Rein back, unlike the general opinion states, is not "trotting backwards". It is the horses movement backwards, while he place his legs diagonally - stepping the right front leg is simultaneous to stepping the left hinder leg, and left front - right hinder. If the exercise is performed properly, the horse steps away from the ground, not dragging them, and bending his hocks, he places his block on the croup. Due to that, the horse enforces his back muscles and increases engagement of the front legs. Then, we can say that backwards movement of the horse contributed to his motor skills in moving forward.
[embed][/embed]
Properly done rein back - Edward Gal and Totilas
How to start working on rein back?
The perfect moment to start teaching the horse rein back is a state in which the horse has accepted the rider's aid and properly reacts to it, maintaining relative balance. Before going in for the learning, the horse should be properly prepared by warming up all the muscles part and relaxing him. A very good idea is to perform exercises in horizontal planes - shoulder and croup to the inside or leg yielding.
Work from the ground
The easiest way is to do rein back at the end of a ride, after the walk, because it is the moment when the horse is naturally relaxed. Rein back is a perfect stretching exercise, if we let the horse lower his head. We start learning from working from the ground, preferably positioning the horse near one of the manege's walls (it can be a corner, in which we place the horse facing one wall and with his shoulder to the other wall). Remember that from the moment of the first exercise, it would be good to perform it each time in the same place, so the horse can easily associate it with a particular command. After stopping the horse in a chosen place, standing in front of him, we push our hand against his chest, saying at the same time "go back" or simply "back". When the horse makes one step backwards, we should immediately award him, by patting him or giving a treat, so he can nicely associate this exercise from the very beginning.
[embed][/embed]
When the horse does a few step backwards under the pressure of our gentle hand against his chest, we can begin another stage. This time, we would need a long dressage whip that would be pretty stiff (especially the ending), so it doesn't unnecessarily scare our horse and don't whip our steed during the exercise. With the whip's ending, we "touch" the horse gently on the coronet of the front limb along with uttering the command ("go back", "back"). If the horse makes a step back, like before, he should be immediately awarded. Then we demand another steps, so the horse can understand what we demand from him.
Rein back with whip, source: i.ytimg.com
Remember that while working with horse, rush is never recommended. Some horses will perfect rein back from pressure or whip during two or three rides, others will need even ten trainings. Using our voice will help us in the future, while rein back in the saddle, when the horse will associate the voice command with the rider's expectations.
When it comes to young horses, we should not expect them to perform rein back properly. Generally, their balance is not at its best, and their back muscles are not developed enough, which disable them from performing the exercise. They will do it better with time.
Work in saddle
When the horse will freely and fluently perform rein back without the rider, we can begin another stage - learning with the rider in the saddle. For this exercise we will need a person who will coordinate the work from the ground.
We stop the horse from a walk and enforce a still standing in one place. When it comes to young horses, we cannot expect nor enforce ideal stop from them. It would be enough for them to calmly and trustfully staying in place. Expecting the young ones to keep a stable neck or head makes no sense. The rider's task during rein back is unburdening the horse's croup and back by slightly leaning his or her body forward and moving the calves backwards. Hand should stay in one place, passive. The rider through impulses of a calf and voice command, and the person on the ground through slight pressure on the horse's chest (later on through slightly touching the horse on coronets or wrists of the front legs), together cause the trained reaction at the horse - rein back. In such a way, we ask the horse to make a step, and then we award him. When the movement starts, that is when the horse makes first step backwards, the rider should go back to the proper seat with his body, relax his hand a bit, and stay in constant touch in the calves so to help another horse's step with stronger impulse, if necessary. It is important for the person on the ground to keep slightly "touching" the horse on the front legs - using the whip too much might stress the horse and be taken as a punishment.
[embed][/embed]
It's natural that the horse might at first not understand what we expect him to do. This is why it is important to base on associations - the exercise performed always in the same place, with voice command and award after properly performed exercise will make our horse smoothly and coolly go through the learning process.
Rein back in saddle stage with a person on the ground would most definitely last longer, because we have to establish certain associations at the horse - backed calf and unburdened croup and back - with stepping backwards. Patient repetition of this exercise from training to training should be giving the desired effect, so that we can perform rein back without anybody's help, not only in any chosen place, but also any part of the manege. The highest hurdle is performing rein back by the horse on the manege central line, so that he keeps the straight line.
