08/14/2021
Great details of why this exercise is so important
BENEFITS OF BACKING UP EXERCISE:
As many of you know, I often recommend backing up exercise as a part of your horse’s rehabilitation, in order to improve their strength, balance and muscle coordination. So I thought now it might be a good time to explain in detail why this exercise is one of the best exercises for your horse:
Well performed & regular backing up exercise will lead to:
❊ Improvement in overall muscle coordination and proprioception
❊ Improvement in collection and engagement
❊ Improvement in push off and protraction of the hindlimbs
❊ Improvement in swing phase of the forelimbs
❊ Strengthening of the core muscles and flexion of the thoracolumbar spine, therefore preventing back issues & pain (of both horse and rider)
To get these benefits, the exercise must be performed well:
❊ The horse must be relaxed while backing up
❊ The horses head & neck must be low (i.e. head and neck lower than withers)
❊ The exercise must be done slowly
❊ It also should be performed regularly (ideally daily) - once the horse can perform it well, you want to do around 15-20 steps backwards three times per your riding session (ie. at the beginning, in the middle and at the end).
N.B. If your horse is going backwards fast or keeps raising head up, then they are not doing the exercise correctly (they are cheating and trying to avoid the correct engagement) - so please make sure you teach them the correct technique first, before increasing the amount of steps or reps.
The kinematics (ie. what exactly happens with different muscles when horse is backing up):
❊ Target muscles (muscles contracting during backing up) are:
- Hip flexors (especially Iliopsoas muscle and Superficial gluteal muscle)
- Quadriceps muscle (which is very important for proper stifle function)
- Neck muscles (especially Brachiocephalicus and Omotransversarius muscle)
- Extensors of the carpus
❊ Muscles elongating (being stretched) during backing up:
- Deeper gluteal muscles (Gluteus medius muscle)
- Hamstring group muscles (Semimembranosus and Semitendinosus muscles)
❊ Stabilising muscles:
- Epaxial spinal muscles (ie. all the muscles on the top and on the side of the spine)
- Abdominal wall muscles (especially straight and transverse abdominal muscles)
➤ Iliopsoas muscle (main hip flexor) is very important muscle for lumbar spine stabilisation and flexion, and also for protraction of the hindlimb - therefore strengthening of this muscle will allow better collection and engagement of the horse, plus prevention of back pain. Better development of the iliopsoas muscle is the main indication for doing this exercise. Horses (and humans) have naturally more strength in extensor muscles than flexors, so it is very important to work on better strength of the flexors to counteract this (and by doing so, protect the back and prevent back pain).
This muscle originates from several lumbar vertebrae and attaches to the femur, therefore during normal forward movement, contraction of this muscle leads to hindlimb being moved forward, towards the lumbar spine (N.B. in any movement, contraction of muscle moves insertion point towards the origin point).
In forward move, this contraction is FAST and in average sized horse load on this muscle is approximately 400Kg.
During moving backwards, the overall move, and therefore (concentric) contraction of this muscle is SLOW and also the fixed point is now opposite (ie. the Iliopsoas muscle is now pulling lumbar spine and so most of the horse towards the hind limb); the horse moving backwards also shifts his bodyweight further back and that also increases the load on this muscle (and the synergistic muscles, such as superficial gluteal muscle).
This results in markedly higher strain on this muscle during moving backwards, with load in average sized horse around and above 3,000 Kg!
By making this muscle (or any muscle) work with higher load and at slower pace, than during its natural movement, we are able to make these muscles much stronger in shorter time and they will then also perform much better in their natural forward movement.
➤ Extensor muscles of carpus (forelimb) are frequently very weak in horses, as majority of the forelimb swing phase is passive (swing of the forelimb is resulting from forces being transferred from the hindlimb and the spring action of the tendons in the front limb - there is only minor active muscle component of forelimbs involved in this motion). During backward movement, horse has to actively contract the extensor muscles of the carpus to be able to place the limb backwards and straighten it. By strengthening these muscles you will achieve better swing ‘flash’ movement of the forelimbs in the forward movement and also improve stability of the carpus and lower limb joints.
➤ The lower neck muscles, brachiocephalicus muscle and omotransversarius muscle move the whole forelimb cranially (protraction) in forward movement. When the horse goes backwards, these muscles have to also contract much more (with concentric contraction) and the fixed point is now reverted, so they are now moving the head towards the chest (again, leading to higher load on the muscles as head is heavier than forelimb). Also, since the move is slower, they work harder.
Indications for including backing up exercise:
❊ Poor natural conformation: lordosis - this conformation predisposes the horse to back pain (leading to kissing spines) and also sacroiliac issues. Backing up exercise helps improving the flexor muscles strength which counteract the lordosis and protects the horse, improve it’s conformation and movement.
❊ Athletic indications - better collection, engagement and submission.
