Kissing Spine Syndrome and Osteopathic Manual Therapy

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Kissing spines are found in roughly four in ten horses, yet the syndrome behaves unpredictably: some horses carry it without ever showing pain, others are stopped in their tracks by it. Marc Beaussart, a veterinary physiotherapist treating his own horse through a severe case, set out through his research for the London College of Animal Osteopathy to test what manual therapy can realistically offer once the diagnosis is made and the condition itself cannot be undone. The anatomy doesn't reverse. What changes is how the horse moves, performs, and tolerates being ridden and handled, and that gap between diagnosis and daily life is where Beaussart's work is aimed. Beaussart combines a structured review of the veterinary literature on back pain, biomechanics, and manual therapy with his own original survey of horse owners, run through the International Association of Animal Therapists. The result is a detailed picture of how kissing spines are recognised on the ground, from subtle changes in temperament and saddle acceptance to the specific palpation and mobilization techniques used at the thoracic spine, sacrum, and beyond, alongside owners' own beliefs about what causes the syndrome in the first place. Beaussart doesn't claim the research base is settled. Instead he lays out where osteopathic manual therapy earns its place in the horse's care team, and what it can and cannot promise a horse whose back will never fully change shape.