Is It Natural For Horses...

Do you mean build wise or weight wise? Ive had several Arabs over the years & always found them to be good do'ers & hold their weights a little too well.
 
Depends. If it's a crossbreed then it would depend on the line of Arab and the other breed that's included in the cross.

I've only had purebreds and one anglo-arab. None of mine were slim. They were all chunky arabs.
 
well from what i know, my horse is an arab x.
here is a picture of him. this is what he looked like in the summer.
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this is what he looks like now
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SORRY ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE PHOTOS AND DON'T LAUGH AT MY FACE IN THE LAST PIC! I DIDN'T KNOW MY FRIEND TOOK IT :o
as you can see in the photo, he is a bit ribby. is it natural for horses of his breed to become a bit ribby in the winter?
 
For an arab in a desert climate yes thats about right, they are lean muscle machines out there. We are so used to seeing fat horses in the UK most are horrified at seeing ribs, but thats ideal.

He does however have a lot of muscle atrophy under the saddle :(
 
My purebred is a very good doer - and she is 20 yrs old and lives out as much as possible on an exposed hillside. I wouldn't say your horse is slim just because he is part Arab (and I would say that is accurate, he has a very Araby back end!). Some horses just aren't especially good doers - what is he fed?
 
AprilBlue said:
whats's the difference between horses with muscle wastage and lack of muscle, or are they the same thing:o
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Muscle wastage is specific groups of muscle that has not been "allowed" to work or has been impinged in some way so that it either can't work or other muscles compensate so it doesn't have to work. It requires a change in the WAY the muscle works or removing the impingement.

Lack of muscle I suppose can be construed the same way but the words suggest that the horse lacks muscle tone generally, all over and would probably require work to strengthen the fibres.
 
tallyho! said:
Muscle wastage is specific groups of muscle that has not been "allowed" to work or has been impinged in some way so that it either can't work or other muscles compensate so it doesn't have to work. It requires a change in the WAY the muscle works or removing the impingement.

Lack of muscle I suppose can be construed the same way but the words suggest that the horse lacks muscle tone generally, all over and would probably require work to strengthen the fibres.
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To put this bluntly, the area I was talking about is the saddle, so the saddle is causing the impingement. Its starving teh muscle of oxygen so it cant grow and has actually died, causing the wastage.

If you were wanting to build muscle in general hill work is good, as is very slow lateral work in hand then ridden once established.
 
so my horse won't be able to use those muscles correctly again?

i don't really understand how he can have soo much wastage near the saddle area because he jumps quite often and that would surely build up a lot of his muscles?
 
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TigerTail said:
To put this bluntly, the area I was talking about is the saddle, so the saddle is causing the impingement. Its starving teh muscle of oxygen so it cant grow and has actually died, causing the wastage.

If you were wanting to build muscle in general hill work is good, as is very slow lateral work in hand then ridden once established.
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It hasn't "died". Muscle just becomes inactive. I had muscle wastage due to frozen shoulder. Now that surgery has sorted it, my muscles have become active again.

As for the saddle, you can clearly see that it is causing muscle wastage in that specific area as it may be too narrow.
 
tallyho! said:
It hasn't "died". Muscle just becomes inactive. I had muscle wastage due to frozen shoulder. Now that surgery has sorted it, my muscles have become active again.

As for the saddle, you can clearly see that it is causing muscle wastage in that specific area as it may be too narrow.
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Sorry was on the phone, died was the wrong word to used. Its starved of oxygen due to being compressed by the metal tree not fitting, so the blood cant get into the muscle to feed it.

Frozen shoulder is different, in that your wastage was due to lack of movement, rather than being pressed on.

OP just because the horse is lovely natured and puts up with it doesnt mean its no there, you can see it clearly.

Jumping in a badly fitting saddle wont built up muscles, it physically cant happen as the saddle is the problem.
 
AprilBlue said:
so my horse won't be able to use those muscles correctly again?

i don't really understand how he can have soo much wastage near the saddle area because he jumps quite often and that would surely build up a lot of his muscles?
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Jumping will not help with building muscle, and over-jumping could cause some of the problems. When a horse is jumping, especially if it's just flinging itself over jumps rather than working properly into them, it will have a very poor topline.

You can rectify this by doing hill work in a long and low frame, and lunging in a pessoa.

Also I would probably want more weight on him, as you need a certain amount of coverage to turn into muscle.

I'll try and find some photos of my tb when I first got him, he looked a bit like yours, and it took about a year to get really good muscling on him.
 
Pigeon said:
Get your saddle checked, you might get away with just having it re-flocked or padding it with numnahs :)
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but is there actually a chance of me having to get a new one?:(
the thing is, he is used in a riding school and if i do get a new saddle, i will have to let other people use it in lessons because i dont want people riding on him with my new saddle as the same thing could happen to it as what has happened to this one. also, i've only just bought him (he used to be my loan horse) and i don't want to go round buying new saddles and things like that just yet because things are a bit tight right now.
hmmm. so should i get one of those padded numnahs? if so, which ones do you recommend to me? can you send me the links aswell please.
 
also, to those who recommended hill work and pessoa training ect. i can't exactly do that because at my stables, we're not allowed to go on hacks and i can only work in the school, and because of this, the times that the lessons aren't on, the school can get quite busy and i wouldn't have enough space to lunge him. i could wait till later to lunge him but he would be used in a lesson very shortly after and i don't even think i am allowed to lunge at my stables in the first place:(
 
You can't make a too tight saddle fit better with a numnah, that is like trying to make a tight pair of shoes fit better by wearing an extra pair of socks.

