Building A Big Hip

Scotch is pretty lean, as most of you already know, but he does have a decent sized hip for a pleasure horse and I just want to know how to maximize it. He is really on the lean side right now, I just bumped his feed up again after he had a bunch of time off. He's super tight (as in, as tight as he could possibly be) in his abdomen, his neck is a little flabby right now (which I am working on with sweating and he's wearing a jowl sweat 24/7). His only downfall right now is that I think he is a little bit narrow in the chest any tips on how to down play this when I set him up?

On the chest, put his front feet close together. As far as overall bulk, I'd definitely have to say a golfcart and long trot for a certain period of time, to tighten up the top line, loping for a bit.

You can back a horse, BUT Be very careful. It helps pop the hip. I agree with 7 ceders on the rest. Long trot long trot, If you dont have a golf cart that attacks you... Hummm hummm 7 Ceders.. Pony off a gelding, since he is a stud.

I have used the backing method as well to pop that hip. It does work and you do need to be careful about how much you do that. There is also a product called Whoop *censored* that can help in that area. The one thing to keep in mind is that not all horses have the make up to have a big hip and you cannot changed that. Then there is the growth thing that may work against you and every thing comes together when they finish growing which can take 5 years.

I'm not a big fan of the backing... just because when I almost blew Kid up, was a couple of things I was doing, back and roundpen work - which I'll never do again.

'Bout the only time mine get backed up, is when we're practicing setting up, but that's very minimal, or I've got my gosh danged finger in their faces for being a jerk and I'm trying to rip off somebody's head.

Since Rick's been fiddling with Scamp, I notice he's doing the same thing as Kid did as far as the rearend... this is going to take some time, and a lot of it on the golfcart. Chest, though, is about as perfect as it gets, which tells me, he's working off the frontend, not the rear - same as his Dad.

Just takes time, and like Bluejay says, it can take years to mature. Kid was a long 4-year old when it finally all came together.

What I do for my halter horses is either ponying or work off the quad. Doing either of them takes a professional. Ponying off a gelding since he is a stud. Make sure he is used the quad ect. Requires two people. Alot of long trotting to build up muscle in the forarm and some loping to build up the topline. You can also put a saddle on him too. That will help the weithers and the back. Make sure you wrap the legs. I always put neck sweats on my halter horses. Good Luck..

Oh, for criminey sakes, it doesn't take a professional for ponying or working off a golfcart... hopefully Silverbuckles has enough sense to know that you start off with 2 people on the golfcart, and you train them to it, once they're trained, just zip/zip, no biggy, one person job. Takes at the most 2 day- session, or at least in my experience.

7cedars wrote:

Oh, for criminey sakes, it doesn't take a professional for ponying or working off a golfcart... hopefully Silverbuckles has enough sense to know that you start off with 2 people on the golfcart, and you train them to it, once they're trained, just zip/zip, no biggy, one person job. Takes at the most 2 day- session, or at least in my experience.

LOL.. Appartently you havent noticed that often horse people can make big mistakes. If you dont point out then someone might get the wrong idea and try to do it themselves and get hurt. Dont have to be rude..! Who knows what she has doen before.

I'm the one who sold Star to Cherie, and well, I know a lot, most of the people on here know that. Every now and then, I ask a question like this just to get some new ideas.... not because I don't know how.

I think anything that can be dangerous is worth mentioning. Even if the audience has been around the block a few times and knows this stuff. No need for anyone to get in a bunch over it..

D Lux is new to the forum and does not know all of us or what we do and how we do it. Or, that most of us are doing different things with horses. I do agree you do not need to be a professional for this. But, you do need to know what you are doing before you jump right in. Serious injury to horse and humane can happen if you try this alone the first time or do not have a horse already trained to pony..

We pony here with a saddle horse to start with, make darn sure that horse is gonna give to the pressure. Of course, ours aren;t ever gonna be true halter horses, just maybe a class at an open show, so we are doing it less for building them up than for general training. We had a gator type thing that we used. Brennen held the horse, cause I can drive around the field and watch the horse at the same time. Once it's going well, I did it myself. We got rid of the gator thing, so now we'll either use the old farm truck like the neighbors do, or keep my saddle horses in super shape.
Like I said, I don't pony for long periods at a time for the most part, so I've never had soundness issues, but we did have a problem with Wade's big red roan. Bo would get to not wanting to do it and lay down. Did the same thing when we started him under saddle.

I agree long trotting behind a golf cart!

[b] I always make sure that everyone knows safety first... I have heard alot of horror storys lately.. Anyways.. I was just responsing to the post.. That is what I do to build up my halter horses.. LOL.. Alot of long trotting in a straight line..

SilverBuckleHorses wrote:

I'm the one who sold Star to Cherie, and well, I know a lot, most of the people on here know that. Every now and then, I ask a question like this just to get some new ideas.... not because I don't know how.

I was just giving you ideas.. Other people read these posts and I want to back sure that they dont get hurt.. Thats all.

Silverbuckles, if you've got any type of hills, even little bitty ones, what I do is go up real fast on the hill, and then slow coming down... they scotch down it, if that makes any sense... they have to use their hindend...same thing with going up the hill, going fast, they've got to get up under themselves...

If I can get them in to high grass, where they have to work their legs more, I do... without tearing up the golfcart or getting stuck... HA! And one of these days, I'm going to get me some big nobby tires on my golfcart and see if I can't go through these little creeks...

TripleJ and me were talking about this yesterday... I can't tell you how much of a difference of a horse you'll have when you take them out like this... and not the same place every time... it got to a point where Kid would literally be jumping up and down when he saw the golfcart, rearing to go, see new things, get the kinks out, so to speak... This not only helps their body, but also their mind - I just can't even tell you the difference it makes!!!! WHEW! And truthfully, I enjoyed it, too. Very quiet, just you, your horse and the golfcart...if I had the time, after bringing them back down, we'd visit and eat some grass together.

But it does get interesting when you both see deer about the same time as they do...everybody kinda stops, OH CRAP is in all of our minds, deer scatter, we laugh, and continue on....

My golfcart goes in the shop this next week... probably going to need all new batteries... Scamp's fixing to get his tail end worked off... and Jazz has got to be trained...

Here is a picture of Arnold Shoulder 2 monrhs of training on the quad..



I will get hind end shots...

Good shot on the the shoulder.. Even got the veins in there..