Horses with no topline - an important topic

Horses need to be prepared to carry riders. Otherwise riding can lead to mental or physical damage and pain for the horse. Carrying additional weight on its back, a horse needs to not only be mentally ready and mature, but also physically able to do so.

I see many horses in my clinics that are exhausted from carrying a rider. Often the owners sign up for the courses without noticing the conditions their horses are in. In this article about Topline Syndrome I am explaining how to recognize a horse that suffers from it.

A poorly ridden horse (for example due to strong, harsh usage of reins, the usage of auxiliary reins or an imbalanced rider), an unfitting saddle, a rider that is too heavy for the horse or any other reason why a horse cannot find biomechanically correct movements, can lead to the following symptoms:

• horse’s chest sags forward and down
• compressed vertebral joints
• overstretched or damaged longitudinal ligament of the vertebral body
• compressed nerve exit points
• muscles of hindquarter and croup pull to lift the back
• sagging back
• tense shoulder, chest or core muscles

The horse tries to lift its back with the help of “wrong” muscles to carry its rider.

A horse that remains in the state of carrying exhaustion for an extended amount of time, will show visible changes in its body:

• sunken thorax,
• muscle atrophy on both sides of the withers and
• muscle tension in haunches, possible bulging of lumbar spine (carp back)

A horse with Topline Syndrome suffers from strong muscle tenseness, cannot bend properly and lacks extensive movements. This can lead to blockages throughout the spine. Chances are high that it then develops signs of wear such as kissing spines, arthrosis, bone spavins, problems with tendons and so forth.

The following image shows the area that lacks muscles of the hind quarters.

The glutes are only weakly developed, or better said, atrophied. Instead, the ischial muscle can clearly be seen (blue area).