Lorien Stable: Trainer's Notes
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Today's topic is Teaching Voice Commands.
I find voice commands an essential part of training a horse. In many
disciplines, you are eventually expected to ride your horse subtly, with
no voice at all, but I think that as a basic training method they are
useful, helpful, and very clear to the horse.
With any horse I am training, I begin with ground work. Even if the
horse already knows some commands, I prefer to start over. The cues he
knows may not be the same as the ones I give. By starting over, I can
find out what the horse does know and move on--or I can find that
something essential has been left out, and teach it as I go along. (For
the purposes of this article I am going to assume that this is a horse
who is being trained to ride; he already knows how to lead.)
When teaching the voice commands, I use cues in this order: the command
I am teaching (for example, "walk"), the lead rope attached to the
halter (for example, a gentle tug forwards), then my body (for
example, leading off at a walk). Voice, lead, body.
Start at the very beginning: the horse needs to know how to whoa. I
usually teach "walk" and "whoa" at the same time. You'll need to be
prepared with some form
of reward; pet him, give him a treat, tell him he's a good
horse--whatever he associates with a reward. I usually carry a lot of
treats and
use them as a reward for instant response; otherwise I just pet, or say
"good boy."
I ask the horse for a
walk: Say "walk" first, then cue with the lead line and begin to lead
away. Reward him for walking!
The whole time you're walking, ask for the walk
verbally, and reward him. "Walk. Good boy. Walk. Good boy." He's
still doing what you sked of him, so continue to reward him :) I
usually walk about one quarter to one-half of an arena.
Now ask for a stop. Say "whoa," then tug backwards gently with the lead
line and stop
walking. Reward him if he stops. (If not, ask again--the whole
sequence: voice, lead, body.) As he's learning, don't expect him to
hold still for too long; try to whoa for only a few seconds and then
move on. But if he begins to move before you ask him, again tell him
"whoa" and cue with the lead rope.
Now, when he is fully whoa'd, ask him to move forward again; "walk,"
lead rope tug, walk off. Walk whatever distance you feel is right, then
ask for the whoa again. In the first session, I would repeat this
sequence about 10 times.
By your second session, the horse may be beginning to catch on, or it
may take 3 or 5 sessions. While in the session, if the horse begins to
demonstrate understanding, then stop the session immediately. What you
are looking for is for the horse to
respond to your voice command before you have a chance to use the lead
rope. If you say "whoa" and you get an immediate stop, give him a
handful of treats, mak much of him, and put him away. Similarly with
"walk"; if he begins to move on before you ask with the lead, then stop
right away, reward him greatly, and let him be done for the day.
The
first several sessions where he responds correctly right away should be
handled this way. After that, he "knows" the command. You can expect
him to do it when you ask, and reward him for it, but he's "got" it so
you don't need to stop right away when he does it right. You will
probably want to ask him to perform once or twice any time you handle
him, to re-inforce the command.
Once the horse knows "whoa" and "walk," you can teach "back" and "trot"
in the same manner.
For trot, say, "trot," tug forward gently with the
lead, and jog off. It may take him a second to follow you, especially
if he has been well-trained to lead: "But I'm not SUPPOSED to run off
when I'm being led!" Be sure he understands that you are *asking* him
to trot, and that he should do this only when you request it. Voice,
lead, body. Once I get the trot, I usually trot for only a few steps
before asking for a walk again. For the walk, you say, "walk," tug
backwards gently with the lead, and slow down yourself.
Caution: DO NOT say "whoa" at this point. You want him to return to a
walk from the trot. "Whoa" means stop, not slow down. If you use
"whoa" to mean slow down, then when you *do* want a whoa, you may not
get it. Always use the precise voice command for the response that you
want.
Again, you'll want to spend several sessions going from "walk" to "trot"
and back again; you'll know that he's got it when he responds to your
voice before you use the lead to back it up. And again, once he
demonstrates understanding, end the session right away to reward him.
To teach "back," you may wish to use an additional cue. Some horses
will
back well from the halt, with a backwards tug on the lead line. Some
will respond better to a gentle tapping in the center of the chest.
Once you know what your horse prefers, then you will want to use it in
your ground training; voice, cue, body. Face your horse from the
front, say, "back," tap or tug, and
walk forwards toward him. This concept is a little more difficult for
the horse, and may take a little longer to figure out just what you
want. Be sure to reward him well when he performs correctly.
Backing is a little tough on a horse (it's not very natural to them) so
you should probably work on the other commands that he knows for a few
minutes between requests. I would ask for a back about 5 times a
session, but no more.
Once he knows all of these voice commands and can respond to them
promptly, you can begin to vary his routine. I typically practice voice
commands with my horses when I am leading them, as we are cooling down
after working. We will do things like trot, halt, back, trot; or
trot, walk, whoa, back, whoa, walk, trot.
Associated topics:
* Giving to pressure is not instinctual for a horse; you can also use
these methods to teach "move over" on the ground. This is useful while
handling, grooming,
shoing, etc, but also when using leg aids in the saddle.
* I have a description of the steps for teaching a horse to "stand" (stand
still) and stand still for mounting.
* Once a horse understands voice commands very well, I begin to transfer
them to under-saddle voice commands. I will use the voice commands
to teach leg and seat aids under saddle, much as I used the lead
line to teach the voice command initially. Now, instead of "voice,
lead, body," I will use "leg/seat aid, voice" and possibly a handler
on the ground to help demonstrate to the horse what I am
requesting.
