How to Teach a Horse to Back Up Under a Saddle

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To teach a horse to back up under a saddle, first teach the horse the term "back" while on the ground, apply gentle pressure to the nose, and use positive reinforcement. Get a horse familiar with the right vocal and physical cues to step back with helpful advice in this video on training horses.

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Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Rick Gore out at Travis Equestrian Center. Today, we're going to be talking about how to get your horse to back up under saddle. Teaching a horse anything under saddle usually starts on the ground. So, if your horse knows how to do it on the ground, he's going to know how to do it easier when you get in the saddle. So, to get a horse to back up, there's a lot of ways to do it. First, you want to teach him what back up is. So I might put a little pressure on his nose and move into him and he'll back out of my way. So he just backed up a little bit there. After he knows that means back up, maybe I'll use "back" with a little pressure from the lead rope. Back. And I'm going to get in his face. By putting pressure on this lead rope and teaching him to back up like that, I'm going to give him the exact same cue when I'm on a saddle. So when I'm on a saddle, what I'm going to do to back him up is right here. I'm going to pull back on the rein a little bit and go, "back, back." And since he does it on the ground, he's going to do it in the saddle. I've set him up for success because I taught him what the word back means for one cue, what the pressure to the rope halter means as a second cue and then, I say, "back" and pull on these and just lightly put pressure and he backs up. So, when I get on the saddle, he's already going to know how to back up. So all I'm going to do is how him that's what I want him to do while I'm on him. So, since I know he knows it, I'll go ahead and jump on him here. Good, boy. And now, since I know what he knows he's supposed to do, I'm going to add an additional cue of leaning back and putting my feet forward. So, because later, I'm going to want him to back up by just me leaning back. So, I'm going to say, "back," I'm going to lean back, put my feet forward, put a little pressure on him, say "back, back." Since he knows it on the ground, he knew it in the saddle. And that's how you teach a horse how to back in the saddle.

About The Author

Expert: Rick Gore

Specialty: Horsemanship

It is never the horse's fault. Good natural horsemanship and a true understanding of horses will always get the best results with a horse.

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NO.	RIDER	HORSE	NAT.	Dressage Test	Total	Cross-Country Test	Total	Jumping Test	Total
	C	M	E	Errors	Score	Place	Jump	Time	Score	Place	Jump	Time	Score	Place

