#traininghorses

There is a science to some of my madness.

Everyone that works with me knows, all too well, that I tell them to "BARK" the word "WHOA". I get after students that sing "whooooooa" or whisper "whhhhhoa" I tell my students that you need to have the energy of; "oh my goodness, if you take another step, you will fall off of a cliff"

If you truly believed you needed your horse to stop his feet, because he would plummet off of a cliff, would you sing "whoooooa" or whisper it to him? NO not even a chance!!! You would automatically, pumped with adrenaline, yell or depending on how emotional you are, scream it AT him.

Where would you imagine it would be beneficial for your horse (and you) to know how to respond to the word "WHOA" yelled at him? Where he wouldn't react to an adrenaline charge "WHOA", but would automatically and calmly RESPOND to it.

Can you think of any situation where you won't make the panic worse, if your horse knew the "WHOA" command yelled at him?

Funny how we tend to believe that we train with a science, but the truth of it is, we never plan for panic situations, and how we apply cues our horses know, yet don't know in an adrenaline charged atmosphere.

All our solid training is done in a controlled environment, where we "teach" our horses the definitions of cues, we expect them to "respond" to. What we don't do is look ahead... what if, an example that happened just yesterday, a horse panics about unloading from a trailer, upon the lowering of the ramp. There is a butt bar, so no worries, right? Well... what if your horse feels the butt bar and panics more because of the sudden awareness of being trapped even though "the door opened". Now you have a horse desperately panicking to get the resistance to break, sliding on the manure, he shared on the ride, and basically sitting under the butt bar, while still paddling his feet in a complete panicked state of fiery. How in the world do you imagine you'd react?

Your adrenaline is amplified, and the words come out of your mouth a decibel below screaming. If your horse has NEVER heard "whoa" yelled, you will only put fuel on an already out of control fire! BUT... if your horse has always known "WHOA" as a command yelled, mimicking panic, guess what? Your horse will respond to a familiar command, not react to being yelled at.

Don't tell me, that any one of you have the awareness to calmly, sweetly sing "whooooooa" to a horse in a complete thrashing 1000 pound Tasmanian devil wig out! As a trainer, I could not bet that I would not have a higher energy, adding panic to my voice in a situation that is HAPPENING, not hypothetical!

I train for the "what if" factor. What if a horse takes off with you hanging onto the lead rope and takes you grass, ailse or mud skiing... would you, the person being dragged, sweetly and calmly whisper "whhhhhoa"? I doubt it!

I wouldn't share this if it didn't prove extremely valuable in the most recent past. A horse taught the one "WHOA" command in that panicked sort of manner, will stop and respond. The horse that panicked in my trailer yesterday, was taught that way and thankfully he "responded" to being yelled at and stopped panicking and stepped back up and listened to his owner as I undid the butt bar.

If that horse, was most horses in that extreme of a situation, didn't understand a command yelled at him, and we started yelling as anyone would naturally do, we would have ONLY made matters way worse!

I write this to say, I have proof to the value of teaching STOP in a panicked type of voice. I always told people "WHOA means whoa, it can save your life one day!"

I was on a runaway when I was 14, I got hurt and hospitalized with a 2% chance of even walk again. That taught me the value of being able to yell commands and have it not make matters worse! Had I been able to yell "WHOA" when that thoroughbred took off with me, it might have ended much safer. From that day forward, all my horses and horses I worked with were taught that panic sounding command.

I have proof of that very situation again in 2008, when I was on yet another runaway ride. The young Arabian took off with me, not responding to his first experience with a bit. Stiltz had only had a bit in his mouth for the first time, that day. He didn't understand much about it, especially being held tight, as you would hold when trying to stop.

Well, lucky for me, it clicked to yell "WHOA". Of course it clicked after we took the tops off of about three landscape mini pine trees.

I yelled "WHOA" and Stiltz stopped dead in his tracks!!! That was the day I turned to Lisa, who witness the whole adventure, and said... "WHAO means whoa, it will save your life one day!"

I hope I never ride another runaway, but I promise you one thing, I will install that "WHOA" command on every single horse I work with.

I do have a "wait" command, applied with a normal tone, that also means stop moving your feet. I use this when I want the horse to understand that they are expected to stop, yet I might continue to move about.

For example: I approach a door or gate with a horse in tow. Now I want the horse to stop a few steps back so I can step up to and swing the door or gate open, without having to then back the horse away. I say "wait", they stop, and I, alone, go open the door or gate.

Another example: you set your horse up at a mounting block, barring you don't have an "over" command installed, and then you want to be able to walk away or around your horse, WITHOUT him following you or moving just because YOU are. "Wait" solves that problem and the horse has a clear understanding of what his job is. Without the language it is likely the horse will move, you'll get mad, frustration builds, adrenaline enters the equation and NOW you have an upset horse.