Horse backing up?! what do i do?

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EquestrianFairy

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Evening all!

My new girlie has been having a few moments of late (using my wimp-out mode to extremes) so i have been going out with another girl and its made a huge difference so today i tried hacking out alone.

COULD NOT get her off the yard so walked her off, we had a few 'moments' where she generally got very annoyed and threw her head around but my problem is her backing up.. what do i do?

Do i let her? do i sit back?

Obv i continue to kick her forwards but she would rather walk backwards than forwards.

In the end she tired herself out and we got into forestry and around the big field so very pleased
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But still, backing up does worry me.
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Can you turn her so she backs up the way you want her to go? A friend has a nappy ex racer and she has done whole hacks backwards in the past!
 
I go with Clodagh's suggestion, I ride a horribly nappy horse and his owner always turns him around (do NOT let the horse turn itself around or you could have a spinning and bolting situation on your hands!) and forces him to back up. It works when ridden or when on the ground (backing him up to a trailer ramp for example). It's also quite handy because he's rather good at rein-back now which will make it easy for me when we start doing those in dressage tests!
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My horse does the same on his own. I have to walk him backwards while sat on him. Only other option is to get off and lead him. Baron does it because of confidence issues, if I get angry with him when he naps he totally flips and you can not ask him to do anything. If we go backwards he stays calm and gets there in the end.

Did you hack the horse alone before you bought it? If yes and it was fine then hopefully he is just trying it on with you and should be ok soon. Whatever you do do not give in, if you do it once it will take you a long time to get him off in the future, every time he gets away with it he will be 10 times worse the next time.
 
Depends on why she doesnt want to go out to what will work, but...

When you set off, make sure that you are 100% thinking "we
ARE going this way" and ride v positively to try and keep her going before she has a chance to stop and reverse, but if that doesnt work....

Try turning round and round in 4 or 5 small circles, then asking her to go forward again - in theory she should soon realise that its easier to just go forward when she is told, than have to go round and round!!

Or as suggested above, if she still insists on going backwards, try making her go backwards in the direction you want to go (same principle)

Or... if none of that works, she may be genuinely afraid rather than just being stubborn, so it could be worth going back to basics and do lots of groundwork getting her to go back and forward on command and walking out in hand etc to get her confidence up and then try again...

Good luck!!
 
Yep i hacked her out before i bought her and she was all fine.

If i turn her, so shes backing the way i want to go then wont she just run forward as my bum will be facing the field and her head will be facing home? (Help!)

Hmm, frustrating!

After we got over it, she hacked out lovely (all be it, snorting and abit on her toes) but i was happy enough.. its the first 40 mins of arguements and constant backing up into everything and anything that is hard.

I will def try the circle turning one aswell.

Shes a 6yo chestnut mare, section D (need i say anymore, lol)
 
Will she just stand. Ie when you get to the point where she wont go forwards and starts backing up can you just make her stand. So either she goes forwards or she stands until she is bored to tears. Just sit quietly and wait for her to make the move (you might need to take a book to hold off bordum yourself though)
 
Yes! Now thats something she will do- she will stand happily, she gets bored and starts throwing her head around but i sit quietly (or sat quietly today) and then try, try, try again!

Do i lean back when she backs up? I feel its borderline on whether she may throw a buck in and she backs up rather fast which throws me forward.
 
My horse does this if he doesnt want to go the way I ask or is nervous nappy or unsure of himself.I try and drop contact then he stops immediately give him a moment if he wont go forward I ask verbally for trot as well as physically as soon as he goes forward lots of praise.Its weird he wont walk but two steps of trot and hes off and running again.If I pressure him too much he will continue to walk backwards.The loud trot on and kick on and tap up with whip gets him forward thinking again.In the end you can read the signs and get in first before they start to stop and back up its all a confidence issue.
 
I was always told to MAKE them go backwards when they do this and it does work to point. However I have a 21 year old pony and, although not nappy it was only a few months ago i was forced to get off him (i've had him 14 years) cos he was scared of god knows what and went into reverse. Prob is he's v v good at it and can go at some speed and this was on v steep hill.

