hello,
have a 13 year old arabxwelsh pony who I have now owned for 4 years. I have competed him at county level showing and am am moving on to dressage. However, for the last two months he has been having back problems. It started with bucking and cow kicking in canter, its now got to the point where I can't even run my hands along his back without him bucking, let alone riding him! I've had two different chiropractors check and manipulate him, with no sucess. I've had his saddle checked and flocked twice and nothing is working, infact, he's getting worse. He is also stiff, verging on lame on his offside hind leg. Many people have said his symtoms sound similar to that of kissing spine and although I've researched this, I still know very little. Does anyone have any advice or infomation of backproblems like this? I'm getting desperate! Thanks

have you had him xrayed to see if they can find anything wrong.

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no, the vet is coming out tomorrow, as it's come on so quickly we are really in the dark as to what has gone wrong, he's never had any problems with his back up until now. We were hoping to leave x-raying to a last resort

hope all goes well, dont blame you they cost a fortune

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I had a mare with a back problem some years ago. With careful manipulation from a very experienced equine osteopath we got it right. It's not an overnight thing though, it did take a long time and this mare was conformationally rather long through the loin. If you have had your pony for 4 years with kissing spines I think you would probably have discovered this before now assuming you have had the pony in regular work.

He could of course be suffering from something unrelated such as a developing spavin or degeneration/bony change in a leg joint which is making it uncomfortable to get his hind leg underneath in canter.

I should have a chat with your vet and get him to inspect your pony, literally, from the foot up. Also, if your farrier is around get him look at the wear on your pony's feet/shoes as this can offer some indication of how he is using his limbs (ie is the wear evenly distributed)

Hope that helps, let us know how you get on