cold-back

English

Alternative forms

• coldback, cold back

Noun

cold-back (countable and uncountable, plural cold-backs)

1. A syndrome in which a horse refuses to accept anything on its back (often a symptom of chronic lower back soreness)
   • 1980, R Grahame, Low Back Pain - Volume 2, page 16:

     It is difficult to compare the human counterpart of what Jeffcott describes as another 'well known' problem in horses, namely, "cold-back".

   • 1992, Barbara T. Engel, Margaret L. Galloway, Therapeutic Riding Programs:

     Such maladies as osteoarthritis of various joints (spavin in the hocks, ringbone in the pasterns, osselets in the fetlocks, navicular disease in the heels of the forefeet) are very common, as is chronic lower back soreness (coldback) in the lumbar, sacral, and thoracic regions.

   • 1997, Current Therapy in Equine Medicine - Volume 4, page 11:

     If horses exhibit a cold-back, it may well signify an underlying problem, but some horses that have only a cold-back and no other signs or performance deficit can be managed by lunging before riding or gradually tightening the girth.

   • 1998, Sara Wyche, Understanding the Horse's Back, page 43:

     One of the most debated subjects in the whole of equestrianism is whether or not horses have bad backs. For some horsemen, a horse with a 'cold-back' is merely demonstrating eccentric behaviour; for others, every unexpected response is indicative of a back problem.

2. A horse with cold-back.
   • 1996, Ian Wilson, Sally Wilson, Gold Rush: North to Alaska and the Klondike, page 33:

     "Guess he's a cold-back," Slim observed when Blackie had calmed down somewhat.

   • 2009, David Karcher, Winter Kill, page 17:

     The stud colt had taken to halter and bit easily enough, but he was a coldback. He had shied at the blanket and rejected the weighted feed sacks Adam had hung over his back before introducing the saddle.

Adjective

cold-back (not comparable)

1. (of a horse) Refusing to bear weight on its back; bucking and shying when anything is put on the back.
   • 1995, James P. McCall, The Stallion: A Breeding Guide for Owners and Handlers, page 3:

     A cold-back bronc raises his head up high as a single cowboy walks toward him to mount in the cold morning air.

   • 2009, John Duncklee, Zemo, page 49:

     You go back to the corral and saddle that cold-back sumbitch and put on your chaps and spurs.