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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Gaited Horse Training Discussions > Gaited Horse Training > Building Back Muscle |
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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Gaited Horse Training Discussions > Gaited Horse Training > Building Back Muscle |
| Moderated by: Brenda Im |
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| Building Back Muscle | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30th, 2010 11:00 pm |
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1st Post |
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SunnysMum G.O.G Community Member 
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Hey, With the winter slow down in riding, her minor lame issue that she went through and the heat after. Sunny has lost quite a bit of her muscle over her back. What are some good exercises I can do to build it back up , atleast until I get enough money saved up to pay her trainer to do it for me.
____________________ Chi ha tegoli di vetro, non tiri sassi al vicino |
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| Posted: Tue Aug 31st, 2010 03:25 pm |
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2nd Post |
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iceponymom G.O.G Community Member 
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Cavaletti work is always good for adding muscle tone. Riding up & down hills is good, too. Start slowly no matter what type of work you do. Good luck! IPM
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| Posted: Tue Aug 31st, 2010 03:35 pm |
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3rd Post |
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SunnysMum G.O.G Community Member
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What about like Cantering and or maybe some trotting in a round pen or ?? The place where I'm at has Jumps but no caveletti.
____________________ Chi ha tegoli di vetro, non tiri sassi al vicino |
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| Posted: Wed Sep 1st, 2010 04:25 pm |
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4th Post |
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ZippyIcelandicGuy G.O.G Community Member 
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I highly recommend transition work, as well as movements that emphasize individual hind limbs - shoulder-in, shoulder-out, etc. Do these moves at walk, as well as trot/gait and just work the strength back up. Start with just a few steps at a time and at a walk, and work your way up to the whole length of your arena. Then work on the faster gaits. Be sure to keep collection while doing these moves in order to get her to elongate her back, shorten her body, and engage her core muscles. Good luck! ~Zip
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| Posted: Thu Sep 2nd, 2010 01:18 am |
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5th Post |
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TessieBAgain G.O.G Community Member 
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I like to work my recovering lame horses in deep sand. Slow, steady walk in a straight line. I don't like working horses in a circle-I prefer an elongated oval. The deep sand will exercise the horse while protecting the hoof from excessive stress. If she has been out of work for a while, start on the easy side and slowly increase the amount of work time. Evaluate her diet and make sure her dietary needs are being met. And as always make sure her tack fits her. If a poor fitting saddle is causing her to hyper flex her back you will eventually get white spots in her hair and loss of muscle. Take your time, and as she become more fit, you can increase her speed. I'm always careful with horse with 'minor' lameness issues. Monitor her progress and back off when you need to. Let us know how she does!
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| Posted: Thu Sep 2nd, 2010 05:24 am |
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6th Post |
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SunnysMum G.O.G Community Member
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I will try more of what you guys suggest , Thanks!  The muscle loss is definately from lack of work, and the Heat too, my Equine Vet Tech friend said the Heat can cause horses and ponies to loose condition and with our heat waves she said she's pretty sure that's part of it. Also Sunny's 14 now so she wont hold her muscle just standing still like a younger Equine. And her tack fits her, I've been getting very beautiful natural gaits from her. There isn't any deep sand except in the wash area. But we're not able to ride in it, as the county doesn't clear debry out of it and it has a lot of buried sharp broke bottles and such that are dangerous for horsey legs. What happen with her lamenesss thing, well after the Farrier thing which had her off completely for 8 weeks, then my trainer Liz brought her back from that with jumping and such. Then I had to move her, and the heat got bad and wasn't compatible with my health issues. Then it started cooling off out here, and she apparently had kicked the side of her stall. Did something stupid to her foot, and bruised her hock. So she was off about 10 days from that. No vet check but she was fine the day I got lazy and got on her bareback to "walk" her and she wasn't lame at all. So I've just been riding short, I think we did about 45 minutes about a week ago and continued about every other day, then past weekend did a "easy" two hour trail ride. I hardly ever canter her these days and trotting is limited because the saddle I have right now is a Aussie , the poleys are "getting in the way". But it fits really well, just a temporary saddle though. I need an IMUS saddle to go with her IMUS Bit, and I also need a English Saddle so we can start her Country Pleasure Classes. These ponies are very resilliant and bounce back insanely quick, but aren't naturally prone to lameness issues. Aside from this past hock / foot issue. The only time she's ever been lame that I've had her was when she rolled once in her stall and cracked her hock. That took about four weeks and she went straight into harness training from that. Then this past winter when the rouge farrier butchered her feet took 8 weeks and a World Class Gaited Farrier and the only set of shoes she's ever worn. She is just now finally getting her longish hooves back. She's getting fed really well, best since I've had her that I can remember, mane and tail are getting super long,super glossy coat, bright clear eyes. She gets Orchard Grass in the morning, very rich green and high quality. Plus her Platform Pony and Miniture Horse pellets, plus her herbs. And high quality super leafy Alphalpha in the evening.
