- Breeding
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- What do do when the Panic is On to keep our Horses Safe!
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- So You Bought A Friesian, Now what!
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- An Overview of Horse Grooming
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- Horse Health Issues
- Bulging Out and Falling In
- Healthy Horse Boutique Supports Haddad Staller In Her Olympic Quest
- An Introduction to Equine Massage Therapy
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- Let's Talk About Equine Probiotics - Equitivia
- Mythunderstandings About Riding the Trot
- Horses & History
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- Top 5 Strange and Unusual Horses
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Evaluation the Equine Athlete from the Outside In
04/24/2009 - By Rachel C. Monticelli MSBV
RCM Biomedical VisCom LLC 2008
Understanding what the surface view of your horse tells you about what is happening on the inside.
The way a horse is muscled always gives a good indication of how they have been trained and strengthened. A horse that uses himself well through the back and hind end, is eating correctly, has a well fitted saddle and is fit will have a much more muscular top line than a horse that is worked less frequently or incorrectly or is not getting enough protein in his diet. Look often at your horse to evaluate his progress. Photographs of your horse on a regular basis will show any changes that my not be noticeable from day to day.
A horse owner always has to look at all the pieces of the puzzle that could be causing a problem. A horse that is not carrying himself well could have one or several things going on. He may not have been ridden properly, he may have had an ill-fitting saddle, he may have a lameness issue in his hind end-even a minor one will affect his ability to balance himself properly. If you are working at a high level of dressage and your horse is not developing muscle over his top line it is an indication of a problem. Commonly it is a lack of enough protein in his diet but it could also be an ill-fitting saddle or a problem with his hind end. If you are evaluating a horse for purchase you can look at his musculature as evidence of how he has been trained. If a horse has a large muscle on the front of the neck instead of across the top line he has been pulling on his rider and probably won’t be very balanced which can be corrected with some work if it isn’t a hind end issue that causes him to be heavy in front.
Also remember that your saddle may fit your horse when you begin to fit him up but when he has developed more muscle over the back it may no longer fit him or visa versa. This is a common problem for horses that have different jobs during different seasons. A field hunter, for example, that is ridden dressage in the spring and summer then conditioned for and hunted in the fall and winter will more than likely need two different saddles. The dressage may build up his top line and he will fill out a bit from the strengthening but when he begins to gallop and jump for the hunt season he will trim down and loose a bit of his top line.
