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Red Hot Cardinal Fan
Posts: 4122
 
| I have a 3 year old that was sent to a trainer in the fall for 30 days of riding, at the time a 2 year old. When she returned I noticed she had slight muscle atrophy behind her shoulders that I am assuming came from poor saddle fit. She had the winter off, but the area has not filled back in completely yet. She is not sore there or elsewhere, has proper feed and nutrition for a growing horse and has really started to fill out overall in the last 4 months. Is there anything that can be done to help with this? Certain saddle pads, etc? Will it get better as she continues to grow and fill out more? Below is a picture that was taken in November, and it has gotten better since then but it is still noticable.
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
  
Location: Kansas | Biofit pad, or shims |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 434
Location: Northwest Florida | I have an aged gelding that looks just like this, though he is on an excellent diet and is ridden fairly regularly. We use a biofit. He has a very prominent withers and a TB build, is older, so I've started to accept that I may have to live with the atrophy. With a younger one though I would think it could be corrected. A lot of exercises getting her to round out her back and work her topline muscles should help along with a good muscle building supplement if she isn't on one already. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Looks like the top line needs to fill out more but thats just me, I like seeing a full top line.. Do you have a full body/picture shot of this horse? |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| First - she's young. Some of it could just be an awkward growth stage combined with not being worked.
Secondly - work. I'm a firm believer that toplines don't get awesome looking without correct exercise. Making the horse work with it's hind end under it, hill work, long trotting to condition. I can eat clean like a body builder but if I never go to the gym I'm probably not going to gain too much muscle.
Third - balanced diet. It is important, making sure they have all the building blocks for making muscle. There's a 100 different ways to skin that cat and there's been a lot of good posts about the different supplements for doing so. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Poor horse, that looks like it would have hurt.
The muscle will eventually come back, but you need a well fitting saddle, you may need to shim it for awhile.
As others have said proper feed/nutrition to assist in the top line. This colt needs a lot more calories and protein when you start riding. |
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Red Hot Cardinal Fan
Posts: 4122
| Thank you all for the advice so far. I've never dealt with this before, so was unsure on the best route to move forward with her. But with her being young, I just wanted to make sure that I don't cause any future damage or problems with this. Here's a picture from about a month ago that I just snapped out in the field, please ignore the winter fuzz on her.
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