Muscle atrophy - any experts out there ?

[mccarron6769]

Firstly a confession - what exactly is atrophy because when my boy's chiro tells me he's got it in his nearside hind quarter I assume she means damage and weakness but is it actually something else ??

Secondly, apart from using a tens machine and massage pad to help improve it does anyone have any riding exercises that can be done to target rehabilitation of the muscle ?

 

[Peacelily]

atrophy is where the muscle shrinks due to its "wasting", so gets smaller. It doesn't necessarily mean damage or weakness. Unless there's a direct injury to that muscle - it usually implies that he's not working that muscle as much as the other and so it's not maintaining the size as it its not getting the stimulation. It might for example imply that he's lame in that side of his body and therefore not using it. It can also be related to tack fit and work he carries out.
It can be very minor to very large differences in the muscle.
All exercise of muscles is stimulation but you first might want to consider why it's atrophied before you address how to fix it. I.e. a badly worked horse can have muscle atrophy corrected by a correct way of going, but a horse with lameness issues will need that resolving before addressing the muscles.
Your chiro should be able to explain all this and give you specific floor/ridden exercises to do to help