# What to do for my 3 yr old swayback arabian?



## olivjea (Mar 13, 2012)

Hello everyone!
I just joined the horseforum after reading what you all have to say about swayedback horses. I bought a 2 1/2 year old pure Egyptian Arabian last August. He was at least 100 lbs under weight, & never really handled. At the barn I am at now, we fed him a lot of hay & nothing changed. The previous owner said that she wormed him before him arriving where he is at now. We were skeptical about that so after a week we wormed him again & put him on a daily wormer. All of which worked & he got nice a plump belly. But his back is very low & now at 3 years old I am hopeful that I can do something so it gets better for his future. The previous owner sold him to me cheap because of his back, so he was no good for her. 
I believe because of the worms for a long period uncared for & poor nourishment caused his back to sway. It doesn't hurt him at all. I stretch him almost everyday. I lunge him in the round pen. He has a great 12:12 multi vitamin, has hay all day, a big scoop of grain in the am & pm, I also cut 2 apples, carrots, oatmeal oats, celery, molasses (when he isn't to hot) & 1/2 a scoop of weight gain daily. In the summer he is in pasture with a bail of hay every day also ( I live in WI). 
I just have a hunch that the low back came from poor care & health. He was so shy no one could touch him at all, nor approach him, or catch him. From August until now it has been a long on & off journey but so far he has made an incredible turn around. The owner herself & other boarders are still in aw of how much Tucker has changed. He is my baby, I love him very much. He learns so fast, obedient, strong, & grew an amazing personality! 
I am wondering from anyone what other exercises I can do with him. I have a hunch that throwing in alfalfa pellets into his diet can help with his coming development. Any other thoughts?

Thank you!


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

This is probably a genetic sway back. Have a Vet evaluate him to see if they would recommend a persons weight on his back. I have seen a few SE Arabians with sway backs. I am not an expert on this. I have a mare I rescued from breeding that is extremely sway back and she is never bred and not ridden and she is unsafe, unstable from her sway back. Good luck with your colt.


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## attackships (Jan 12, 2012)

do you happen to have any pictures? the poor nutrition could have contributed to a weak back. 

Many horses can have a slight swayback that can be easily helped by proper exercise and muscling. my mare is a saddlebred/arabian and she was not worked for a few years before i started working with her. She has a slight swayback but i got a saddle and saddle pad that fit well on her and it never caused her pain. I started working with her slowly, just light riding and building muscle. The difference in her back now is amazing, I don't think anyone could notice that she ever had a dish in her back.


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## olivjea (Mar 13, 2012)

I have checked his background and linage through his papers, and he is the only one to come out with a sway back. He is reaching 16+ hands but you could never tell by his back. When I first got him I had him gelded, and the vet said nothing. Didn't faze him. But I am going to have him looked at again this month for a second look, so thank you stevenson.

Pictures! I do from our Christmas photo shoot 








AUGUST. (When I 1st got him.)







SEPTEMBER.







DECEMBER.


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## Misty'sGirl (Oct 22, 2007)

He has a lovely kind face, very handsome. I'm afraid I'm no help with the swayback but just wanted to say I think he's lovely


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## herdbound (Aug 30, 2010)

Here is a very informative piece on Lordosis and I would say that your horse is effected by the juvenile form brought on by the vertebre lesion 

Lordosis


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

I'd guess that swayback in a horse that young is due to genetics; it's very probable that the breeder(s) did have other offspring in his recent "family tree" with the same problem, but weren't registered if they were showing signs of it very early on. Non-genetic lordosis is associated with a slackening of the soft tissue around the spine, which wouldn't be caused by malnutrition unless there was some other disease at play. 

Some malnourished horses may appear to have a slight swayback at the time of rescue, but it "disappears" when they put weight and muscle back on. That doesn't seem to be the case with your guy, as he is looking pretty healthy. 

My understanding is that swayback isn't painful for the horse, and most can be ridden, but the challenge becomes finding a saddle that will fit them.


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## furbabymum (Dec 28, 2011)

That is your December? *pout* Life can be so unfair!


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

1/ The pics aren't great so I'm hesitant to say much about a sway back
2/ He's only 3 and still growing. 
3/ He still looks like he needs a bunch of weight, especially to fill out his topline.
4/ Since he's still only 3 and you haven't had him that long, I'd not worry too much about his back until he's 5 or 6 and obviously not growing anymore before I'd get too concerned. 

My stallion who is very level across his topline, went up and down like a yo-yo as a youngster and sometimes was SO butt high that he looked a lot like your horse. In time, it all leveled out. 










Here he is 4 y.o. and still growing but leveling out. There were times at 2 & 3 that I wanted to hide him behind the barn and pretend I didn't know who he was, he looked so gawd awful.









He's about 8 months old here, just before he went to Scottsdale as a yearling. About 2 weeks after this pic was taken he went so butt high I thought we were going to have to scratch him from the show.


