Helping Your Horse Gain Lean Muscle Mass and Build Topline
Question: A judge at the show said my horse needs to “bulk up,” especially on his topline, but my vet said his weight is fine. What’s up with that?
Answer: Sounds like your horse is fine weight-wise, but he could use a little more lean muscle. Adding more calories from hay or grain could result in unwanted weight gain. Instead, try adding amino acids like those found in SmartMuscle® Mass, which includes limiting amino acids proven to improve topline condition in horses of all ages.
Question: Mass, huh? Is that gonna make my horse fat?
Answer: Nope. SmartMuscle Mass uses the building blocks of lean muscle tissue to help your guy fill out the healthy way!
Question: My Thoroughbred mare really needs to fill out, but increasing her grain is making her crazy! Help!
Answer: You should consider SmartGain®. It contains healthy fats for a “cool” source of calories (i.e. no more crazy horse) plus ingredients to support your mare’s muscles, digestion and appetite.
Ask the Vet Video on How to Build Topline in Horses
Dr. Lydia Gray discusses ways overs can improve and build their horse's topline muscle with key ingredients in supplements and specific exercises.
SARAH: "Tips to build your horse's topline and how long does it take for a horse to build a good topline? Are there specific exercises that would help? Can supplements or different types of feed help, too?" So a multi-part question for you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And all the multi-questions in that question were great.
SARAH: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So you'll help me remember them. So the topline-- I like to start everyone on the same page-- so the topline is the top of the horse's body from the neck to the tail. So it really is a good word to describe it as the topline of the horse. And we're talking about muscle. So he, he, she?
SARAH: Riley?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Riley.
SARAH: Could be either. We don't know.
DR LYDIA GRAY: They are most likely are worried about the horse's muscle has gone away. And they don't say if it's a senior horse or not. Because it tends to be very common in senior horses. As you age, the muscle just goes away. So the approach sounds right. They're thinking already diet and exercise. It turns out that the research says diet might be the more important factor. Because even if you're feeding the horse a complete and balanced diet, if you're exercising almost too much the topline can go away. So what's really important is to get those key amino acids in there. And by key I mean lysine, which was the first limiting amino acid, and methionine and threonine. In fact, one of my favorite studies-- I have so many.
SARAH: So many.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I call them each favorite. One of my favorites is--
SARAH: It's because they don't know about each other.
DR LYDIA GRAY: That's right. That's right. Don't tell them-- --is by Graham-Thiers. And they set out to show that if you feed older horses lysine and threonine, their topline improves. What they found was-- because they used as a control group young horses. And when they fed them, though, the amino acids, all of the horses-- every age group-- their topline improved. So what it says is by feeding key amino acids we can improve the topline in horses.
So the way you do this is-- especially if you have grass hay. Grass hay's not really known for being high protein. Alfalfa has more. But if you're feeding grass hay, you probably need to supplement. Now, you'll need to be giving a multi-vitamin or a ration balancer that has protein. Could be fortified grain, could be a protein supplement itself on its own. And those tend to have-- and I think we have some here. Like here's one that's very popular. It's Tri-Amino because it has the three amino acids I mentioned, lysine, methionine, and threonine. So you can feed that right with whatever hay and grain or ration balancer you're giving to supplement the protein that is already in their diet.
I think one of the questions was how long it takes. We know that it takes at least two weeks to see a weight gain in a horse. But that's more fat. And here we're talking specifically muscle.
SARAH: I wish it took me two weeks--
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh god, me too.
SARAH: --to see a weight gain.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I would say at least a month. Now, the study I was referring to was 14 week study. So even over three months. So give it time. And as far as exercises, I mentioned earlier that diet is more important than exercise, but exercise is still important. So the recommendations that are good for building a horse's topline is-- we have an article coming out soon-- on kissing spines. And so the recommendations for those horses, which is long and low-- exercises that lift the back, lower the neck. So bring up the horse's topline like a suspension bridge. Am I using that right?
SARAH: Yep.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
SARAH: Absolutely.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So there's a Pessoa system or any kind of system like that that encourages them to use their body correctly. Cavaletti, we always recommend heel work, transitions. Now we're getting into discipline specific, so whether you're Western or English or jumping or dressage. It can be sets like intervals. I just did a driving thing where we did five minutes of walk and five minutes of trot. Transitions are good. Lateral work-- but in your discipline. So in your sport, find those things that are going to ask your horse to use and develop his muscles. Have the supplement or the good feed in place, and I think you'll be good to go. And then just give it time.
Also check out this Ask the Vet article where Dr. Gray clarifies the different types of muscle supplements and how their ingredients work.