Gaining weight on the back end

[Horses181]

Hi guys any advice on getting my tb to gain weight on his bum he's wasted away completely due to being out of work from the weather we have no hills around and he doesn't tolerate pessoa at all so I'm stuck he's on caml and condition and mollases feed

 

[HG95]

There's no feed that will target the back end. Can you get transport to hack to hills? Or a water treadmill? He needs to be using his hind end to build up the correct muscle. Polework is brilliant for this

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Feed won't make any difference, so long as he is getting enough food for his general needs. Work develops muscle, so if you can't do hillwork, you could try pole work, progressing to raised poles as he begins to muscle up.

ETA cross posted with HG95

 

[Horses181]

How can I lay out the poles to benefit him?

 

[Leo Walker]

Raised poles, so raise one end to start with. You can use a standard layout of 3 or 4 poles in a line., or a fan shape I quite often put them out randomly with different spacings as that gets mine really thinking and lifting her feet. Shes a cob and prone to being a bit bone idle though! It doesnt need to be anything excting. Lunge him over them at first so hes only carrying his own weight.

I'd also want a good physio/body worker to look him over and if they flagged any issues it would be straight to a vet workup.

 

[milliepops]

If he's been out of work completely then raised poles may be quite intense for him so I would only do very short sessions and start in walk. I think there has been a study that showed walk was more effective anyway because they cant use the suspension of trot to ping over them

Tbh just bringing him back into constructive work will help him.

 

[Horses181]

Thanks guys hopped on him bright and early this morning ??

 

[Charmer91]

Good condition can be started with good nutrition but for overall muscle tone and dvelopment in particularly the hind end your horse will need to be working through it's back and doing some gymnastic type work. Any polework, youtube polework exercises there are loads about! But if hes being brought back into work you need to look at a fitness plan.
I feed my warmblood spirulina as a supplement as its high protein to help build muscle without adding fizz but its also good for the immune and respiratory system also.