2004 Andy Curry
All Rights Reserved

To the uninitiated, voice directions for the horse are nothing more than words. But to the horse they are only sounds.

Obviously, horses cannot speak our language. Since they cannot speak our language we should think through what we say to them when we want certain responses from them.

Take the word "whoa" for instance. I have no doubt this is the most abused word in the human/horse language. When the rider says "whoa" then the horse should understand to stop.

But the problem is this. Often the word "whoa" is said when the rider wants the horse to slow down...not stop. Before you understand it, the rider has conditioned the horse to slow down at the word "whoa" instead of stopping. Then the rider can not understand why the "stupid" horse wont stop when he says "whoa