kissing spine

[3kidslou]

I posted last week about my horse being strong and bolting in canter. Anyway i had my suspicions about her back and i managed to get in touch with an old owner. (ive had joy a yr). She told me that joy had been retired. She had started bolting on rides - one which resulted in a bad acicident. The vet suspected kissing spine. She was GIVEN to the stud i brought her from as a brood mare never to be ridden again!.
Im gutted just goes to show you cant trust anybody, theses people seemed like such professional people and they ran a stud. They did bsja with poor joy!. Not sure what im going to do now, im at a total loss. I considered having vet out, think she would be ok as a light hack but with kissing spine horses can go from being really calm to explosive and i cant risk it. Going to have her back looked at by a lady i know, but other than that im at loss really xx

[DolomitesDonkey]

OMG I'm so sorry. People are horrible, dishonest wankers. I'm so sorry you've been left in this position. I lost my mare last year and she was much too young so I know some of the heartache you must be feeling.

[50BalesOfHay]

How dreadful to give a mare with a bad back as a broodmare. The stud then selling is beyond appalling. I think you need the vet and xrays to see what you're dealing with before you take any decisions.

[mrslaughan]

I think frosty's horse has kissing spines - I may have that wrong , but I am sure a regular on here has a horse with this..... Hopefully whoever it is will be along soon to offer some advice.

Absolutely crap situation - shows how crap so many people in the horse world are.

[DENMAN03]

I had a horse with kissing spines. It was treatable with surgery although you will need deep pockets or a good insurance policy. It cost around £7000 but she was completely fine after that and went back eventing to BE Novice level and would have gone further had she not sustained a different injury. I can recommend Rossdales at Newmarket..they did an amazing job and you would never know she had the surgery; there was no scar at all.

Good luck and dont give up on Joy.

[DolomitesDonkey]

How the hell can people live with themselves when they sell on a horse in pain or with problems - knowing that it will be ridden again?

When I was doing all my research last year I was horrified by the tales of people sticking them on bute or HA injections when being sold.

How could you possibly sell an animal in pain? :(

[3kidslou]

I no its so frustrating and theres absolutly nothing i can do about it. Think im going to retire her. Shes 18 so going down the surgery path is not something i want to do. i feel so pissed off with the people that sold her to me. Ive now got the responsibility of a retired horse. I love her to bits and enjoy looking after her but its just so disappointing. Its sad because i hear so many storys of miss sold horses, its all about money with no thought about the poor horses.!

[Pixel]

Some people have no conscience at all do they .

[EggsitPursuedByAChocolateBunny]

That is just appalling.

This is why I still have my mare despite not having ridden her since a bad fall 6 years ago. I would rather she was retired and happy than sold round the bloody circuit time and again.

Have you got in touch with the people who sold her to you?

Bastards.

[Pixel]

I'm not normally one for saying "sue the bastards" but surely there'd be a case here if it could be proved about the accident and subsequent retirement for safety reasons. I suppose there would have to be proof that the vendors knew all about it when they accepted the horse for breeding purposes.

[horsemadmom]

I had the most terrifying ride of my life on a horse with kissing spines. One minute he was a dope on a rope and the next I was being bronked around the school in a way that said 'GET OFF NOW!'. No warning at all. Very lucky to have a superglue bum. I do know a horse that was treated successfully and is as safe as they come.
If you bought a horse that was not as described, you do have recourse.Look on Epona Stars for advice.

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

This is why I wouldnt pass on a retired horse. If I couldnt keep it Id shoot it.

[Wolfiefan]

Another reason why my sister would never let her boy go. (He has a plethora of problems!)
Complete novice here but doesn't kissing spine vary hugely in severity? (If not then sorry.)

[Booboostoo]

What a shame! That is incredibly irresponsible of the stud that sold her to you but sadly all too common a story.

You can try steroid injections, although on the whole they tend to have short term effects (6 months). Cotts vet practice now do a new version of the operation that is done standing up and has a much shorted box rest period (4 weeks) with walking in hand from the start so perhaps a lot less stress overall. There are loads of details about it on their website. Ideally you need a vet to examine your mare though, exclude other causes of pain, do some x-rays and try the injections to see if they help (improvement after the injections also rules in KS so is useful diagnostically).

Best of luck and I think you are right not to ride her, horses with KS can be extremely dangerous and often go up vertical.

[EggsitPursuedByAChocolateBunny]

I have to confess, I have never heard of kissing spine.

Poor horse.

[frostyfingers]

Dhorse has it - I'm in Spain atm (where the sky is blue and the sun is warm and I'm dreading coming back tonight) and will give you a run down of our diagnosis and treatment when I get a moment.

At the very least I would contact the place you got her from and let them know, and encourage her previous owner to do the same. That place needs a proper bollocking.