Mecanim and Child Objects

Hey Guys

i hope you can help me. I have a character who can switch between different equipment parts. the equipment has the same avatar and controller (and rig) as the character.

Now to my problem: the euqipment is a child of the character, but when im moving the character the equipment does not play the run animation....it only plays the idle (default) animation.

the character has a controller script...do i also need one for the equipment?