advice on horse who walks backwards to evade

[padderpaws]

Would just like your thoughts on my technique to get my horse to move forwards when he starts to walk backwards please. He will do this when he is not sure of something and to evade my leg when he does not want to go the way I want to but is not scared.

I have struggled with this for a long time and he has reared in the past (very high) and I am careful not to have him do this again. So, when he starts to walk backwards I turn his head to my knee with one rein and disengage his hind quarters in a circle until he faces the way I want to go and ask him to move on. If he just stands there I wait but if he starts to walk back of my leg I repeat the sequence. My train of thought is to make it uncomfortable and hard as soon as he thinks backwards and easier to move forwards. But is ther any thing that I am doing that could make him worse. My thinking is to stop the rearing before it starts.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Lintel]

I reckon you are doing the right thing!
The best tactic to me is what you have just said, but I have seen people when their horse goes up spinning the animal off balance and being badly hurt, so I wouldn't generally spin or tuck there head into your knee if it were to rear, but so far so good it seems.
And don't let him stop- keep him going and going and going- yields, bends etc, before he can even think about going back!
Or -- you could just ride him back into a fence, been there done that. Was not clever, possibly would not do it again, but it worked

All the best!

 

[padderpaws]

Thank you for your reply.

 

[sugarnspice]

Luckily I didn't have to worry about potential rearing but I'm sure you have ruled out any potential pain problems.
What I did with mine was turn him around when he started reversing and get him to rein back past the point he started to try and go backwards at... If that makes sense at all.

 

[sugarnspice]

On my phone so can't edit. The pain problems comment makes no sense on my first post as re-reading it he does it like mine- totally at random with no cause!

 

[padderpaws]

Thanks for your reply. He is not in any pain. He does it to evade a certain situation when it suits him, the rest of the time he is forward going and walks out very nicely. He has his teeth, back, etc checked regularly.

It is the only thing I feel safe doing with him when he starts. I have tried kicking him on, I have used the whip (not when he is scared) but it is as if he almost enjoys the challenge. Too much of the force from me and up he goes. However, by turning him as soon as he starts to move back i feel that I am defusing the rear But I could be wrong. I would not turn him if he was already going up.

 

[weeanne]

Sounds like your doing the right thing to me you just have to stick with it and be consistant. It can be very infuriating. I think I personally would do as sugarnspice says turn him round and say well if you want to go backwards we can do our whole ride backwards lol but thats just me. Is it a young horse? my 4yo naps when I take him out hacking on his own fortunatly doesnt rear but have been worried he might start if I dont play it right. I just sit and wait for him to move forward dont kick or pester just sit calmly and wait if he trys to turn, eat or paw I stop him and say no (hes quite good with vocal commands) as soon as he walks on even if its just a bit I reward him lots of pats and praise it has definitely worked as the stop time becomes less and he stops less often.

 

[padderpaws]

He is about 9 years old and I have had him for two of them. I have only just started this tactic but I feel that I am beginning to outwit him. I did use to get angry (lack of knowledge) but trouble was if he got angry back I would come of worse.

 

[Littlelegs]

I think you're doing the right thing too. Different stuff works with different horses, but stuff like waiting it outs no use if he's going back. I once made a madam of a pony do about 6 small circles in succession, think she went forward straight away after through being dizzy lol. I don't like the idea of letting him back into a hedge or wall tho if he's inclined to rear, if you or he go over the last thing you want is a wall under you.

 

[Mike007]

Turn him around and make him walk backwards in the right direction.! They soon get the message.!

 

[weeanne]

yeah I got annoyed with my youngster and would just get off and lead him until we were heading home then get on and ride home instead of getting in a fight. I read Jessica Jahiels the horse behavior problem solver and and the horse training problem solver (both great books and I would highly recommend any owner, problem horse or not, to get them) and she says Quote 'Instead of forcing him, try waiting. It may take hours but your goal must be to make the horse decide to go forward. You can do this simply by being very patient and making it clear to the horse that he is not allowed to go sideways, backwards or in any other direction other than the way you want him to go. Some horses take 20mins to figure it out some 2 hours but its 2 hrs of standing not 2 hrs of fighting.' I also read somewhere you make the way you want to go the easiest option. Hope this helps

 

[labruyere]

i had a similar but not identical issue with a horse i was sent to 'sort out' for a different problem
(which surprise, surprise disappeared once she had a saddle that fitted)

anyway she would refuse to leave the home patch, even with a companion, would spin and plant herself sideways (not fun as i have a steep drop on that side of the track) and would only move backwards, either towards the precipice in reverse or backwards towards home

yet once she was about 1/4 mile from home she would hack like a dream

i agree with Mike(?)

after trying all the obvious things over several days,
i decided to try a 'lateral approach', turned her 180 degrees and rode her down the path in the direction i wanted to go, in reverse (her head pointing back towards home - if you follow me)
every 20 yards or so i would turn her back round and ask her to continue on the hack walking forwards, if not then spin round and go backwards again -
my record was 1/4 mile in reverse
(i'm lucky in that i have direct access to forest tracks so can do this in relative safety - wouldn't suggest trying this on a road !:)

anyway, as Mike(?) said, after about a week of this she realised there was no point in this evasion and just stopped doing it

 

[horseandshoes77]

my advice...turn him facing the opposite way and back him up....mite sound silly but my boy would back up to evade lots of silly things...so i turned and backed him right past them...also worked for his fear of water...he would not walk into the stream kept backing up...so i backed him in slowly and once in he loved it, obviously you need the horse to be able to back up quite well, worked for us...he now happily goes forward past most things !

 

[sleepykitten]

OP, I had a horse that did exactly as you describe, and the way I treated it is exactly the same as you are doing, I think the key thing is timing, make sure you disengage the hindquarters BEFORE they can go up. I pulled my boy's nose onto my knee and did a few tight circles then straight away asked him to walk forwards. I never had a time when this didn't work.

I backed him into a fence once too, not ideal, but he damn well went forward!!

 

[padderpaws]

Thank you to all who replied. I have taken on board your suggestions and will try them out.

 

[FreddiesGal]

I am in the same boat - my 5 y/o backs up (and very quickly) when he does not want to go forward. Now this may sound a little bizarre but i've come to the conclusion that if he wants to go backwards so be it, as long as we're going the way i want to go! (I taught him rein back a few months ago) As soon as he starts playing up, i swing his head round, shift his hind quarters and back him up 5 or 6 steps in the direction i want to go. I then turn him back round and give him a chance to go forwards. If he doesn't respond and starts backing up, i swing him round and make him take another few steps in the direction i want to go. Of course i only do this off road, but i have found it really helps and apart from anything it takes his mind off rearing and napping, and hopefully he will get bored of backing up. Good luck

 

[labruyere]

good luck padders...
seems like quite a strong concensus

just to clarify my post,
i wasn't really asking for rein back most of the time we did this,
more, you want to walk backwards, that's fine, just allow me to choose the direction

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, once she went forwards (which she always did sooner or later) i made sure she had a lovely intersting, non taxing hack
so that after a while she was thinking ' great, wonder what adventure we'll have today?'
rather than, 'don't want to leave my field'

speaking anthropomorphically ;-}