Teaching my mare to bow

Is 5 too old to be taught to bow?
And also how do you teach her to bow?
Im wanting to teach my 5 year old mare to bow but I don't know where to start?
Any advise????

I think clicker training could work for this "trick". Teack her to touch a target with her nose, then move the target closer and cloaer to the ground. Don't try to progress too fast. Once she gets the idea then start phasing out the treats.
Most people like to use a voice command, some a hand single, I prefer to use both.
I think that an animal is not very often too old to learn new things, as long as they are fit enough to preform it.

thank you for your reply, im not that familiar with clicker training, what is the best way to use it?

No she isnt too old to teach, I've started to teach my boy to bow, using the treat method.

I think most horse trainers will use a word instead of a clicker. Then you don't have anything more to carry. But basically its a bridge. They know, from conditioning, that a click means a treat. AT least in the beginning, eventually the click is the reward itself.
Have a stick and touch her nose (after making sure she's not scared of it) and click and treat. Keep doing that until she touches it on her own. Then move from there.

What you need: A halter, 2 lead ropes, and whip (a bat works the best or a dressage whip), treats help to.

Step 1. Lunge your horse.. Its better to try with a tired horse.
Step 2. With your extra lead rope (one with out a lead shank) loop it around your horses pastern so that it loosens when you loosen the rope.
Step 3. Cross it under the horse to the opposite side and then over the back
Step 4. Tap your horse just below the knee until your horse picks up his leg and hold the rope tight so that it holds his leg there and then give him the treat and then release. Do this a few times till he gets the hang of it.
Step 5. Repeat step 4 but try to get your horse to eat the treat from between his knees and keep teasing him back till his knee touchs the ground. Let his knee stay on the ground for 3 seconds and then release and give him the treat!

What ever you do don't let go of the rope when your horse pulls back and starts acting stupid...

Sorry it is really hard to explain but I tried!

Thank you for all your replies,
Starlinestables thank you for explaining the stages that I should follow... in a while when she has settled down in her new place I will try it and keep you posted, once again thanks :)

Be careful about using the rope around the pastern... if you can use half a hobble to attached the rope to that would be best..

Keep doing those steps and then practice with out the rope extending the time he bows each time... you should eventually be able to walk around him and he stays down or be able to mount that way.. You should also eventually be able to just point or touch with the whip and he bow immediately.

Haha, you can tell I'm a dog person. I forgot they have much further down to travel to bow. Thanks for stepping in, I was likely being confusing.

I am in the process of teaching a client's horse to bow for mounting because she had a has a bad hip.
I started out just having him follow the treat to his ankle, then a little more each time so he got the idea of rocking backwards. Then I tapped his leg for him to lift it, then once its lifted I lower his head and rock him back with him following his treat. If he went to put his leg down, I'd tap it up again.
In the beginning he'd snag the treat and shoot his head back up, so I made a point that his head must remain down even after recieving the treat. Little by little the horse gets more generous and will learn to go down on one knee..here's his progress so far.