Four tips Before Starting to Build Your Horse's Muscles

First, ensure he’s pain-free. If your horse is in any pain you’re not going to succeed in building muscle. One way you can tell is by lunging him in a circle and looking for signs of limping. Pain sends muscles into a protective mechanism in order to try to prevent further damage, which means those muscles simply won’t work properly. If you’re concerned your horse might be in pain, it’s important to seek vet advice before starting any strengthening exercise.

Second, work little and often. Once pain has been ruled out, all strengthening exercises must start with getting the muscles to work correctly. This means exercises should be done little and often. Once your horse’s muscles are contracting correctly you can increase the loads and demand on the area in order to build strength, and then reduce the times of the exercises.

Third, are you riding or doing in-hand? With any muscle building program owner interaction is important. Any exercise plan needs to be achievable for both you and your horse if it's going to be successful. If they’re not achievable, and they’re done incorrectly, you won’t get anywhere and it can allow bad muscular patterns to form. All of these exercises can be ridden at varying levels of difficulty so, if you’re not sure how well you’ll be able to ride one of them, start with the easiest and work your way up. Consider whether in-hand strengthening work might be better for your horse than ridden work. Often in-hand work is the best place to start because it removes the rider interaction on the horse's back. Last of all, take a holistic approach. It’s important to make sure that all of your horse’s vet and fairer check ups are up to date before you start a strengthening program. You need to be confident your horse’s tack fits him correctly, that his diet is right for his workload and his shoeing is up to date.

I want to give credit to "Your Horse Magazine" where I found all these tips in this article.