a regular walk and never leaving a horse long on it.
Walking on such smaller circles are not good for any horse’s legs for very long.
Those at the tracks had considerably longer arms and held more horses.
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:lol: haha like I said just trying to get an idea. Really want to do something nice but yeah.
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First thing I would do is post a wanted ad on craigslist or similar and see if you can find a used one to buy.
