Backing a Horse in a Circle is as Easy as Catching a Fly with Chopsticks
In Al Dunning’s book, “Reining,” he recommends arc drills for improving control of the horse’s body. He says you should have the horse walk around in small circles so it has a small arc in its neck. THEN, and here’s the tricky part, you’re supposed to back the horse in the tracks of that same circle. He says that when you can do this, “you have very good control of you own body as well as that of your horse.” Now I don’t know about you, but I think Al is something of an authority on the subject, so I’ve been working at it for about a month. This is what I’ve learned – I have no control of my body.
Getting this horse to bend while backing up is like trying to bend a plank. There I am, applying pressure with my legs, torquing my body around, and pullin’ on reins up high like some kind of crazy puppeteer. After a few seconds I end up with a very irritated horse who expresses this by tossing his head up and down. I’m fairly certain that he would like to know just exactly why I spent all that time teaching him to back straight only do what seeeeeems like, ask him to back crooked. It’s become an obsession of mine though. I feel like Daniel in the Karate Kid trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. The girls at the barn started giving me funny looks, and I was beginning to think it was impossible.
But recently, I saw the impossible! Out at that the ranch that we go to for Team Roping (Leo’s owner is a roper and lets us tag along) in the center of the arena was a cowboy backing his horse in a circle, a perfect circle. It was beautiful. I of course immediately introduced myself, and he gave me the name of a training video. It was the very video that taught him how to train his horse. He said it was the best purchase he’d ever made. I didn’t have a pen on me, so promptly forgot. Great. It was something Von…Van…Voughn…ugh. The quest continues….
