A Sequential Approach to Training
Before delving into the issue of teaching a horse to move backwards, it’s essential to first master the forward movement. Ensuring there is no misunderstanding or difficulty with moving forwards sets a solid foundation for introducing reverse movement.
Timing of Backward Movement Training
While I incorporate teaching the horse to move backwards quite early in the training process, it’s crucial to be careful with how frequently this is practiced. Too much emphasis on backwards movement can inadvertently prompt the horse to run backwards as a form of evasion when halted—a behavior we want to avoid.
Importance of Ground Training
Introducing the backwards movement should ideally begin on the ground. Apply gentle pressure with one hand on the horse’s nose and one hand on his shoulder, guiding him to take one or two backward steps. As you do this, use a verbal command like ‘Get back’.
Rewards and Reinforcement
Recognizing and rewarding your horse’s obedience is a vital part of the learning process. Following a successful step backward, make sure to give your horse a pat. Equally important is to then lead him forward again. This cycle of moving backward, rewarding, and then moving forward again reinforces the correct behavior, while ensuring backward movement doesn’t turn into a flight response.
Rein Back Training: Guiding Your Horse with a Rider
A Collaborative Approach between Rider and Trainer
When introducing the rein back technique with a rider in the saddle, the trainer and rider should work in tandem. As the trainer gently guides the horse backward, the rider should signal the appropriate aids. This involves putting weight on their seat and keeping their legs slightly closed. The horse’s head should be flexed with a subtle feel on the reins, while using voice commands and leg cues rather than relying on the hands.
Transitioning to Rider-Only Instruction
Once the horse fully grasps the rein back, the rider can perform the exercise independently, with the trainer remaining close by to assist if needed. Various methods can be used to teach the horse the rein back, but some may be counterproductive.
Alternative Techniques: Pros and Cons
Some trainers might suggest tapping the horse’s front legs alternately with a stick, or stepping on their coronets. However, this method can cause unnecessary pain or discomfort for the horse and should be avoided. Another approach is to tap the horse’s chest while using both reins. While not as potentially harmful, this method might prove less comfortable and effective than the gentle backward-push technique.
Remember, the goal is to create a comfortable and understanding atmosphere for your horse, ensuring the rein back process is both efficient and compassionate.
Circle Work: Taking Horsemanship to the Next Level
Building on Basic Lungeing Skills
With a young horse, lungeing teaches them to work on a circle. As the next step, the rider can then start asking the horse for a bend of the head and neck using the inside hand. It’s the rider’s outside leg, slightly behind the girth, that keeps the horse’s hindquarters aligned on the circle.
Ideal Practice Techniques for Perfecting Circles
One effective method to ensure that you’re riding a correct circle is to utilize a lunge rein and a sack of sawdust. Have someone hold the rein at the center of the future circle. As you lead your horse around this center point, drop sawdust to mark the circle’s perimeter. This technique is especially useful when you’re preparing for dressage events, as it allows you to practice riding a circle with a precise 10-meter diameter.
Handling Common Challenges
If your horse tends to lean inwards into the circle, you can correct this by applying outward pressure with your inner leg over the girth. Simultaneously, ease your outside rein outwards. Be mindful not to lose the circle’s direction with the inside rein. Once the desired bend is achieved, your inside hand should remain still. Practice varying the size of your riding circles to further polish these essential skills and enhance your horse’s obedience.
Perfecting Straight Line Riding
In addition to circle work, riding in straight lines carries significant importance. Teaching your horse to keep his body straight requires a coordination of the rider’s leg and hand. Facilitating these circle and line exercises will result in a well-rounded and obedient horse, taking both your riding skills and horse’s abilities to the next level.
Lateral Movements: Navigating the Sideways Steps
Understanding Sideways Evasions in Horses
Let’s delve into a new kind of movement – sideways, as opposed to forward. A horse that’s overly eager or “hot” might attempt to evade the pressure from the bit by moving sideways.
“Nappy” is terminology often used to describe horses that are stubborn or disobedient, showing a strong desire to not follow directions. A nappy horse, for certain reasons, might impulsively run sideways towards a gate, stable, or other horses.
Preparing for the Next Phase of Training
Before proceeding further, it’s vital for all riders to understand the sensations of the correct movement they aspire to teach their horse. For this, I suggest riding an experienced, well-trained horse that’s familiar with lateral movements like the shoulder-in, pivot, and half-pass on both reins at both a trot and walk.
