Thursday, July 30, 2009

How....?

how do they train police horses not to back up? and how can i get my x police horse to back up without it turning into a wrestling match? please help.. thank you!!
Answers:
I have been training horses for 45 years and the best way I have found to teach a horse to back up is: While seated on your horse,Put site pressure on your reins,just enough to feel your horses mouth (about 5 pounds of pressure). Wait til your horse gives to the pressure of the bit, it may be no more then a one second response, but be ready to give back when he gives to you. keep doing this til you can get your horse to bridle softly, this is also know as breaking at the poll. It is fun to see how fast your horse give to you and how fast you can give back, after a while it becomes a game. Once you have your horse bridling softly you can start adding pressure with your legs at the same time,be soft on the reins. At first your horse will try to move forward, but keep him bridled softly and don't let him move forward, just wait and soon he will shift his weight back or maybe even take a step back. give lots of pats and rewards for the smallest effort. Do short session and ask for one step at a time til he understands, what you want and how to do it. Soon your horse will be backing just from the pressure of your legs,the only thing you will need to use the reins for is to set his head. Remember keep it soft,and reward the smallest of effort.
have a person on the ground near the front of the horse making sure nothing is near the rear of the horse, with a leadrope, make the horse put its head to its chest (or as close as it will get) and push on its shoulder and gently say back. as soon as it takes one step back praise it and give it a treat. it will take time but it will work. if you are riding it, have the person there on the ground doing the same thing and you pulling the reins back and low squeezing your legs firmly yet gently and once again, it will take time so if they do it once or twice, be done for a while, don't push it too hard or it won't want to do anything for you.
Some horses cannot physicall yback up. If the horse has problems with their hocks or rear pasterns, backing would be a real problem.
Having worked with police horses before, most were succewssfull trained to back.
Anytime there is a wrestling match between horse and rider the horse will win.
Backing is a forward motion. (Isn't that clear as mud). This means that the horse should be engaged, back lifted and traveling. When a horse backs properly, two legs move at once. Diagonal paired legs lift and move backwards essentially trotting backwards wituout the speed.
lift your hands about 2 inches higher than normal, take the slack out of the reins and add only enough pressure to take the corners of your horses mouth back 1/4 inch (this does not have to be perfect, just dont try to pulll the whole horse backwards). Then experiment where to squeeze with your legs. Try squeezing or bumping your legs against the girth area, move your legs back and try by the hips (where a dressage whip would hit) nad finally tap the horses elbows with your legs. Do not release the pressure until the horse moves his feet somewhere. even if he walks forward.Then release. Once the horse knows he is supposed to move his feet, then only release the pressure if he moves a step backwards. Once he does that, pet him like he just won you the lottery. Then ask for another step.
If you can work showmanship with him on the ground first, and he can back up on the ground, then the lack of back up in the saddle is a mis communication. I have also seen rare cases of a horse not backing because the rider is so tense and has used their upper thighs to lock the horses shoulders.
I dont know where your from, but real police horses, like the ones here in st. louis back up on command in a heart beat! Sometimes a crowd comes up from behind also, and the cop needs to get control of the situation. My old 1/4 horses back up, I pull light;y on the reighns, while saying back, back. In time they know what it means, so try that! But take your time, nothing works overnight! Take care!
Do it on the ground first. Put a bit in his mouth and make him back up... just keep the pressure until he backs up even half a step. Then release the pressure. You don't need to give him a treat and whole bunch of praise because all the horse was looking for was the release of the pressure on the bit. Then when he gets good on the ground, then go up on him and do the same. The quicker you realease when he backs up the quicker he will learn.

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