With him it depends what frame of mind he's in and is a fairly difficult thing to cure. I would ask her to circle if safe and reverse when you want to, halt etc, anything to get her mind off going backwards. I still have to reverse mine past scary large vehicles though, it seems the only way he can do it, like it calms him down or something, he is very very weird though!
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I had a horse that used to back up as an evasion - so If she tried it I would force her to keep going backwards. I would not allow her to go forwards until I wanted to. You have to own reverse - so you have to take control of reverse at all stages. make her go back when you are on the ground - and make it an instant response to the word back or pressure in the chest. When you are on her make her reverse when you want her to. reward backwards with a forwards - but only when you want it. eventually you will kid her into believing that you are in charge of backwards and she will only do it when you ask her. It works brilliantly with loading horses a well.
 
Brandy does (did) this too. The first time I sort of missed the cue - she just halted at the gate and I pushed her on. The next day she stopped and it took a bit more pushing. And just like that we'd get to the gate, jam to a halt, and start going backwards. I tried two different things - firstly I went with who blinks first. I'm pretty patient, so we stood and waited to see who got bored first. Then when she finally started shuffling around I asked for a step forwards, got it, gave lots of praise, and of course she'd stop again, so on we'd go, who gets bored first, ask for a step forwards, lots of praise, etc. until we were halfway down the road. That was pretty time consuming though and after a couple of days of taking half an hour to walk a hundred metres I finally got hugely fed up, put on a very assertive heel and a loud bossy voice , more-or-less bawled, "WALK ON!" and at once we were on our way down the road. She tried it on a couple more times in later days but after that her heart wasn't in it and I knew how to deal with it. Anyway, that's just Brandy though and different things may work for yours. Best of luck.
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my new chestnut section D (spot a theme here?) can be a bit nappy and is really a great big scaredy-cat. He's learnt that I cant get him to go forwards when he goes backwards. I have tried keeping him going backwards once he wants to stop if it's safe or giving him a big smack on the bum and kicking him forwards. He only does it when he's scared of something but it still bugs the hell out of me - I am quite an assertive rider and dont really do horses taking the piss, but he is such a scaredy cat that I have to be careful how aggressive I am or he gets more wound up. i'm hoping he'll grow out of it as he gets more confident.
 
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Will she just stand. Ie when you get to the point where she wont go forwards and starts backing up can you just make her stand. So either she goes forwards or she stands until she is bored to tears. Just sit quietly and wait for her to make the move (you might need to take a book to hold off bordum yourself though)

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Exactly what I was going to say.

Having done this myself (all other methods having failed) can testify that it works.

Took 3 hours the first time mind you - and an hour the next day, 10 mins the day after - then straight off yard from that day onwards.
 
Our 4yo has recently started doing this after 3 months of hacking out brilliantly. She will reverse very quickly and doesn't mind if its down a ditch etc. If you try and argue with her she has a huge buck. Our trainer suggested turning her in very tight circles the moment she tries to fall behind the leg then pushing her forwards repeating it as many times as necessary. Its worked fantastically.
 
You know if you get a long enough schooling whip and hit them hard enough it almost wraps around their bottom, that could make her think twice about reversing? I have to say it's something my mare does as an evasion tactic and I didn't realise quite how dangerous the reversing out of control at speed could be until I was charging backward down a hill on the road into tracffic right next to a 4 foot ditch! I think she now realises that it's totally out of order and she will get in serious trouble for doing it, so now she spins and run in the other direction, I feel it's a fair compromise!
 
My old mare used to do this when we first started hacking and usually it involved backing into prickly hedges and ditches, i found leading her past a few times then getting on worked but she was only 13.3hh and then just standing her until she got bored and then walking her on.

She never did it again after about the first 5 times so there is hope!
 
Echo many of the post above. Had the same problem with one of our boys. Asked him to turn around and back up past the "scary" bit. I read in a Kelly Marks book that horses find it easier to back up past things they are worried about. No idea why. It's a bit harder on a road though ! My boy was like this for months until he bravened up. We'd do half of the woods in reverse until he got fed up and asked to turn facing forwards himself. Keep at it - I'm sure you'll get there. I thought we'd never hack out either alone or even at the front of the ride. Now he's a brave lead horse.
 
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