I saw real lordosis in a saddlebred for the first time IRL and was shocked. But apparently the horse is feeling no pain, is under saddle, and actually has decent back muscling now. The back is still a bizarre shape but looks filled out.
Now I m thinking about much milder swayback in older mares especially. If it’s ligaments stretching can it ever be reversed? Would the exercises that build abs and topline in a younger horse help the back lift again? Or is it just permanent like lordosis?
Or is it just permanent like lordosis?
It depends if we are talking about older broodmares and /or horses in general who might have lost great deal of their topline or the genetic condition.
If it’s a lost of condition, then bringing them back to work and building topline muscles will surely help. Unfortunately, once ligaments/muscles have stretched that much, it is quite hard, if not impossible, to bring back to « normal » or the before state.
If it’s genetic, building top line muscles will help a great deal obviously, but it will not change much of the horse’s shape as it is the way the dorsal vertebral column is shaped.
Hoping the OP won’t mind me posting, but someone on the HHO posted this a while back and the difference goes to show that anything is possible! [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10235268}[/ATTACH]
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Quite an accomplishment! Did they share the time it took and what they did?
That photo sequence is really nice. I’m curious how old the horse was. I was thinking about an older mare who had a great topline through her teens but was off work for a few years. Wondering if after a certain point you can’t really come back.
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