____________________ Chi ha tegoli di vetro, non tiri sassi al vicino |
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| Posted: Mon Jan 17th, 2011 08:22 pm |
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7th Post |
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sdevries G.O.G Community Member 
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As a substitute for "real" cavalleti, I found that a local carpet store was willing to give me a number of empty carpet tubes. They're a little lightweight, but, heck, they were free!. Masking tape at intervals makes them easier to see. Sand or gravel on the inside helps with the weight, if that is a problem.
____________________ Sue |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 18th, 2011 03:20 am |
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8th Post |
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Trish G.O.G Community Member 
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Backing up builds up hind quarters. Used to use in in conditioning quarter horses for halter classes. That and lounging work....primarily in their middle speed gait, which with the quarter horses was the trot. 15 minutes a day lounging with 10 backing up and moving forward evenly. Hope this helps, Trish
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| Posted: Tue Jan 18th, 2011 05:44 pm |
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9th Post |
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NOELLEE G.O.G Community Member 
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SunnysMum wrote: The muscle loss is definately from lack of work, and the Heat too, my Equine Vet Tech friend said the Heat can cause horses and ponies to loose condition and with our heat waves she said she's pretty sure that's part of it. I hardly ever canter her these days and trotting is limited because the saddle I have right now is a Aussie , the poleys are "getting in the way". But it fits really well, just a temporary saddle though. I need an IMUS saddle to go with her IMUS Bit, and I also need a English Saddle so we can start her Country Pleasure Classes. SunnysMum... I have a somewhat similar situation here with my QH, Bo, in getting muscle to rebuild. I had to create stimulations to heal the nerves first, now on to rebuilding the entire muscle groups surrounding the shoulder areas down to the elbow. He got kicked and the blow just happened to cut off the main nerve delivering nerve impulses to the shoulder group and all of these the muscles collasped, sunk in on one side. Some horses never recover, average recovery for those that do rebound is nearly 2 yrs. This accident with Bo was 4.5 mos ago, and we have made huge progress through various holistic stimulations and treatments, beginning with the nerve healing first, then getting blood supply to those minor nerves to reach again the muscle groups. I am working to heal/restore the muscle groups now. We have one area left to rebuild below the wither. Elbow area is great, neck area is great. He can trot, gallop, kick up his heels, move normally now, just have one sunk in area left. Here are some stimulations I believe are helping now: - Cold water massage for about 10 minutes along the area to rebuild, then use pure lavendar soap with a soft brush to massage soapy circles along the muscle groups. Lavendar is great, calms the area first so the blood flow more freely reaches the minor nerves that build muscle. This did seem to get blood supply to the area to stimulate the weak tissues. Then rinse off soap with a 5 minute cold water massage. - Then mild 10-20 minutes of exercise... this slowly warms the tissues and get blood flow back in place, so of like body building with reps and not heavy weight. I was told steady walking (I was not on his back, just leading) was better than trotting, and not to lope. We did walking on various slope areas not too steep. I also turn him out during the day to gaze over various terrian and stall at night to rest the muscles. - The PE32 is helping due to its high protein, but I added a supplement called Smart Muscle Mass by Smart Pac. It has all the amino acids to rebuild muscle, and this seems to be having a positive effect to that one area that has been the slowest to come back. - Also added Tissue Salts... he loves these, I dump about 10 pills of the 12-combo inside an apple. You can pick this up at any local health food store. You can also give each tissue salt individually and for muscle rebuilding, the tissue salt "silicea" helps promote balance to muscle mass. I did homeopathic and herbal treatments in the beginning due to the immediate injury, but you probably don't need an ER response, more of supportive therapy stimulations to restore stronger muscle rebuilding.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 18th, 2011 07:57 pm |
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10th Post |
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SunnysMum G.O.G Community Member
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Very cool, I need to find a different saddle now though. The Aussie since she's gotten more weight/flatter back / muscle etc. Doesn't fit her at all. It's Frustrating, specially since that Aussie has an 8" gullet and it's to narrow!
____________________ Chi ha tegoli di vetro, non tiri sassi al vicino |
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