Building Muscle w/ Water?

So.. the outdoor arena was finally thawed yesterday so I was able to ride outside for a bit, however, there was still some puddles of water around the outside track. When we trotted through these, he was picking up his feet much more than usual, and felt like he was really extending or at least using more muscle through it.

So my question is, would trotting through shallow water like that on occasion actually be beneficial?

I run usa track & field in the spring & summers(I have a lottttttttt of hobbies.). My gf's dad runs usa track and field as well and he uses water to train too. When I was in the military I taught aquatics classes to injured soldiers for physical therapy. I and many of the top athletes in the world use water to enhance their athletic capabilities.

I believe it would definitely see it helping build muscle and more so stamina on a horse. But the horse cannot just trot through a pedal, the water would definitely have to be at least to their chest, or them swimming.

Usually I'd think that too, but he seemed to be working noticably harder than he usually would be.

Why would him working harder be a bad thing?

Lmao no no I wasn't saying it was bad at all. Working harder = good x)
I was saying usually I'd think trotting through puddle-depth water wouldn't really do much as opposed to knee or chest-high water, but he seemed to be working pretty good for just a puddle.

Basically I was just asking if it could possibly be beneficial enough to well, take advantage of the ring whenever it rains or something.

It may be the same reason deep sand works them better, the ground moves under them which means they have to push through their movements and then pull through because of the suction that the mud, beneath the water may cause.

Or if your horse is like mine it could be working harder to keep its feet out of the evil puddle that his evil owner made him go into and thus working harder :)

But I'm just "mean" to my guy :)

I actually read an article once that suggested some trotting through water for muscle building. Because they are picking up their legs higher they're pretty much doing the same action as going through cavelettis, (only you don't have to space them out. :) ) and there is more resistance since they're going through water.