Building muscle

[Eothain]

Hi. I thought maybe someone here could help me out!

I have a 17.3 1/2hh horse that I'm producing for an owner for eventual sale. He's by Touchdown out of a Cruising mare who's full sister won a 5star Grand Prix. Typical Touchdown, he's a bit slow (Thanks Galoubet!!!) to develop and mature. To top everything off, he has a parrot mouth! Happy frickin days.

I've been trying and trying and trying to get him to build muscle across his back but I've hit a brick wall.

How do you guys go about building muscle? At this stage, I've done enough transitions on him to do a lifetime and lunged the divil out of him in the Whitaker system. Where to from here?

 

[seabiscuit]

Pump as much soya hulls and linseed as you can into him ( 6 mugs a day if you can) and lots of walking and trot transitions up steep hills with his nose stretching down to the floor to stretch his back muscles. Lots of lateral work in the school and stretching.
Basically lots of work long and low is the key with the nose out as far as possible.

E.T.S- Does he froth his mouth enough?have his teeth been checked. Also make sure your using a bit that really contours his mouth and is the appropiate thickness/ the right type of metal for his mouth confo- look at NS tongue saver bits that might help.

 

[Nocturnal]

You could try Equitop Myoplast, if you don't mind shelling out the cost. My horse has been on it for 2 weeks & I've noticed a big difference; he's really putting on muscle along his topline. His back was particularly bad, but looks much better now. It is rather expensive stuff, though.