The Worst Possible Kiss for Your Horse:
Kissing Spines

My horse Knight has “significant” kissing spines. I found this out on his 11th birthday.

This is why he’s had time off for the last several weeks as we tried to rule out various issues and attempt pain management treatments.

There are so many twists and turns in this story line that I’m not sure how to summarize this in one easy blog post.

Suffice it to say, I knew something was dreadfully wrong when at the end of March I carried my saddle toward Knight as he was awaiting me on the crossties and he pinned his ears and gave me the nastiest face I have ever seen him wear. When I tightened the girth he kicked out and I knew something was not okay. He has never displayed that kind of behavior while tacking up. He’s actually a fairly pleasant chap.

I did not ride that day, nor subsequent ones. The following week my vet came out (Knight’s been seeing her every week since that initial nasty face incident.) He’s had two chiropractic treatments, been on gabapentin, acupuncture and ShockWave. His “work” has become turn out, lunging and hand walking.

What the Heck is Wind Up?

Before we did the X-rays two or three weeks ago the term my vet used was “wind up.” I had never heard of that but she likened it to fibromyalgia in humans. His back muscles were so tight that when she either tried to insert or pulled out the needle (I can’t remember which one), the needle was bent.

This new-to-me fibromyalgia-ish thing called”wind up” was the first piece of information that made my heart sink. And with every week that has passed, it has sunk a little lower. The prescription for gabapentin was/is supposed to help with the nerve pain.

Now before you start feeling sorry for Knight, I have to make it clear that he looks great and is having a the time of his life playing face tag with two of his pipe corral neighbors. He’s shiny and pretty and is not feeling sorry for himself at all. His summer vacation just arrived earlier than mine.

Not a Textbook Spine

Two weeks ago, after things we tried didn’t seem to be helping address the pain, the radiographs were taken.

Tangent: if you’re going to buy a new horse, especially an OTTB, please pay for a spine X-ray. I didn’t even know that was a thing to do on a pre-purchase exam. I’m probably getting ahead of myself here in the chronology of the story, but a second opinion vet I spoke to on the phone said no studies have been done, but he has a hunch that probably 70% of Thoroughbreds that raced have some degree of kissing spines.

So, I knew things weren’t good when my vet wanted to meet with me in person along with my trainer after having taken the spine X-rays. A formal meeting sounded grave. We met two Saturdays ago and she started the conversation by flipping through pages in a textbook to show me what a horse’s spine is supposed to look like. I studied radiograph images of horses with beautiful spaces between each vertebrae. Then she pulled up Knight’s images. It didn’t take an equine science degree to see that several of his vertebrae underneath where the saddle goes are in fact “kissing.”

She showed me various sections of his spine and we talked and I paraphrased what she was telling me to make sure I understood, and I took down a full page of notes on a legal pad. It was kind of an information overload situation.

As I was trying to take it all in I had no idea if Knight should be euthanized (I didn’t think so, but the thought crossed my mind), turned out into a big field somewhere for the rest of his life, or if there was hope he could still be ridden. I just remember feeling really confused. Relieved to know what was going on with his anatomy, but confused with this new, terrible information.

As I jotted down about five various types of things that could be done for Knight ranging from injections to surgery, I felt really strongly against surgery. It sounded really invasive and expensive and it’s not like Knight is a high dollar horse with a high end career to keep going.

Grieved and Confused

The day after this meeting when I saw the radiographs I cried all day. It was a Sunday and my husband was out of town. I felt really alone. I cried because of the guilt I had realizing that my poor horse had been in pain probably for a long time, and I was oblivious to it. I would never, ever want to do anything bad to my horse and here I was, riding around having a wonderful time and he was not.

Aside from being confused about all the different treatments and what I should do for Knight’s future–I was confused that he did not exhibit most of the typical red flags for kissing spines such as rearing, bucking, not maintaining a canter, shaking his head, refusing jumps. He was and has been a gentleman.

Right after my vet shared everything with me, my trainer and I both agreed that most likely Knight’s ongoing battle with ulcers is related to the kissing spines chronic pain. And the fact that he gets more tense as he works through more jumps (even though they’re small) rather than calming down, probably also had to do with pain.

Horse Friends are the Best

I reached out via phone and text message to a handful of my close horse friends who “get” this. It’s a blur now, but I’m so grateful to you ladies (you know who you are) who kept a positive spirit and asked if there was anything they could do, offer to help me research various types of other boarding and/or retirement options–should they be needed.

One of my biggest supporters I met thanks to this blog and am now friends with in real life reminded me that Knight hasn’t changed and he’s healthy and we just need to figure out what his job should be so that he can be happy and feel good.

Another friend I have known for years but we’re now in different states so not super connected, shared that her mare had kissing spines, she had the surgery for it and I should call her or text her any time. (She has rehabbed her equine BFF and they are going to their first event later this spring!)

Right now I’m doing okay. Bummed, but feeling like time is on my side to figure out what can be done. I ended the meeting with my veterinarian saying that I loved and respected her, but for my own sake and due diligence, I wanted to get other opinions. And that’s what I’m in the middle of right now.

From what it sounds like based on conversations with other horse folks, kissing spines is such a case by case thing that is different for each horse. One friend shared she knows an eventer whose horse with kissing spines competes at the 2* level. Then another barn friend said she knew someone who had to fully retire their 6 year old horse. And I have heard a bunch of other stories in between.

So the question is: what will Knight’s future be? And the answer is I don’t know.

Most of the note-taking, radiograph analyzing meeting is a blur right now, but I remember saying, “Well, I’m a horse lover first and an equestrian second. I will do right by my horse.” Now we just have to take baby steps each day and figure out what doing right by Knight means.

I have a feeling he will tell us as time moves on. After all, he did a pretty good job of telling me that day in March when I saddled him and he said, “No!”

Thank you for reading. 

Leave a Comment: What has been your experience with kissing spines? Do you or someone you know have a horse that’s been affected?

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