Can you drive horses with kissing spine?

[Flame_]

I was just talking to someone the other day who has a KS horse. A nice horse but not ridable. Would anyone drive such a horse or is it asking for certain death?

I do carriage drive, all be it from the unconventional background of grooming for someone who went, "here, drive the ponies" without a great deal of instruction/preparation I also believe that driving is much scarier and more dangerous than riding in that when something goes wrong, it goes insanely, epically wrong and results in a big, fat, massive disaster, so you need particularly biddable horses, both to avoid disasters and to cope with them if they happen. Maybe I'm being a drama queen with this view, but it is the conclusion I've come to.

So does the unpredictability of KS horses make them too risky to try in harness or is it something that lots of people do successfully?

 

[Goldenstar]

Flame I don't know the answer to this but my first driving horse went off driving when he was seventeen it was the first symptom of him having KS funnily he hunted two seasons with the KS quite happily but the second season I had them medicated .
With him he just found the driving really hard work and wAs flat , he loved being ridden the area of damage was just under and immediately behind the driving saddle he was very diffficult to fit a driving saddle to ( I had one made in the end) the vet assumed this the cause wear and tear over the years he did horse driving trials and had a huge mileage.
Personally I would bother going to trouble and work and expense of breaking an impaired horse to drive although the back is not carrying a rider it's still working hard in the driving horse IMO it would not be worth it.
I totally aggree that the consequences of stuff going wrong is much worse when driving you have to manage risk really well and know your horse inside out.

 

[Flame_]

bump

Is no one going to say, "Yeah, drive it, it'll be fine....."?

ETA Thanks, I'd just given up on getting answers!

 

[Goldenstar]

I am a very slow typer

 

[xxMozlarxx]

Hi..it's not possible to say yes or no, entirely depends on the individual horse and exactly what causes them pain. For some it will be being saddled and ridden, for others, any work may cause a reaction, the reaction and severity of KS is not easily predicted.

 

[Wagtail]

Hi..it's not possible to say yes or no, entirely depends on the individual horse and exactly what causes them pain. For some it will be being saddled and ridden, for others, any work may cause a reaction, the reaction and severity of KS is not easily predicted.

I agree with this. I think that some horses would be fine being driven with even very severe kissing spine, so long as they are otherwise sound and able to work well on the lunge or long reins. However, there are some horses that have explosive and unpredicatable reactions due to shooting pains caused by trapped nerves. My horse is one of them. Before his op, he could not even bear to have a roller on with the pessoa or side reins. He would explode in a state of absolute panic. I dread to think what would happen if this happened under harness.

 

[Goldenstar]

I agree with this. I think that some horses would be fine being driven with even very severe kissing spine, so long as they are otherwise sound and able to work well on the lunge or long reins. However, there are some horses that have explosive and unpredicatable reactions due to shooting pains caused by trapped nerves. My horse is one of them. Before his op, he could not even bear to have a roller on with the pessoa or side reins. He would explode in a state of absolute panic. I dread to think what would happen if this happened under harness.

I don't think that lunging Long reining really replicate the load the horse back is under when it pulling a carriage,a horse is often pulling more than its body wieght and it's extremly hard work .

 

[Littlelegs]

Agree with Mozlar. I once broke a driving pony to ride after a shoulder injury forced it to retire from driving but was fine for most ridden work (under vets instructions). Was a dope on a rope type that made a lovely first (large) pony for a novice teen. So dependent on the horse I suppose in some circumstances it could work the other way. But not something I'd decide myself without medical input & guidance.