Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who walks a horse to cool it after exercise.

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Examples

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  • "Horses speak with the smallest of motions; Smith heard and saw everything. 'Hotwalkers' leading horses around the shed row to cool them out after workouts would see him squatting down on the floor, staring straight ahead, turning the horses over in his mind."

    —Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001), 33

    Also,

    "For horses, 'downshifting' from strenuous exercise is risky. If they are brought to idleness too soon after running all-out—in old cowboy parlance, being 'rid hard and put away wet'—their major muscle groups can seize up in an agonizing spasm called 'tying up.' In addition, they can develop colic, a potentially fatal digestive crisis. Because of this, horses must be brought down from exercise gradually, slowly decelerating over about a half mile after a race and then undergoing a long walk. For Seabiscuit, this meant that after each workout he was covered in a blanket and hotwalked for about half an hour, until he was cool and dry." (p. 123)

    October 20, 2008