Cold backed horses

Irishcobs

Irishcobs

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What do you do when you get on them?
We have a cold backed horse at work. She is ok if ridden every day and if the girth is done slowly (she wears a sheepskin cover as well) and is led around before mounting but if she has a few days not ridden, is lunged etc, she can be very cold backed. She puts her back up and humps, shooting backwards or forewards if you put your leg on. She had tried to buck on occasions. Saddle, teeth and back have all been checked. I would deal with this differently to how my boss does so am interested in what others do?
 
Ah, she did have a incident when being broken. She was on the lunge, no rider, and bucked, the saddle slipped up her neck (she has no wither) and she panicked breaking the girth straps. She has been fine since and has had no problems that I know of when someone has got on her, but she did go away to be backed.
It doesn't matter how long she is tacked up for or walked, we have lunged before getting on and it makes no difference to her.
 
I had a cold backed youngster as a 4 yo. He was fine within 5 mins of being saddled but it always bothered me. I think there must be an underlaying issue. I wuld be very wary of buying another that stated "cold backed".
 
I had a horse that I wouldn't say was particularly cold backed but a bit girthy.
Most of the time he would be fine tacking up but then when I got on, he'd try humping and he'd have his back up. I turned him on tight circles on both reins until he'd relaxed as they can't (allegedly) buck when their necks are bent ... mine never did anyway! He was always worse if he'd had a few days off, he would hump round his stable then.
 
My mare is cold backed, someone down my yard has suggested i saddle her 30mins before i ride. I personally think its something to do with an experience she had before i bought her.
 
Have you tried massage? I wouldn't describe my boy as cold backed so its a bit of a different thing but we do have a bit of a saddling ritual on occasion and I find if I just spend a couple of minutes doing gentle massage across his back the whole experience goes by a lot more smoothly. I think it just helps to loosen up the whole area.

Having said that I know there are a million reasons why horses react the way they do and 'cold backed' covers a multitude of sins. But do try it - I'm a total massage convert anyway, for lots of reasons :-)
 
My mare used to be like that when I was backing her. At the time we were on livery at a farm that had cows so she went in the clench/clamp thing (not clamped obviously) so I could lower myself on her back for a few mins every day and she couldn't ruch forwards or backwards. She was 'cured' with a few days. Her back etc was fine - she was just bl**dy minded
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