You might not spend much time backing up during an actual ranch sorting run, but the foundation you build through backing drills can dramatically improve how your horse performs when the pressure is on. Backing up isn’t about going in reverse—it’s about building softness, sharpening your cues, and improving body control so that when you do move forward, your horse is balanced, responsive, and ready to go where you point him.

One of the biggest challenges in ranch sorting is maintaining control of your horse’s body, especially when the pace picks up. Without a horse that’s collected, supple, and able to shift his weight with ease, you’re at a disadvantage the moment you ride in the gate. That’s why the work you do outside the pen is just as important as working cattle.

In this article, we’ll walk through a few backing drills that go beyond simply asking your horse to move in reverse. We’ll focus on how to engage the hind end, round the back, and gain control over the hips and shoulders, all while building collection. 

And even if you don’t compete in ranch sorting, these drills can elevate your everyday riding. Whether you’re preparing for another discipline or just want a better experience on the trail, a horse that’s soft, collected, and attentive in reverse is more likely to be balanced and responsive going forward. 

READ: 3 Reasons to Try Ranch Sorting in 2025

1. Start Straight 

You can’t effectively work cattle without a horse that’s soft, supple, and responsive. By improving your backup, you’re suppling your horse up and causing him to frame up his body in a controlled environment with fewer variables to distract or confuse him. 

When you first ask for a backup, don’t overcomplicate it. If you try to do too much at once, you’re going to leave him frustrated and confused. Before you incorporate circles and figure eights into your riding routine, start simple by seeing how your horse does when you ask him to back in a straight line. 

Begin by shortening your reins to establish a clear line of communication, then sit down on your pockets by tucking your pelvis under you and bring your feet slightly forward. From there, engage your legs to encourage your horse to lift his back. 

As you pick up with your hands and follow with your feet, watch to see if your horse relaxes his head and neck and engages his core. If his first response is to put his head in the air, root against the bridle, and hollow out his back, you might need to spend a little more time going to your hands and feet to get basic collection at a standstill before even attempting a backup. 

Lift your hands up and out to the sides, as if forming a triangle, your hands marking the top corners and the saddle horn serving as the bottom point. This helps exaggerate the lifting motion to help your horse better understand that when you go to your hands, and then follow through with your feet, that you’re asking him to collect and frame up. 

Hold this position with your hands and go to your feet until you feel him drop his head and round his back. Release immediately to help him understand that’s the response you want. 

Once you can get your horse to frame up when you go to your hands and feet, you can start incorporating the backup. At first, you might get just one step, then maybe two, but if you keep working at it, you’ll eventually get to the point where your horse is comfortable backing longer distances.

As your horse gains more confidence backing, you’re not going to need as much hand or leg to get a response. But remember not to ask for too much at once. There’s only so much ‘back-up’ a horse has in him each day. Once his hind end muscles get tired, this exercise can quickly turn into a negative. Instead, take it slow. The more time you take working on your fundamentals; the broker your horse is going to be come competition time.

LISTEN: Learn About Ranch Sorting from Logan Wolfe

2. Work on Your Gas Pedal

We’re going backward first so that we can work on helping our horse respond to the gas pedal: our feet and legs. Speed is a factor in sorting pen success, but it needs to be controlled and deliberate, not wild and chaotic. Increase your speed forward or backward by using your feet and legs to communicate with your horse, so that in the sorting pen you can cut that cow out quickly, without yanking your horse around by his face.

Your first reaction might be to pull on your reins even harder if your horse isn’t backing up as fast as you would like him to. Instead, use your reins to initiate the backup, and then use your feet as the gas pedal to increase speed as you back up. It’s very similar to how you would drive a tractor. You drop it into reverse with your hand, but your feet are controlling the throttle, so you need to be deliberate with your pressure to determine your speed. 

