Backing Up

By Keith Hosman
Copyright 2005-08 All Rights Reserved
horsemanship101.com

Hey, you know why your horse won't back up? Know why you can pull on those reins all day long and the horse just throws his head up and plants his back feet? The more you pull, the more "planted" you become?

A very big reason is this: Backing isn't natural to a horse. Duh. When was the last time your horse turned to his buddies and said, "Check you guys out later..." and backed away? Or backed into his shelter? Ever notice how infrequently you see them back? When they do, they kinda waddle, like ducks. Even when the big honcho mare is in their face, they'll usually pivot on their back legs and turn away. (Or push right past her FAST.) I've seen boss mares back forty feet to deliver a good kick but Darwin would tell you she's the boss in part because she's figured out tricks like... how to back forty feet.

When you sit on your horse and think "back" and pull and pull and pull... you know what your horse is thinking? The old ones think: "How ruuuuuude" and plant their legs. The young ones just get scared and go up (as in "rear").

The horse that balks rather than moving backward isn't giving to (rein) pressure; you're pulling and so is he. And, because he has no experience backing (smoothly, at least), when you pull he doesn't know to "assume the backing position." (It's like giving the gas to a car that's in park.) Here's the most important thing you can learn when it comes to going backward: Go forward. From now on, if you even for an instant feel your horse resist as you ask him to back, get him going forward and do so right away. Don't let him learn that balking is an option correct that thought immediately by goosing him forward. Two fundamental John Lyons Training concepts are at play here: 1) "The horse can't decide to 'not move.'" and 2) "Get the feet to move, get them to move consistently, then get them to move consistently in the correct direction."

So he balks, you move forward and keep rein pressure till he gives to the bit and his whole body softens. Then think "back" and ask to back again. It's a lot like parallel parking on the streets of Chicago: You back in, then pull forward till you hit the guy in front of you, then backward till you hit the car behind you. Like a chicken settling onto its nest. Do that a few times and you're parked. Do the same thing with a horse that freezes when you ask him to back: First walk forward, then ask him to back. If he resists, move forward right away, keeping the pressure on the bit, till you'll feel him soften through his neck. His head should drop, his shoulders should raise; you'll feel his belly move up and away from your legs. Then give back a little rein pressure (as a reward), change your thinking to "back" and ask your horse to do just that. Be patient. Resist the urge to take up the reins and pull him backwards. What a joke that is to the horse after all: He's 1200 pounds moving forward and you with your little human body are trying to out pull him. Remember, as Xenophon said thousands of years ago, "Nothing forced or misunderstood can be beautiful." Couple that with Newton's law about "objects in motion tend to stay in motion" and you've got a mess.

Walking backwards is not hard for your horse. It's you deciding out of the blue to start yanking on the reins with no pre-cues, together with his natural resistance that makes this difficult. Horses who have learned to back correctly and are then given the proper cues will do so willingly and at a faster clip than one might think. Wanna know the key to getting this point across to your horse? It's this: You must at all times keep in mind that a horse walks backwards in basically the same posture that he walks forward. Your game plan, then, is to do what it takes to get your horse in a soft, "moving forward" position BEFORE YOU EVEN ASK HIM TO BACK AND THROUGHOUT HIS TRANSITION FROM FORWARD TO BACKWARD. Keep the parking analogy I described in your head and never "keep asking" your horse to back up if he loses his "forward-going posture" as he backs. Keep moving, regardless of the direction.

Pay particular attention as the horse stops moving forward and begins moving backward. During that transition did he tense his neck muscles, raise his head and drop his shoulders and belly? If yes, FORGET BACKING UP and get him moving forward IMMEDIATELY. If, instead, he stays soft through the transition, back a step and move forward immediately. Always release when the horse is increasing his backward speed, never when he is slowing. You want him to associate the release of the reins with moving backwards lightly. Also, always walk forward after backing then release your reins totally, signaling the end of the maneuver. Otherwise your horse will start leaning backwards and become more sluggish. His front goes up but his back end digs into the ground, mirroring the shape of a "greater than sign" (>) and he'll begin staying that way which is the very opposite of the "forward posture" we're trying to maintain.

