How does Warwick Schiller approach the moment of first backing a young horse?

Warwick Schiller's approach to the first backing of a young horse is distinguished from many conventional methods by the emphasis he places on reading the horse's consent signals before any commitment is made. His position is that a horse that is ready to be backed will show it clearly through its body language — and that proceeding before those signals appear is where most colt starting incidents occur. Before backing, Schiller spends time doing what he calls 'passive' preparation: leaning over the horse's back with his chest, lying across the horse's back with his feet still on the ground, asking a helper to apply weight to the stirrup while he watches the horse's response, and gradually increasing the amount of his body weight over the horse's back across multiple short sessions. Throughout all of this he is watching for licking and chewing, lowering of the head, a soft eye, and relaxed breathing. These are signals that the horse is processing and accepting rather than tolerating. When he does get on for the first time, Schiller does not immediately ask the horse to walk. He sits. He lets the horse stand and process the sensation of weight and the smell and feel of a human above its back. He waits for relaxation signals before asking for the first step. This pause, which might be two minutes or twenty minutes, is what he considers the most important part of the first ride — the horse choosing to accept the rider rather than being driven forward before it has had time to think. He also teaches that the first ride does not need to be a long ride. Five minutes of quiet walk in both directions with good relaxation is a more valuable first ride than thirty minutes of trotting circles with a tense horse. The first ride sets the emotional tone for all future rides, and that tone — whether it is relaxed and curious or tense and compliant — tends to persist.