Kissing spines and canter

[WSAbg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

Hi all,

last weekend my horse Ninja got back-problems after a 60 km ride. Here
in Germany the final inspection for that kind of rides is two hours
after the finish. When peparing him for the inspection I noticed some
pain in the back. Never before he had such kind of pain (we finished a
90 km ride three weeks before with no problems). The saddle has a near
to perfect fitting.
No my question: Three years ago we found out that he got kissing spines
(we took some x-rays). At the beginning of the 1999 season I changed his
prefered gait from fast or superfast trot to canter or slow galopp. This
is in preparation for this year's German and as well European
Championship. Both are flat races, a bit sandy but very fast (the test
ride for the European Championship had been won in 8 hours and 33
minutes !!! The first 10 finishers were all riding in less than 10
hours!!!).
The 90 km ride three weeks ago we are trotting most of the track but the
60 km we finished with nearly half of the way in canter or slow galopp.
In addition, a very cold wind was blowing after finishing. Also he was
blanketed, Ninja may become cold and stiff because of the wind.
Do you have any ideas? If so, please answer soon. I am going to ride a
FEI 100 mile race in two weeks (again as a preparation, a flat and sandy
fast track).

Thanks in anticipation,

happy trails

Wolfgang + Ninja 11 (more than 1100 miles)
Germany



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