Am I just being paranoid....

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Tiger21

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Sorry if this ends up as an essay...I've had my boy for just under a year. He is 9 but fairly green for his age in terms of schooling as he was just used a fun horse in his last home. He has improved a lot but has a habit of pulling his head down in canter which I googled yesterday to find someone saying to consider kissing spine which I then looked into. He seems to have alot of the symptoms including very slight girthiness (since I got him and not every day but more often than not) hollowing through canter transitions and being stiffer on one rein. He was weak through his back when I got him which I attributed to his lack of work in general and being asked to work properly. Does anyone think there may be something more sinister or am I just reading in to things too much?
 
I'm lost in all of this. So many things here result in a response of "KS" that I've found myself questioning it and looking for symptoms where hopefully there are none.

See for me, head down in canter would suggest "woohoo here we go weeeeeeeee hope she's holding on because I'm going to buck!".

If he's been a happy hacker I don't think it's odd at all he's finding it hard work doing all this stuff.
 
I would have him checked but not worry at this stage. It could be down to so many other things. I would advise a check up, but also a good instructor to come out and assess him working as it may easily be just a teeny tweak needed to his schooling.
 
My pony pulls his head down and out in front of him after only a few strides of canter and then gets slower. We know he has a breathing issue that hasn't improved with fitness. Hes recently had a hard fall though and isn't sound following and bloods are wrong, hes being referred for a work up if no improvement on recheck on Monday. He doesn't have kissing spines.
 
Look up Klaus Schoneich - he has written a book called 'Straightening the crooked horse'. In his experience, all horses are either right or left limb dominant and find things harder therefore on their dominant rein. He has devised a system to correct and encourage 'straightness'. Its hard work and involves lungeing in a round pen for 3 - 4 weeks (I've made a make shift one) This work encourages flexion and bend. I've been doing it with my 8 yr old as I felt he was dropping his head to avoid the effort required to keep it up and was much harder to work on the right rein. I attended a Klaus clinic late September and now need to have my saddle changed as my boy's back is so much stronger and the muscles have improved. At the clinic, he said that a lot of back issues can be avoided if we create a straight horse. Good luck. They take us on a voyage of discovery doing they ;-)
 
Thank you so much for taking time to reply everyone - I have had such bad luck with horses the last few years I think I am now almost waiting for things to go wrong! I have regular instruction and they see and marked improvement in his way of going. We made a breakthrough on his stiff rein at my last lesson and as soon as he realised he could bend he was far looser in his movement and working through from behind. there are just the niggling few things that, as I said, seem to fall in line with the symptoms of back trouble but I suppose Rome wasn't built in a day and these things do take time to get right especially when it's a new way of going for him. Think I am going to get his back checked out by physio and go from there
 
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