Horse that is physically and mentally well prepared can effortlessly perform rein back on a distance up to 8 m. However, there is no need to expect that from a horse that has not developed croup and back muscles, or from a one that should not be exploited due to his age. Rein back is a great exercise to build muscles, but only mindfully performed might give the desired effect!
source: yourhorse.co.uk
Problems with rein back and mistakes
It happens that experienced horses that have competition career of a few years behind them (even those jumping 130-140 cm parkours) cannot rein back. It happens, because nobody worked with those horses, or after a series of mistakes and the horse's eventual revolt, the work with the horse was abandoned. Do we still have the chance to teach him? Of course! The way that lies ahead is the exact same way that lies ahead of a young horse, while the experienced horses learn much quicker. Older horses are better muscled and balanced, so if any unforgettable mistake hasn't been made in the past, for which the horse has bad associations with rein back attempts, we shouldn't have problems with teaching him.
Mistakes made during learning
The very basic mistake made by those who teach horses rein back is rush. It generally applies to attempts to teach a steed while he is not yet ready - usually due to major lacks in basic training. Teaching rein back, before the horse will take our aid and learn how to maintain relative balance while walking forwards, we make a tremendous mistake and our actions are destined to fail. Just as a child first learn how to crawl, then walk, then run, and after many, many years of training might become a marathon runner - the exact same process applies to horses.
Another trap into which many riders fall is impatience with expecting effects. We cannot skip certain stages that take certain amount of time, depending on the horse - more or less. One horse will learn rein back during a week of work, another in two weeks, and yet another will need a few months. We have to come to terms with the fact that we won't adjust certain processes and brace ourselves with patience. It would be better if we give our horse "too much" time to process information and make some habits - then we would surly success.
Mistakes made by rider in saddle
Another source of problems is action of the rider's hand. We make a mistake by withdrawing our hand, because the horse will associate pain of strongly pushing bit with withdrawal. Then, you cannot be surprised that he would defend himself against rein back. Even if eventually, the steed will make what we demand from him, it would not have good influence on his back muscles' development, as instead of being raised it would collapse. Additionally, this sort of forceful rein back is a pretty sad picture and it rather does not build any positive relations between the horse and the rider.
You should remember that what the ultimate signal to rein back to which the horse would react should be the impulse from shifting your calf back. Remember that the impulse, namely pressing the calves, should be a short, momentary action. Constant pressing with calves, without partition on impulses, makes the horse not understand our expectations, so we cannot regulate the number of steps either. Calves should always work together, because alternate pressing might cause the horse to rein back in zigzag.
A bad idea is also leaning backwards and hips' action "backwards" during rein back. It disturbs the horse's balance and disorients him. Properly, we always try to unburden the horse's back and croup by slightly leaning forwards.
Mistakes made by horse
On the stage where our horse effortlessly performs rein back from calves, we should take care of the rein back's quality. It is often that the animal during rein back drags his legs. Before attempting the exercise, we should work on better engagement of the croup. During stop, the horse should have "light" front part of the body and solid croup. While doing rein back, make sure that we don't work too hard under the rein and reinforce impulse of the calves. Don't rush, and the horse, with proper aid before the task should not drag his legs on the ground, but vigorously step them backwards.
Sometimes the horse does not perform rein back in a straight line. It's good to reassure if our aid actions is even on both sides. If the horse properly rein back near the manege's wall, but has troubles keeping the straight line in any other place, it's worth trying to exercise between poles lied down in the centre of manege.
We should always control the horse's steps. If he performs random number of steps, we have to, first of all, make sure that we use our aids properly. If so, a good exercise would be making single steps finished with stop (that is: 1 step - stop - 1 step - stop etc.), until the horse understands that one impulse of the calf means one step.
At some horses we can also observe splaying hinder legs during rein back. It is a result of weak position of the croup and it's good to return to exercises that reinforce muscles of the back and croup with such a horse. Also, the aforementioned rein back exercise between poles laid down in the manege's centre might turn out helpful.
Rein back advantages
Each rider pursues collecting his or her horse, wanting to obtain that due to actions of rushing light calf on the closed hand. Meanwhile, the situation is reversed during rein back - it's the torso that pushes on the horse's croup. The effect of that is reinforcement and development of the back and croup muscles, which are necessary for proper collection. Despite the reversed action, rein back pulls us closer to achieving our goal, which is collection.
source: dressagetoday.com
Rein back is a perfect exercise both for a hopper-horse that needs a "lighter" front and fully engaged croup, but also elastic hocks so he can get maximum of his jumping abilities. The same applies to dressage horses that need to master this element, because it's included in dressage programmes. Let's not forget that it's also an invaluable help in collecting the horse.
Apart from advantages concerning physicality and motor skills of the horse, we should bear in mind all the other pluses - rider who teaches his or her horse new element, subordinates the horse and positively affects his general development, comprehension and obedience, and that in turn positively affect each following training - both jumping and dressage.
Product successfully added to your shopping cart
background source: dressagetoday.com
Rein back with whip, source: i.ytimg.com
source: yourhorse.co.uk
source: dressagetoday.com
