Very normal.
Here’s my 8 year old and my 10 year old (the 8 year old is on the slender side, the 10 year old is obese right now) but you can see the withers and swoop to the back on both. As she builds up fat or muscle hers will fill in some more but will always be a bit swoopy.
Saddle fit has been a trick because of the shoulder and not so much the back. Yes some “flatter back” saddles bridge, but there are loads of brands that are more “this shape”.
Thank you @Alterration. I was concerned but have no personal experience with the breed. I was just curious as to others experiences. Your one horse is quite robust 
but lovely and looks happy.
Yes, he was a string bean for years when he was boarded but then when he came home and got AYCE grass hay we blew up like a balloon. He eats less grain than he ever has, but man is he…ahem rotund. No one would guess he’s a saddlebred until he puts his head in the air and snorts.
Thanks!
Lordosis (swayback) is quite common in American Saddlebreds, even young ones. If you google American Saddlebred swayback you will see some images MUCH more extreme than Honey. (I am not even an ASB person, but I knew that)
It is hotter than hades here this week. Like 102 and humid. So disgusting!
We aren’t typically allowed to have box fans, but with the permission of the barn owner during this heat wave, I mcgivered a box fan for her. At first she seemed so mad that I closed her yoke but within minutes she was practically leaning against the fan for some relief.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the worst, so they’re staying in. I plan to hose her off during my lunch break and we are all taking turns going out and filling water. Also, she has been really sucking down her Gatorade! She also just got a salt block the other day. I expect her to be frustrated tomorrow— she used to live outside, but I think the fan helps.
Oh also, she’s on fat cat and farrier formula now, and I’ve slowly been changing her grain again (thank you @Alterration for the tip!) so now she’s chowing down on Hygain Showtorque.
All good things!
Sounds like she is doing great!!! Good job 
Thank you!
She would be frustrated if you made her go outside , most likely.
In our current 100+ heatwave with awful humidity, I find my 3 in the run in most of the day.
I think it is more to escape the plague of the big horse flies than the heat and they are all 3 wet from head to hoof. I feel awful for them but glad they can go out at night.
Hopefully the weather is right and we will break this pattern overnight Friday. All 3 are really crabby and i don’t blame them.
Absolutely. It’s definitely a no win scenario. Hopefully this breaks soon!
My farm fam is amazing. We are taking turns hosing down, giving electrolytes, sticking them in front of fans, topping off water… I went on my lunch and she had just been hosed down. But I refreshed her gatorade and threw her some hay and she seemed peeved that for all of 2 minutes I turned the fan off to get through her stall, lol
I just re-read that, I hope your barn owner will allow a different type of fan maybe?
I installed closed-motor fans in all of my stalls. They are a little bit more expensive but worth the price of admission. I just can’t imagine any horses without an access to fans in this midwestern heat, poor babies!
Mine are stalled right now, they want nothing to do with the heat or the bugs, which have become ridiculous in the heat. I just got back in from hosing them all off and sticking them back in front of their fans. Even at night it’s been terrible but I’ve been turning them out while I clean stalls. They last about 30 minutes before they are freaking out at the gate sweating, covered in flies, and ready to come back in. I think tonight I’m just going to move them to the empty stalls when I clean. It’s ridiculous!
It really is crazy!
Yes, he allows us to install fans in the top corner of their stalls, but being that they’ve been outside and it hasn’t been TOO crazy here until a few days ago, and that I brought her home at the end of June, I figured I’d deal with that next year. So, hindsight I guess.
So for now–box fan it is. We have fans in the aisle but they’re so high up that I’m not sure if they’re really doing anything. And we have big industrial fans at each entrance, just circulating the air a bit
Phew! No worries on that, I just thought…man, the midwest gets such hot summers!
I turned my drum fan off at the entrance, it just felt like it was bringing the hot air in (but it did make the fly situation better - they are biting right through the bug misters that I have in the barn and bug spray). It’s ridiculous!
Only a couple more days before this breaks, apparently!
Fans are not universally helpful in extreme heat, depending upon conditions:
This study was were done on people, not horses, but I think it’s relevant. I can sure tell the difference out in the barn – about mid 90s, the fan is just blowing hot air, and it seems worse than no fan at all. But, if I turn on the misters AND the fan, then it feels cooler, and my horse seems to respond the same. I cook with a convection oven, so the principle is familiar.
Going to need to look up Bug misters!
These are good! Yeah, unfortunately we’re at a really humid heat here in the midwest, which is where the OP is as well Right now it’s 99 with 45% humidity but overnight the humidity is supposed to go up again.
It’s gross. Just simply gross.
We use these since our barn would need a lot of retrofitting to make a built-in system: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/country-vet-automatic-metered-dispenser-321131cva
They work really well when it’s not…like this.
I used to have those, too, but when they eventually required replacement, I went with the $5 Glade spray dispensers – learned about them here on CoTH – which fit the Country Vet spray cans.
Ooh, great tip!
I love Janet (so much that I sold her a horse that I didn’t want to sell) but I need to respond to this.
The incidence of Lordosis in ASBs is not high, statistically, across the breed. Every few years, the ASHA pays for a study on this, and they have someone speak at the annual convention. But, that’s not the real issue.
The real issue is that, for the show ring, there is one requirement. The horse must have a vertical neckset, and turn over at their poll. Perhaps 10% of any foal crop can do that, and breathe and stay sound. Those are the horses where they pick a division, and have a show horse in that world. If a horse is lordotic, it is much easier for them to be able to wear their head in this position. For this reason, the show world doesn’t shun horses with this condition. It used to be that those horses made great equitation horses, and show pleasure horses- divisions where they do not strip the horses and judge for conformation. In my lifetime, that’s changed, and I find it truly troubling.
As regards this horse, and others, having a weak loin coupling happens when you are not breeding or training for a strong topline. For this reason, I do recommend long lining, and caveletti, for every horse that I bring home.
Currently, I have three very well bred horses that here that are “rescues” that I am working with. They were all started as show horses, with that training. ASBs are pleasers, and they’re going to go back to their default training, until you install new information. I refer it as uninstalling show horse 101, and installing sport horse 101. When they find out how much more comfortable they are, they reach a happy place, and you can build from there. These horses are quick studies, and they want to do what you are asking. You simply need to show them what that is.
The OP is doing a fantastic job with this mare. She has covered all of her bases as far as any considerations with a horse can go. There are some issues where these horses are different. When a horse wants to please, they are going to give you what they think that you are asking for over and over. You need to show them that there is something else.
I started out with American Saddlebred show horses. I migrated to hunter jumper and then dressage decades ago, and so I see this in a way that most people can’t, because they haven’t been there with the horses. I will always be available to offer assistance for any horse, because they are worth it.
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