I propose survey radiographs to establish what is indicated, be that surgery, medical management or something different totally. Then, should it be established that surgery is the only option an informed descision can be made.
I blame the breeders and whole industry actually, many of these...
Your horse, your money, your choice. I just hope some people reading this will think twice about taking on an Ex-racer if they don't want to deal with KS and poor feet. Horses (and humans!) are usually totally different out of spinal pain than in it.
Step 1- get it off the leg. It's already warned up and you don't have long so don't waste a lap walking around, gallop if you need to (it might seem an aggressive warm up technique but if you don't the other teams will!) and keep revving it up until you are getting walk- canters easily. If...
3 months after a hard summer, one day per overnight stay during the season. If not in hard work then they dont really need it so my riding horse just gets natural breaks (ridden approx 4 times per week, when not too busy).
My Welsh D is top and my Partbred somewhere near the bottom, though in smaller herds he will take the lead if needed. He's quite submissive to physically bigger horses, and never really aggressive to smaller. Our herd is 5 geldings, a Shetland who is the bottom, 2x 13.3 MWs and a massive 14.1 HW...
Equally if she is under 148 that rules out cob showing for her....(including working cob class). Realistically the cobs doing well are over 15hh. Knowing what bracket she falls into will help :)
Our 14.1 HW also takes 16 stone easily- 20% is over 18 stone and 15% is about 14. My 13.3 NF build pony takes 11.5 stone + tack all day, plus some when I've not been too careful.