tell me about your verbal cues

[lilmiraclesfarm]

I really need to get back out there and start working with mine some more.

I have one mare that is very good with physical commands. As long as that girl knows its work time she will walk, run, trot at whatever speed I do. If I stop on a dime, so does she. I can go forward, backwards in a circle and she will follow my every lead. She rears up with the point of my fingure in the air. I was teaching her jumping last year but I haven't done anything with her this year. I had her jumping small poles without a lead on.

I tend to base alot of my commands from dog training. Over for jumping, Up for rearing, step for stepping onto a platform/sidewalk, Forward to walk (I also always walk forward with the left foot), Back for backing up. Touch for target. I also try to teach my horses the difference from a short stop and a long stop. A short stop I use the command houp, but when I want them to stay put I tell them stand. When I'm moving them through the fields. My horses tend to not like to move so instead of click snickering them to move, I like to use a sht sht to push them.

 

[barnbum]

This is a great topic.

"new cue, old cue, click/treat"

Yes--that worked for me last winter. Rosie was pestering me to work with her--but it was 9 PM and cold and snowy outside, but I wanted to meet her need. So--I took her into a back stall alone and had to come up with something quickly.

I decided "shake" as in lift her hoof forward and up to shake hands with me would be an interesting goal.

I decided to go with "up" since that's the cue to lift a hoof back for cleaning. So--I said "UP! shake." with shake being quieter. This gave her the idea to lift her hoof, so I could hold it forward and up--shake it--and treat her. I moved to "Shake! up"--in a few steps. She's an amazingly fast learner--so within three days I could say "Rosie, shake!" and she'd lift her front hoof forward and up for me to congratulate her.

She has struggled with "back" without the body cue. That girl is so in tune to my body language she will start backing if I so much as lean in a direction...but to keep my huggy horse out of my space, she needed to learn "back" without me going with her. We're working on that now--I was surprised how much longer it's taking.

The same was for "circle" when I stop walking but she continues to move circling to her right and back to my side... she needed the target to follow to understand what I meant.

 

[Wtgr36]

When Rain was little he use to do alot of coltish things like being hyper. lol. So when i had him on a lead he wouuld start trotting and cantering so i put a command to it. When he started trotting id say 'rain trot' and then when he would canter id say 'cant-er'. NOw 2 years later he does it on command but before i canter i make 2 small circles and say "rain canter, rain ready, canter" then take off in a canter.
I also taught him to pick up his hooves on the command 'up'. but now when i stand next to the hoof he pickes it up automatically with out me saying anything.

Rain also use to pick up his feed bucket when he was little and throw it around so we put a command to that too. lol. Now we can point to the bucket and say 'rain, bucket" and he walks over to it and pickes it up, carries it back and gives it to us. : P

I have a video of that-

Loved your video of Bucket!

 

[jleonard]

Because I am in Pony Club, I have pretty much geared my lunging technique around what examiners expect to see at ratings. They teach you about the importance of the tone with which you give your voice commands. For example, for an up transition, you say it with more energy and place more influence on the last part of the word, so it would be waaalK, or trroT (sorry not good with phonetics!). For down transitions, you let the end of the word trail off a little, wallllk, trooot. I also use "and" to prepare the horse for a transition, so "and walk". I use "easy" as a half halt. When they hear "easy", they know to rock back and balance their stride. For a down transition, I will usually use my half halt, "easy", then "annnd walllk". When I want more energy and impulsion, I use "walk on", "trot on", etc. Of course they also know "whoa" and "stand". My horses are not allowed to turn into me when they stop on the lunge. They must halt and stay on the circle, and allow me to come to them. This, again, is a Pony Club requirement, but I also think it teaches the horse respect for your space.

Many of my lunging cues carry over to driving. One of my driving horses is extremely sensitive to any noise she can percevie as a cluck and she will jump forward. Instead of clucking to increase she energy, I use "walk/trot on", which gives me the gradual increase that I need rather than the over-enthusiastic leap.

I have several voice commands that I use when working inhand as well. To move any part of the horse over, I point at the area I want to move and say "over". I have recently started working with my yearling on turns on the forehand and haunches, and I would like to come up with individual commands for each, but have not worked on that yet. For backing I use "back". Although my horses know how to lead without voice commands, I sometimes like to prepare them for what's coming by telling them what's coming next. "Touch" I use for targeting. I can ask them to "touch" something scary, they get clicked and treated for it, and suddenly, it's not so scary anymore! I use "step" when I want them to move a foot, it may be that I just want them to step forward, or I may want them to step into/ onto something like a hula-hoop, tarp, or platform.

