cold backed or sore backed?

[maggiehorse]

hi i was just reading another thread about a pony difficult to mount and the posters mc timothy practitioner had said to her theres nothing such as cold backed , only sore backed
well i hate to disagree but let me tell you about poppy
shes now 17 , id x tb chestnut mare , broken at 4 and according to trainer was the worst he,d ever had , she would rear or spin or run backwards or all three as soon as you put weight in stirrup she was sent back to him twice to be sorted but he washed his hands of her declaring her a nutcase so she was sold to a lady at the yard where i keep mine
sometimes the lady managed to get on her sometimes she didnt so after two years of trying she asked me if i would like to buy her , so i took her on a weeks trial and with the permission of the owner had her thouroughly investigated at vet clinic and a physio recomended by the vet both of which could find absolutely nothing wrong with her (including x rays of spine)
so we decided it was a mental issue with taking the rider , we basically spent a month getting her to stand at the new tall mounting block my husband made for her , another month putting foot in stirrup a third month sitting on her quietly , after that she was led with rider on board and began hacking out
we,ve had her 10 years , shes show jumped to foxhunter , evented and team chased , been last in many dressage comps ( not her thing lol ) but she still periodically explodes when 1st mounted , but if you stand her next to another horse to mount her she NEVER does it!!
now someone tell me theres no such thing as cold backed

 

[Goldenstar]

This is an interesting topic my hunter is a little cold backed he has not a sore back now but I bet he did at some point he has a tiny bit a of pelvic asymmetry which was much more noticeable when I bought him but with lots of work I have got him much stronger. So I would say that most cold backed horses have or have had sore backs and some may be remembering some sort of nasty experience ( perhaps that's what your horse is doing).

 

[sbloom]

As a fitter I'd say cold backed does indeed exist but all it is is a description of a behaviour, not a diagnosis. It is either pain or remembered pain, the latter then becomes a behavioural issue. For some reason she is less stressy about it with another horse next to her.

 

[katherine1975]

When I had a horse with back problems it was suggested that a trial with bute would determine whether it was related to pain. If she didn't react whilst on bute then it would be due to pain.

 

[sbloom]

Only some types of pain are deadened by bute, some aren't - so a bute trial isn't quite as black and white as that sadly.

 

[Wagtail]

I thought my horse was cold backed. He never minded you mounting him but he would be a bit pottery at first. Never exploded. But yet if you tightened the girth more than having it really loose (either mounted or not mounted) he would explode when he tried to move foreward. Bute made no difference. Physio and vet both said his back was fine. He got worse and worse to ride and so I insisted on an xray and he has one of the worse cases of kissing spine my vet had seen. So in his case, he was not cold backed and his back was not sore but the spinal prosesses were nipping the nerves in his back giving him shooting pains and causing the explosive reactions.

I agree that there is no such thing as cold backs. There is always a reason that is based in pain, whether current or remembered.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

I thought this was a post about my little loan pony who is cold backed!

personally I believe that cold backed is sore backed but I am prepared to acknowledge that it might occasionally the memory of pain causing muscle tension and then explosions when mounted.

 

[Wagtail]

hi i was just reading another thread about a pony difficult to mount and the posters mc timothy practitioner had said to her theres nothing such as cold backed , only sore backed
well i hate to disagree but let me tell you about poppy
shes now 17 , id x tb chestnut mare , broken at 4 and according to trainer was the worst he,d ever had , she would rear or spin or run backwards or all three as soon as you put weight in stirrup she was sent back to him twice to be sorted but he washed his hands of her declaring her a nutcase so she was sold to a lady at the yard where i keep mine
sometimes the lady managed to get on her sometimes she didnt so after two years of trying she asked me if i would like to buy her , so i took her on a weeks trial and with the permission of the owner had her thouroughly investigated at vet clinic and a physio recomended by the vet both of which could find absolutely nothing wrong with her (including x rays of spine)
so we decided it was a mental issue with taking the rider , we basically spent a month getting her to stand at the new tall mounting block my husband made for her , another month putting foot in stirrup a third month sitting on her quietly , after that she was led with rider on board and began hacking out
we,ve had her 10 years , shes show jumped to foxhunter , evented and team chased , been last in many dressage comps ( not her thing lol ) but she still periodically explodes when 1st mounted , but if you stand her next to another horse to mount her she NEVER does it!!
now someone tell me theres no such thing as cold backed

I would still suspect some intermittent pain issue such as a trapped nerve or sacroilliac pain.

 

[Goldenstar]

I agree strongly with sbloom that bute trials cabn only prove that pain is there if the horse is better on bute, if it makes no difference you must never discount paIn as it simply does not help certain types of pain.

 

[katherine1975]

I meant the vet suggested a bute trial before xrays etc. Was not going to continue on bute, it was a suggestion to aid diagnosis.

 

[Goldenstar]

But a bute trial will only prove that there is pain if the horse improves on it you can't prove a negative with a bute trial ie you can't use it to prove a horse has no pain I understood you where not suggesting that the horse be kept on bute.

 

[doodleberry]

dont know why or how it works but sometimes walking them backwards 3 steps before you get on helps!! sometimes anyway!!