Re: Catastrophe Control

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

>and I don't think that I'd ever heard a dressage or

>hunter/jumper rider "chirp" their horses!

It's actually a 2 point deduction in dressage if you give *any* verbal cues...and 2 points deducted every time.  The object being, of course, to do all of the cues with the subtlest of body cues.

On the trail we ride with others most of the time...we discourage verbal cues except for downward transitions when you don't want the horses behind you piling up on top of you (...AAAANNNNDDDD walk (etc.)) and we discourage kissing, clucking, etc. since different horses may be trained to respond differently and you don't always know what others around you will do.  (And *never* train a horse to go forward faster with the cracking noise of a lunge whip...sounds too much like a stick breaking. <g>)  If you use a verbal cue on the trail, we stress keeping it simple and not giving a cue hidden somewhere in a sentence of babbling chatter.  (Cues such as *NO*, *quit*, etc.)

Sue


"If all you can do is what you've always 
done, then all you can be is what you are right now."
                             
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