Building up muscle? help please...

Ok so as you all probably know, I have a TB mare who needs weight and muscle. Does anyone know any exercises or things I can do to build muscle and have fun at the same time? Thanks!

Well im not sure about the fun aspect lol but a lot of trot work, some poles and uphill running are good. Trot work in sand is the best but any surface will do the trick :)

Once your horse has gained enough weight, jumping also helps to build muscle especially in the hindquarters.

Where I ride we do the same thing with all our horses whether it's the fat old kid's pony to the high-strung soon to be racehorse.... we canter/gallop them up a hill that's long but not too steep and has a good nice slant. They get inshape and it's tons of fun!!

Thanks! The weather is so crappy here so I really can't do anything as of now. I did manage to lunge her tho for about 1 hr and boy was she tired. (she hasn't been worked in about a yr, and was abused)i give her credit though, she's pretty good under saddle besides wanting to trot the whole time. Lol!

Just make sure that galloping around is minimal when you are trying to boost weight. Take it slowly with her otherwise you will keep having trouble getting the weight on

Well im a beginner rider so I really can only walk/trot over ground poles so when I want to do other then that I just lunge her.

i mean no offence here but lunging her for an hour is not really a good idea. Firstly, lunging is stressful on the joints so that long could cause her discomfort especially if she hasnt been ridden in so long

Then there is the whole dizziness thing. Im not sure the details but I've heard/read somewhere about not keeping them going too long on the lunge because of dizziness.

And finallly, because she is just coming back into work and isnt holding enough weight, I would suggest starting her off just with 5-10 minutes and slowly increase to no more than 20 minutes a day.

I was walking around with her too not just lunging her the hole time. And I didnt meen to put an hour [lol it felt like it] it probably was nomore then 30 mins. I was running around with her just lightly lunging her over jumps to see how she could do since she hasnt been jumped in god knows how long and when I did lunge her I tried to walk her but she just trotted the hole time.

Oh, sorry didn't see the weight gain.... Not used to that problem really around here because eveyone's horses are TOO FAT! Normally we just feed them grass hay, but sometimes we add some grain depending on the horse. We did have one horse come in after being neglected at a former trainer and we fed her more grain and trotted a lot to build muscle but I know trotting can be boring....... I agree with jazzyrider on lunging though, it's really bad on their joints, and the horses get bored of it too.... I only use it as a warm-up....... I think that another way to exercise and have fun would to go on a long trail ride..... as long as it's safe.... we have a state park with lots of hills that I think I might go ride sometime

Well I had the same problem about 2 years ago with my horse...
1. We put her on a weight gaining supplement
2. We gave her free choice hay 24/7
3. We used a bungee system and walked/trotted for about a month working on turning and balancing.
4. Then we added a balanced canter to build her butt muscle..

It worked wonders..You just have to have patience it is always easier to take weight off then it is to put it on...