What to do with Kissing Spines
What can we do for our 4 legged friend when Kissing spines are diagnosed. To give you a little inside on what kissing spines are, these are the spinous processes (the part of the vertebrae that sticks upwards) these parts are called kissing spine when they start to touch each other and bones will rub against each other, which lead us immediately back to the core of this article. Help my horse is diagnosed with kissing spine. Should I retire my horse? Will it go away? All these questions you have, are very normal.
Here is what we can do, let’s start a checklist:
Start a rehabilitation program
Startup veterinary care, treatment plan
Startup manual therapy for the correct horse posture
- treatment for the good function of the bony
structure, muscles, joints etc…
4) Startup a trainings plan
- Make sure to warm up your horse
- Get the core muscles of your horse working
- Use correct exercises to have the back of
the horse up, to avoid tension in the back of the
horse.
Good saddle fit?
- Therefor you should ask a professional saddle fitter.
a good saddle fitter will be able to check if your saddle needs
Correct shoeing which will help to the horse:
- Find a good farrier to get the right shoeing done, it will provide
support for the back.
Again, manual therapy should be considered the essential part of treating this condition. The use of exercises that help build core strength and exercises that can lift the back are the key concepts. Often lunging with side reins, use of the rope system, ( the Pessoa system could be used if applied correct) abdominal lift exercises are all designed to strengthen the back and pelvic floor muscles.
When we talk about building core strength, we do not mean the back muscles above the spine, but rather the muscles adjacent to the spine (multifidus muscles). We are trying to strengthen the muscles that run from below the spine to the hips (psoas muscles) and the muscles that run along the abdominal wall (oblique abdominal muscles).
These are the muscles that work to lift or flex the back, as opposed to the muscles on top that stretch the back.
Of course, manual therapy is part of that puzzle; It all sounds easier than it actually is. To build up correctly can take months to fully appreciate the benefits. I find that combining it with some kind of therapy that makes the horse more comfortable is the best way to go.
All of the above mentioned should be team work, nevertheless as a rider your posture, core, etc… they should be aligned to help the horse and to gain the support your friend needs to move pain free. Move 2 Ride can help you if you have any questions. We are specialized in training with the eye on biomechanics.
The founder of Move 2 Ride, a biomechanics specialist, manual therapist for you and your horse is here to support you, however we have also trainers who could work for dressage and show jumping. All of our people work from the perspective of the horse first. Of course most of all, we want you to enjoy and to have our horses in perfect health.
The below picture shows a better boney structure of the withers.