How are we going to cause our horse to "soften up" at all, even moving forward? Simple, and the answer has the huge bonus effect of teaching the horse to "give to pressure." Giving to pressure is kinda important here, after all. If that bit was on fire, he'd move away from it rather than lean against it, right? (Note: setting the bit on fire is not recommended.) Take a page from John Lyons circa 1812: Move forward (best at a trot, thanks); pick up the left rein and ask the horse to turn smoothly in an arc to the left. Note that, at this point, you'll more likely than not need to break the habit of relying too much on the on the other hand (the right, in this case). To aid you there, I suggest that you lay your right hand on your thigh, holding the seam on the outside of your pants. Keep practicing this exercise with one hand "doing all the work" and the other grasping your seam until you "can be trusted" to have both hands on the reins without applying confusing pressure with both. Hold your single-rein pressure till the horse drops his head or soften his neck or both. Release, go forward two strides, then repeat to the right using only your right hand (with your left hand now lying on your left thigh).

Does this mean I never use two reins to soften the horse? Heck no, but let's keep things simple in terms of our overall objective: Getting the horse to back smoothly.

In a nutshell then, the exercise is this: Start from a standstill with loose reins and that means NO PRESSURE on the horse's mouth; it means you need to see a pronounced droop in the reins as you begin to move forward. Start with loose reins and trot forward, then pick up the left rein and apply pressure as you ask for a circle to the left, release pressure when the horse drops his head or softens his neck. Go forward two strides (not one, not three) and ask for the same to the right. Practice this one billion times or until your horse has become soft from withers to nose tip, whichever happens first.

Next lesson: More often than not, successful training has to do with simply changing the thoughts in your head. John Lyons has been teaching that thought forever and it does seem an oversimplification until you put theory into practice. Do so, and suddenly John looks like a genius. Teaching a horse to back is a prime example of the success you can achieve by first learning to "think differently."

Earlier, I mentioned cues and pre-cues. You car has a gas gauge. In horse parlance, the gas gauge needle dropping to "E" is a pre-cue, engine knock is definitely a cue and the embarrassment of walking to the gas station is a motivator. You learned long ago to get gas when the needle tells you to or face a long walk for gas. You don't wait for the engine knock, right? No, you did not. That little needle has control over you and never once did it resort to violence. Same with your horse, your cues, and the teaching process.

Luke, you must become the needle. Go up and re-read the paragraph that begins "In a nutshell the exercise is this..." Note that it says begin with droopy reins. Know why? Because when you want to do something (backing up, in this case) the very act of picking up the reins acts as a pre-cue, saying "Hey, get ready to do something." Start with pressure on the reins and it's like crying wolf. After awhile the horse just tunes you out. Like the needle, you gotta tell the horse something's coming.

After taking up the reins, next you will/should think "back." Thinking "back" will naturally put your body into a position that signals to your horse (through repetition) that you expect him to back up. I've noticed in my case, for instance, that "thinking back" changes the placement of my legs, the tilt of my pelvis and even the curve of my back. If instead of "thinking back" I thought "put my legs at x-degrees, my back like so and my rear over here..." well, it's too complicated. I'd get frustrated and no doubt confuse the horse. As I've said before, being somebody's dinner for eons has made your horse really great at picking up small signals.

So, you've picked up the reins and you've thought "back." The horse (if he's just learning this) will have continued moving forward. Drat! He's missed your pre-cue (picking up the reins) and the cue (your "backward thoughts" which changed your body position). What to do? Answer: Apply the motivator. Pick up one rein (let's say your left) and stare at the shoulder on the same side of the horse. Apply the pressure and angle it takes to get that shoulder to stop and get the hindquarters to take a step to the right. (Tip: Take your left hand way out to the left, back and smoothly arc around to your right shoulder.) If you must, you have my permission to use two hands (both on the same side of the horse's neck) to pull that shoulder to a stop and the hip around as described. Be careful to not apply so much pressure that your horse tips over. Uh, that'd be too much pressure. Back off and ease into it.)