❊ Back pain - backing up is essential exercise (especially with lumbar or lumbo-sacral pain). Especially in the lumbar area extensor muscles have 3x larger diameter than the flexors, so in order to have better muscle balance on the vertebral axis, we have to improve the flexors strength! In horses with back pain, we almost always have over-developed extensors compared to flexors, and this leads to further extension of the spine and increased pain (so improving the flexors will decrease the pain).
❊ Lumbo-sacral pain (ie. disc disease in lumbo-sacral junction) - this condition is happening much more frequently now and it also increasingly happens in young horses now! This may be connected to breeding certain types of horses or because they are not trained appropriately in the early years of their career, so they end up in full work with under-developed flexors, unable to deal with the weight of the rider and workload.
❊ Sacroiliac arthropathy - again, even young horses now have this (3,4y old) - sadly very common disease now.
❊ Facet joint arthropathy (osteoarthritis of the spinal facet joints) — Developing the flexor muscles helps with reducing the load on these joints as flexing the spine offloads these joints and reduces the pain.
❊ "Kissing spines" - the backing up exercise is very useful for horses with over-riding DSPs, especially in the lumbar area (as that is where the iliopsoas originates from), but in combination with lowering the neck, whole spine will be pushed towards flexion, therefore horses with 'kissing spines' in thoracic area will also hugely benefit.
❊ Thoracic limb paresis (weakness of extensor muscles) - this condition is quite common especially in horses with neck arthropathies (facet joints osteoarthritis in lower neck, which then affects the function of brachial plexus, the innervation of the forelimb). This exercise allows them to develop the extensors of the carpus.
❊ Stifle problems - many horses with stifle issues (such as locking patella, meniscal or ligamental injuries, or instability) have weak Quadriceps muscle and therefore regular backing up exercise will have positive effects on stabilisation and correct movement of stifle joint, due to improving strength and coordination of the quadriceps muscle.
❊ Hock pain and suspensory ligament desmitis of hindlimb - many of horses with these conditions have inappropriate muscle engagement and development, which either resulted from having these conditions in the first place (ie. hock OA leading to compensatory change in movement) or resulted in them (ie. SL desmitis developing secondary due to abnormal load on SL). These horses often have weakness or complete atrophy of hip flexor muscles (Iliopsoas and Tensor fascie latae muscle) and superficial gluteal muscle, and over-developed hamstring group muscles. This inappropriate muscle development leads to change in angulation of the hindlimb (resulting in more straight hindlimb), which puts much more strain on the suspensory ligament and causes uneven loading of hock and stifle joints. Therefore improving the strength of the hip flexors and superficial gluteal muscle and relaxing and lengthening the hamstrings, can restore the normal conformation of the hindlimb and better loading (and hence preventing further inevitable deterioration).
So as you can see, this exercise can be beneficial to all normal healthy horses to improve their correct muscle development (which will prevent future problems) and also in horses with variety of problems, where it can markedly decrease the pain and allow them to return to normal work.
Lastly, another advantage of this exercise is that because it is a slow motion exercise, there is minimal risk for inducing any problems and therefore there are no contraindications of doing this exercise - it can be included in rehab as one of the first exercises, for example in tendon injuries this can be started as soon as the horse is allowed to walk (way before trotting is introduced). The only contraindication is performing this exercise incorrectly (head high or too fast) - in that case you will not see any of the above benefits and the horse is developing further the muscles that are already over-developed (ie. spinal extensors and hamstrings). Many weak horses will try to move this way as it’s easier for them, so please watch for it and do not allow them to continue with poor form. Remember, even if doing only one step backwards with head low and relaxed (and so with correct muscle engagement), is way more beneficial than doing many steps with poor form.
So it's very important that you take your time teaching your horse this move, and include plenty of positive reinforcement (food, clicker training, scratches, voice) when teaching so they learnt to do this exercise correctly.
There are several methods to teach them back up in a nice relaxed manner - some people prefer using a whip to touch the leg to move (with reward followed the leg movement), others find luring with food or a target easier and more enjoyable for horse (luring with target instead of food itself has the added benefit of being able to use it later on when starting with ridden backing up).
I find most horses find clicker training (with target to follow) very enjoyable and fun to do, so often you’ll end up having very relaxed horse who loves to do the rehab exercises (as you can use the target and clicker training for various different rehab exercises, or even when teaching them any new ridden exercise) - there are plenty of good educational videos on these techniques on youtube, so have a look and give it a go (or give me a shout if you'd like me to point you to good ones) :-)
And remember, start slow, with only a few steps at a time, and build it up over a time to reach nice 15 or more steps backwards. If your horse is bearing off to one side (as many might do initially due to asymmetrical muscle development), use a wall or a fence to keep them straight. And remember, any rehab exercise works the best when done daily! Have fun! :-)
Hope this helps, if you have any questions, please fire away! :-) x
