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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? :(

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.!

Some people have no conscience at all do they .

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

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.

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

Poor horse.

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.