help cold backed horse

jensheff26

jensheff26

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my friend has just rung a tb horse up, the woman said she arches her back when you first get on and altho she has never had the woman off some people who have rode her all ended up on the floor. shes ok after the first 5 minutes or so, does this sound like cold backed? if so is there anyway of doing some warm up exercises to help her get through this? would anyone ever buy a horse that is cold backed? any advise really appreciated thanks
 
put saddle on and leave the mare alone for about 5 mins or lunge for a couple of mins I think. Have a mare with same problem and I leave her for a good 10 mins before I tighten girth up and mount up, these horses seem to have what they use to call roachbacks,or now a days Kissing spine or near enough.
 
How old?
If its a young horse, it could be something as simple as needing to build up the correct muscle over his/her back, thus causing the "humping" and resulting broncing.
The fact the lady is honest about the horse would be a big plus in my eyes.
 
I would get the saddle and back re checked, by a vet possibly if its not normal behaviour :). If normal cold backed then lunging with the tack on before mounting should help, even just leading around for two minutes in hand before getting on would help!
 
the woman said we could take her to our yard and try her for a few weeks is it something that would get worse the older she gets, shes only 8 so has a lot of years in front of her yet
 
Either kissing spine or Arthritic. Some horses like my mare has their spines curving upwards at the wrong point, just under the end of saddle,which causes the problem,once they have warmed up they are usually no probolem to mount or ride.
 
Echo Bravo said:
Either kissing spine or Arthritic.
Click to expand...

Not always!! My horse was incredibly cold backed when he was in pain with his feet, he was bilaterally lame and it made the muscles in his back twist, we gave him allsorts of treatmets and steroid injections into his muscles (they worked), x-rays were inconclusive and he would have needed an MRI to show more.

We didnt realise it was his feet until he went lame on a seperate occasion and I changed farrier and he pointed out my horses feet were not great under the shoe (the vets didnt notice it, old farrier told me "he had the best feet he had ever seen" which was rubbish, but the farrier was rubbish.... i digress). He had collapsed heels, x-rays and almost 6 months of remedial work later and hes not at all cold backed in any way and hes completley sound for the first time! But lunging did help when he was cold backed

I would never ever buy a cold backed horse, hes insured thank god but the remedial farriery I have paid for and its cost me over £600 so far!
 
thank you all for your replys i will talk to my friend about it to be honest iv never experienced a cold backed horse so couldnt say much earlier in conversation i will now talk to her and show her this thread thanks again
 
my 6 year old event horse is cold backed. when he was backed he would sometimes bronk quite badly when you first got on- but he was always fine once his back was warmed up:

i used to lunge for 5 mins or walk in hand with a rug on before getting on. also have an equissage which helps to warm up the muscles and also tighten up the girth slowly

he's now 6 and much better- i still tend to walk in hand for a couple of minutes but the worst thing he does now is arch his back- he never bronks anymore.
if i was buying a cold backed horse i'd get the vet to check it carefully on the vetting but it wouldn't concern me too much TBH...
 
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