Oh I see! Little slow on the uptake here sometimes 
Following this interesting conversation. I love flip flop pads, here is a pic of them on my horse, if that helps you visualize:
Farrier cuts the shoe in half, making sure you get the correct match between shoe & pad thickness. These pads work really well for horses who need heel support & who need that pressure distributed across a wider surface. In my case, I was using them on a horse whose feet were too crappy to be barefoot but he really needed to spread out heels, but he was also very sensitive to heel pressure. He loved those pads.
I have one I got in Oct who has low heels behind that weāre working on. Heās barefoot currently - itās hard for me to be patient bc I know he needs more heel, but I get equally nervous thinking about alternatives which may not actually help. Itās such a delicate dance bc my brain just wants it fixed NOW & doesnāt care that that is never how horse feet work!
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Now Iāve always wondered ā how do these do in the snow?
Good question! Iād have to look at records to be sure, but I think we had a snow or two (northern NC, so snow happens but doesnāt usually stay more than a day or so). I did not notice any loss of traction with them in generally wet conditions, compared to any other shoe (I ride in my field, on grass, so footing can be variable, but I donāt ride in snow bc Iām usually inside with my head under a blanket whinging about it, lol). I did have my farrier cut out the sole hole a bit, both for my cleaning access & bc I read somewhere that improves traction. They were hard to cut, we both agreed they were the toughest pads we had ever encountered!
I donāt remember having snowball issues with them (which DOES happen with the Equiflex I posted in another thread, unless I have the pour-in pads on), but that also might have been a pretty mild winter snow-wise, so not a lot of data.
Since we are discussing KS, and options/management outside of surgery, will folks please chime in on physical therapy that has worked for their horse? What did you do, for how long, etc.?
Iām kind ofā¦ deer in the headlights I guess, with my mares dx. I PPEād her quite thoroughly, and her spine was clear. Now itās not, and on top of that itās behind the saddle, not under it, which is a lot less common. The entire time Iāve had her, Iāve worked diligently to ride correctly, teach her to carry herself, hoof angles, etc etc etcā¦ and Iāve gone very slowly. All the things youāre āsupposedā to do. Yet here we are.
I ordered a (knock off) Pessoa, and the EquiCore. This is our second week of use.
Thoughts anyone? Ideas?
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Donāt beat yourself up over it.
I know this is thrown all over FB about KS being caused by āincorrect ridingā, but Iāve seen it now in so many young horses who havenāt even started a career yet, that Iām firmly in the camp itās genetic. I imagine certain environmental factors hasten it.
Can maresy be outside 24/7, I missed if that was a possibility with you. I know this is hard for most people in the US. It does make a huge difference in their back comfort if they can be moving around versus standing.
I donāt lunge my KS horse outside of occasional sessions to see how heās moving. I noticed he is most tense on the lunge, so I donāt do it often- this might just be a him quirk and not germane to most KS cases.
I try to avoid back-to-back dressage sessions. He will do them ā and he has never been naughty ā but I donāt think he progresses as well in back-to-back sessions as he does in single sessions. We would be further along in his dressage training if I seriously put him to work, but my priority is his comfort over anything else. I keep dressage sessions short - 20-40m usually - and spend a lot more time out of the ring.
Poles have been very good for this horse. Iāve tried a ton of different configurations but have settled on a permanent pattern of six raised poles in a row on the quarterline. He is walked over them about twenty times a session - any time we are on a walk break, etc. Walk and trot poles have helped increase his elasticity and rhythm, so theyāre permanent fixtures in my ring.
We mostly hack with a lot of hill work. We logged 1400 miles on trails with the EquiApp last summer and that was only on the rides I remembered to turn the app on. Most of the time it is walking, but there are spots I will do stretches of trots or canters.
My chiropractor gave us a list of stretches. I still do all of them except the tummy tuck - YMMV, I just didnāt see much of a difference and he took it so personally.
- carrot stretches 3x, 3 reps: to chest, to shoulder, to point of hip. This exercise, it is really easy to see what side the horse favors/what is hard for them
- tongue pull - this one is weird, but he does that fluttery sigh after so he must like it
- stifle/hock stretch - pull hind hoof up to belly, rotate for 10s to right and 10s to left
I had to put hind shoes on this one. He grows great hooves, but he was trying to protect his back by standing under himself.
