Muscle Building for Horses - find out more...................
Hi guys, I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I have had chance to sit at my laptop and write anything 🙈
I feel very fortunate to be flat out treating horses at the moment, so thank you to everyone that has chosen me to be the one to treat your horse(s) 🙏🏻 and thank you to those of you that have been patient in waiting for an appointment, I look forward to seeing you soon 😊
I promised last week that I would post about some of the detail included in Dr David Marlin’s recent webinar on muscle building 💪🏻
I have picked out a few key points that I think you will all find useful, but as always if you would like to learn more or have any questions please just get in touch 📲
I always aim to be able to answer any questions you might have and if I cannot I will put in the research in order to be able to or at least find the right professional that I can point you in the direction of! 👉🏼
🔸So let’s talk a little bit about muscle and start with a few facts:
▪️The only part of the body that creates movement is muscle
▪️Horses are 42% muscle (on average)
▪️Muscle is 80% water
▪️80% of the remaining 20% of the muscle is protein
▪️The contractual properties of the muscles fibres can be split into 2 categories
1. Slow Twitch Muscle Fibres
2. Fast Twitch Muscle Fibres
(I have written about this in more detail in a previous blog which you can find on this page or on my website)
▪️Slow Twitch Fibres are essential for posture
▪️Your horse’s breed denotes the amount of slow and fast twitch fibres they have
▪️The muscle type is fixed for life
▪️This means you will never be able train the draught horse to sprint as well as the racehorse, or the racehorse to have the same endurance as the draught horse (an extreme example to paint the picture)
🔸Now we know a little about the muscle, let’s talk about how we can increase muscle mass in our horses:
1. EXERCISE
▪️You cannot build or increase muscle mass without exercise
▪️Muscles need to be put under pressure to adapt
▪️Increase work gently only increasing one factor at a time:
1. Intensity – (speed, incline/hill work, surface)
2. Duration – (length of time working for)
3. Frequency – (number of sessions per week)
▪️Be careful not to over-train as injury is a risk
▪️Cross training is recommended – (more about this coming soon)
▪️Aim to load the muscles hard enough to increase them without damaging bone, ligaments or tendons (Orthopaedic damage)
❗️Don’t forget your horse’s heart is a muscle too which also needs to adapt to any increase in workload
2. FEED AND SUPPLEMENTS
▪️A positive energy balance is required to build muscle – this means you need to be feeding more energy than the horse usually requires
▪️The harder you work your horse the more protein they will need
▪️You cannot build muscle without the amino acid Lysine (amino acids must come from the diet, the horse’s body cannot make it)
▪️9g of Lysine is sufficient, no need to feed more, but check your horse’s diet includes it (an independent equine nutritionist can help you with this if you are unsure)
😯Wow, this post is getting long now and there is still so much I could share!
🔸I hope this post is useful, I often see horses on my travels that could benefit from an increase in muscle mass, and lots of owners start with the feed, but ultimately it is correct exercise that is going to help produce the muscle in the places we need our domestic horses to build it in order for them to carry us as riders in a healthy posture 🐴
❇️ Equine Massage Therapy is a great way to ensure that the musculoskeletal system is supported and kept as healthy and free from restriction as possible during time of change in your horse’s body ❇️
☑️Treatment also includes lots of ‘homework’ tailored to your horse, based on their individual conformation, locomotion and hands-on assessment☑️
🔸If you think your horse needs to increase muscle tone, or you would like to help your horse develop a healthier posture please do get in touch to find out more or to book an appointment 📲