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## Thyme (Sep 4, 2010)

I would look up Hill Therapy I have never used it but it really helped my friends saddlebred
Also trotting poles
And jumping rounded over barrels (but your guy is kinda young for lots of jumping)

I am not familiar with Parelli this is the first site I found about the hill therapy
Want to Get Your Horse in Shape? Try Parelli Fluidity-Hill Therapy | MyHorse Daily – MyHorse Daily

he is a very handsome boy good luck with him!

<3


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## franknbeans (Jun 7, 2007)

I would definitely ask the vet, but I would also have him seen by a chiro. We have one locally who is great, and she always has some exercises that can help build muscle. While it may not eliminate it, of indeed he IS swayback, it won;t hurt, and very well may help. I recall one being a belly scratch. There is a spot under the horses belly near the umbilicus, that, if you "scratch it" hard enough you can see then raise their back. You scratch and hold several times a day to help build the muscle. I think there were a couple more, but I do not remember them......anyway-that would be my suggestion. At the very least you feel like you are doing something while he grows, and will hopefully grow out of it!


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## soenjer55 (Dec 4, 2011)

Hm. You said that the vet didn't even mention it when he saw him, but I would call the vet to see him anyway. And, like franknbeans said, a chiropractor. 
And I love his face, so pretty!!


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## Big Black Crow (Feb 29, 2012)

He's got lordosis. Not too bad but enough that you will have to work at saddle fit.

Working him long stride with lower headset will develop the muscles. He's not going to grow out it. It is genetic and it causes some of the vertabrae to be triangular not squared which caused the drop in the back. If you have concerns as to the strength, the vet can xray to confirm he's good to go.

I had a much worse saddlebred that with careful conditioning and saddle fit, was actually one of my better show horses. 

Actually saddle horse people call it a soft back....


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## yadlim (Feb 2, 2012)

I have not read all of this thread, so I don't know if someone has already brought this up or not. Although sway back can be genetic, is it also nutritional. If he did not get the right nutrition when he was little little, it will cause a sway back. I used to work with a rescue that actually started actively picking up horses who had this kind of sway back and breaking them to harness so they could have a productive life - but some of those colts were 20 times worse than your boy. 

I also knew a person (not goign to call her a friend) who didn't think anything of poor nutrition for her mare in foal, of poor nutrition for the foal, or startign the filly under saddle at 18 months old. Needless to say this filly had severe sway. Eventually I convinced her to part with the filly at about seven or eight years of age. By this time, constant malnutrition had dropped her back almost a foot - and she rode that horse hard too.

I worked with the people who got the mare on techniques for stregthing her back. The first step was better nutrition and putting 300 pounds of weight on her. That whole time, they did TTouch exercises to get the mare to lift and round her back. You do this my digging your fingernails into the centerline of the belly. It is not a good sensation and the horse moves away from it, lifting and rounding thier back. Please do a search to find out exactly how to to this, as I have only done it a couple of times. 

Anyway, it took about a year and a half but they brought that mare's back almost streight! For the first time she could wear a western saddle. It is possible to do a lot towards 'fixing' a sway - though his back may never be as stong as it should have been.

I hope this helps. He is beautiful and very lucky that he found you. Pleaes give him a hug for me!


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## WSArabians (Apr 14, 2008)

Most of the horses I've seen like this have been SE, but not always. 
I know a few boys like this that are making endurance and great riding mounts. 
As he matures he may round out and fill in there some. Three is still an awkward age for Arabians with the amount of maturing they have yet to do. 
Don't give up on your guy yet!


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## BlueSpark (Feb 22, 2012)

you have some great sugestions here, I cant help but mention, "hill therapy" has been used for many years by all sorts of people to strenthen the hind end and back. Just now parelli has magicaly 'discovered' it. urg. Any how, we had a paint filly that was similar looking, was geneticly caused, but the vet said she was strong and as long as the saddle fits properly she could be started and ridden like any other horse.


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## Thyme (Sep 4, 2010)

Yea a guess for the same reasons as the hill therapy I would take your boy out on some hikes. We had a sway back gelding that we trail rode over the summer, we constantly had to climb steep hills to get up the mountain by the end of the summer we no longer needed the correctional pad.


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## ocanada (Mar 24, 2012)

I agree with what several others have said - it appears to be the genetic form of lordosis. I have a thoroughbred gelding with the same condition, and I researched it extensively when I got him. He raced and then showed in the A circuit hunters for a number of years before i retired him last year at 14 (due to sesamoiditis from racing injuries, not because of his back). He had zero health problems related to his back. Saddle fit was a challenge but other than that he was perfectly fine. You can help develop his topline with the exercises mentioned earlier in the thread like you would do with any horse, and this will make the dip less prominent as muscle develops. It looks a little odd but that's it. I would encourage you to introduce him to different disciplines just as you would any 3 year old, and see what suits him best. Along the way you'll encounter knowitalls who will insist that he is an invalid and you are being a meanie to make him work, but it's nonsense. I had multiple very good vets examine my horse over the years for this and that, and his back was a total non-issue. They just note it in the file and say it's cosmetic. His dip is more pronounced now that he is not working and has lost topline muscle, but the picture below shows him in show condition.

Best of luck with yours! good for you for taking him on 

Here's mine at age 9:


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