Back...sway? Lack of muscles?

My friend wanted me to post this, this is the picture she gave me to post. So apologies if it's not too good...she took it with her cell phone.

(picture below)
She wants to know if her horse's back is swayed or just lacking muscles. Some days she thinks he's just lacking muscles but others she thinks he's swayed. Either way she doesn't care, I mean, she loves him the way he is. He does have pretty large withers (or at least I think so).
Also on a side note...yes he's fat, she knows that and she has gotten ALOT of weight off of him so far, he's also possibly insulin resistant so she's cutting back on all sugar and carbs and starch. He's in the "Jenny Craig" pasture (as she calls it) and it seems to be helping. He's also getting Grand Complete in his diet.

Thanks in advance! I'll pass on what everyone says to her :)

Attached Images

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Its either swayed or the horse has high whithers (in my own opinion). But feel free to second guess me, I stink at conformation.

well she wanted me to ask because she doesn't know. She has had problems with saddles sitting on the withers (Full Quarter Horse Bars...same size that she is using now)
He's a Paint (I think...can paints really be solid??) so normally they are bred to be downhill, right?

i worry alot that my 13 y/o quarterhorse has a swayed back. sometimes it looks fine, sometimes swayed, sometimes looks like its lacking muscle. a educated horse person told me about some excersise things you can do to stretch back muscles to bring it up. she said you can press both sides of his bum, like on each side of his tail, and use your knuckles to like need it, and if you find the right spot, he will raise his back and it helps strengthen their muscles. ive done it to my QH and he raises his back, and it seems to help. the hard part is finding the spot, but if you try several spots im sure youd find it

how interesting!
She does belly lifts with him as often as she can, and she's doing to start working on alot of transitions with him to get him to use his back more. The ground is too slippery to do any hill work, and she does have him go over jumps when the arena footing is safe

ive also heard transitions help lots, walk-trot, trot-walk, walk-canter, stuff like that. trottings wonderful too to help build muscle

looks like the beginnings of a swayback with no muscle AND high withers. Haha. Seriously I think it's a combo of all three.

How old is he? by the texture of his coat I wouldn't expect him to be classified as a senior yet. But IDK

He's 11.
Eventerdrew could you point out where you are seeing the point of sway back so I can let her know?

He does have high withers but he also has a weak back that is dropping.

He has dropped right behind the withers, which will make it hard for her to keep a proper saddle fit, unless she gets a relief pad.

The horse lacks tone and is out of shape but there is nothing else wrong. Horses that have "camel" withers tend to make the back appear swayed but this is not a true sway.

Horses built like this will have difficulty getting the right fit for a saddle ( and the reason I will never purchase one with this conformation). Belly lifts and even transitions will be useless unless there is a plan behind it and are done correctly. The horse needs to be ridden forward with a lower head carriage to do any good.