Hello, I’m new here and after reading some topics I decided to write about my experience with my Kissing Spine horse, hoping for some positivity and good advice in how to progress with our journey.
He’s a 15 years old Selle Francais, I got him in 2021, he was severely underweight and under muscled. Unfortunately due to my young age and inexperience I started to ride him right away, following the advice of my at the time instructor ( a scammer and generally bad person unfortunately ).
He’s always been a great horse, jumped well and everything you put in front of him, never refused and never did anything nasty. He’s also like the safest horse to ride in the world and has always been.
Fast forward a year later I changed barn and Instructor to a better one, he started living better and looking better at first it looked like it all came together.
I also switched to classical riding/dressage, finally learning how to work with him for his specific build and in a biomechanically correct way.
Unfortunately the more we progressed with the training to slightly more difficult things ( he did all the basic lateral work walk and trot, we were starting to prepare counter canter and lead changes and back to jumping small ) the more reactive he got. He never bucked and did anything dangerous but riding him felt like being on top of a ball of tension, and he was never like that.
I distinctly felt something was wrong so I got the vet out. The vet x-rayed his back and we found kissing spines. ( I’ll attach pictures )
That was quite a shock for me and I felt really guilty, I thought of how much pain he must have been in and how he still jumped and did everything. ( Jumped competitively up to 1.25 and at home up to 1.40 )
The vet decided to inject his back and I started to rehab from the saddle per his advice. I did very little much walk and working him long and low. Unfortunately I also started to feel he was not moving quite right so after a little I decided to stop riding him for a bit.
Got another vet out who diagnosed suspensory issues in the left front, treated that and he was still resting in the field.
After some other months and struggles ( horse was still lame, tried to go barefoot and he was even worse ) , I finally found the vet who follows me now she came out and did a full check up.
She found a very very minor SFT tear and nothing else, about the kissing spine she said it wasn’t his main problem in her opinion.
Fast forward to now, more than six months later, the horse hasn’t been ridden in over a year. In the meantime I focused on in hand work and rehab of his posture and he looks much better in his body ( top line improved even though I’d like it a bit fuller but he needs more work for that ), he’s pretty sound at the moment even though I don’t think he moves perfectly and I don’t know if he ever will.
In the next months I would like to get a saddle fitter out and find a suitable saddle for him to try and get back in the saddle since the vet has strongly advised to start working him under saddle and see how he progresses.
Now my questions may sound overly dramatic or overly anxious but I try my best to do him right and I continuously ask myself if I’m doing so.
For the people that have experience with kissing spines horses: how do they manifest that they’re uncomfortable in their daily life? I try to watch him very closely to spot discomfort but sometimes I think I’m going crazy.
I would also like advice on conservative type of treatments and how and when you typically start adopting them ( before you see discomfort as prevention or after ? )
Rehab advice especially in hand exercises would also be much appreciated!!
In general I received mixed opinions on his x-rays but I know it’s not exactly at the early stages and it’s very wide spread ( goes from behind the withers to the lumbar portion of the spine ), but in his daily life he looks pretty happy to me. He moves, he runs, he does his groundwork and I’ve hopped on him a couple times bareback ( for like 5 mins max just to play I’d never actually ride him without a saddle ) and he was happy to walk around and has been very chill.
Is it possible that he doesn’t actually feel that much pain? Or is he just used to it at this point?
I know it varies wildly but I’d like all the advice and opinions just to have a broader view, all I want is being able to keep him comfortable for many years even when he’s old. Riding him once a week or once in a while would be such a nice thing for me but it’s not the end of the world if he isn’t comfortable doing so.
Sorry for the loooong post, there’s actually so much more information I left out, on his feet and all that and I’ll happily tell more if it helps.
(Also english is not my first language so I hope I haven’t said anything too wrong!)
Thank you to whoever will reply!!
