How can I build my horseā€™s topline?
This is a very common question! People that ask this question are often looking for a feed or supplement that can help, and while correct nutrition is an important requirement for building topline, without the correct work to build muscles it won’t make any difference at all.
On the other hand, a horse won’t develop a good topline if their hooves are incorrectly trimmed/shod, or if they don’t have adequate nutrition. These are topics for another post.
This post is about the impact of posture on topline. Assuming nutrition and hoofcare are adequate, the fastest and best way to build good topline is by teaching correct posture. In fact, if the horse is not moving in good posture, it is impossible for them to build topline.
Surprisingly this does not involve lengthy or strenuous exercise. No need for poles, hills, or lots of trotting and cantering. It also most definitely does not involve gadgets or forcing the horse into a “frame”. These actually all have an adverse effect on topline. The changes shown here were brought about using short sessions of French Classical walk work. The horses (and trainer!) did not break a sweat during this work.
The beauty of it is this: with correct posture, the topline develops optimally, and development of topline makes it easier for the horse to move with good posture. So you can set off a chain reaction of improved posture, performance and wellbeing as well as the horse looking visibly stronger.
If you fancy learning more, my free live masterclass webinar “Build your horse’s topline” I will go into details about what topline is and how it works, describe real life examples of horses I have worked with (with lots more before and after pictures), and give you some tips for how you can get started building topline in your own horse.