As your horse begins to reverse, use your feet to gently ask him to go back. This doesn’t mean kicking him in the sides, but instead, shifting your feet slightly forward, closer to his shoulder, and applying pressure with your feet as you begin to ask for more. Back to the tractor analogy, if you slam your foot on the gas pedal as hard as you can, the tractor will lurch backward, and if you tap the throttle consistently instead of with even pressure, you’re in for a bumpy ride. Instead, you slowly continue to apply pressure until you get to the speed you want. Using your feet as the gas pedal on your horse is no different. 

You want to hold consistent pressure with your feet and not needle him with continuous kicking or tapping. Your horse needs to be completely focused on your cues, and if you’re constantly tapping him with your feet, he might dull to the pressure, rendering your feet and legs useless. 

Apply this same principle to your reins. Pick up your reins with steady, even pressure that you hold gently until you get the reaction you’re looking for, and then use the release as a reward. Yanking on your reins as you move backward might make your horse speed up, but not in a controlled, collected fashion, and definitely not comfortably. As you continue to put pressure on the reins, your horse will start looking for ways to escape the pressure on his face, including rooting his nose out, throwing his head, or wildly moving backward to get away from the force. 

WATCH: Ranch Sorting Beginner Drills on RideTV

3. Building Control Through Circles

After your horse is confidently backing in a straight line, it’s time to incorporate circles. I like to practice a reverse counter-arc to help my horse get soft to my leg and yield to pressure, while also working on shoulder and hip control. This drill will help set your horse up for success in a cow turn and build softness when you ask him to turn off your leg. 

In the sorting pen, having control over your horse’s hips and shoulders will help you put him into the position to let the good cow pass through the gate, or turn back a trash cow without opening up a hole for the herd to run through. This drill also builds a foundation for the rollback, which helps you sort your cow out and bring it to the gate.

A counter-arc is a maneuver that requires your horse to bend his body slightly and carry it in frame while moving forward or backward in the opposite direction of the bend. Imagine your horse’s body making a slight ‘C’ shape, with his nose to the outside, and backing a circle while holding this frame. As you begin with a counterclockwise circle, shift your weight in the saddle slightly to the inside of the circle on your right seat bone to help balance your horse. 

Imagine the cow you want to sort out is slightly on the outside of this circle, and as you back around, keep your shoulders squared up and facing it. You shouldn’t be aggressively twisting in the saddle, but if the cow is just to the outside of your circle, you need to work to keep your shoulders squared up in that general direction. 

Keeping your shoulders square in the direction of the cow is a skill to use in the sorting pen; this helps keep your horse’s head in alignment with the cow, as well. Using your body to point in the direction of your focus will transfer to the cues you’re giving him and keep him pointing in the same direction. 

After you have your body position down, begin backing around your counterclockwise circle. As you back, your horse’s nose should be slightly tipped to the left. Use your outside foot, or in this scenario, your left foot, to push your horse’s hips around, helping set him up to eventually turn out of the circle. Your reins should be even, with your outside hand helping your horse keep his nose tipped slightly to the outside of the circle and picking up his shoulder, and your inside hand holding steady pressure backward. Right now, your inside leg is off your horse as you push his hips around the circle with your outside leg. 

The last step of this drill is to release pressure from your outside leg and let your horse turn to the outside, out of the circle. You’ll utilize this technique in the sorting pen as you ride into the herd for your cow, sort him out, and turn to bring him down the fence to the gate. 

When your horse is soft and supple as he backs around in a reverse counter-arc, and you can feel him yielding his hips to your leg, release pressure with your outside leg and let him start turning to the outside, out of the circle. About halfway through the turn, apply pressure with your inside leg to help him finish the turn. If he doesn’t begin turning to the outside when you release pressure with your outside leg, use your outside rein to prompt the turn without dragging his face around. When he starts to turn, use your inside leg to finish it and return your hands to a neutral position.

The goal is to have your horse naturally turn out of the circle when you release pressure with your outside rein.

—H&R—