How Do I fatten him up around his backbone?

[pandapotato]

Hi!

I just bought a horse who really needs to gain some weight, mainly on his back because his bacbone sticks Out. I'll try and put the pictures up of him that I have. He's thin all around, not just his back.

His previous owner was a 15 year old girl that had two horses and jsut couldn't afford high quality food. Her other horse was a mustang and thus being an easy keeper...but my new buddy is a Thoroughbred...and we all know these guys are a little harder to keep the weight on.

She fed only grass hay. I plan to switch him to Alfalfa with maybe a flake of grass at the same time, atleast at first so as not to switch everything to fast. Also I plan to add grain. I already bought a bucket of a supplement for weight called "WEIGHT GAIN". I plan to add a scoop of that with his grain because it has higher fats and should help fatten him up.

Anything else? Will his backbone just fill out with his body, or are there specific things that help his back?

[pandapotato]

The other pic didnt show, but his ribs do stick out more then they should. You can see by this pic he's pretty thin all around.

[Kady A]

Try Equimins. We started putting horses on our yard onto it earlier this year. It has a similar effect to Blue Chip, but we have found BC makes the horses a bit "edgy". We get a better topline and a more controllable animal! My old girl has Equimins and Liquid Gold (a rather noxious garlic supplement!), she looks really good on it.

You can buy it online from Equimins direct or from good feed shops/saddleries.

[nutkin]

with time, good quality feed and a slow fittening regime your horse will soon look great. Your horse will build muscle on his back end, withers(top line) with careful and correct work.

[galadriel]

It looks like part of his problem is muscle wastage. Muscle wastage may be caused by several different things; along the spine and withers, probably by a poorly fitting saddle. Particularly symptomatic is the slight hump along the spine just in front of the croup.

Muscle wastage shows up as muscle that is sucked in, rather than rounded. Even when a horse is out of shape, the muscle along the spine should be round, not sucked in--unless the horse is in near-starvation condition.

Wastage is actual muscle damage, and does not go away by itself, nor by weight gain, nor by muscle building. The muscle has to be helped to heal before it can fill out. It's fortunately not a major difficulty as long as you know it needs doing; that's something that can be specifically addressed with therapeutic massage to help the muscles repair themselves. (You can find discussion of therapeutic massage here: http://lorienstable.com/services/massage/)

Something to consider is that it is hard to properly fit a saddle to a back that has muscle wastage. Also, as the back recovers, it will change quickly and drastically, and your saddle will need frequent alteration to keep up. If the saddle doesn't fit, or the back changes and the saddle no longer fits, you'll just end up right back where you started. A quality treeless may be the best solution while the horse's back is recovering.

[flick88]

I had a thoroughbred like this once and found that once i had him for 6 months feeding him up and riding him the muscles on his back built up and made him look tons better hope this helps.

[bevb]

Please get him wormed and teeth checked too as if money was tight for the girl she probaly hasn't done this so he cannot make the most of his food he gets anyway.
It can also be due to muscle wastage as my 44yr old mares spine sticks up now yet she has a nice round belly but as she has been retired for 12years now she has lost all her muscle.

Bev

[flick88]

your mare is 44 yrs old - thats amazing i just lost a 28 year old and i thought that was old! well done to you x