Ask the Vet - Swayback in horses

In this excerpt from the April 2019 episode of Ask the Vet ( • Ask the Vet - Depressi... ) , SmartPaker Dan and Dr. Lydia Gray answer a viewer’s question about the causes of swayback in horses and how to prevent it from happening in the first place. Dr. Gray also explains which equine specialist you need to consult before riding a horse with swayback.
Additional reading/watching material:
Horse Health Library: www.smartpakeq...
Ask the Vet individual topics playlist: • Ask the Vet individual...
Ask the Vet blogs: blog.smartpakeq...
To see more from our Ask the Vet video series, you can check them out on the SmartPak blog ( www.smartpakeq... ), SmartPak's Horse Health Library ( www.smartpakeq... ), or on our Ask the Vet playlist ( • Ask the Vet individual... ).
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Happy learning and #haveagreatride.

[@stephanieromaynehebert3660]

I don’t care what anybody says, riding on a spine causes ligament damage. How much does a saddle weigh? Then add the heavy blanket then the weight of a full blown man sitting on a spine, any mammal would concave.

[@stephanieromaynehebert3660]

It's crazy that Don typed "brown" when I typed "blown" or does he go by the name El these days? Anyhoo I fixed it.

[@dshe8637]

Yes. If you don't ride a horse young and stick to the 20% rule, you won't get swayback. In US people ride 3 year old and heavily overload horses. I've never seen swayback in the UK.

[@LHLK-f9t]

so you know nothing, thank you

[@jillforster7490]

Thank you I was put down by some people about writing a sway back horse. This horse came to me from someone who had ridden her with a saddle and I never did she already had a slight sway. I weigh 117 lb and she's half arab and full of life or she was and love to run. She lived to be very ripe age and the veterinarian said she showed no sign of pain. My other horse at 33 had very little sway I had him since he was 9 months old. Either way thank you I know I didn't know how I'm riding my old horse even when she was younger without a saddle. She was a handful but I always enjoyed that part mostly we would walk but if she had the opportunity to run she would want to made me smile thank you for your explanation

[@LuckyFoxes789]

We had 1 horse for 23 years she was so pretty! She was my old sway back horse. Miss her.

[@stephanieromaynehebert3660]

I just looked up a bunch of photos of aging domestic horses and literally every single one had sway back. All of them, some worse than others. Thus it’s not a rare problem, it is a common problem and in fact, in the photos I saw it was an 100% inclusive problem.

[@dshe8637]

I've never seen it in UK. We don't ride young horses or overload them

[@LHLK-f9t]

look at more photos

[@natalya402]

My old man Buddy is in his late twenties, and his sway has improved for the year I've been working with him, it used to be way more sloping than it is now, it's much more shallow and normal looking. What other excersizes can I do to help with his sway?

[@allisonelmquist6540]

what have you been doing? I have an overweight horse with a swayback coming in I’m going to try to help correct the sway back and get her back to a normal weight

[@tianaw937]

I think a horse rounding its back and collecting has a bigger impact to horses with sway back than you mentioned (watch this video) kzbin.info/www/bejne/h53RZqWpZtGhbrM

[@KYurk]

How about giving your horses some minerals.

[@spicychickennugget5358]

1 view, 2 likes. Uh?