Re-backing a 4 year old mare – Advice and recommendations please (Staffordshire)

I

iudall

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 December 2010
Messages
135
Location
Staffordshire/Shropshire
Visit site
Hi there, can anyone recommend someone experienced to help me re-back my 4 year old mare please?

I would like it to be done at home, near to Weston Park on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border, rather than sending her away.

All opinions / suggestions / words of wisdom / advice welcomed also!
 
I would never back or reback a youngster on my own.

We tend to back ours in the autumn of their third year to the point where they have basic steering and can walk, trot and (usually) canter in the school and possibly out in the field depending on their temperment.

We then turn them out for the winter and bring them back in the spring. Basically we treat it as though they were being backed from scratch although we tend to progress faster. Lunge them on day one then lunge the second day in tack. Depending on how they are we will usually lunge them on the third day and then leg a rider up. Fourth and fifth day we tend to leave them be and then do another three consecutive days with them.

Your person on the ground should be experienced in handling horses as I do think it is important that they can 'read' how the horse is reacting to what is going on and be able to react appropriately to the horse.
 
Eggs: Thank you for your advice.

She was backed by someone else at the end of last year. I have owned her for 5 weeks (which has included a dentist appointment, vet check, change of yard, physio appointment etc.) and started lunging her in tack last week, stood on the mounting block next to her, jumped up and down next to her etc. with no real problems.

As you say, I feel I do need someone experienced to lead her round while I lean over her again etc.

I am just struggling to find someone to help who will be able to do evenings and who will come to us rather than me sending her away.

Flashmans: How would you go about doing it yourself? Would you just get on with a mounting block and hope for the best? I feel I would like someone on the ground to hold her and give me a leg up but any suggestions would be helpful in case I have to do it alone!

We have the choice of her stable, a lunge pen, an indoor school and an outdoor school for me to get on her in. Which would you choose?
 
It's a shame you're not nearer Kent, as Jason Webb has coffee mornings on the 1st Tues of every month, where you get to watch him work horses in for backing and schooling. He backs on his own in a round pen where the horse can't get up much speed.
I backed my youngster last year with someone to leg me up, but when I re-started him this year just had to get on with it alone using the mounting block.
 
Thanks mainpower and yep that is a shame!

I have helped to break/back horses but never done it completely alone.

I suppose some work has already been done with her but how much and exactly when, I’m not sure.

Maybe if I just get on with it, without any fuss then it’ll be fine. Just me, her a mounting block and hopefully not the floor!!
 
I got a little 4 year old mare in March. She hadn't done anything since last June. So I decided to 'reback' her in June this year. I just stood on a chair and got on her - it didn't end well and I ended up my going on ebay and buying a load of lungeing equipment!

She is now lungeing lovely and we are walking/trotting changing rein doing figure of eight stuff - all very basic but she is a bit lean and needs building up steadily and I'm not in a rush anyway. I do have a lesson once a week on her for half an hour and last night we did our schooling session in a 40 acre stubble field with no histrionics so it is possible to be able to do it on your own. Although like I say I have a lesson once a week - if I encounter any problems we iron them out and then I just keep going.

I think if you approach things calmly and don't expect a Grand Prix dressage horse in the first week and don't get giddy when things go wrong it is totally do-able

This is a little ex-racer so like I say it is possible.
 
I backed my four year old by myself, when I was starting to lean over I just did it from a mounting block, any sign she didn't like it and I could just slide off quickly. I also sat on her for the first time from getting on with a mounting block. She knew voice commands from being long-reined so she has never been led around or been ridden off the lunge.

My girl was very good throughout the whole backing process though and I realise some may be a bit naughtier/difficult... Your girl doesn't seem like she will be difficult though?
I would suggest first sitting on her in the indoor or lunge pen.
 
You might get help, and you might not.

In the meantime, you could be working away quietly on the ground doing a bit of in-hand yielding work. Then you could progress to a bit of light lunging, and on to long-reining. After that you could teach your horse to yield her head round in response to light pressure from the rein, and teach her to yield her hind quarters in response to a touch on her flank.

Once she has learned all that, over a period of a few days, your mare should be as ready as she'll ever be to being rebacked, and you should be able to get on the mounting block, yield her head round to meet your leg, and mount safely in the knowledge that you both understand each other.

If she really objects, you just keep her head round so she disengages her hindquarters instead of charging off in a staright line, and you slip off safely.

Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top