Kissing spine x ray

[myheartinahoofbeat]

After some advice please.what would you do?
Horse has no symptoms, sound and happy and is showjumping successfully at 1.20.
X-rays available and horse has two processes touching and some remodelling. These x-rays were done a year ago by owner for a sale. Has anyone got any experience of this becoming a problem or does it mean if it is not affected by the kissing spines now it will never be?

 

[sbloom]

Absolutely no hard and fast answers, xrays don't correlate with symptoms, statistically so I would concentrate on healthy movement and posture as the baseline of everything you do to help keep his back healthy. This isn't just "regular work", so much of which compresses the base of the neck and doesn't actually have the horse pushing up in front. If you search "posture" in here you'll find a ton of posts most of which I bang on at some length about it.

You absolutely can't say that there will never be symptoms, but that's true of any horse. Remodelling I would imagine makes problems down the line more likely but I would seek expert veterinary opinion especially if money is changing hands and commitments made.

 

[Goldenstar]

Horses are very adept at hiding KS.
I think thing that most of these horses show is a lack of fluency and ease when they leg yield.
I know from experience that if you take on an older horse if the leg yield is sticky you need to consider KS .
Then you have to decide what to about it that’s the hard bit .
I think doing rehab for KS type work is good for all horses and I certainly would be working it into the programme for the horse you describe.
My horse has had a KS Op he’s an ID and the very large bony processes they makes it be considered congenial.
His symptom was only a less than spectacular leg yield and poor ability to extend for his type of course.
I had his back xrayed on a hunch .
He had two processes reshaped and three ligament snips .
He had a very slow and steady return to work I no expectations but he’s now so much better it was holding him back .
I have not trained him on any further but he’s happy doing everything he knew before the op .

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Absolutely no hard and fast answers, xrays don't correlate with symptoms, statistically so I would concentrate on healthy movement and posture as the baseline of everything you do to help keep his back healthy. This isn't just "regular work", so much of which compresses the base of the neck and doesn't actually have the horse pushing up in front. If you search "posture" in here you'll find a ton of posts most of which I bang on at some length about it.

You absolutely can't say that there will never be symptoms, but that's true of any horse. Remodelling I would imagine makes problems down the line more likely but I would seek expert veterinary opinion especially if money is changing hands and commitments made.

Thank you. This is what I have concluded too. The vet has said the horse would need to be kept pretty fit and muscled to help his back stay in good shape.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Horses are very adept at hiding KS.
I think thing that most of these horses show is a lack of fluency and ease when they leg yield.
I know from experience that if you take on an older horse if the leg yield is sticky you need to consider KS .
Then you have to decide what to about it that’s the hard bit .
I think doing rehab for KS type work is good for all horses and I certainly would be working it into the programme for the horse you describe.
My horse has had a KS Op he’s an ID and the very large bony processes they makes it be considered congenial.
His symptom was only a less than spectacular leg yield and poor ability to extend for his type of course.
I had his back xrayed on a hunch .
He had two processes reshaped and three ligament snips .
He had a very slow and steady return to work I no expectations but he’s now so much better it was holding him back .
I have not trained him on any further but he’s happy doing everything he knew before the op .

Apparently the horse has never liked being lunged which is a bit of a red flag for me but the vet said not necessarily.Thanks for your answer. I didn’t leg yield the horse but what you have said is very interesting and informative

 

[sbloom]

Thank you. This is what I have concluded too. The vet has said the horse would need to be kept pretty fit and muscled to help his back stay in good shape.

I think this is true of any horse that has obvious back issues such as KS, whether symptoms or just radiographic changes. And all horses benefit from the kind of postural work I suggest, have a look at equitopiacenter.com, they have a ton of good content, but there's a great free group on FB called Slow Walk Work with very gentle work which would be contraindicated for very few horses, but can help to gently isolate/reveal whether there are hidden issues etc.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I think this is true of any horse that has obvious back issues such as KS, whether symptoms or just radiographic changes. And all horses benefit from the kind of postural work I suggest, have a look at equitopiacenter.com, they have a ton of good content, but there's a great free group on FB called Slow Walk Work with very gentle work which would be contraindicated for very few horses, but can help to gently isolate/reveal whether there are hidden issues etc.

Thanks for your reply. I’ve decided not to proceed with this horse. It’s too much of a red flag