Question by Fighting Dreamers: My horse needs to build muscle and heal his leg?
Recently, my stable bought a beautiful chestnut horse named J.P., but when he came in the trailer, his rear left hind leg had a wrapped up gash on it. He is also under weight, and needs to build muscle, pretty much everywhere in his body. So my instructor asked me to help her put him through “rehab.”

The only thing is I haven’t done anything to this extreme before.

So now here is the deal. Due to his leg injury, I can only walk and do limited trotting (no cantering), and I cannot ride long (so I don’t damage the leg further). I also can only be in an indoor ring and an outdoor ring (no trails are accessible, and also, the leg injury again). If all goes as planned, I should be at the barn at least three to four days a week.

Before his injury, J.P. was a fantastic hunter-jumper, so any “programs” or anything of the sort must be compatible with the discipline. I was thinking, while I am limited to walking and little trotting, these exercises might be suitable: circles, Serpentine, figure-eights, and changes of directions through different points of the ring.

If you have any advice on how to tone J.P., better exercises, wisdom, experience, or any other useful information, please reply. Also, feel free to leave websites or Youtube videos, to show your reasoning, go ahead.

On more detail — I’ve been riding for 8 years and am currently helping train an off the track thoroughbred, who is extremely strong and still has a racing instinct, so I have experience retraining, and also can handle a lot of horse beneath me.

Thank you for your help in advance!

Best answer:

Answer by Amy Love
just keep walking and trotting him and build muscle on the legs. then once his wound is healed, you can move up to diffrent levels and build more muscle. if he has to gain weight, i suggest make simple changes to his feed slowly so that he can gain weight and still be healthy. hope this helps 🙂

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