exercises for topline

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budley95

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I'm really struggling to get enough topline on my 17 year old IDx. He has a 14 day work regime in the hope it will help which consists of:
Day 1 - off
Day 2- schooling (45 mins)
Day 3- lunging in a lungee bungee with a tail bandage behind over raised trotting poles (20 mins)
Day 4-hack around Toll rides (he's asked to work into a contact at all times for 1 hour)
Day 5-off
Day 6-gridwork (45 mins)
Day 7- 2 hour road hack with lots of steep hills
Day 8-hack around toll rides (40 mins)
Day 9 - flatwork lesson (1 hr)
Day 10- hack around toll rides (40 mins)
Day 11- jumping lesson - 1 hr
Day 12 - hack around toll rides
Day 13 - lunge with bungee and tail bandage over raised trotting poles
Day 14 - 2 hour road hack up the hills.

He then repeats this and has been since October.

He's fed on Re-leve (he gets equijewel and speedibeet added in the winter), sees a remedial saddle fitter every 6 months and has physio every 3 months as he has a conformational defect in his pelvis which makes him wonky. He's tested borderline cushings as well, but not even enough to medicate for.

Any ideas how i can switch things around to build him up? Weight wise, for the first time in a long time, he's probably a 5.5 out of 9, where as he's normally pretty lean!

Any ideas appreciated 😃
 
If he is really working correctly on that regime and not gaining a topline after all this time I would be looking into it a bit further, I would expect most healthy horses to have a decent topline on less work than that unless there was an underlying condition preventing them building up the correct muscles or that they are just appearing to be using themselves and not engaging their core correctly but even I would expect some topline to be there.
Does he get plenty of turnout? do you feed hay from the floor? his exercise regime is good and varied, if I could change something I would probably drop the lunging as it is tough on their joints and I would rather do 2 extra schooling sessions, he only does 2 each fortnight, and do ridden polework instead which can be far more varied and cantering over poles may be more beneficial for what is a relatively fit horse than trotting will be.
I guess the toll rides are cantering hacks could you incorporate an hour walking into one of those days as apart from the 2 longer road rides he never gets more than 1 hour exercise, I sometimes school on my return from a short hack, or the other way round if I want to get more work in without doing too much of one thing.
 
He's out 24:7 at the moment. He'll be coming in from 7am-5pm soon as the flies are starting to get worse and the hay cutting gives him a cough (he does use inhalers for this). In the winter he's out 7am-6pm. Its just May-June he's out 24:7.

Toll hacks are mainly going up the hills in walk and a few transitions along by the river, the odd canter between the bridges asking for lengthening and shortening.

I have had bloods done, and it just came back as borderline cushings. Everything else was perfect.

I'll try switching the lunging to schooling. I'll see if I can extend a couple of hacks in the week, they just work on what I do with my shift work, so stuck with it. Thanks 😃

He does have some topline, but my vet and physio always say he needs more just behind his withers. I'll see if I can upload a picture to explain myself.
 
I'd switch 2 of the hacking days to schooling days (maybe your 40 min toll ride hacks) and put plenty of lateral work and stretching work in them. I've been working since January putting topline on the TB i bought - i've been doing each week (mainly, some weeks may have an extra hack/extra day off or 3 schooling sessions, 1 lunge) 2 schooling sessions, 2-3 hacks, 2 lunge with Equi-ami. The difference in him is amazing! I can't post the compare picture i done as the pic from when he was eventing is copyrighted! But the difference is amazing. I highly recommend the Equi-Ami's as lungeing aids to really get them stretching over their backs.
 
^ I second the Equi-ami as a lungeing aid! Absolutely love it and the difference it has made in my boy has been amazing.

Other than that, I'd say maybe add some stretching? Maybe alter one of your rides to allow for just stretching and long and low work - it will help his muscles recover, which is an important part of building, and will aid in flexibility. This will also help in the muscle behind the withers. On that note - have you made sure the saddle properly fits at the moment? Might sound condescending, but my friend's horse wasn't developing his muscle properly because of an ill-fitting saddle.
Add in loads of transitions - within the pace as well, and make sure they're all good quality, with the horse working properly through the back.
Also lots of pole work, including on a circle.
 
I thought saddle. So had 2 different saddlers out to check my saddles. My jumping saddle is perfect and didn't need anything doing. My gp (admittedly I hadn't ridden in it for a year and was having flatwork lessons in my jumping saddle as I hated it so much) didn't fit quite right. But I sold it and got a dressage saddle which both saddlers said fits perfectly 😃. Physio finds he gets tight through his neck, nothing on his back. So he gets walked long and low for 10 minutes each side of a session as a warm up and cool down and trots long and low to warm up. He then gets attacked with a rubber curry comb and carrot stretches after a ride.

I did get an equi-Ami, I just didn't like it. I kept worrying he was going to get his front legs through the front of it. Probably really irrational of me!

I'll try and get photobucket on this phone to explain what I mean. He does lateral work and transitions on a hack, he's not allowed to dawdle! I'll try throw in more schooling sessions. Thanks 😃
 
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