Would you buy a house that has had a successful kissing spine op

No,
I might loan her but I wouldn't buy her.
She would be unsuitable for a breeding prospect and virtually uninsurable.
 
Depends how much and if it can happen again.

Id give a horse with issues a home but I doubt Id purchase unless full facts and extremely good prognosis given

and then at a reduced price. Not sure that helps much
 
It really depends what you want to do? I used to ride an ex racer (Hidebound) who was the most amazing hack you could ever sit on! He had kissing spine but walked in hand for ten minutes before ridden work, he was a star. I rode him for a year and he was more than capable of hacking and the lower levels of dressage.
 
I sold a horse that later turned out to have kissing spine.The horse had the op nearly two years ago and while the owner is very careful since she took him novice last year and will go intermediate this year.
 
It depends on what you want the horse for, for light hacking or low level jumoing/ dressage - then maybe, but as long as is is doing this level now you are aware that there may well be complications. Bear in mind the insurance issue. \if you can get it insured there will be alot of exclusions and may prove pointless. Also, don't pay alot/anything for it! It's resale value would be minimal and no matter how tallented or how goods its breeding is you would not be able to breed from her. That said, there are horses that go on and on and on with such issues (e.g. 'mac''s horse), but you must be prepared for the fun to end at any given time.
 
No, there may be some learned behaviours from when she was in pain prior to diagnosis and during treatment that might be difficult to undo and have become habitual (eg., bucking/rearing during canter, biting etc) and may be dangerous and compromise rideability.

KS is a VERY, VERY painful disease. I wouldn't want to end up forking out 2k plus for another op either. She would have to be advertised as below £500 for me to risk knowingly buying a possible future problem, and think of the emotional heartache, should it reoccur.
 
With careful management I think she would still be capable of more than just light hacking and lower levels of dressage provided she didnt have other compensatory issues like SI strains etc. But you would need to be prepared to keep the horse in constant work to keep the topline and to have regular chiropractic treatments etc all of which will probably cost more than keeping a "normal" horse.

But I wouldnt buy one - there are plenty of horses without issues, and indeed horses that appear 100% sound and go on to develop issues so I wouldnt buy one that already had one.

If she ticks all the boxes for you, then find out who did the surgery and which and how many vertebrae were affected. It may have been just two and it may have been slight - that is completely different to 4 or 6 impingements.
 
My mare costs me £475 to insure post KS Op.

Have managed to get her back into work but then had a problem with her sacroilliac joint but she is not insured for anything related to the back pelvis neck and skull (she also had a fractured skull and needed reconstructive surgery the year before when kicked whilst eating) surgeon thinks the trauma of this injury was what caused KS as she showed no signs before the head injury of KS.

With the KS op I used all £5,000 of my vets fees plus an extra £3,000 for the additional injury to the sacroilliac. Also the fractured skull cost another £5,000 to have reconstructive surgery to her head the year prior.

Just as a tip if you do decide to go for this horse when you insure him make sure that the insurance company covers the cost for a scintigraphy scan as some dont and they are not cheap I was lucky mine did but since I have found a lot dont. PM if you want any further info.
 
Sorry maybe i have confused you all. I own her. She had her op 3 years ago and i have kept up regular physio treatment and she goes very well. THe vet who operated operated on horses that are now top eventers. She doesnt really have any bad habits if she isnt working hard enough and her mind is else where she might put a small buck in into the canter but thats it.

My work commitments mean i had to put her on loan, not she is coming back from loan and im thinking of selling instead but was wondering if you think anyone would buy her?
 
No, I wouldn't even consider it, sorry, and I have a history of buying cheap horses. For me to buy a horse that had a back operation, I would want to have seen it compete at a serious level with no problems for two years or more, with affiliated points to show for what it's done. And it would still have to be very cheap to compensate for the impossibility of insuring it properly.
 
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