Horse training voice commands are simple words to help convey the riders’ message to the horse. “Easy, Easy” is a common phrase from those that ride higher spirited horses who are getting too excited for the riders’ comfort level. Whether we teach our equine partner on purpose or not, they can understand that a certain word means something. Although he does not understand a word the same way a person does, they can be taught to respond to verbal cues.
Horse training voice commands can be very helpful. If you want teach them, keep these steps and horse training
tips in mind:
Teaching horses to respond to voice commands is no different from teaching a horse other training techniques. It requires consistency and the ability to back up the cue with other aids to get the desired response.
Simply saying a voice command repeatedly won’t work.
When learning how to train a horse with voice commands you will have to be completely accurate with what you are asking him to do and use proper timing.
For example, one of the most misused horse training voice commands is
“whoa.” “Whoa,” whether you are riding or driving a horse should always
mean come to a complete STOP. What ends up happening is that the rider
will use “whoa” not only to stop, but also as a command to slow down.
For instance if cantering, a rider may say “whoa” and really only be trying to get the horse to walk. This is why you must use the voice command consistently and correctly. In this case, if you were cantering and wanted the horse to walk, you should say “walk” not “whoa.” You would only say “whoa” if you want him to come to a complete stop.
Let me give you an example of an unintentional voice command I taught my
horse. I had not been using regular horse training voice commands such
as walk, trot, canter, and back because while following natural
horsemanship training principles I wanted my horse to first respond to
my body language, energy, and focus.
My horse is very food motivated and enjoys treats. I would
often reward her for a good effort in training by saying “good girl” and
giving her a cookie. Now every time I say “good girl,” she expects a
cookie! I had reinforced “good girl” with a cookie so many times that
she just thinks it means here comes a cookie!
It is important to note that horses are very sensitive to your tone and
pitch of voice. For instance, in the above example of “good girl” I of
course used a very sweet, praising tone of voice. If I had been too
abrupt or aggressive in saying “good girl” it could have also started to
habitually scare my horse into thinking she had done something wrong. A
clear, confident tone of voice is fine. An angry tone of voice does
nothing more than to scare a horse. They don’t understand or respond well
to harshness, yelling and anger.
Remember, an animal doesn’t understand the meaning of the
words, just the tone, pitch, and whatever meaning you have assigned to
it during training. Being clear when speaking the voice command will
also help when teaching verbal cues. Say the word consistently every
time and don’t add other words.
“Whoa” should just be “Whoa,” not “whoa, Trigger” because you are being inconsistent in teaching the word to the horse by adding another word. Most likely in this situation you will also be inconsistent by using two phrases for the one command, which is “Whoa.” By adding the horses name to a training phrase it clouds the meaning of the horse riding voice command. Hopefully you just want to use his name for praise or for calling him to you from the pasture!
Many riders really struggle to be consistent enough to teach their horse
voice commands well. I like to start by getting the horse to
communicate with me through body language using
natural horse training
basic horse training
should be done first.
If after you have your partner successfully responding to your
body and cues both in ground training and while riding, then you can add
voice commands. Of course if your horse came to you already trained
with voice commands, you would need to learn what words he knows and how
they are used. If you would like more info visit
horse riding for beginners.
If you are going to be using horse training voice commands, remember to
start by teaching them to your horse on the ground first, like when
longeing a horse (not my favorite technique) or when doing other quality
then add them slowly into your riding. It will be easier for both you
and your horse if you teach one command at a time. That way you can keep
track of how you and the horse are doing and you won’t get overwhelmed
trying to do it all at once!
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