The ones that know tricks have voice commands for their tricks, such as "shake", "bow", "laydown", "step up", etc.

Most of my voice commands are coupled with physical cues, however, I think the voice command helps to clarify what I want. For example, I could flick the whip when lunging, but without me telling them what it means, they may just speed up and get strung out, rather than staying collected and lengthening the stride like I want.

It's fun to see what everyone else uses!

P.S. Peggy, it is interesting that that trainer would use "whoop" to get their horses attention. When I did western, everyone used "whoop" to slow their horses down. My dad still uses it with his pony when playing games to slow him down and prepare him for turns.

 

[Peggy Hogan]

I had her jumping small poles without a lead on.

I love doing liberty jumping. In fact I'm working on a small obstacle course that includes jumps, barrels and hoops. My goal is to let Handsome jump whichever jumps he wants to. This also presents an interesting issue, since it's the VISUAL cue of the JUMP itself that triggers the behavior. I can point, or cluck or smooch him into a trot, but then he gets to make the decision to jump (if he doesn't jump things he doesn't get clicked or paid, but I don't push him into the jumps). This game has shown me just how many cues are out there that we don't even realize are triggering our horses.

I tend to base alot of my commands from dog training. Over for jumping, Up for rearing, step for stepping onto a platform/sidewalk, Forward to walk (I also always walk forward with the left foot), Back for backing up. Touch for target.

That's interesting....I love the idea of leading off with the same foot...hope you don't mind if I borrow your cue...

 

[Peggy Hogan]

I moved to "Shake! up"--in a few steps. She's an amazingly fast learner--so within three days I could say "Rosie, shake!" and she'd lift her front hoof forward and up for me to congratulate her.

That's really neat Karla....

She has struggled with "back" without the body cue. That girl is so in tune to my body language she will start backing if I so much as lean in a direction...but to keep my huggy horse out of my space, she needed to learn "back" without me going with her. We're working on that now--I was surprised how much longer it's taking.



It seems like the first few verbal cues are the hardest, then they seem to get the idea. One thing I learned about cues is to treat them as a new behavior and click/treat for the first few associations. So i might say "walk-on" and then click immediately when the horse moves. I do this a few times to help them associate the word with the event, otherwise they hear the word, then walk for a long time and it takes them a much longer time to connect the word to the event.....or did I explain the idea enough to make sense?

Lately I've been trying to get 2 kinds of backing motions. One is just a couple of steps back, like at a gate or something. The other is the "back until I tell you otherwise - auto pilot" sort of backup. I think I need to switch cues to "out" for the long backup. It doesn't rhyme with any other of the verbal cues I use so we'll see.

I love your image of "the huggy horse" LOL. Sounds like she's really tuned into your motion...that's neat.

 

[Peggy Hogan]

I have recently started working with my yearling on turns on the forehand and haunches, and I would like to come up with individual commands for each, but have not worked on that yet.

That's interesting Jessica....I can see using "front" or maybe "cross" because it doesn't sound like any other cue you might use, but wow...a verbal cue for the hind could be interesting.....

I use "step" when I want them to move a foot, it may be that I just want them to step forward, or I may want them to step into/ onto something like a hula-hoop, tarp, or platform.

That's the kind of thing I'm trying to clear up for the horses because so many time the SIGHT of the tarp, or platform is actually what they're cueing off of. They SEE the item and respond without waiting for us.

The ones that know tricks have voice commands for their tricks, such as "shake", "bow", "laydown", "step up", etc.

So do you think you could have your back to your horses, say "laydown" and they'd do it? (If you didn't use your physical cue as well). That would be a really fun experiment.

Most of my voice commands are coupled with physical cues, however, I think the voice command helps to clarify what I want. For example, I could flick the whip when lunging, but without me telling them what it means, they may just speed up and get strung out, rather than staying collected and lengthening the stride like I want.

It's fun to see what everyone else uses!

P.S. Peggy, it is interesting that that trainer would use "whoop" to get their horses attention. When I did western, everyone used "whoop" to slow their horses down. My dad still uses it with his pony when playing games to slow him down and prepare him for turns.

That's interesting....thanks for all your suggestions Jessica...lots of neat stuff!

 

[Peggy Hogan]

Oh for loading a horse in a trailer or my barrel horse in the back of the truck with a stock rack and the tailgate chest high on him I would just say "Load up".

Now THAT would have been a fun site.

I do transport McKee and/or Handsome in the mini van for short distances. But really, the "cue" for them is just the open door on the van. I think once they see that they understand the job. I tend to wonder if they would walk around the van looking for the way in if I said "Load up" and the door was closed.

(Now wouldn't THAT be a mean thing...LOL)