Question and Answer Forum (Jan. 2009)
"Muscle Development"
Question:
Hi,
I start to apologize for my bad English, but I do hope you will understand what
I try to ask.
I have myself a mare (half blood) born in 1990 and a gelding (half blood)born
2005. With my mare I have, unfortunately, tried different riding stiles until I
found the classical way. On this journey I have found out that her outfit has
been changing. I have now this young fellow and I want to do it "right" this
time. I have tried to ask and read about how the musculatures should develop
and what developing I have to ovoid, but the answers are always different. I
hope that this question is even for you important. I do think that here is
something people do not know otherwise it would have been simple to answer and
show me.
I live in Finland and in this arena were I live we have not any good teachers in
riding classical, so we have one from Sweden coming a few time in the year. I
have tried to take this for discussions many times, but the other riders are
not interested in or have no problem with this question.
Thank you for your time,
Käthe Wiklund
Finland
Answer:
Thank you for your question. The muscle development tells you a lot about the quality of the training of the horse. We want to see the top line of the horse's body grow and "inflate". There should be only round, smooth lines. We don't want to see any sharp angles or bony points that stick out. For instance, the points of the pelvis should not stick out, looking like you could hang a hat on them. The spine should not stick out, either, but it should be embedded in large back muscles. The neck should be widest at the base and gradually taper off towards the top. When you are sitting on your horse, the neck should look widest at the base and narrowest at the poll. It should not look like a pencil, and it should not look like a snake that swallowed a rabbit. If the widest point of the neck is in the middle, then the neck will be stiff, but wobbly at the base. The aids won't go through a neck like that. From the side, you should see no hole in the top line in front of the withers. There should be a large, smooth, triangular muscle that fills the space between the shoulder blade, the withers, and the crest of the mane. You should not see a bulge along the underside of the neck. The muscles of the upper arm, above elbows should grow and swell. The pectoral muscles between the front legs should also become larger over time.
The croup muscles should fill out so that the croup looks as round as possible, like a watermelon. The conformation plays a role here as well, of course. Baroque horses tend to come closer to watermelon shape than warmbloods or thoroughbreds. Horses are like human athletes. Some of them bulk up easily like body builders. Others will always have a leaner look, like runners, no matter how much they train.
Developing the musculature will take the horse's entire life, but you should see gradual changes, steady, gradual growth over the weeks, months, and years.
If you look at the photos on our website, you can see some good examples of correct muscle development.
Good luck with your horses,
Thomas Ritter
Have a Question?
Email it to us at thomasritt@gmail.com.
