Jingleballs
Well-Known Member
After having what feels like the worst luck in the world with 4 faulty Thorowgood gullet bars for my new jumping saddle, my horse has muscle wastage behind his withers.
Its not horrendous but they physio was out last week and although there was no pain or tension around that area (much to her surprise - there was only very slight tension just behind the saddle), she was concerned about him going into winter with so much muscle wastage.
Im really annoyed about it as Id worked so hard to address previous muscle damage caused by the work of a poor saddle fitter.
Luckily, the gullet issue seems to be fixed pony is happy in his jumping saddle and working well. Ive had to drop down a gullet size in his dressage saddle to accommodate the loss of muscle as the saddle has started to drop slightly in front. It seems to be sitting much more level and balanced now but saddle fitter will be coming out to check this too at some point soon.
Physio recommended a high protein balancer to help boost muscle development hes just recently started getting micronized linseed so Im hopeful that this will help.
He can still be ridden but I also know that lungeing/long lining can really help to build that muscle back up. Ive done lots of pole work with him in the past particularly in walk and canter and have access to lots of hills for hacking.
I occasionally lunge him using the Kerilli/Laura Bechtolsheimer technique which encourages him to work long and low but one of my instructors had suggested side reins more as part of fittening work but I wondered if something like this would also help? He hates the pessoa type system but when I tried him in side reins last night he seemed happy going forward whereas with the pessoa he just constantly threw his head up regardless of how I set it up.
Would side reins/lungie bungie be a useful addition to what we already do or would the hacking/pole work/lunging be enough to help build up that lost muscle?
Its not horrendous but they physio was out last week and although there was no pain or tension around that area (much to her surprise - there was only very slight tension just behind the saddle), she was concerned about him going into winter with so much muscle wastage.
Im really annoyed about it as Id worked so hard to address previous muscle damage caused by the work of a poor saddle fitter.
Luckily, the gullet issue seems to be fixed pony is happy in his jumping saddle and working well. Ive had to drop down a gullet size in his dressage saddle to accommodate the loss of muscle as the saddle has started to drop slightly in front. It seems to be sitting much more level and balanced now but saddle fitter will be coming out to check this too at some point soon.
Physio recommended a high protein balancer to help boost muscle development hes just recently started getting micronized linseed so Im hopeful that this will help.
He can still be ridden but I also know that lungeing/long lining can really help to build that muscle back up. Ive done lots of pole work with him in the past particularly in walk and canter and have access to lots of hills for hacking.
I occasionally lunge him using the Kerilli/Laura Bechtolsheimer technique which encourages him to work long and low but one of my instructors had suggested side reins more as part of fittening work but I wondered if something like this would also help? He hates the pessoa type system but when I tried him in side reins last night he seemed happy going forward whereas with the pessoa he just constantly threw his head up regardless of how I set it up.
Would side reins/lungie bungie be a useful addition to what we already do or would the hacking/pole work/lunging be enough to help build up that lost muscle?
