Tips to Help Your Horse Strengthen Their Back

I am training a 17 hand TB who has a long back. He came to me very under weight and was weak in his back. I have been going slowly with him, working on trot poles, raised poles and canter/trot transitions. Any advice on conditioning his back and preventing problems? He has lots of T.O. on grass and is getting weight on.

Nice to see folks interested to train TB’s! Actually you are doing all the right things and it sounds like you are on the right track. We have a cavalletti topic on the site, which may give you some insight as well. Transitions are also key and explained well in my series “Fundamentals of Flatwork – Basic and Intermediate. Refer to those and gradually you will want to make your transitions more prompt and add canter walk transitions. If you have a “gentle” slope somewhere that you can walk up and down and eventually trot and canter that might also help strengthen him. Take it easy and again a “gentle” slope. Steep hills can really make their muscles sore. I hope this helps.

EquestrianCoach guest coach Olivia Loiacono did a blog post called “Exercises to Strengthen a Horse’s Hindquarters” that you may also find helpful. Click here to view it.