Teaching a Horse Voice Commands

Voice commands are an important part of a horse's training. After all, the kindest aid you can give the horse is your voice. Fortunately, horses can learn by operant conditioning just like many other animals. When given a command to create a reaction, then rewarding that reaction, the horse begins to associate the command. That command can be vocal. Voice commands like, whoa, walk, trot, canter, back, a click of the tongue etc. are all extremely useful. Driving horses know things like left and right. Therapeutic horses are taught other voice commands for their special work in helping the injured and disabled. Horses can even be taught to retrieve items by their name! But, to be successful in teaching horses voice commands, the trainer needs both patience and consistency.

Start with teaching your horse the voice command "whoa". Take your horse with his halter on out into a quiet space with room to walk. Plan a place to come to a halt. Say, "whoa" and then immediately use the lead line by applying steady resistant pressure to make the horse halt. If the horse was very reluctant to stop, back them up a couple of steps. Walk on turn around and come back to the same spot. There repeat the process of saying whoa, then adding pressure on the line to create a halt. When you see the horse beginning to slow or almost halt when you say whoa or feel there is very little need to help with the rope, you know the horse comprehends. Under saddle, the same idea applies. Ride at an ordinary walk. Then say whoa and immediately begin your aids for halt. Horses associate any initial new sensation with the immediate pressure that follows it. When they see the pattern and feel rewarded for accomplishing the task, they will eagerly try to anticipate the subtlest suggestion for the behavior. So, when the voice aid comes immediately before any other aids, the horse will try to do the behavior the moment he hears the vocal command for a behavior. Whoa is one of the most beneficial behaviors to command by voice. It can be used at any time you want the horse to stand still or cease an action.

The same process can create voice commands for other behaviors. Saying "trot" just before giving a light flick of the whip when lunging will quickly teach the horse to trot by the voice aid alone. Teaching a horse to canter from the voice aid requires the same process. For anyone wanting to have a very discreet vocal aid, it can be a soft kissing noise or a click of the tongue immediately preceding the aid of the whip when lunging or the leg when riding. Follow through with increasingly firm, though never harsh, aids until a response is achieved, then reward. Next, repeat. When this pattern is very consistently applied and given time, horses can be taught voice commands quite easily.