Dressage Test

Total

Cross-Country Test

Total

Jumping Test

Total

9	Craig Thompson	Orion	USA	Withdrawn						Withdrawn				Withdrawn
20	Ashley Leith	ESB Irish Doctrine	USA	Withdrawn						Withdrawn				Withdrawn
15	Kristin Schmolze	Cavaldi	USA	51.00	51.67	56.67	--	70.3	47	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
32	Corinne Ashton	Dobbin	USA	68.33	70.00	66.67	--	47.5	12	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
6	Mike Winter	Kingpin	CAN	65.67	66.00	67.67	--	50.3	17+	Eliminated				Eliminated
17	Susie Beale	Isabella II	GBR	56.67	58.00	59.67	--	62.8	42	Eliminated				Eliminated
21	Sandra Donnelly	Buenos Aires	CAN	61.33	59.33	62.33	--	58.5	34	Eliminated				Eliminated
26	Karl Slezak	Kachemak Bay	CAN	58.00	59.67	57.00	--	62.7	41	Eliminated				Eliminated
54	Tamra Smith	Chaos Theory	USA	55.67	51.00	49.33	--	72.0	48	Retired				Retired
35	Stanislas de Zuchowicz	Quirinal de la Bastide	FRA	60.33	71.00	68.00	--	50.3	17+	Eliminated				Eliminated
37	Barbara Crabo	Eveready	USA	62.00	60.33	62.00	--	57.8	33	Eliminated				Eliminated
58	Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe	The Good Witch	USA	65.00	65.33	65.00	--	52.3	21	Eliminated				Eliminated
67	Mike Winter	Wonderful Will	CAN	64.67	65.33	64.33	--	52.8	23+	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
68	Jose Ortelli Jr.	JOS Aquiles	ARG	Eliminated						Eliminated				Eliminated
42	Missy Ransehousen	Critical Decision	USA	64.33	66.33	67.67	--	50.8	20	--	0.4	51.2	13	Withdrawn
43	Bonner Carpenter (YR)	Acapulco Jazz	USA	63.67	62.67	60.33	--	56.7	30	--	11.6	68.3	23	Withdrawn
57	Lucinda Fredericks	Headley Britannia	AUS	79.67	78.67	77.00	--	32.3	2	--	--	32.3	1	--	--	32.3	1
51	Bettina Hoy	Ringwood Cockatoo	GER	82.00	84.67	75.67	--	28.8	1	--	9.6	38.4	2	--	--	38.4	2
63	Bruce O. Davidson Jr.	My Boy Bobby	USA	74.00	72.67	75.33	--	39.0	3	--	1.2	40.2	3	--	--	40.2	3
53	Nicolas Touzaint	Hildago de l'Ile	FRA	72.67	73.67	65.00	--	44.3	7	--	--	44.3	5	--	--	44.3	4
61	Lucy Wiegersma	Woodfalls Inigo Jones	GBR	70.33	72.00	71.33	--	43.2	5	--	1.2	44.4	6	--	--	44.4	5
66	William Fox-Pitt	Seacookie	GBR	71.00	70.33	71.67	--	43.5	6	--	2.4	45.9	8	--	--	45.9	6
64	Phillip Dutton	Connaught	USA	69.00	68.00	69.00	--	47.0	10	--	--	47.0	9	--	--	47.0	7
18	Oliver Townend	Carousel Quest	GBR	70.00	74.67	68.00	--	45.2	8	--	--	45.2	7	4	--	49.2	8
30	Tim Lips	Concrex Oncarlos	NED	73.33	72.00	70.67	--	42.0	4	--	--	42.0	4	8	--	50.0	9
11	Stephen S. Bradley	Brandenburg's Joshua	USA	68.00	65.67	70.00	2	48.2	13+	--	0.4	48.6	10	4	--	52.6	10
41	Nicola Wilson	Opposition Buzz	GBR	62.33	65.00	63.33	--	54.7	26	--	--	54.7	15	--	--	54.7	11
2	Phillip Dutton	Woodburn	USA	64.33	69.00	66.00	--	50.3	17+	--	--	50.3	12	4	1	55.3	12
48	Amy Tryon	Leyland	USA	69.33	65.67	67.33	--	48.8	15	--	--	48.8	11	8	--	56.8	13
40	Allison Springer	Arthur	USA	64.33	67.00	68.33	--	50.2	16	--	4.0	54.2	14	4	--	58.2	14
1	Bruce O. Davidson Jr.	Ballynoe Castle RM	USA	60.33	60.67	59.67	--	59.7	38+	20	6.4	86.1	29	--	--	62.9	15
33	Sara Dierks	Somerset II	USA	55.67	62.00	57.00	--	63.2	43+	--	--	63.2	19	--	1	64.2	16
59	Tiffani Loudon-Meetze	Above 'N' Beyond	USA	64.67	61.33	65.33	--	54.3	25	--	12.0	66.3	21	--	--	66.3	17
14	Jolie Sexson	Killian O'Connor	USA	69.33	67.00	69.00	--	47.3	11	--	12.8	60.1	18	8	--	68.1	18
65	Bruce O. Davidson Sr.	Cruise Lion	USA	64.00	61.67	62.33	--	56.0	28	--	9.6	65.6	20	4	--	69.6	19
12	Selena O'Hanlon	Colombo	CAN	67.33	70.33	66.00	--	48.2	13+	--	20.0	68.2	22	4	--	72.2	20
31	Ashley Adams	Vaunted	USA	64.33	41.00	63.33	--	55.7	27	--	2.8	58.5	16	12	2	72.5	21
27	Jan Byyny	Syd Kent	USA	61.00	61.33	64.00	--	56.8	31	20	3.6	80.4	26	--	--	80.4	22
4	William Fox-Pitt	Navigator	GBR	68.67	69.67	68.33	--	46.7	9	20	16.4	83.1	28	--	--	83.1	23
62	Peter Thomsen	The Ghost of Hamish	GER	66.00	62.33	66.00	--	52.8	23+	20	8.4	81.2	27	4	--	85.2	24
50	Debbie Rosen	The Alchemyst	USA	61.67	59.00	60.33	--	59.5	37	20	27.2	106.7	36	4	--	90.7	25
7	Jose Ortelli Jr.	JOS Aladar	ARG	58.33	55.67	59.67	--	63.2	43+	--	27.6	90.8	31	--	--	90.8	26
29	Kelly Sult	Hollywood	USA	53.33	53.00	54.67	--	69.5	46	--	5.6	75.1	25	4	12	91.1	27
22	Cayla Kitayama	Esker Riada	USA	61.00	59.67	60.00	--	59.7	38+	--	9.2	68.9	24	20	3	91.9	28
16	Diana Burnett	Manny	CAN	64.33	64.00	66.33	--	52.7	22	20	15.6	88.3	30	8	--	96.3	29
25	Ronald Zabala-Goetschel	Che Mr. Wiseguy	ECU	63.67	61.33	62.67	--	56.2	29	--	36.4	92.6	32	4	--	96.6	30
52	Stephanie Boyer	Macloud	USA	62.33	62.00	61.33	--	57.2	32	--	37.2	94.4	33	8	--	102.4	31
3	Bruce O. Davidson Sr.	Jam	USA	60.33	57.33	60.67	--	60.8	40	20	25.2	106.0	35	--	--	106.0	32
47	Kyle Carter	Madison Park	CAN	59.67	60.33	62.33	--	58.8	35	20	20.8	99.6	34	8	--	107.6	33
23	Madeline Blackman (YR)	Gordonstown	USA	59.67	55.67	58.33	--	63.2	43+	20	23.2	108.4	37	--	--	108.4	34
60	Tara Ziegler	Buckingham Place	USA	51.33	50.33	50.67	--	73.8	49	40	36.8	150.6	38	20	--	170.6	35
24	Ralph Holstein	Arctic Dancer	USA	60.33	60.00	61.00	--	59.3	36	--	--	59.3	17	--	--	--	--

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