Building up the hindquarters

[spotti]

Just had the chiro out for Faith and after a little adjustment to her pelvis, she said she was fine. The chiro said that we could do with really building up her hindquarters though to stop her pelvis from moving from where it should be.

Now I know the basic ideas for building up muscles - start off gently, increase workload by a few minutes at a time, add speed gradually, then work up and down hills, play about with circles etc - but what I'd like to know is 'are there any specific exercises that would be beneficial here?'. Faith is pretty much a clean slate so I'm willing to give anything a go.

Any ideas?

[yann]

That's great news, I suspect you were expecting a lot worse! My advice would just be to get the pair of you out and about, the hacking round our way is perfect for building strong bottoms and backs. I'd also wouldn't underestimate the level of basic fitness they build up just roaming around in that field so I doubt you're actually starting from zero there.

[fleabitten]

What yann said!! Thats great news.

Loads of hacking!

I was reading in a mag a few weeks ago (YH i think) about exercises to build muscle:

Walking downhill, halting every few strides
Marching briskly uphill
Carrot stretches
Polework

[brigadier]

Work long and low walking up hills, get out of saddle and really free up their back end so they can power up- works every time!

[scattymare]

Yup, hills hills and more hills. I recently started working Ed up and down the field hill and can really see the difference -hacking is a bit flat for us

[spotti]

We have lots of hills near us so that's ok. Faith is generally quite good at going up hills - she tends to lower her neck and power up the hill all by herself...something we'll have to work on is letting me be in a light seat without her going faster (yep, she's that sensitive that any lifting of my weight and she goes faster ).

Thanks for all your help