weak front

[raine]

I have a 5 year old Stallion and i want to add some muscle to his front , he is quite weak in this area. Any ideas on what type of exercise i should be doing with him and what type of feed i should be using...

Thanks in advance

 

[MiLo Minis]

Work on hills is always good for building muscle. Lunging on a hillside or if your horse drives you can drive him up and down hills starting small and working up gradually. Also lunging over cavelletti is good exercise to build muscle.

 

[ruffian]

lunging and round penning should help build up the chest muscles.

 

[mizbeth]

Hi

Not sure what you mean by "weak" in the front. Is he narrow in the front? At 5 years old there is probably not much you can do as this is conformation thing. But "weak" would/could be in the eye of the beholder. More weight on him, exercise always helps. I would think galloping would help this more than a trot and figures 8's - also roll backs should help.

B

 

[Ellen]

I round pen and lounge and right before show season I give Body Builder by Equaide. Expensive, but puts weight on just where they need it, and boy what a shine!

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Not sure what you mean by "weak" in the front. Is he narrow in the front? At 5 years old there is probably not much you can do as this is conformation thing.

Actually this is the one thing about conformation that truly is changeable for the duration of the horse's life.

Yes, some horses will be naturally wider or narrower than others and that's a fact. But the scapulas are only attached to the rest of the skeleton by a sling of soft tissue so it is quite possible to broaden the chest through exercise. My Arab came to us at 15 looking like both his front legs came out of one socket he was so skinny up there. After a couple of years of ridden work he had broadened out quite nicely and stood pleasantly square. He was never as broad as our naturally chesty bay Arab, but there was a definite improvement in his front end which he retained after retirement. My mini came very narrow at 4 years old, broadened out and developed pectorals with driving, and now that he's been completely off work due to injury for the last year has lost all that muscle and is starting to look scrawny up front again.

So it's definitely changeable!

Leia

 

[mizbeth]

"Actually this is the one thing about conformation that truly is changeable for the duration of the horse's life. Yes, some horses will be naturally wider or narrower than others and that's a fact.

Yes a temporary thing, if it works at all and is very hard to accomplish.

"My mini came very narrow at 4 years old, broadened out and developed pectorals with driving, and now that he's been completely off work due to injury for the last year has lost all that muscle and is starting to look scrawny up front again. So it's definitely changeable!"

Only temporary, so really nothing can be done - Some horses are born narrow, but will fill out with age. Usually by the time they are two years old. This is permenant. Otherwise, work, exercise and feed as mentioned above might work.

B

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I actually agree with Leia on this.

Narrow behind is hard to do anything about, and what you do accomplish will be cosmetic, but if I had a dollar for every animal I have bought with a narrow front that has broadened, naturally, with exercise and discipline, I should be rich.

And it is as permanent as the muscles tone, so yes, it is permanent.

Personally I like free running in a round pen, equal times on both sides, with ground poles.

Once they have settled down and stopped jumping the poles, they have to reach down and stretch their necks and fronts in order to navigate the poles.

This is natural and unforced, and I have found it is gentle enough to use with quite young animals, although obviously you do have to be very careful with anything under two/three years old.

With a five year old I would start slow and short and build up slowly over a week or so to anything up to half an hour, so long as the horse was going steady.

It is very important to find out which side the horse favours (left or right, horses are "handed") and make very sure that you do not allow it to go longer on one side than the other.

 

[raine]

Thanks everyone some great advice, i will start round penning him tomorrow

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Yes a temporary thing, if it works at all and is very hard to accomplish.
Only temporary, so really nothing can be done - Some horses are born narrow, but will fill out with age. Usually by the time they are two years old. This is permenant. Otherwise, work, exercise and feed as mentioned above might work.

Work and exercise are all I was recommending, and they are what accomplish that broadening.

It isn't hard at all- you just work them! My Arab hasn't been worked routinely since his early twenties and at 33 still has a decent breadth to his chest...I don't consider that terribly temporary. The mini kept the nice muscling through each winter layoff for the last five years, it took him a YEAR of not even being long-lined, roundpenned, or otherwise exercised at all to finally lose that mass and he's still not as bad as he was.

All I'm saying is it is more than possible to broaden and strengthen a weak looking chest for the purpose of show, which is what I believe the OP was asking. You are stuck with other bony structures such as the hind end, the legs, the width and depth of the ribcage, the neck set, etc., but you CAN improve the appearance of the chest to some extent.

The angle of the shoulder cannot be changed, but the width between those shoulders is malleable because there isn't a fixed joint involved.

Just my .02

Leia