I’m working on building all 3 of my horses top lines right now and know the main three things you need are a saddle that fits (we just bought one), good nutrition, and the right exercises. I’m switching my horses back to Purina Omolene 200 with the SuperSport supplement. Omolene has always been my favorite. Anyways, I was wondering what everyone does to build/maintain their horses top lines? My 16 year old gelding is NOT looking too good and I won’t be running him much longer after this year (Arthritis is getting a hold of him + the topline issue). If anyone has exercises or even their weekly riding routine I’d love to hear! Below are some pictures of my horses. The black one is 16, the dun is 6, and the bay is 3.
Correct topline comes from adequate nutrition and engaging those muscles. Outside of specifically running or training patterns, what do your rides look like? Do your horses have a sense of foundational lateral work? Transition within and between the gaits fluidly without going hollow (without the reason being because their head is being told to stay down)? Hack out over varied terrain? Without knowing what’s currently being done it’s impossible me to suggest what to add.
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And it starts with the forage. Either excellent pasture or hay. Then you complement and enhance with feed. And on that you can adequately ask the horse to engage itself to build muscle.
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Also important to keeping muscles working right as a horse matures is to do some blood work that includes how his metabolism may be functioning, if he maybe is starting to develop Cushings, or not absorbing some vitamins properly.
All that mentioned is important, but very important may be to teach a horse to use the proper muscles for the task at hand.
Extreme examples would be someone training for a marathon or sprint races, they need to develop different kinds of muscle fibers and pathways to keep those working during heavy workloads.
As for what exercises help a horse keep or develop more of a top line, start with some on the ground, carrot stretches of all kinds to loosen up and belly taps to tuck belly.
Once horseback, try to always ride correctly, don’t let your horse fall onto the forehand, transitions help there, use cavalletti grids, teach a horse to be very responsive to more seat and leg aids, depend less on hands on the reins while moving correctly, but don’t just drop contact completely, make it lighter as horse gets more into self carriage.
Some lessons with a good general trainer, not necessarily a br one, would help you and your horse, as eyes on the ground is best for learning to have a horse move correctly under you.
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Once upon a time, I used to feed the Omolene 200 as well. Now I have “cleaned up” what I feed my horses.
Ever since my main mare has had some breathing and allergy problems, I had her allergy tested. Likely, she wasn’t gaining weight because I was trying to stuff her full of things she was allergic to.
So if you feel you are having nutrition issues and/or weight with muscling issues, I would tell you to get your horses allergy tested first. It’s a cheap blood test. Because yes, NUTRITION is so crucial!
For exercise, when you work your horses, whether it’s slow work on the pattern or whether it’s conditioning out on the trail, they must travel collected. Meaning, that hind end needs to be reaching under their body, along with their head being in a relaxed position, which is going to build those back muscles. If you are allowing your horse to giraffe around with their back hollowed out, you’ll never have a good top line.
I believe my barrel horses should be as BROKE as any other horse. It’s a never ending quest for knowledge and I feel like I tapped into it more last fall at a clinic I went to. This picture is just a screenshot from a video but here we are on day 3, learning to work “long and low” at the trot. She is driving from behind, her back is working, and she’s got her head in a beautiful relaxed frame. This mare is coming 5 this year and I’ve had her for about a year. We’ve had a lot of other training things we have worked through (she came to me with some confidence issues) but I am really, really excited to see what she does when we get going on the barrels (currently just starting to lope the pattern).
Now is her head going to look like that when we are doing pattern work? Not necessarily. And I realize that not all barrel racers work having their horses be able to travel this way, and that’s okay. I want to teach my horses to carry their bodies correctly, develop those strong muscles, so that it helps keep them sounder longer. Because right, when I send them down the alley, their head isn’t low. 
So we’ll have plenty of times where we are running at top speed, not collected at all, and they’ll build the muscles for that too. And she’ll have plenty of times when that head is in the air. So then I need to counter that at home, with good collected slow work and good collected exercise, with back engaged and hindquarters under and head relaxed.
Even my 19-year-old retired horses, even though I am no longer running them, I still do slow work on the pattern because it’s very good physical fitness for them, asking for power behind, back engaged, and a soft headset.
