Kissing Spine

Welcome to my post about ‘Kissing Spine’. I hope there will be some useful information in here for you. I have been working with horses with 'Kissing Spine' for a number of years both in residential rehabilitation and at owners yards, so have gained experience and understanding that I have now been able to put into my ebook and online training course, to help owners to fully rehabilitate their horses. 

Onto the article...

10 years ago most of us hadn’t even heard of Kissing Spine, and now there seems to be many, many horses being diagnosed with this condition. Why the explosion in cases?

Well in my opinion, I just think we are all getting better at recognising it, and treatments are evolving, so it’s a more accessible treatment process for owners, and there are more options. I do think back to years ago when horses were just deemed as ‘naughty’ – way before kissing spine was understood, was that what was actually happening? Maybe, maybe not. 

What is kissing spine?

Let’s start with the basic anatomy of the horse’s spine and then focus on what is actually happening in the horses body with the presence of this condition. The dorsal spinous processes are the sections of bone that we can feel along the line of the spine, and are vertical projections of bone emanating up from the spinal vertebrae deep in the horses back.

ORDSP stands for Over-Riding Dorsal Spinous Processes and this is the term your vet will use to describe ‘kissing spine’. What it means is the touching of the bones along the spine, which causes back pain to the horse. This condition quite often happens when the horses back is weak and the whole middle section of the horse, the trunk, is in a sunken position – this brings the bones in the spine closer together, causing pain if the bones touch.

Usually a postural change has occurred that brings the dorsal spinous processes closer together, ultimately allowing the bones to touch, which is extremely painful for the horse, and over time the bones can actually remodel and fuse.

Pain can come from the bones touching together, and/or from ligament pain where the ligaments are squashed in between the spinous processes.

How is it caused?

ORDSP can be either a primary issue or a secondary issue to another problem in the horse; I will outline some examples of both below so we are clear about the difference.

ORDSP as a primary issue: for example the horses saddle has been ill fitting over a period of time, causing back pain and ultimately poor posture and the downward spiral to ORDSP. When it’s a primary issue, there is a direct cause of the back pain (in this case the ill fitting saddle), it’s not being caused by anything else.

ORDSP as a secondary issue: this is when another problem such as lameness is causing a postural issue and therefore leading to ORDSP. This is more complicated both to diagnose, and to treat.

Examples of ORDSP as a primary issue:

It can be a primary issue where the saddle is a poor fit, as discussed above.
When the rider is too heavy for the size or strength of the horse, this can cause an initial hollowing of the posture, and an eventual decline in strength and ultimately ORDSP.

Lack of training: the horse has always been allowed to ride in a hollow posture and has never been trained, this can lead directly to back pain and ORDSP. The lack of training caused the ORDSP.

Examples of ORDSP as a secondary issue:

Sometimes a hind limb lameness such as suspensory ligament injury may have the secondary effect of causing ORDSP due to the horse altering its movement patterns to avoid pain. Therefore the suspensory ligament injury being treated first may relieve the posture and back pain caused by ORDSP as the hindlimbs are more comfortable and the horse can then move in a biomechanically correct way without pain.

ORDSP can actually be a secondary issue to gastric ulcers too, as the horse will change their posture and how they hold themselves due to gastric ulceration causing tightening through the back.

So it’s absolutely crucial to have a full and clear diagnosis for your horse.

What are the signs?

Horses suffering with ORDSP can exhibit many signs, some are actually quite subtle, some quite the opposite. Some horses can mask pain quite well and just carry on without any overt signs of a problem, or they could exhibit various subtle signs that would not necessarily raise any alarm bells. Some of the key signs are listed below, including some which might be helpful for the more stoic horses that may not be screaming ‘my back hurts’.

List of some of the common signs of ORDSP:

• Bucking
• Throwing rider off
• Moving away from the mounting block
• Not wanting to be tacked up for riding
• Nipping or face pulling when girthing up saddle
• Moving away from saddle being put on back
• Dipping back when rider mounts
• Difficulty working into contact
• Rides with hollow posture
• Grumpy attitude to ridden work
• Difficulty bending through ribcage
• Issues in the canter
• Consistent back pain that doesn’t resolve with physio/manipulation
• Decrease in usual performance levels

If issues of this nature have been identified with one or more of these signs, the owner and / or rider should seek professional advice to investigate further.

How is it treated?

The only way to properly diagnose this condition is to have your horse’s spine x-rayed. This will provide a clear image to the veterinary surgeon of where your horses dorsal spinous processes sit in relation to one another. The common area for ORDSP is in the thoracic spine, under the saddle area.

Treatment will be either surgical or medical. Surgical treatment is usually one of 2 operations with the less severe involving the cutting of the ligaments in between the close or touching spinous processes to create space in between them. This is normally done under standing sedation and is a fairly quick operation. The other form of surgical treatment is to remove some of the spinous processes, which is a bigger operation and is done under general anaesthetic.

Away from surgical intervention the medical treatment involves the injecting of the areas where there are close or touching spinous processes with long acting anti inflammatory/steroids to ease the pain and inflammation which can enable relaxation of the affected areas.

Each horse is of course different, so treatment is an individual thing for horses presenting with ORDSP.

What is absolutely crucial in horses suffering from ORDSP is that after treatment, their posture is corrected and the horse is retrained to use their core effectively, lifting the back and strengthening the muscles to better carry the weight of the rider.

I hope that this article is helpful, I have more content and help available around Kissing Spine, as it's become a topic that I know a lot about. I’m passionate about rehabilitating horses with this condition, and can help you further with my new Ebook, my online training, and consultations about this condition and how to move through the rehabilitation with your lovely horses.

Link to my Ebook 'Kissing Spine - Rehabilitation & Prevention Strategies', 58 pages with detailed explanations about KS, and techniques to use in Kissing Spine Rehabilitation as well as Prevention Strategies: KISSING SPINE EBOOK

Online training course 'Core Exercises for your horse' which is the 2 sets of exercises that I use to train improved posture and develop core strength. Core Exercises Online Course

Please get in touch through my website or Facebook page if you would like to chat further! Jenny x