Teaching Your Horse To Back
Have you ever had a problem getting your horse to back up? You feel like you’ve tried everything and you just can’t get them to back up no matter what you do. I see a lot of horse owners that have a hard time getting their horse to back up. When riding they pull back on the reins trying to get the horse to back up and the horse braces so they lean back and pull harder thinking their going to get more leverage to get the horse to back up, but the horse is not backing and is bracing.
Then they resort to things like popping them on the shoulders with their legs trying to get them to back up, but the horse is still not backing up and they are bracing even more. The other thing I see is they will take and pull on one rein then the other and sometimes that works, but a lot of times the horse will turn it’s head to the side that is being pulled and they’ll stand their instead of backing up.
Then they decide to get off to get the horse to back by pulling on the reins and at the same time slap the horse in the chest and if they’re lucky they might get one or two steps back then they get back on and try backing again. They go through the same process again with no results. This gets very frustrating for the rider and the horse.
It doesn’t have to be this way there is an easier way to get the horse to back up. The most effective way to do this is
with clicker training. It’s a simple tool that is very effective and it really helps with communication.
With clicker training the second you feel the horse shifting back you can instantly mark that with the clicker to say “Yes” that’s what I want and then you build on it from there. But, first get them to back up on the ground like you see me doing in this video then you can put a neck rope on them and get them to back up. You can also teach the back up from the ground using both reins like I demonstrate in the video.
You’ve got to reward the first shift of weight backwards and that’s where clicker training can instantly mark this and soon your horse will be more than willing to back up. What happens though is people pull back and don’t recognize the small shift of weight when it first happens. Clicker training is so effective to get the horse to understand what you want and is a great communication tool.
If you’d like to learn how to use clicker training with your horse get in contact with me. You can take lessons no matter where you live I can do video lessons or in person at my facility.