How to Use Backing with a Walking Horse

Video Transcript

"I'm Kelly on behalf of Expert Village. I'm going to show you how to ride your horse at the walk. Now there's a couple different ways that you can teach your horse the back. Backing is a command that you definitely want to teach your horse. Anytime that you're in the show situation it's usually the last command that the judge will ask for. And you want your horse to back readily. It's also a really good training technique. It gets your horse to lift its shoulders, gets it to set back on its haunches and gets it to give its face. So I'm gonna start by backing her two handed. So all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna sit deep on my seat bones and I'm gonna pull back on my reins and I'm gonna apply a little bit of leg pressure. And she's gonna really, easily back up. Now she's pretty well trained in the backing so it might not be this easy the first time you ask your horse to back. You may have to pull a lot harder. Just keep at it. Keep pulling until, even if you get one step that's a small victory if your horse isn't good at the backing. And you know you get one step, pull back, you get one step. Release, give them the pat, say thank you, you did what I asked you to do. Now, riding western, which we're gonna go back to our one handed here. I actually have, she came back without having to pull any pressure on the reins at all. I just roll my spurs in her and she'll back right up. You can back with the reins riding one handed. If I can, I just pick up a little bit and she'll back right off of the bit. Apply a little bit of leg pressure. But it definitely shows a level of training, a level of skill if you can get your horse to back up without even having to move your reins. It's a little bit fancier in the show ring. There's one thing I hate to see is people jerking on their horses to try to get them to back up in the show ring because if you're showing your horse that's one thing that your horse should definitely know how to do. So, you just want to pull your spurs in and roll them up and down and your horse will back right up. So those are some tips and techniques you can use when teaching your horse the back."