Left: Normal Equine Spinal Xray, Right: Xray shows significant reaction on bone surfaces with brighter white areas where bones are touching or “kissing”. See loss of bone density in other areas where “holes” are present. Photos courtesy of “Kissing spine” – Horse Sport Magazine – April 2015
This is pretty much a regurgitation of an insert to an article which appeared in Horse Sport early in 2015 concerning the very troubling occurrence of kissing spine in horses. I was prompted to repost this as I have recently come across an inordinate amount of horses where this issue occurred and was, of course, probably not helped by poorly fitting saddles (not ours, thank goodness! ).
There are still differing opinions as to whether kissing spines is a disease with predilection already present at birth, or whether it is caused by ‘something’ (poor saddle fit, poor riding, etc.) during the course of the horse’s life. Dr. Carol Vischer, a DVM in NY with whom I work occasionally, (and who has kindly written an insert for my book Suffering in Silence) has done extensive research and come to the conclusion that kissing spine is a disease that some horses are just prone to, but whatever you believe – the fact is that it can definitely be exacerbated by poor riding and bad saddle fit.
To understand how saddle fit plays a role in kissing spine, you first have to examine the possible underlying factors. Along with ‘trainable’ or conditioned reflexes, both horses and humans have parasympathetic, non-consciously controllable reflex points, where muscles react to a stimulus of specific nerves without the horse or human being able to stop them.
A saddle which is too long, or pinches at the gullet, or is too tight over the shoulder(s) (where the tree width or angle is incorrect) and as a result sits on one of the horse’s specific reflex points can cause many problems… Read the full article here.
