Training Tip: Treat the Backup as Its Own Maneuver

The better control you have of a horse going backwards, the better control you’ll have of him going forwards. It’s no secret that I’m a fanatic about getting my horses light, soft and supple—no matter which direction their feet are moving in. When your horse will back up and stay soft in your hands at the same time, you’ll be amazed at how responsive he’ll be going forwards as well.

From a performance perspective, while a backup may not be scored as an individual maneuver in a reining pattern, it’s certainly judged as part of the overall stop maneuver. In a reining competition, each horse automatically begins the pattern with the score of 70. The judges can either add or deduct up to one and a half points on each maneuver in half-point increments based on the quality of the maneuver.

Years ago, judges would turn a blind eye to a bad backup, especially if a horse’s stop was big. However, reining has gotten so competitive in recent years that if your horse has a big stop but he backs up poorly afterwards, the plus one you earned for the stop can quickly drop to minus one-half for the overall maneuver as a whole.

That’s why, when I’m training my performance horses, I treat the backup as if it’s a separate reining maneuver I’ll be judged on. Not only does this ensure that my horses back well after they stop, but reality is that the backup is the foundation of a stop. A horse that backs up with energy in his feet while staying soft will stop much better than a horse that braces his head and neck and drags his feet backwards.

Teaching a horse to back up well starts on the ground. We teach our horses for methods of backing up on the ground in the Fundamentals Series and then teach them the maneuver under saddle. To see how I continue to improve how my performance horses back up, tune in to the Performance Horse Series: Reined Cow Horses available to No Worries Club members. You can watch the videos in the series by logging on to the No Worries Club website or the Downunder Horsemanship app.

Looking for more training tips? Check out the No Worries Club. Have a training question? Submit it on our website.