This next picture, I no longer have this horse as I had to retire him when I found out he had some serious neck issues, but it’s one of my favorite all-time picture of him in the show pen, as the picture was taken showing a really great example of engaging his back and head relaxed. He was a 1D horse in the barrel pen and he qualified me for the AQHA world show in ranch riding. Pretty awesome that he could go do both. But I guess I prepped him that way to be well trained with buttons that you could just go do anything.
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I think it was Martha Josey that with other top barrel racers about 20 years ago used to go take dressage lessons and thought that was really helping their horses.
Plenty of horses started as Reiners go on to make cutters and barrel racers if bred for it.
Colt starters for reining horses have been telling me that for the past dozen years other disciplines are tapping into correct reining training to help their horses.
You can’t ever learn enough, cross training tends to help in ways we would not know until we try it.
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English vs western use of collected can get into the semantic weeds over the term collected but this is a lovely description. For English riders we’d call it working over the back since collection is a more specific term but all of this x 10. The photos shown could be horses in any discipline and a rider should be pleased with the active hindend, soft expression, and open throatlatch. This type of work is universally beneficial for both the brain and the body. A horse dynamically moving in balance within and between gaits, over varied terrain, ground poles, etc is where you get a strong elastic set of back and neck muscles.
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Well my black gelding seems to be the one with the topline issue the most, and our rides usually consist of riding down the gravel roads and trails. I also do a bunch of long trotting in fields around my house and also bareback jumping occasionally.
Are you thinking about his body when you’re riding? Is he stretching across his back and through the neck with a nice swinging feeling or is he stiff necked and his back dropped?
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And if you are not actively asking him to ride with some impulsion and round his back, these things will not build a topline.
Long trotting will absolutely NOT build a topline, because that’s really an extended gait. You are asking your horse to lengthen stride and move out. Now, it’s a great cardiovascular excerise and I incorporate long trotting into my horse’s conditioning programs too. But you have to do other things to round their back and build the topline muscle.
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OP - Your pictures are very helpful and your goal is so important and you get that. The hay I see in the pictures doesn’t look good. I have a heaves horse and could not feed that to her. And someone here mentioned testing for allergies. Can you feed high quality square bales that do not sit outside?
Also, if you look at the muscling on your horses, their muscles are tight. You need to release those in the hind end, the neck, the shoulders - everywhere and build a strong, supple back muscle muscle to sit on. You can’t do all this under saddle right now. Also notice the drop off on two of your horses in the croup area. And both just in front of the withers - a drop off there too. Those are telling signs of dysfunction.
Maybe you could turn things around at the walk under saddle but no more. Not for now. Just today I was on another fabulous presentation by Rikke Schultz DVM and she spent time on the topline and building it. You might be able to watch that recording through Centaur Biomechanics in the UK.
You want soft, gentle bodywork to release the fascia and muscles that are tight, yes, to superior nutrition. Even Vitamin E if your horses aren’t on fresh grass. Test your hay - what is it providing? And add up all the protein between your hay and what else you feed and confirm it’s enough. Even if you don’t have a years supply, testing is cheap and it’s a window in this moment - the next month or two? Yes, to protein and getting all the important amino acids going.
Also, have you had a highly qualified dentist in their mouth? Speculum, headlight, every tooth examined? How are their feet? How good a foot do they have? It all starts there. If any of that is off it creates body stiffness which works against a supple, athletic body.
Until you have a big fat juicy back muscle to sit on, and then a very well fitting saddle you can’t build a topline.
And look at @beau159 second picture especially. Supple muscles and that horse looks like at this very moment it could cut a cow, roll back, strike off into canter, halt, move laterally. That’s what you want. Stay out of the head and neck and mouth.
But first, release it all and build back. Good on you for noticing and wanting it. It is the foundation.
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We have had body work and chiro done on the dun and have an appointment made for the other two. We don’t usually keep them out on that bale they were just with it in that picture. We definitely weren’t a fan and we get our hay from someone else now. Anyways, I do usually feed alfalfa flakes from square bales inside. We are getting all three of their teeth done etc. For the tight muscle part I’m going to do carrot stretches before and after rides! I’ve read those help a lot with topline too. 
Ok that all sounds so good. And yes, to those exercises. Dr Rikke even mentioned them yesterday too.
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I’ve seen/heard a number of vets talk about how important it is to do the exercises correctly. Here’s a Narelle Stubbs presentation and at the 57 min mark she discusses the core exercises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9EXhd5ci2E
(Didn’t know if you already knew this OR for anyone reading who doesn’t)
