alva
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Conformation and Top LineMy Qh seems to have a high butt... Is this because she is a QH?
She has a poor topline which I am working on. I think that was due to bad from feet and saddles that too narrow, all from her prior life before I got her. I have had her 10 months now and see loads of improvement regarding her front feet.
Other than diet, which I have changed thanks to help from Leah, what else do I should I do to help the topline. Is riding her better for this or worse??
Will her butt always be higher than her withers and forehand or is there something I can do or should do to help this out. It is not a big deal I dont think but when I ride her I can tell the front end of her is down hill. I have to add extra shims to level out the saddle.
Thoughts and input please....
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Gismo
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There are some folks on here that are heavy into "Hill Training" and if you push them I'm sure they can explain the process much better than I can.
Basically it involves going forward and backwards up and down small hills to build up backs and butts. I know it works, we live on the side of a large hill and ride and walk ours all over the property and all in the woods so the terrain is always up/down/rough/varied and they stay in pretty good shape.
A good thing about riding the woods is , They have to look where they are going or smack a tree. Its there choice, we allow them to pick the path, we pick the destination.
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alva
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I have some hills I can do that with. Does it hinder her if I am riding?? I have the right fitting saddle and know exactly where to place it.
Sometimes I prefer to ride bareback. I have only recently began to ride again and bareback is easier for me to emergency dismount if I need too. I am not as physically fit as I used to be.  That is something I am working on..
So I guess My question is, should I ride her or hand walk her? If ok to ride, is saddle better or bareback??
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Clarissa
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Alva, unfortunately Gismo is on the wrong track with the therapy called Hill Therapy!! 
It's about doing circles on sloping ground using the 22' line for 5mins each way without interfering with the horses progress. The idea is that the horse learns to balance itself & have self carriage which gets it more onto it's HQ & lightens the FH & allows the horse to step more under itself.
There are a lot of 'rules' re gait on certain slope angle. There is a big article about it on the SC. I use it for my horse Sonny below. He got right onto his front end & I still need to return to it from time to time.
Not sure if it will fully help your QH. Firstly how old is your QH? If it is under 6yo then it may well level out. They are bred that way for some reason that is beyond my ability to fully understand!! but anyway that's another story.
So you could ride your horse during it but they recommend not, so the horse's body can heal best without the pressure of badly fitting saddle etc. Since I have been doing it for many months on & off I do now ride but I have rectified the saddle problems, I just have a lazy horse now that requires 'fixing up' from time to time.
You can do (as Gismo said) lots of hill work with backing up etc, but I found that didn't fix front end problems, it just made the HQ fitter & more muscly. So it didn't make the saddle more level.
 [/i]
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alva
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My horse is 14 now.
When I first got her, she was eaten up with thrush, had bad trims and was horribly out of balance on her front hooves. She was walking on her toes. She was being ridden by children, 5 days a week, with ill fitting saddles...
She looks so much better now than she did in the beginning. I am just trying to continue to help her recover as much as possible. I just wasnt quite sure what else to do for her.
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happycat
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Clarissa
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When she trots around you does she step right under her belly like Sonny is doing in my profile shot? She should come close to putting her back foot in the track of her front foot. It could be a little behind it or infront of it too & that would be OK. But many horses are what I call peddling bricks! Their feet are doing little circles under each corner of their body & never meet in the middle like they should.
If she is like that then she may benefit from hill therapy. Karen Rolf also has good exercises for getting the horse to lengthen stride too.
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Horse Gypsy
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A lot of QH are bred down hill, isn't much you can do to change that if it is in the bone structure. I have had success with hill therapy- and if the muscles are really wasted some time not being ridden is the only solution- some people say 6 months some a year. Then you can find a saddle that fits- no sense fitting a saddle to a muscle wasted back.
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alva
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Clarissa, I am not sure about her step. I will have to watch her and look for this.
Horse Gypsy, my horse has had 9 months of no riding. The riding I have started doing is on about 15 minutes, twice a weekend. I am just getting back into the swing of things due to other issues and I was giving her feet plenty of time to recover. I want to start riding more on weekends and hopefully during the week when time changes.
Happycat, I am going to check out the website you suggested. I am also going to take a look at Karen Rolf as Clarissa mentioned too.
My horse is a LBI, that does not like to do much other than walk and mosey along. Tell you the truth, we both need exercise.... I think this will be a new area of education for me. I have been through hooves and diet, still sorting through worming and vaccinations; now I will add this to my book of knowledge. Thanks everyone..
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