muscles atrophy?

Flyermc

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Can anyone recommend and exercises to improve muscles atrophy behind the withers?

To cut a long story short, i had a saddle fitter out to check my saddle (different one to normal as she'd moved out of my area) the fitter was recommended and qualified but made and complete 'hash' of it and my boy ended up with muscles atrophy behind his withers. Ive since had another fitter out (last Jan) who re-fitted my saddle and recommended i used shims to fill in where the muscle should be. Everything was going well and in July i had her out again. Flyer had improved and came back by about 1cm on each side of his withers. The fitter was really pleased, re-adjusted my saddle and i no longer needed the shims. He wasnt back to the way he was, but the fitter said that due to his age (17) she thought that the improvement that had been made, was probably the best it was going to get.

The problem is, as he's going back into winter, the dips have come back. Im now starting to think that the 1cm difference was probably more down to him putting on abit of summer condition, rather than the muscle coming back (he's not a fat welsh by any means, but makes sense)

Has anyone ever dealt with this? What did you do? Did you get good results? (before/after pictures would be interesting)
 

Achinghips

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I'd be careful about blaming the saddle fitter. Muscle atrophy and unevenness can be due to all manner of things which might just coincide with the different fit of saddle...... Call out the vet if you haven't already for advice, then following recommendations .... Get him on a good chaff and a good balancer and work him evenly on both reins, ensuring he isn't throwing you onto his strongest side and exacerbating the problem .... This will likely take a bit of time (and happens to lots of us) to sort so be patient :)
 

Tarte Au Citron

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Personally I'd get a good physio out. My girl had very obvious muscle atrophy on her hindquarters after injuring a back leg and compensating too much, she treated her and gave me some fab exercises to strengthen those specific weak areas. Her advice and treatments helped a lot, but it does take some time to balance out again, oreo has finally become near even again after at least 6 months-ish (though we did have some set backs that delayed progress).

But if you're not certain that it is due to the saddle fit then Achinghips is right and you should ask a vet for advice :)
 

Flyermc

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Thanks, but it was definatly the saddle fitter. Its a saddle co saddle and the fitter made the saddle 2 tree widths narrower because i was having a problem with feeling uneven in the saddle. Her doing this made the saddle feel more stable, but the issue didnt go away, so i then looked at the obvious and realised that my stirrup leathers had stretched and one was about 1/2 a hole longer than the other. Anyway a new set of leathers later i was fine, but this is then when i noticed the dips, when my saddle started slipping back (which it had never done before) What was happening was my saddle was tipping up into the dips, this made the back rise-up and then my saddle would slide back.

I got a different fitter out who couldnt believe that someone had fitted a saddle so narrow on him, she made it wider to just fit his current shape at that point, we then discussed the options and i chose the make the saddle wider and try shims to see if i can get the muscle to come back. The saddle is now set back to how it was before it was made to narrow for him. This did work and when it was checked again in July, i no-longer needed the shims, but i think this could be due to summer condition rather than the muscle coming back.

He's not a competition pony, so he doesnt work properly from behind, we do have a weekly riding lesson, but we mainly hack really.

As for feed, he's on oats, pro balance and linseed. No ive not had his seen by a vet
 
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