TRAIN A REINER

Todd and Taumi Martin

Copyright©2009

Lesson 5

Backing

To have a great back up…you must first have collection.

We teach the horse to collect while backing the same way as we taught collection while moving forward, with just a little different twist.

When we ask our horse for forward movement, we squeeze with our legs and then lift the body up by driving the horse into the bridle. (Actually we are driving the horse onto the bit which is held in a fixed position as a barrier establishing the frame we want.)

In backing we are going to do the same thing only in a different sequence. First we lift our hands to establish a bit barrier, blocking forward motion. This most definitely does not mean you are going to pull the reins back toward you. Simply lift your hands to establish the bit barrier, and then begin to rock your legs. Rock your legs to set a cadence. Click here to watch video.

Don’t get in a hurry; teaching the horse to back takes time.

At first your horse is going to try to walk forward, which is what you have been teaching him to do. What you have been teaching is a rhythm and cadence in forward motion.

We are going to teach the same thing in the back up, but your horse has to figure out that you aren’t asking for the forward action.

At first, when you start to rock your legs the horse will try to walk forward, which is what we have been doing. We have been teaching them the cadence and the rhythm of going forward. But when you start to ask for motion in the back up you are going to block forward motion by setting the bit barrier, and then rock your legs.

If your horse pushes through the bit and tries to walk forward, apply more bit pressure by lifting your hands until you’ve stopped the horse’s forward movement. Hold the bit position and continue leg pressure allowing the horse to figure out he relieves the bit pressure if he backs up. Click here to watch video.

Once the horse gets off the bit and starts to step backward, take your legs off and drop your hands and give them a reward. At that point you are teaching them a pace or a cadence forward and backward, your hands are just telling them which direction.

When you have the horse taking a step backward, you can ask for two or three steps backward. When the horse has taken several steps backward, drop your hands, take your legs off and let the horse relax. With just a little practice the horse will start to travel backwards each time he is asked.

Once the horse starts to travel backwards, you can continue going backwards with the cadence of your legs and a release some of the rein pressure. If you continue bit pressure all the time you are backing, then you won’t get a true collection; the horse will be leaning on the bit and now in true balance.

Your body position is important when teaching the horse to back. If you are pulling on the reins so hard you are staring at your horse’s ears, or if you are leaning forward you are going to make the horse very heavy on the forehand. This is not what we want. Keeping the horse light on the forehand is extremely important, especially when we start teaching the sliding stop.

When you are backing, you want to apply light rein pressure; just enough to keep the horse from going forward. Your legs are telling the horse how fast you want him to back by providing a cadence or rhythm.

Once the horse starts to back, lighten the rein pressure.

When learning, a horse will often try to go forward as soon as you lighten the rein pressure. Allow the horse to make the mistake; it is alright. The mistake allows you to show the horse once again what you want. If he starts to go forward, just pick your hands up and block forward motion.

Continue rocking your legs, because you still want the cadence, you still want to tell him to move his feet. By lifting your hand and blocking forward movement, you are telling the horse he made the wrong choice. His only option then is to go backward.

When he makes the correct choice and starts to back, release the rein pressure, sit up and look up. Even though you are backing, don't look down. Sit up and lift your shoulders up. Remember your body position affects your horse’s body position.

If you want his back to round up, his hindquarters to get under himself and his forehand to lighten, then you have to be in the correct position. You need to sit up with your shoulders up and your butt down in the seat.

Provide a rhythm and cadence with your legs by rocking your legs near the cinch. If you are looking down and pulling yourself forward, you will have a tendency to drop your legs back instead of keeping them up front by the cinch.

This backing body position is also the proper body position for teaching the horse the sliding stop.

Much of what we do when backing is continued when teaching the stop.

When you horse is backing easily each time the back is requested, you can start to increase the horse’s speed by increasing the rhythm with your legs.

Never put your hands down by your hips or thighs to try to get a horse to back.

Always lift your hands toward your shoulders to aid in elevating the horse’s shoulders. We want to lift the horse’s forehand and make it light; we don’t want our horses get heavy on the forehand.

If your horse starts to drop his nose too far down, he’ll drop his shoulders and his front end will feel like he is in sticky mud. If that is what is happening, then there is not enough lift in your hands. Be sure you are not pulling the reins back toward your hips.

If at any time you feel like your horse is getting stuck, don’t increase the rhythm with your legs. Keep the rhythm, but squeeze a bit harder to elevate the shoulders. This will help the horse pick his feet up higher. Once he does that, help him slightly with your hands, and then go back to your rhythm with less squeeze pressure.

If you squeeze harder but don’t continue the rhythm, the horse will lift his back but they won’t get lighter on his feet.

Let’s review the sequence of what we are trying to teach this horse.

When we are standing still and going to ask for a back up then we are going to pick our hands up to set a bit barrier to forward movement. You are not pulling the reins backward; you are just keeping the horse from going forward. Once we have blocked forward motion with our hands, then we are going to ask the horse to move by rocking our legs.

If they don’t move, don’t get anxious. Take your time, and continue with the rhythm until the horse’s feet move somewhere. Once the horse moves his feet you can stop you leg cues and give them a reward. The horse is learning that when I am giving the leg cues it means to move.

Once the horse takes a step backward, release the bit pressure and stop the leg cues—that’s his reward.

You want to make sure that as you practice this, you do not just ask for a slow back. You need to practice increasing the speed of you leg cue rhythm to increase the horse’s speed moving backward.

Being able to increase his backing speed will be helpful when you start teaching the stop.

Horses do not learn to find a rhythm quickly; it will take some time. Stick with the same rhythm long enough for them to find it.

Don’t get frustrated and spur your horse to make them hurry up the back. Be patient and let them learn to move with the rhythm.

If your horse gets “stuck” and is not moving when you rock your legs, you can turn his head to the left or right and get them to move one foot; that will usually unlock the body. Once you get the horse moving again, go back to blocking forward motion and start giving him rhythmic leg cues again.

The objective is to teach your horse to get light on the forehand when he is backing. Anybody can pull hard enough to eventually get a horse to back. We want the horse to understand that the rocking rhythm of our legs means we want them to move somewhere. Our hands on the reins tell the horse where to move. In this case picking up the reins and blocking forward motion, means the answer is backwards.

Once the horse can find the rhythm and match his leg cadence with your leg cadence, everything begins to get softer and smoother. Then if we want to increase the speed of the backup, we just increase the speed of the rhythm.

ASSIGNMENT:

Load a short video to YouTube, Photobucket, or another video hosting web site showing you backing your horse.

Send video link and paragraphs to me at: todd@toddmartin.net

Once you are backing well, I'll send the next lesson.