Cold backed horses

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I have a cold backed TB mare who is very sweet and loves her work- but for the first five minutes only she can put her back up suddenly for no reason and becomes very tense, you can tell she doesn't mean anything by it as never explodes or does anything nasty. When lunged for a short time before being ridden she does not tense her back up at all when then mounted for ridden work.

She is up to date with her teeth and her back has been regularly seen to- the back person will sort it out and she will be fine, no back 'tensing' for a week even in the first five minutes. However, after a week's period she will start tensing again, and it's not really reasonable to have the back person out every week. The back lady told me she does not use her back muscles properly (doesn't keep them moving and active) which can cause her to become a little stagnant, so I've been shown some exercises which do seem to help her.

She is quite green too in her ridden work (backed last year) and my instructor seems to think it will be something, with regular work, that she will cease to do. It is not behavioural as she never follows it up with anything nasty. I have removed her martingale and this has seemed to help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? She is not majorly cold backed but I have tried the following things with limited success-

Rugging before riding
Riser pad
Rubber curry combing her back before rides

Is their anything else I could try- maybe a gel pad? It's not a major concern of mine as it is literally in the first five minutes of her ride, and she does nothing nasty, I'm just concerned that one day something could set her off... maybe I'm just too negative lol.

Thanks :)
 
I got my horse a equilibrum back massager I put it on my boy before ridden work.

I would alos suggest lunging until propely wormed up using a pessoa. If you horse doesnt use the back muscle the pessoa would certainly help build it up. 5 minutes on a lunge isnt enough for my horse personally.

I am also getting him a magetic rug as well
 
If the cold back behavior goes after a few mins loosening up then she definately has an ongoing back/neck problem. It maybe that for a while you will need to get the back person out weekly until the back muscles have developed sufficiently or the problem causing her to be cold backed has been sorted.

I had one horse that was treated for almost a year on a pretty regular basis - he was finally manipulated under general anaesthetic - he came right after this.

Maybe its time for a second opinion - from a different equine back person.

One once told me that if we groomed our horses as we had in the past she would be out of a job. Maybe you need to strap your horse for 1hour a day everyday - it's great for your own figure too!
 
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