Freeze frame
The term ‘cold-backed’ is well used, but what does it mean and what action can owners take to ensure that their horses aren’t in pain? Vet Rob Jackson investigates A persistent hypersensitivity of the back, with stiffness and dipping (extension) of the ba
“Once the horse has been ridden for a period and the cold back has warmed up, he will work happily”
IN 1667 THE great trainer William Cavendish 1 described his approach to ‘restive’ horses — those who are unhappy about being worked under saddle — and he mentions some for whom simply being asked to work forwards on a loose rein is sufficient to “reclaim” them from their restiveness. There’s a good chance that this was the first written account in English of cold-backed horses. Despite having been described in equestrian literature for centuries, there is no single explanation for what a cold-backed horse is actually suffering from. This is because it isn’t a diagnosis, but rather a description of what we are seeing. Cold-backed was defined more recently in a scientific paper 2 as: “A persistent hypersensitivity of the back, with stiffness and dipping (extension) of the back as the rider gets into the saddle. There are usually no other demonstrable clinical signs and no radiographic changes in the thoracolumbar spine. Initial stiffness on being saddled or mounted disappears within a few minutes. No effect on performance is noted thereafter.”
Transitory problem
The critical points we can take from this are that cold backs are short-lived changes in posture associated with being tacked up and/or mounted. They revert to normal after a period of riding, and it occurs in horses who don’t appear to have any problems related to the saddle area. Once the horse has been ridden for a period, and the cold back has warmed up, he will show no further signs of a problem and will work happily. In essence, this can be annoying for the owner, but it isn’t really anything to worry about. But how do we know whether a horse fits the definition of cold-backed? How do we know he isn’t suffering from something else and can we really say that having a cold back isn’t actually a problem for him? It also isn’t always just a case of a postural change. Some affected horses may buck, rear, plunge, kick out or even bolt, which is pretty serious.