Doing a trotting half-pass might seem easier than doing one at a walk, as the forward momentum is already built-up. However, maintaining a similar impulsion while walking and crossing the legs forwards is a more challenging task.
The Crucial Role of Experienced Trainers
This is where most horses and their riders might need guidance from an expert who has hands-on experience with these complex movements. Executing these movements with a seasoned horse can be easy. However, achieving the same with a willing, young horse is an entirely different ball game. Faced with unfamiliar commands, the young horse might get confused.
Leveraging Stable Manners in Training
Moving sideways away from pressure is one of the first lessons a horse learns in the stable, often taught initially by using two hands pushing on the shoulder and middle. As the horse becomes more trained, it can understand simple gestures like a mere touch on the quarters to move over for feeding, watering, or cleaning. These early lessons of stable manners can be effectively reintroduced in advanced training sessions, helping your horse to grasp complicated instructions.
Mastering Lateral Movements: Crafting Unconventional Skills
Different Approaches to Sideways Movements
There are varying methods when it comes to teaching a horse sideways movements. For an experienced rider like Harry Tatlow, making a well-trained horse trot sideways comes naturally, thanks to his exceptional knack for movement. Harry believes that a horse that correctly uses both legs at the canter and obediently responds to the rider’s leg can perform sideways movements.
On the other hand, most of us, without this intuitive understanding, resort to a more comprehensive approach, using a series of suppling exercises to get the horse to respond to the rider’s leg commands effectively.
Suppling Exercises: Shoulder-In and Shoulder-Out
We practice movements like “shoulder-in” and “shoulder-out” using a fence, hedge, or the wall of a covered school as a guide. Here, we direct the horse’s head slightly inwards and have them move on three tracks. When the head is flexed to the right, for example, the horse’s right front leg follows its own track, the right hind leg moves into the track of the left front leg, and the left hind leg also follows its path. Such movements, directed by the rider, are unnatural for the horse. Hence, these exercises can be key in teaching the horse to move in response to the rider’s leg.
Understanding the Turn on the Forehand
Another essential exercise is “the turn on the forehand.” Although not used in modern dressage, it’s handy for opening gates and was previously crucial for riding over bridle paths. Here, the horse rotates around one front leg while crossing its hind legs to form a circle. The horse shouldn’t step backward, but one step forward is allowed. This exercise allows you to use both lateral aids (the same leg and hand) and diagonal aids (opposite leg and hand).
Importance of Corrective Aids in Lateral Movements
The lateral aids are considered corrective or forcing aids. For instance, if a horse is startled and shies away from an object, the horse tends to turn its head towards the object and its body away from it. By using the same leg and hand, you can straighten the horse to continue moving forward.
With these lateral aids, you, as the rider, guide your horse to move straight. You encourage the horse to move its body in an unnatural way by crossing its legs over. The “forcing” should be more of gentle guidance and requests rather than coercion, ensuring your horse remains calm and responsive.
Understanding Half Pass: A Graceful Two-Track Movement
The Art of the Half Pass
The half pass, a term derived from English equestrian vocabulary, is a beautifully fluid movement when executed correctly. It involves the horse moving forward, but in a composed, straight manner, while also moving sideways. This is why it’s termed a two-track movement – because it involves forward and sideways motion simultaneously.
Further Training: Teaching the Half Pass
If you are working on gaining more control over your horse, teaching the half pass can be an ideal exercise. The half pass involves your horse moving directly sideways without making any forward progress. This movement can prove to be challenging, particularly for a young, inexperienced horse, as it requires a significant level of precision, control, and full body coordination.
The Scope and Limitations of Sideways Work
Often people who have limited space for training indulge in a lot of sideways work. However, it’s important to note that excessive repetition of these movements can potentially lead to boredom, both for the horse and the rider. While these trainers might argue that repetitive sideways work helps to make the horse more supple, variety in training exercises is crucial to keep the horse’s interest and eagerness to learn.
Importance of Initial Suppling: Key to Happy and Confident Horses
Suppling Exercises on a Circle
Proper suppling is essential for horses in the early stages of their training. It is best achieved by following circular patterns while working at a walk, trot, or canter. Adequate suppling ensures that the horse becomes more flexible and responsive to the rider’s commands. It lays a solid foundation for more advanced training exercises later on.
Proceeding with Caution and Understanding
Additional training should always be done with great care and a thorough understanding by the rider. Inappropriate or overly rigorous training can cause significant harm to the horse and may impede its ability to learn and perform well. An over-schooled horse can become unhappy, anxious, and unsure of its rider’s intentions, leading to a state of constant mental unease.
