building up muscle on one side, and leaning- advice please!

[Pharphar!]

Hello all, my boy has really improved his top line and is looking very well! However, I still need to build up more muscle on his right side just behind his withers. He has developed some, but not as much as on his left. He leans very badly in his right too and I've noticed him trying to evade the bit now. I'm getting teeth etc checked but is there anything I can do exercise wise to build up muscle on his right? Which rein do I need to work on - I know he's lacking on his right side but does that mean lots of work on right or left rein!

Thanks!

 

[Littlelegs]

Most horses are naturally inclined to have one side they work better on than the other if left to their own devices, but if he's got obvious muscle differences on one side I'd want his back checking before I attempted to school, especially if he leans on that side too.

 

[be positive]

Working on the left rein will increase the stretching of the muscles on the right side so should help build up more, counter flexion is useful to help with this.

If he is hollow and lacking muscle behind the wither it is likely that the saddle is restricting him, especially if he is otherwise well muscled on his topline.