You and your partner touch. With almost imperceptible signals you dance together.
Your steps are light, your turns graceful and balanced. There is trust between you as you
confidently master more difficult maneuvers. You move as one with your horse in
beauty, in the partnership called “riding”.
You may be a trail rider or barrel racer, ride hunt seat or Western Dressage or Western.
Whatever your passion, there’s no greater reward than learning how to dance, in
partnership with your horse.

If you have been following this series, we’ve been discussing how to teach your horse basic ground training commands including “come to me”, “move away from me”, and “whoa” or stop.  Now I am going to share tips for teaching your horse the fourth basic command- how to “back”.  Make sure your horse is consistently responding to the first three commands before introducing this lesson.

If you have been following this series, we’ve been discussing how to teach your horse basic ground training
commands including “come to me”, “move away from me”, and “whoa” or stop. Now I am going to share
tips for teaching your horse the fourth basic command- how to “back”. Make sure your horse is
consistently responding to the first three commands before introducing this lesson.
Backing is an excellent exercise to improve communication with your horse and sharpen your reactions to
control his body position.

Horses need to respect four major ground training commands: “move away from me,” “come
toward me,” stop, and back. In my last two articles, we covered the “come to me” and “whoa”
commands. In this article I will give you the steps to teach your horse the “move away from me”
command.
Before starting, make sure that your horse is properly equipped. He should be wearing a properly
fitting halter, with a longe line, and leg protection. I prefer using a longe line over a lead rope for
ground training, but will use both terms in these articles.

Horses need to respect four major ground training commands: “move away from me”, “come
toward me”, “stop”, and “back.” In the last article I gave you the steps for teaching your horse the
“come to me” command. This time we will include the “whoa” command. I am taking this lesson
plan directly from my 6-part Longevity Training Video series where I demonstrate each
maneuver with several young horses.
Before starting, make sure that your horse is properly equipped. He should be wearing a properly
fitting halter, with a longe line, and leg protection.

Horses need to respect four major ground training commands: “move away from me,” “come
toward me,” “stop,” and “back”. In this article I will give you the steps to teach your horse the
“come to me” command.
Before starting, make sure that your horse is properly equipped. He should be wearing a properly
fitting halter, with a longe line, and leg protection. I prefer using a longe line over a lead rope for
ground training, but will use both terms in these articles.
No matter what the horse’s age, I introduce these commands first in a confined, familiar location
like stall, round pen, or small paddock. Remove any distractions such as buckets or hay.

Before we start on specific lessons, you need to understand and follow my Golden Rules for ground training any horse. We covered the first two in past issues of this magazine and website. To review, Golden Rule #1 is to respect your position, as a handler, in relationship to your horse. Golden Rule #2 is to make straightness a goal.

No matter what your horse’s age, investing the time in ground training will make him a more
responsive, obedient partner. I’d like to share with you my “Golden Rules” for ground training
any horse.
Before beginning any ground training lesson, make sure you have set the foundation for success
we discussed in the “Beginning Ground Training” series. Go back and review them if you need
to. Here’s a quick summary.