As a rider your back pain can affect your horse!

Recent research has shown that your horse feels your pain!
If you have a bad back, your horse is so in tune with you as a rider that their heart rate speeds up if they perceive you to be in pain.

Dr Jenny Burbage, of the Department of Sport and Exercise Science has said: “The physical application of cues to the horse relies on good postural control by the rider, which can be negatively impacted by pain or discomfort leading to postural asymmetry…The ridden horse is trained to respond to subtle cues given by the rider’s body, but as a species can detect and respond to physiological changes that the rider may be unaware of.”

Basically if your horse isn’t riding just as he/she should and you have any ‘twinge’ perhaps it’s worth checking out.