What does "cold-back" mean?

A syndrome in which a horse refuses to accept anything on its back (often a symptom of chronic lower back soreness)

Cold-back

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A syndrome in which a horse refuses to accept anything on its back (often a symptom of chronic lower back soreness) countable, uncountable
"It is difficult to compare the human counterpart of what Jeffcott describes as another 'well known' problem in horses, namely, "cold-back"."
2
A horse with cold-back. countable, uncountable
""Guess he's a cold-back," Slim observed when Blackie had calmed down somewhat."

Adjective

1
Refusing to bear weight on its back; bucking and shying when anything is put on the back. not-comparable
"A cold-back bronc raises his head up high as a single cowboy walks toward him to mount in the cold morning air."

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.