I have an OTTB, his name is Maple.

We got him on the 5th of May. For the first month, we worked mostly on recovery, and didn't do much. This month we need to build some muscle on him, now that he's much healthier (he won't be ridden until mid-July)

His topline needs some work, and I'm wondering if there are any exercises that we can do to help him.

Edit: what we are currently doing is taking him to the round pen and letting him get his energy out and roll, and then work with reversing direction, and having him trot, canter, and gallop (trot is the gait I'm trying to get him to do most of the time, he loves to go fast though, but we aren't pushing him)

Oh NO if only I had an entire forum devoted to building my OTTB's topline right here. ;)

In all seriousness, the biggest thing to think about with topline is to focus on lifting the horse's abs more than the actual topline, since those muscles will develop as the abs lift and "stretch" his back over. Lots of cavalettis and poles are fantastic for this, along with hillwork.

Under saddle, focus on transitions and lateral work. Lots of bending and stretching and flexibility is HUGELY helpful for topline work.

Also editing to add: try not to overdo it with roundpen work. Constant circles are actually very hard on the joints, especially if they're small, and they're not incredibly beneficial to topline buildup.

Personally i would say speak with a professional trainer/veterinarian about exercises they would recommend and possibly supplements they think could help him.

while I'm sure many players on here are knowledgeable in this kind of stuff, it may be easier for a vet who can physically see him and touch him to help you with this.

(I should probably add that I'm not discrediting the things said on here, and if you choose to do them, great! But i think you should also speak with someone on top of doing that.)

Thanks puck! I'll definitely read through that forum.

The barn that we board at is really awesome, they have poles that we can use, so we'll definitely try that with Maple.

Thanks for letting me know about the round pen :)

The barn has two round pens, a smaller "average" size, and a much larger one, I'll make sure to take him to the larger one if we are doing round pen work.

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Savannah

We do have a trainer, (and a vet of course). The vet should be coming out within the next week to give him the follow up vaccine for strangles and also look him over.

I'll ask the trainer if theres any other exercises she recommends.

A good diet, lots of hill work, cavaletti, and backing.

You'll be good to go in no time.

I swear by Purina Super Sport. I've seen it work miracles on several different horses, especially for top line building. It's pricey, but totally worth it. Super Sport + lots of collected long trotting where he's using his back end correcy will build a nice top line!

On the ground, my favorite exercises are backing up up small hills, doing core stability exercises like belly lift stretches (you can YouTube these!), and lunging in side reins - this would be more conducive to building his topline and his future training over all than free schooling in the roundpen :) of course, it is extremely important that the side reins be very loose to begin with, gradually shortening over time to reflect his strength and understanding of the training tool (they should never, ever be short enough to pull his nose down into his chest, just make gentle contact with his mouth as he moves). When I introduce young horses to side reins, the first few sessions are simple walking in-hand.

The Willing Equine has a very useful video on Youtube for teaching a horse to lunge long and low, or you can do it free in the roundpen. I would definitely recommend watching it, it's how I taught the horse I ride to do it. I preferred it over using sidereins or any other tools since I don't have someone to help teach me and I didn't want to use the wrong amount of pressure and confuse him as we were both learning.

Thank you everyone! There are a couple hills on the property, we can definitely practice with that (I'll double check with the trainer before to see her opinion and if it would be the right thing for him)

Right now he is fed one flake of alfalfa, and two Bermuda, twice a day. Also we purchase a bale of Bermuda and put it in his haynet so that he has something the munch on. (He had an extremely inconsistent feeding scedule at the previous place, so he gobbles up his food and then is hungry later 🤦‍♀️)

Thank you everyone for all your suggestions and help!

If you can, look at Straightness Training. It's based on classical dressage training principles, and did wonders for my mare before I backed her. It makes use of groundwork, inhand work, lunging and riding. What I really like is it makes use of really kind methods without using any kinds of gadgets or gimmicks, my mare is able to lunge in the correct frame without needing side reins or any other gadgets because of her start with straightness training.