How to get your horse that perfect topline!

Your horse’s topline and overall muscle development play a critical role in how your horse performs his or her daily tasks. Horses with toplines that are sunken in over their withers, concave along the back and loin or dished in around their hip bones and hindquarters cannot perform at their best.

Developing muscle requires more than fat and feed grains

For years, horses have been supplemented with fat and feed grains (calories) in an effort to correct deficient toplines. This practice has provided only limited success. The reasons are simple. Calories, in the form of grains or fats, provide the fuel for horses to perform. When too many calories are consumed, excess fat is deposited behind the shoulders, over the ribs and neck and around the tail head, not over the topline. Using humans as an example, imagine eating jelly donuts (calories) in an effort to develop the muscles over your back and shoulders.

Exercise is also attributed to improving a horse’s topline. While exercise will condition and define the existing muscles on the topline, it has very little to do with “building” the topline area. Once an adequate topline has been built, the ability of the horse to perform may be determined by how well he is conditioned through exercise.

Building the perfect topline is actually quite simple

Horses require specific nutritional “building blocks” to develop a perfect topline. These building blocks are called amino acids, and are an essential part of their diet. Some of these amino acids include: lysine, methionine, tryptophan and threonine. These and other essential amino acids are linked together in the body to form muscle. Diets containing adequate levels of all the essential amino acids can drastically improve an imperfect topline. Through exercise and conditioning, the perfect topline can enhance the level of performance a horse may achieve.

Essential amino acids can be added individually or are in specific ingredients, such as soybean meal and milk products. These primary sources of essential amino acids are commonly used throughout the world for humans and for horses. The addition of even small amounts of essential amino acids from soybeans or milk will pay huge dividends in building the perfect topline.

A horse needs the optimum balance of essential amino acids

Progressive Nutrition’s research and development team has identified the optimum balance of essential amino acids required to provide your horse with the perfect topline. This technology is incorporated into all of the Progressive Nutrition feeds and supplements.