[Adaansmom]

Some of you may have seen my threads on Horse Health about my gelding, Adaan. To make it short, he's had some issues and lost a LOT of weight over the winter and spring. Well, I'm happy to say that he's finally showing some weight gain! IMO, body condition has gone from a 1 to a 2. Still not there, but much better. Anyway, I didn't ride/work him when he was so thin and need to build some muscle back up. We just do trails and pleasure riding, so I don't need to have him ready to do reining or dressage or anything. His muscles are just really flabby now and I want to build him up without overdoing it. What are your suggestions? Thanks!

[JumpsxGlory]

Regular, correct work is key to building correct muscling for your horse! For example, you can't expect your horse to be able to carry a good muscle mass if you do good steady work for 2 months and then leave him be for 2 months. You also can't expect him to build the correct muscling from running around on his forehand for years and hanging on the bit when he should be using that butt of his be accepting the bit willingly and eagerly

Lots of hill work, first starting off at the walk until his conditioning is good enough to do it at the trot and the canter, transitions (I'd stick to just walk trot, walk halt for now) and make sure that the transitions are smooth as can be, of course it will take time until his balance is good enough to give you a real good transition! Lots of trot work also is wonderful for building great muscle definition!

A good diet is also key!!

The one things that you really need to keep in mind is that so long as you are doing correct and regular work he will gain muscle mass.

Best of luck!!

[pippy]

[quote=JumpsxGlory;2916843]Regular, correct work is key to building correct muscling for your horse!




Being that he has lost a lot of weight and/or is only just gaining and is weak i would personnaly prefer to start any horse back in work by lunging for at least 2 weeks before being ridden, or 1-2 weeks or pure and utter walking until he got the fitness to carry a rider (doesn't overly matter if they are on forehand here or not) starting with a 5min rider the first day and building up time over the 2 weeks. Once he can easily cope and be happy doing that i would start trotting for short periods and then do lots of transitions after that. As soon as you feel the horse is fit enough to cope with transitions he should start working ina outline and bringing his HQ into action. hope this helps.

[JumpsxGlory]

[quote=pippy;2917087]

Originally Posted by JumpsxGlory

Regular, correct work is key to building correct muscling for your horse!




Being that he has lost a lot of weight and/or is only just gaining and is weak i would personnaly prefer to start any horse back in work by lunging for at least 2 weeks before being ridden, or 1-2 weeks or pure and utter walking until he got the fitness to carry a rider (doesn't overly matter if they are on forehand here or not) starting with a 5min rider the first day and building up time over the 2 weeks. Once he can easily cope and be happy doing that i would start trotting for short periods and then do lots of transitions after that. As soon as you feel the horse is fit enough to cope with transitions he should start working ina outline and bringing his HQ into action. hope this helps.

To me it depends on how much lunging you' d be doing... Lunging puts a lot of strain on a horses joints and can do a lot more harm than good, lunging is great but can do damage. I agree that starting off with walking is best, as he is not conditioned to do much else. I do not think some light trot work will hurt, a few minutes that is. For the first couple weeks though the rides should be mostly walking...

[BriLeigh]

I would just ride. On a day when you can't or don't feel like riding then lunge. You could just lunge for a few days but it isn't going to hurt to get on and jog around for a couple minutes.

[Gypsy Rose]

Make sure your horse is getting adequate amino acids in the diet- they're the building blocks of protein, which in turn will help build muscle.

[Just_me]

Only effective riding will build muscles.Trail riding on a lose rein,is almost like hand walking the horse.Sure,it gets the circulation going,but other than that it won't do much.I honestly can't imagine what condition your horse is in right now,therefore I also can't tell you what is wrong and what is right.But usually,I would suggest to start out with lunging.
Lunge him once a week,on the lunge line.And let him free lunge,under your guidance,as often as possible and as much as his condition permits .Free lunging allows him to stretch,while at the same time build up his condition.It also puts less stress on the joints(at least if you stay in control...if you chase the horse around the arena full speed and let him stop suddenly then his joints,tendons and tissue could suffer serious damage).

I personally would also continue to ride him.However,riding doesn't mean the horse drags itself along on the forhand,the back is hollowed and the reins are dropped.You need to make sure that he rounds his back,even if you are just walking.Work on lots of suppleing exercises as well.Keep sessions short,but effective.

[kaitlyndzn]

to help not be too strenuous on your horse hills hills and hills!! make him walk up them though. they are the best butt busters for them!!