What is meant by the term 'cold-backed' horse?

Question

...Exactly? I'm confused as to waht it really means, and what causes it

Thank you

Answer 1

A "cold backed" horse is a horse who you need to work down once you've got a saddle on them or they will tend to buck.  Some horses you just can't saddle up and ride off, the saddle is an unwelcomed nuisance to them and they need to get this out of their system before you step on board.  Typically you lunge them either on a lunge line (Like a long leadrope) or put them in a round pen and run them around until they've settled down.  Then and only then do you step on board.

Answer 2

A cold backed horse is simply one who is very sensitive and needs some time to warm up to having a saddle on his back. When a horse is cold backed, you just need to put the saddle on gently and slowly and tighten up the girth incrementally over several minutes. This gives him some time to adapt to the saddle and girth. Failure to give a cold backed horse that time, or saddling them roughly can lead to strong protest on their part, including flipping over or falling down.

Answer 3

A general term usually used by western riders. It's a horse that crow hops a little just after getting inn the saddle but stops eventually. When he's warmed up. There is an issue as to why the horse does this, describing him as cold backed is a way to avoid the problem and live with it instead of fixing it.

Answer 4

I'm not sure who's right.  I always learned it meant a horse that reacted  immediately when you put the saddle on rather than one that later went to bucking, etc.    We always were more gentle and patient with saddling a cold-backed horse, and I actually learned that from a Texas cowboy that was 75 years old when I was a kid, so I figure he must have known what it meant? He also used it to refer to a horse who had never carried a saddle and had to be trained to it.

Answer 5

cold backed (back slumping down when pressure is added)is caused usually by a rider flopping hard into the saddle -repeatedly. It can also be caused by an ill fitting saddle or an injury to the back. all cause discomfort  and or outright pain.

Answer 6

A horse isn't physically "cold" in the back.  It's just a term that means they are stiff in the back - as cold things usually are quite stiff and unbendable.

All of the answers you've received here are somewhat right.  A cold backed horse often is stiff due to inexperience or improper training - and sometimes in the first stages of training or starting will buck anywhere from slightly hopping to full out 8 second trials.  A good trainer will work with this horse and teach it to be supple through the back.

Let's make an analogy.  when a human gets scared or is unfamiliar with the task at hand, their spine is often quite rigid.  when a person is new to riding they sit very straight and very rigid in the saddle - only after time and experience do they learn that they must have a very flexible spine to allow them to be in harmony with the horse's movements.  The horse is the same way - you put a weight and a moving human on his back and he's scared - I mean heck, your like a big cat on his back - a horse is prey and anything on their back is highly against his nature.  He must learn to make his spine flexible to enable him to move and respond to your commands and he must learn that you're not going to let him come to harm while you are riding him.

After he's relaxed, flexible and willing to learn, he's not longer stiff, or "cold" backed.

Answer 7

Rosi is correct.  A cold back horse is one that bucks or crow hops when you first get on.  They are dealt with by lunging or working the horse after you put the saddle on.

Why they are like that is for various reasons.  Sometimes it is because the saddle fits wrong or hurts them.  Sometimes it is because they are simply excited after being kept penned up in a stall for too long.

Answer 8

a cold back horse doesn't mean his back is cold. ok.  He is what you call"greenbroke" meaning , not completely broken to the saddle. You have to start back over with his learning to accept the saddle. Patients ,ok, lounge his on a loungeing line while you have saddle on him every morning for aprox 30 mins to get the nerveousness out of him. when you give him that workout  he'll settle down a allow you to ride. also change feed, corn gives a horse excessive energy.