To ensure a healthy and successful training process, it’s essential for the rider to thoroughly understand the horse’s responses and physical limits and adjust the exercises accordingly. The ultimate goal is to create a positive learning environment for the horse, building its confidence and ensuring a lasting, trusting relationship between horse and rider.
Horse Training Fundamentals: Ensuring Straight Tracking and Correct Bending
The Importance of Straight Tracking and Correct Bending
All equestrian debates aside, a horse that can move straight, with their hind legs tracking in the footprints of the front legs, and bend correctly on their circles, is on the right path to becoming a splendid companion in any riding discipline. Any trainer would be thrilled to work with a horse that maintains natural balance and isn’t confounded by their training.
Setting Clear Training Goals
From this baseline, it’s crucial to decide your training goals. It’s not uncommon to encounter a horse that’s been improperly trained or overworked, creating confusion and unease in their mind. These horses often enter our lives unplanned, presenting unique challenges in the retraining process.
Back to Basics: Lunge Work
My advice in cases of poorly trained or unsettled horses is to revert to lunge work. This return to basics allows your horse to regain its confidence and sense of calm, familiarizing itself with your commands without the added stress of a rider. Most challenges you encounter here can quickly become minor obstacles with consistent and patient training.
Once your horse exhibits calmness and willingness to move forward, you can start thinking about your future training plans, always keeping in mind the ultimate goal- a well-trained, happy, and relaxed horse.
FAQs on Backward Movement Training for Horses
Q: Why should I teach my horse to move backwards?
A: Teaching your horse to back up is not only a useful skill, but it also helps to build trust and improve overall communication between you and your horse. It can be used in various situations like tight spaces where turning around isn’t feasible, or as a part of advanced training exercises. It also contributes to your horse’s overall balance and body control.
Q: Is training a horse to move backwards dangerous?
A: While not inherently dangerous, like any training exercise, safety is paramount. Always ensure your horse is healthy, comfortable and receptive to learning before you begin. Start slow, use clear consistent cues, and always reward progress. If your horse seems uncomfortable or resistant, stop the exercise and consider seeking professional advice.
Q: How can I start teaching my horse to back up?
A: First, start by making sure your horse is comfortable with being handled in close quarters. Then, stand close to your horse, facing the same direction, and gently apply pressure on their chest or the lead rope while giving a verbal command like “back”. Remember, patience and consistency are key – don’t expect immediate results.
Q: My horse is resisting backward movement, what now?
A: If your horse seems confused or resists moving backward, don’t force the issue. Patiently reiterate the command, consistently applying gentle pressure. You might want to review your technique or consider seeking help from a more experienced handler or trainer. Always ensure the horse isn’t resisting due to discomfort or health issues.
Q: Can all horses learn to back up?
A: Absolutely, all horses, regardless of breed or age, can be taught to back up. However, the training process might be quicker for some and slower for others. The most essential ingredients for successful training are patience, consistency, and a positive reward system.
Q: What is straight tracking and why is it important?
A: Straight tracking refers to a horse’s hind legs following in the same line as their front legs, ensuring a straight and balanced movement. This is important to develop a well-rounded, physically balanced horse. A horse that moves straight and with ease will be more comfortable to ride, have a better gait, and be less prone to injury.
Q: How can I improve my horse’s bending while riding?
A: Improving your horse’s bending starts with ensuring they are properly warmed up and supple before attempting circular patterns. As a rider, maintain good posture and balance, and use your leg and rein aids to communicate clearly. Start with larger circles and slowly progress to smaller ones while rewarding your horse for any improvement.
Q: Why is correct bending essential for a horse’s development?
A: Correct bending plays a vital role in a horse’s overall balance, flexibility, and muscle development. It also teaches the horse to respond to the rider’s aids, contributing to a stronger connection and communication between horse and rider. Properly executed bending exercises can prevent long-term strain on the horse’s body and result in a more enjoyable riding experience.
Q: What are some exercises to help with straight tracking?
A: Some effective exercises for improving straight tracking include riding down the centerline or quarter line of the arena, practicing transitions between gaits, and riding serpentines or shallow loops. These exercises help develop the horse’s sense of balance and encourage them to move straight, ultimately enhancing their overall riding performance.
Q: How can I tell if my horse is bending correctly?
A: Identifying correct bending in your horse means observing them from their nose to their tail. You should see a slight even curvature through their entire body, with their head and neck following a natural arc in the direction of the turn. Additionally, their inside hind leg should step well under their body without the horse leaning to the outside of the bend.
