Identifying & Evaluating Your Horse’s Topline. Using feeds with protein provided by soybeans, lupins, faba bean or canola meal will give your horse access to good quality sources of protein, which builds muscle. Another thing to consider is diet- protein helps horses build muscle so a boost in feed or alfalfa, etc might help things along. Topline Fix is ideal for horses in training, hard keepers, older horses, and horses with PPID (Cushing's Disease). The muscles over the top of the neck, back, and hindquarters are what reflect athleticism and a healthy appearance to our eyes.
Topline can also be affected by ill-fitting saddles, weight loss, poor shoeing, EPM, EPSM, PSSM, Cushings Disease, and Lyme Disease. Safe to be used in combination with medication for metabolic disorders. ... 4 Replies to “Identifying & Evaluating Your Horse’s Topline” Pingback: Building Topline: ... or the wrong type of exercise is often blamed for a poor topline. You can find feeds that will support topline health by identifying the Topline Balance® logo on the following feeds: SafeChoice® Horse Feeds, ProForce® Horse Feeds, and Empower® Balance. The study suggests that older horses can't handle the combined demand of exercise and heat as well as younger horses." One of the most common issues with our horses is that of the topline. Top line is the finish that many horse owners want to achieve and gives horses the appearance of fitness and athleticism. Topline in horses actually consists of all the muscles along the neck, withers, back, loin and hindquarters of the horse (gluteal, dorsal and cervical extensor muscles). A horse with a weak topline will look hollow around his neck and withers, and sometimes sunken near his hips. Since muscle is made up of over 70% protein, building and maintaining muscle in the body requires the correct amount of dietary protein. While exercise alters existing muscles, building new muscles is a different story. To build topline you must provide the building blocks your horse needs to make muscle. The topline should be rounded and strong, not sunken in in any way. The Protein Connection: Protein is made up of chains of amino acids, which are absorbed from the small intestine. Reasons Sloping Topline - Age: Older horses tend to loose their topline (this is natural and nothing to worry about) - Breed: Some breeds have a more distinct topline than others - Quality of Feed: Grass or hay that is dry and low in nutritional value won't help you even if you feed a lot of it. Older than 18 years.
Rebuilding muscle that was there once upon a time takes a while but not as long. Individual horses will express muscle based on their genetic potential, but every horse can develop adequate muscle to support their topline. In my experience, building new muscle on an older horse takes a lot of time. Topics include Nutrition, Soundness & Lameness, Equine Behavior, Farm & Barn, Older … Whether your horse is young and green or older and in need of retraining, together you and he can learn to balance yourselves without using the reins to lean on each other and then gradually develop a light, noninterfering contact. Horses with muscle-related diseases such as polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM) can have great difficulty building topline, as can older horses that don’t build muscle mass well. ... Genetics do not limit an individual horse from reaching its full, healthy topline potential.