Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

We had a very soggy Thanksgiving yesterday and I decided to get a little riding done in the rain in the evening as I like to expose my horse to being ridden in various weather conditions. When we brought them in, they were shivering slightly even though the temperature was in the 70's. They're backs were also super sensetive to the touch. So we did our warm-ups in hand, no tack, doing some extensive walking and jogging. After some good warm-up, we rechecked them with a little back massaging and they seemed fine. Backs were fine, nobody was cringing.
       So we started tacking up. Again they started fussing, pulling back against the halters, curling their hindquarters, the kind of muscle reaction that struck me as being akin to having a bucket of ice water dumped over you. Warmed them up again and everyone seemed fine once more. When I mounted up, my horse was the only one who fussed further and he kept stopping and squatting. Even the 11 year old we have on MSM for preventative joint care was fine. But my horse was the one pitching the biggest fit, a lot of it about not wanting to leave the other horses. I was afraid he was trying to roll if I let him stop, so I kept walking him out so his muscles wouldn't cool and finally when he stopped again I let him to see what he would do. He squatted to urinate, and that was the end of it. After that, he was fine.
       Anyone else experience this sort of rain-soreness or whatever it was? Anyone know what it was? I contemplated not riding him, but his overall attitude did not strike me as one of being in pain, but rather uncooperative because he didn't want to be ridden. He'd been given the last 2 days off so it's not like he's been pushed beyond his limits. Should I have not ridden him at all? I'm calling the vet out in the next week or so for semi-annuals and teeth floating so I'll probably mention my concerns even though I don't believe it's kidney-related. Any clues?

Regards,
Liz