Cold backed?

[chunky monkey]

I keep seeing the term cold backed. Can someone explain what this means.

 

[squidsin]

It's a horse that doesn't like it if a saddle/rug/rider is placed on their back. (Mine objects a bit to a cold rug actually!) Some of them buck and bronc and some have to be ridden in a forward seat until they've settled. The thing is that a cold-backed horse can be exhibiting symptoms for all sorts of things, back problems, kissing spines, liver problems etc, and may not just be cold backed at all. I guess that is the conclusion some people come to when everything else has been ruled out.

 

[tikkitti]

Quite often a cold backed horse will be tacked up and lunged before a rider gets on, I know someone at a local livery who used to do this before every ride due to her horse being cold backed. The problem being years ago a horse that objected to a saddle or rider just hopping aboard may of been classed as cold backed, yet quite a few cases would be due to underlying pain or maybes poor breaking. Some horses that were said to be cold backed would wince and shiver their back as a saddle was placed on it. I think nowadays hopefully with people having backs checked etc there will be less truly cold backed horses out there. x