Two years on horse walker matting at Oulaghan Stables

The Gist: Mark Oulaghan has been training racehorses at Awapuni for close to 40 years. When it came time to put a surface on his horse walker, he weighed up the options before he spent a cent. Two years on, he is still happy with the call.

"We looked at a few other bases to go on the walker, like sand and things like that. We actually came up with the Numat rubber which seemed to be the best. It seemed to be the optimum one at the time and that's what we've used."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

Watch: Mark on two years of horse walker matting

Forty years, and a walker that has to earn its keep

Mark Oulaghan trains out of Awapuni in the Manawatu, just outside Palmerston North. Alongside a few of his own, he takes in outside horses for owners who send them to him because he knows what he is doing. After close to 40 years in the game, he is not the sort to spend money on a surface without checking what else is out there.

The horse walker is a tool, not a shortcut. As Mark puts it, it is an aid for training horses. What goes underneath it decides how much good that aid actually does.

Why not sand

Sand is the default answer for a lot of walkers, and Mark went and looked at it properly before he ruled it out. That matters more than any spec sheet. This was not a trainer taking the first suggestion. It was a comparison, made by someone with four decades of horses behind him, and rubber came out in front.

What it does under the hoof

"From a horse perspective, from a welfare perspective, it's good on their legs. It has a good cushioning effect, no jarring. It's even all the way. It's evenness and forgiving."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

Two words carry that quote. Even and forgiving. A walker surface that stays level across the whole circle gives every stride the same landing, and a surface that gives a little takes the jar out of the leg. That is the entire job of a walker base, and it is where loose materials struggle over time.

The older ones move freer

"They're quite happy just to stride along on the rubber. They're probably freer, just move a bit freer, especially the older horses that possibly, you know, not quite as free in the joints."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

This is the part you cannot put in a brochure. Mark is not reading a benefit off a list. He is describing what he watches every morning, on horses he knows well, and the difference shows up first in the ones with the most wear on their joints. Older horses moving freer on the walker is a welfare result and a training result at the same time.

Measured at Awapuni, cut in Oamaru, laid by their own team

"It's actually not bolted down, it's just cut and fitted into the walker and it sits really well."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

Numat supplied the matting cut to fit. The Oulaghan team put it in themselves. Every piece arrived numbered, so fitting it was a matter of working around the circle in order.

“We just measured it up and they cut it at the factory down there and sent it up. Every piece was numbered, so it’s just a matter of sort of following the numbers around, placing it in the right position and yeah, that was a straightforward, simple procedure actually.”

No fixings. No drilling. Cut accurately enough that the pieces hold their own position under horses.

Two years on

Two years of daily use, and the maintenance schedule is a broom. No topping up, no raking level, no chasing low spots after rain.

“It’s been down about two years, it’s been very successful, we’re very happy with it. It doesn’t seem to need much maintenance, just the odd sweep.”

The money

"You're always careful spending money and yeah, it costs a few bob to put down but yeah, I'm happy with the result. I think it's been money well spent."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

Mark does not pretend it was cheap. He says it cost a few bob and then he says it was money well spent, which is the only endorsement worth having from a trainer. Two years is long enough to know either way.

The verdict

“Any surface material is optional but I think the Numat rubber matting is probably sort of, from what I’ve seen, it appears to be close to the optimum of what you can have.”

"It's an A-plus for the operation."
Mark Oulaghan
Mark Oulaghan
Oulaghan Stables, Awapuni

FlexiShield on the walls, inner and outer

The matting is only half of what Numat supplied at Awapuni. The dark walls running the full circle of the walker, on both the outer fence line and the centre divider, are FlexiShield. Both went in at the same time as the matting.

FlexiShield is a plastic barrier, not a rubber one. It comes in rolls 1200mm wide and 10m long at 3mm thick, which is what makes it practical to run continuously around a curve without a join every few metres. It fixes straight to the existing posts and rails.

The reason it works on a walker is visibility. A solid wall cuts down what a horse can see moving outside the circle, so there is less to react to and the horse settles into the pace. The same principle is why it turns up in cattle yards and races, where the aim is to keep stock flowing without spooking. Mark had seen it used on deer yards and fencing before he put it up.

He was not certain about it at the time. Numat’s rep suggested it, he took the advice, and the verdict two years later is that it has lasted well and worked out.

Thanks, Mark

Thanks to Mark Oulaghan for opening the gate at Awapuni, giving us the run of the place for a morning, and answering every question straight.

Farmers and trainers back themselves far more readily on the word of someone who has already done the job than on anything we could write. Two years of honest feedback, including the bit about the cost, is worth more to the next person weighing up a walker surface than any brochure.

Get a price for your walker

Numat cuts horse walker matting to your dimensions at the factory in Oamaru and numbers every piece so your own team can lay it. FlexiShield can go on the walls at the same time.

Send through your walker measurements and we will come back with a price.