Backing 3/4yr olds

[ycbm]

I’m very chuffed with my rising 4 year old.
She’s been pretty tricky - quite an anxious sort when lots is going on around her and she’s been quite…spicy on the long reins to put it mildly but always very good out walking in hand.

Decided to throw caution to the wind and just get on and start hacking. She’s been a dream ever since and has become super affectionate! She’s been surprisingly good, going out alone even in some serious winds and she’s ace in traffic.

I’m delighted with her, I’ve been worried as she’s been the trickiest to back that I’ve dealt with and it’s knocked my confidence. After barely riding for several years, it feels amazing to be back on a horse.

Planning on lots and lots of in-hand showing this year and in-hand clinics just to get her out and seeing different things as consistent exposure seems to really help her. I usually think less is more with a youngster but having to think outside the box with this one.

I backed something over 15 horses in my time and never long reined one of them and rarely lunged either. I put a saddle on and rode. Its a very "old school" way of backing but it's what I was taught 50 years ago. I wouldn't advise it if the horse has been kept in small areas on flat land, as I don't think the back/core will be strong enough in that case. I had a hillside as turnout and that worked a treat. But mentally there's never been an issue with just getting on with it. With a slow increase in time sat on their backs, of course.

Your mare looks lovely, you'll have a lot of fun this summer

 

[Marigold4]

I backed something over 15 horses in my time and never long reined one of them and rarely lunged either. I put a saddle on and rode. Its a very "old school" way of backing but it's what I was taught 50 years ago. I wouldn't advise it if the horse has been kept in small areas on flat land, as I don't think the back/core will be strong enough in that case. I had a hillside as turnout and that worked a treat. But mentally there's never been an issue with just getting on with it. With a slow increase in time sat on their backs, of course.

Your mare looks lovely, you'll have a lot of fun this summer

A woman I used to work for (very old school) was all for "just get on and ride". She maintained that you could teach a horse everything it needed to know from its back. That's all very well, but it was me who had to just get on and ride! I'll let her off though as she did ride round Burghley in her time. And there never was a problem with just getting on and riding, all the horses we backed turned out well. Since then though, I have taught the horses I have backed voice commands and to respond to rein pressure before getting on - and made sure when I DO get on, it is in a small space.

 

[Ahrena]

I am definitely not brave enough to just get on hahaha. I like to instil left, right, start and stop at least but I think she finds circles utterly pointless and being a mare, has no problem telling me how she feels about it. Which is fine, I’d much rather she spends this year hacking!

 

[maya2008]

I backed something over 15 horses in my time and never long reined one of them and rarely lunged either. I put a saddle on and rode. Its a very "old school" way of backing but it's what I was taught 50 years ago. I wouldn't advise it if the horse has been kept in small areas on flat land, as I don't think the back/core will be strong enough in that case. I had a hillside as turnout and that worked a treat. But mentally there's never been an issue with just getting on with it. With a slow increase in time sat on their backs, of course.

Your mare looks lovely, you'll have a lot of fun this summer

I’ve merrily done that with well handled ponies - well mostly that, I quite like to have some voice commands first. I was younger, I didn’t mind getting off to lead past things or sit the spooks etc when they came. Current NF virtually backed herself and she’d never met a lunge rope - she asked to come out hacking, we popped a child on (on the lead) and that was that. My old SJ pony was backed and hacking out solo within a week.

Everything over the past few years has arrived with issues though. The kind of trust in humans that allowed me to just get on previous youngsters isn’t there - we’ve been picking up failed projects rather than even purely untouched ponies. So my process has changed, as a response to the different types of pony we’re dealing with. In the end, we don’t lose any time. I was first able to catch the one we’ve just backed in mid December 2023. 4 months later, she’s backed and hacking out. I’ve led her out so much though, and we have done so much desensitising to gain her trust, that once she was ready to come off lead, it was like she’d already been hacking with a rider for six months or more. Walk past cows? Under low branches, off roading past fallen trees, through puddles, past all manner of things round the housing estate, birds rustling in hedges, ponies running around in fields next to you, HGVs, tractors, cars zooming past without slowing? No problem. Have kids fooling around on/next to you, lying on your neck and waving their arms around? Get left behind while the one in front canters off? Also no problem.