Staying on top of the feet, which you probably already know, is my #1 suggestion for the KS horses. My horseās feet are far from perfect, but I notice he gets symptomatic and is at his worst once his hind feet get out of balance.
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I had one, changes in last few lumbar vertebrae (same ones I do, ha), only about a teeeeeny space between them. He did very well with annual injections and correct, strong topline work (I donāt personally believe in the Pessoa things, but I do love Vienna reins & long lines). I donāt stall my horses, so he could move as much as he wanted. I evented him up to Training.
I did a lot of research on it at the time. āKissing spinesā is really just a diagnostic bucket that gets all manner of arthritic changes thrown in there. I wouldnāt feel guilty if I were you- there were some studies that hypothesized that the majority of ridden horses have some type of spinal changes (unsurprising, we sit on their back) but, just like in human spinal research (where it is also the case that many people have changes but are not symptomatic) , there is no correlation between radiograph images & how the creature feels or performs. Some can look terrible on films & do fine & vice versa. So itās really just managing the horse in front of you & using what works for them.
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Thank you beowulf. Turnout, at this time is certainly not ideal. My boarding barn sold in October. There, she had full day every day and summers 24/7 on large grass paddocks - think big enough to really run and romp. Now, she has 24/7 run. Itās large, she can certainly run in it, but thereās no grass and her inclination is to stand around. Sheās not moving nearly enough, and itās killing me because there is not a damn thing I can do about it.
Lungeing, she is good about, and she does much better if I do that first. If I leave off any sort of āstuffā she will do a lot of stretching all on her own. BUT. The biggie is that transitions upwards especially result in throwing the head up, no matter how well she is going forward. Teaching her to step INTO the transition rather than throw herself into it has beenā¦ an ongoing issue. This is true under saddle also, and always has been.
Polesā¦ yes. Last week my trainer set up some walk poles for us, with specific instructions how she wants us to ride them. Was interesting that miss maresy could do the first 2 fine but the last 2 she wanted to avoid. Didnāt want to stay engaged long enough to 4 poles. Hmm.
With weather finally drying up I am planning some trail walks. Thereās nowhere to walk near my barn, so I will have to haul out for this.
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Another good exercise is correctly backing your horse in hand. No forcing them back, no running, no head in the air. The head should be centered and wither level or slightly below and they should be lifting the back and transferring weight to the hind quarters. Deliberate, slow diagonal steps in a straight line with minimal/no pressure on halter/bridle. You want them soft through the neck with the nose coming back towards the vertical. It can be harder than you think and you may only get 2-3 good steps at first. Make sure you donāt force it and reward with forward movement when youāve gotten a good response.
I did quite a bit of backing with my KS horse and always knew when it was correct because he would drop when that exercise or others made him feel good. 
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My mare is the same and has her issues behind where the saddle sits. I got her back xrayed a year and a half ago and the vet said it all looked normal, now a new vet looked at the same xrays and was like uhhh no.
After that my mare got an injection in her back and a round of shockwave to kickstart her comfort so she can proceed with the āphysioā properly. The vet sent me a 6 week program she called Operation Topline. Itās a lot of work in a Pessoa or similar system, some of it even just in hand. Walk/trot poles and leg yielding are important. No canter work til week 5, and she doesnāt want me even trying to ride until end of week 6. She also recommends the stabilization pads (like Surefoot) and wants my mare standing on them to do stretches (belly lift, butt tuck, neck bending, etc).
To be honest I am not super optimistic lol this horse has been miserable under saddle for years, but hopefully the injection and the shockwave make a difference in this process as I HAVE tried to take things low and slow with her in the past.
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Another piece I wanted to add - if a horse has had back pain/discomfort for a while (I suspect mine had but it didnāt really show until work demand increased), you also have to work through their mental habit of anticipating things hurting. So donāt get discouraged if they still exhibit resistance after you feel you have addressed the source of discomfort. Just like us, they develop those compensation habits & muscles & it can take a long time (months) to retrain them. You would think we would all be patience experts already as horse owners, but itās still so hard, at least for me, to let that process take as long as it takes. Those back muscles are huge & are integral to their movement, so it just takes time.
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