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Lessons Learned
Raye Lochert
 Back Ups & Stops
Are you having trouble with your back ups and stops? Maybe your horse is not stopping quickly enough or straight enough. Maybe when you ask your horse to back up you feel like you have to pull really hard. When you stop from a higher speed, like a trot or lope, does it feel like you are going to bounce right over the top of your horse? Well, no worries, this tip will help solve all those problems.
Getting your horse to stop and back up softly, smoothly and quickly is just a matter of working on the back up. While working on the back up you are also working on the stop. Between going forward and backing up there is a stop which will improve on its own.
Here is the lesson: Ride forward on your horse about 3-4 strides then pick up the left rein towards the front of your hip bone and disengage the horse’s hip to the right. Don’t pull out to the left but rather out and back to the left. The left front leg should stop and pivot and the left hind leg should step in front of the right hind leg. This is the trickiest part and you may need a friend to watch and tell you when it happens. Right when the horse disengages, release the rein. Once you get the feel it will stay with you forever. Get it solid with the left rein before moving on to right. Then switch back and forth.
Once your horse is disengaging easily in both directions then you can add the next step. Ask your horse to disengage. When he does, release. After the release, pick up the same rein and pull more directly back towards your belly asking for one step back. Right when you get the one step, release. Sometimes a horse will bend its head around to the side you are pulling from and move its hip over again. If this happens, use the outside rein to block the head from bending to the side. Again, release the pressure right when you get one step back. Once you get one step back consistently you can ask for two, then three and so on. Give mini releases on every step.
When you get the back up easily and softly, remove the disengaging of the hips step of the process. Walk forward 3-4 strides and then ask the horse to back up off the one rein. If the horse doesn’t respond use the disengagement as a correction. Keep working on it until the horse backs up softly and easily. You may need to use your legs at this point to increase speed. Remember, your legs mean go, not go forward. Also remember to switch back and forth from right and left rein.
Be sure to incorporate your seat into the lesson plan. Just a split second before you pick up the rein cue ask the horse to stop and backup using your seat. I usually just put a little more weight in my legs forward in the stirrups to cue the horse. Don’t lean your upper body back as you will be putting more weight on the back off the horse as well as putting your self out of position.
As always, repetition is the key. Keep practicing this until your horse backs up off your seat rather than the reins. During the lesson you will feel your horse going forward but thinking back. This will help elevate the withers, which helps make for smoother stops. Once it feels really good at the walk then you can work on the same process from a jog or trot. It wont’ take very long before you will be stopping smoothly and straight.
Have fun and remember, the first time you do something new with your horse it is a learning process for both you and your horse.
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Raye Lochert trains and teaches from his Critter Creek Ranch in Santa Rosa, along with traveling around the country as a popular clinician. He may be reached at (707) 570 2470, email, or learn more at his web site. Raye will be the featured clinician at the Rainbow Mendo Lake Horse Expo, in Ukiah on February 16 & 17, 2008.
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