There are also other causes of back pain to consider such as poor saddle fit and horse-rider mismatch. We often see primary muscular pain in horses that have poorly developed top line, so either young horses or horses that have recently had a rest.
This back pain is either directly attributable to the muscles overlying the bone, the epaxial muscles, or secondary to a hind limb lameness causing strain on those same back muscles. Kissing spines is reported as one of the most common causes of back pain, often related to altered spinous process morphology in T13-T18 and with a high prevalence in jumping and dressage horses due to the amount of ventroflexion required (Jeffcott 1980, Jeffcott 1979) However, in a lot of the cases we see, back pain is actually unrelated to the bone below it. These will rub together resulting in boney changes and associated pain.
In simple terms, true ‘kissing spines’ (more formally called ‘impingement of the dorsal spinous processes’) is, as the name suggests, narrowing of the space between the top of the spines (dorsal spinous processes of the vertebrae). Is the pain originating from the spine, the musculature or is it actually a secondary problem caused by hind limb lameness? This article aims to shed some light on this complicated issue and explain some of the recent research and approaches for dealing with this problem. Back pain, in particular kissing spines, can be very confusing and frustrating for owners and vets alike. This may have been picked up be a visit with the physiotherapist, chiropractor, or there may have been a change in the horse’s behaviour. One of the most common complaints we see from owners is back pain, specifically kissing spines.
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