HARD back muscles and not sweating?

[Cuppatea]

Friend has a horse in at her yard to break however the muscles over its back and hindquarters are rock hard, just like skin over concrete. i have only seen and felt it when the horse is seemingly perfectly relaxed in the stable. Its not a tie up either, horse moves easily. Also when being worked the horse never sweats even when worked really really hard.
Any ideas?

 

[Luci07]

Very hard back normally means sore/stiff muscles or even muscles spasms. The muscles should be reasonably soft. I would suggest a physio but as I don't know the horse or what it might have been doing before it came to your friend, I would suggest she takes vet advice.

 

[MiCsarah]

My pony gets hard muscles in his back, just behind the saddle. They can get rock hard if I dont keep them well massaged.
Also the no sweating thing, I know some humans dont sweat as I remember when Lorraine Kelly walked across africa or somewhere and she didnt sweat. They said it wasnt good for her as it's not allowing her body to cool itself down

 

[Cuppatea]

Very hard back normally means sore/stiff muscles or even muscles spasms. The muscles should be reasonably soft. I would suggest a physio but as I don't know the horse or what it might have been doing before it came to your friend, I would suggest she takes vet advice.

Horse done nothing before going to her yard to be broken, was barely/never handled by sounds of it either.
she is having a mctimmony chiro out soon, not sure when, and ive told her to let me know wht she says. It is like a spasm, but continuous and the horse appears completely unconcerned and was almost asleep when i saw it. Ive never seen anything like it myself before and cant even guess what it might be. Add in the non sweating bit and i give up trying to work it out! Its just really odd. Was hoping somone on here might have experienced the same thing and could shed some light.

 

[Cuppatea]

My pony gets hard muscles in his back, just behind the saddle. They can get rock hard if I dont keep them well massaged.
Also the no sweating thing, I know some humans dont sweat as I remember when Lorraine Kelly walked across africa or somewhere and she didnt sweat. They said it wasnt good for her as it's not allowing her body to cool itself down

this is from withers all the way to the tail and also parts down the shoulders and flanks, not really tack/riding specific....

 

[K27]

Sounds like he needs to do lots of stretching long and low work and gymnastic exercises to get muscles a bit looser- they should be pliable to touch and not rock hard- does he "brace" himself at all?

Like you are doing, a physio would prob be able to help to get in to the muscles to get them working correctly, and then maybe they will advise some stretches form the ground that will be suitable.

I have one horse who can on ocassions get a little tight in his muscles and i use some liniment and stretch him out- the liniment is helpful as it foams up as a marker if applied over tight muscles!

Also one of my horses would never sweat as much as my other horse, but in the last 18 months he has really changed as I've taught him to lift and engage his tummy muscles more when i'm working him, he looks and feels totally different to ride now and has great muscle tone!

Good luck!