When the shoulder stops and the hips disengage (read: move to the right) release a bit of the pressure and then bring your reins to the area directly above the point of the horse's shoulder and keep that pressure till the horse takes a step backwards or even leans back. Release your pressure entirely and walk forward. Pet the horse maniacally. Keep repeating this exercise, building on small changes, until you can pick up a single rein and the horse will stop dead and begin to back. (Then practice the same on the other side.)

When your horse understands the concept of backing up, do this: At a walk, with both reins in your hands, experiment with "tilting" your pelvis or sinking your butt deeper into the seat or moving your legs just a hair forward or bringing the reins just a hair back or all of those things... whatever... to see what tiny, tiny, tiny bit of communication it takes to get your horse to stop and back up. You must use a great deal of patience. If your horse has been taught to back up (via the material earlier in this article) and you've been good about using your hands to establish pre-cues, your horse will stop on a whisper rather than a shout. A whisper is a movement from you that is so slight that a friend on the ground can't see it. By contrast, if I can see you ask your horse to back, you're shouting.

For a moment or two, don't force the horse to stop, just have fun with it. Pretend the horse is a tool with no instruction manual and find what little movement from you will convey "back." If your horse just kinda drifts off and quits paying attention, you may need to kiss or goose him a bit with your legs to wake him up and get him to participate but otherwise, just work quietly to find where the buttons are hidden.

Keep in mind that nothing has changed in this respect: When you release your horse out of the back up NEVER just sit there ALWAYS move forward before fully releasing the horse from the exercise. Also key: Relax then for a moment before asking to repeat the maneuver. Putting yourself back into neutral for a moment keeps your commands coming in short, decipherable bursts, rather than one long stream of noise (as far as the horse is concerned).

If thirty seconds or more go by and the horse is just blowing you off, then disengage his hips (as outlined above) and ask for the back up again. Disengaging takes lots of energy on their part and they quickly learn that it's far easier to simply back up. And that's exactly the lesson we're trying to convey to the horse at this stage of his training: He's learning that the motivator always follows the cue and that the cue always follows the pre-cue and it's a whole lot easier to simply do as I ask when I ask the first time. Think of Al Pacino in "The Godfather." When he quietly asked for something people jumped, right?

If your horse turns into a great giant slug, trot around for awhile, put some energy back into the moment, then go back to backing. Or try backing at an angle. Backing at an angle forces the horse to put feet in the same spot occupied by other feet so they learn to raise their knees higher which translates to a quicker, lighter back up.

Keep applying the tiniest of pressure when you first ask. Be patient and teach your horse to listen for your whispered cues and keep "working on less." If you apply pressure to the reins it must be so slight that someone on the ground can't tell you applied any. Same for changes in your seat or legs friends on the ground shouldn't be able to tell what changed. You were walking forward then suddenly the horse stopped and began backing. Follow what we've covered here and you'll be surprised how quickly your horse will begin backing lightly at the slightest cue from you.

This article is part of the "Teach a Horse to Backup" series. To read more, or to find a clinic or Certified John Lyons horse trainer near you, visit horsemanship101.com.

About the Author

Keith Hosman If your horse won't speed up, slow down, stop or turn, you missed the latest training methods from Josh and John Lyons.  Have you lost your confidence?  Want a horse to brag about?  Invest one weekend to make big changes with John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman.  Keith is based near San Antonio, TX and is available for clinics, private sessions and training.  He frequently conducts clinics and demonstrations with an event coming soon to a town near you. For more horse training articles, or to attend a clinic or find a John Lyons trainer living in your area, visit horsemanship101.com now.   No part of this article may be reproduced without the express written permission of Keith Hosman. To contact us regarding reprints or syndication of our articles (in print or online), please contact us via www.horsemanship101.com.