Ask the Vet

Q. I purchased my Thoroughbred gelding when he was 5 years old. Within the next two years we were doing really well at entry level dressage. He looked and behaved fantastically. Then the problems started. It took me a while to figure out that his refusing to go (forward), bucking, and general naughtiness was not disobedience at all, but serious pain from a saddle that was a bad fit. We trekked five hours down to Johannesburg for a new, properly fitted saddle, X rays of his spine, and physiotherapy... It was on my fifth saddle fitting with the same qualified saddle-fitter that she noticed his spine is skewed to the left... Can scoliosis be corrected with work and stronger muscles to support the spine?

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