Does anyone know good exercises/videos/articles that are about building a topline? I have an appendix QH that has barely any topline and my goal this winter is to get it started nicely for summer:) he has high withers and a sensitive back, so I think building more muscle up there will help! Please please please tell me your ways on building toplines!
Are you able to ride outside during the winter? Riding in snow will help, as will hill work.
Focus on straightness - don’t let him pop his shoulders out on your corners or circles.
You can do some basic dressage work such as shoulder fore, working up to shoulder in.
A million transitions between and within gaits, and then a million more. 
Trotting poles will also help, and you can work up from poles lying on the ground to poles that are raised a few inches. This will really get him lifting his back.
pole work, ad nauseum - every day. my regime:
week 1:
warm up/cool down over walk poles (4 in line). walk breaks are done over poles too
week 2:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk. add trot poles (2-4 in row depending on fitness/education)
week 3:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk over poles, add some stretchy cool down @ trot w/ poles. increase pole amount (4-6 in a row, or several poles strewn about ring)
week 4:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk over poles, continue trot over poles, add cantering single rails
week 5:
continue with last week, if horse is confident, add canter poles in a row
basically, always find time to warm up and cool down over walk poles. in addition to strengthening the topline it also makes them use their body correctly and strengthens their musculature.
I have found that very simple dressage (shoulder in, haunches out, etc.), circles (including the spiral-in, spiral-out), and LOTS of transition work has really done a number (in a good way) on my guy’s topline. He’s coming 15 and I’m riding less often than I used to but his topline is really as good or better than it was during our prime years of showing.
Obviously, you’ll want to start small with the lateral movements, but I was surprised at how quickly we were getting nice angles on our shoulder-in. In fact, I often use a walking shoulder-in as my warm up on days when it’s chilly and he’s feeling a little stiff/cold-backed.
Other poster’s suggestions of pollwork and riding in snow should help too- it’s best to vary things so that you don’t get too bored or too fixed on one exercise.
[QUOTE=Catticus Maximus;7913217]
Are you able to ride outside during the winter? Riding in snow will help, as will hill work.
Focus on straightness - don’t let him pop his shoulders out on your corners or circles.
You can do some basic dressage work such as shoulder fore, working up to shoulder in.
A million transitions between and within gaits, and then a million more.
Trotting poles will also help, and you can work up from poles lying on the ground to poles that are raised a few inches. This will really get him lifting his back.[/QUOTE]
This minus the snow since I live in GA, has really helped my mare’s topline this summer/fall. All of our warm ups consist of a lot of quick transitions - we’ll trot for a minute, half halt, walk for a stride, then right back into the trot. Same with the canter. I’ll trot for a bit, half halt, walk a stride or two, and then I go to the canter. We have poles in the corners of the arena and we’ll circle over them at the trot or canter as well.
As far as videos, great selection of them at www.Art2ride.com, which is all about getting the horse to work long and low and build a topline. Great videos with great commentary-- I am addicted to them!
You can’t build a topline until a horse learns how to come through from behind. Once he learns to bring his hind legs up under his body and use his hind end to propel himself, then his back will rise and soften and the “long and low” will work.
A horse which is concave through his back needs to use his head and neck tfor balance. And as long as that is the funcion of his front end, you are working against nature to try to build a topline.
So, start at the beginning and work on propulsion and freedom of gait. Once the horse is balanced, then his neck is able to lift and round, thereby developing the muscles you are looking for (and aren’t we all. 
)
[QUOTE=beowulf;7913237]
pole work, ad nauseum - every day. my regime:
week 1:
warm up/cool down over walk poles (4 in line). walk breaks are done over poles too
week 2:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk. add trot poles (2-4 in row depending on fitness/education)
week 3:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk over poles, add some stretchy cool down @ trot w/ poles. increase pole amount (4-6 in a row, or several poles strewn about ring)
week 4:
continue warm up/cool down @ walk over poles, continue trot over poles, add cantering single rails
week 5:
continue with last week, if horse is confident, add canter poles in a row
basically, always find time to warm up and cool down over walk poles. in addition to strengthening the topline it also makes them use their body correctly and strengthens their musculature.[/QUOTE]
Following this… Question: how do you space the walk poles? Or could I just use the same spacing as the trot poles (a little over 4 ft. apart)?
[QUOTE=Vesper Sparrow;7913722]
Following this… Question: how do you space the walk poles? Or could I just use the same spacing as the trot poles (a little over 4 ft. apart)?[/QUOTE]
It depends on the horse, as a rule of thumb I start with 3ft for walk poles, 4ft for trot poles and adjust as necessary. For instance, my gelding has a HUGE walk stride so his walk poles are set at nearly 4 ft… My other gelding has much smaller movement, I would trot/ride through the first gelding’s walk poles as his stride is much smaller.
I have my own ring to ride in, so I am lucky I can leave poles out. I have 2 sets of 4-in-a-row walk poles (one at B, the other at X) and one set of trot poles 4-in-a-row a little offset of B.
I think the pole work works the best for me, as it keeps my horses engaged even when I am walking around the ring. I always break up the ride into segments, IE, do some work over poles, then take a break, do some leg yield or roundness work, then break, walk over poles. If you mix it up, it doesn’t get boring.
CORRECT long and low work. Which means pushing from behind and over the back. If you’re not sure how to achieve that, try a few dressage lessons.
Plus, everything already mentioned.
[QUOTE=beowulf;7913793]
It depends on the horse, as a rule of thumb I start with 3ft for walk poles, 4ft for trot poles and adjust as necessary. For instance, my gelding has a HUGE walk stride so his walk poles are set at nearly 4 ft… My other gelding has much smaller movement, I would trot/ride through the first gelding’s walk poles as his stride is much smaller.
I have my own ring to ride in, so I am lucky I can leave poles out. I have 2 sets of 4-in-a-row walk poles (one at B, the other at X) and one set of trot poles 4-in-a-row a little offset of B.
I think the pole work works the best for me, as it keeps my horses engaged even when I am walking around the ring. I always break up the ride into segments, IE, do some work over poles, then take a break, do some leg yield or roundness work, then break, walk over po
les. If you mix it up, it doesn’t get boring.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, Beowulf! I use trot poles fairly often but like the idea of the walk poles for warming up/cooling down.
To build a top line you must engage the haunches. With the haunches engaged, the horse will stretch into quiet hands and seek the bit. When the horse seeks the bit, then the rider can allow the horse to stretch down and you will have a horse that is working from the haunches, over the back and through to the bit with lifted withers. This alone will build a top line that will last a lifetime as long as the horse is ridden properly. The horse can go in a long frame or more collected as long as you start with engaging the hind end.
You can engage the haunches by making sure the horse is quickly responding to your leg, using lateral movements like shoulder-fore shoulder-in, haunches-in, half pass, spirals, and a ton of transitions between and within gaits. If a horse is having a hard time lifting its back, then make sure you are riding light enough to encourage him to do so.
If you need help, you really don’t need a “dressage” trainer just someone who knows classical horsemanship.
Stretching, stretching, stretching. I’m talking about nose pointed out and down to the ground, all three gaits. Not with a level neck, but down to the ground. This forces the horse off their forehand, and raises their back. It also teaches them to bring their hind legs underneath them. In order to build those top line muscles, you have to be able to stretch them. If they are properly stretched down and out then they are stretched all the way from the poll to the tail.
[QUOTE=neon;7915149]
Stretch
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