Padding out can help if a saddle is a little to wide.
 
You need to get the saddle fitter out to check it. The amount of use won't have affected your saddle, although they do need reflocking regularly, but frequent use of a poorly fitting saddle will badly affect your horse. Getting a well-fitting saddle for you to use and leaving ther riding school using him with a poorly fitting saddle would be unkind to him and shortsighted.
 
Imo horse needs new saddle, that much muscle wastage is from a badly fitting saddle and I don't think a check or a re flock will be sufficient enough to help that much muscle wastage.

Things may be tight and you may not want other people sitting on your saddle but surely you care for your horse enough to not want him going through pain? From the standing photo he doesn't look to work 'correctly' which won't help either.

I'm talking from my own past experience here, horse had lots of muscle wastage around withers which made his back dip which caused sore hindquarters and eventually caused arthritis in hocks. If you want to be riding your horse in a years time I'd get a new saddle asap! :)
 
AprilBlue said:
also, to those who recommended hill work and pessoa training ect. i can't exactly do that because at my stables, we're not allowed to go on hacks and i can only work in the school, and because of this, the times that the lessons aren't on, the school can get quite busy and i wouldn't have enough space to lunge him. i could wait till later to lunge him but he would be used in a lesson very shortly after and i don't even think i am allowed to lunge at my stables in the first place:(
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You need to get someone to show you how to work him correctly. btw IMHO he is little bit thin as well.
 
AprilBlue said:
also, to those who recommended hill work and pessoa training ect. i can't exactly do that because at my stables, we're not allowed to go on hacks and i can only work in the school, and because of this, the times that the lessons aren't on, the school can get quite busy and i wouldn't have enough space to lunge him. i could wait till later to lunge him but he would be used in a lesson very shortly after and i don't even think i am allowed to lunge at my stables in the first place:(
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How very strange:eek::confused:

OK, other ideas,

Hand walking over ground poles, have them set that he has to actually look where he is going and has to pick up his feet.

Backing up in hand, if you get his head and in a nice position reversing him up engages those muscles as well.

Ditches, I live in the flat prairies, but we have wide ditches, so I 'lunge' well combination of lunge and drive up and down the ditches, make them go slow and use themselves.
 
AprilBlue said:
but is there actually a chance of me having to get a new one?:(
the thing is, he is used in a riding school and if i do get a new saddle, i will have to let other people use it in lessons because i dont want people riding on him with my new saddle as the same thing could happen to it as what has happened to this one. also, i've only just bought him (he used to be my loan horse) and i don't want to go round buying new saddles and things like that just yet because things are a bit tight right now.
hmmm. so should i get one of those padded numnahs? if so, which ones do you recommend to me? can you send me the links aswell please.
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A padded numnah will make things worse :confused: If this saddle is too tight then the horse needs a new saddle. How about calling around the saddle fitters and see if a fitter could try to find a second hand saddle to fit him?

If you get another saddle, new or used, surely you wouldn't want him to be going around in lessons with the old saddle which pinches, doesn't fit and is uncomfortable :confused: That seems very short sighted and it could end up doing an injury to your horse. I realise you've only just got this pony but it's maybe going to be a tough lesson to learn and quickly, horses are not cheap unfortunately.
 
http://www.laviniamitchell.com/html/muscle_wastage_in_backs.html

OP, I have put the link up above to help you see if you need a new saddle or not.

In my humble opinion, I think you do. The narrow saddle will stop any muscle from working properly underneath it. Whether or not the horse is ridden by others, as the owner it is your responsibility to ensure the horse is working in tack that fits and is comfortable.

Just using pads and numnahs and reflocking does nothing to a saddle except make it perhaps softer but the gullet, the tree and the twist will still be exactly the same as before. All pads do is move the pressure around. The pressure needs to be removed so that the muscle can actually work and be used.
 
TigerTail said:
Sorry was on the phone, died was the wrong word to used. Its starved of oxygen due to being compressed by the metal tree not fitting, so the blood cant get into the muscle to feed it.

Frozen shoulder is different, in that your wastage was due to lack of movement, rather than being pressed on.

OP just because the horse is lovely natured and puts up with it doesnt mean its no there, you can see it clearly.

Jumping in a badly fitting saddle wont built up muscles, it physically cant happen as the saddle is the problem.
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Lack of movement or pressure, it doesn't matter, muscle will still lie dormant.
 
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rachaelstar said:
Things may be tight and you may not want other people sitting on your saddle but surely you care for your horse enough to not want him going through pain?
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yeah, i would let people ride him in my new saddle but i was just worried that the same thing would happen to the new one like the old one
 
AprilBlue said:
yeah, i would let people ride him in my new saddle but i was just worried that the same thing would happen to the new one like the old one
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In your budget you should have a sum for regular saddle fitting checks so that once you have a sadldle that fits correctly the flocking can be adjusted if it's bedded down slightly or if he has grown a little extra muscle. You don't just buy a saddle and forget about it:(
 
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