Do you or dont you

[SmokieJoe]

Was riding a horse for a girl that my friend knows, I click my tongue and say walk on, trot on etc. However this girl nearly tore me to pieces for using the clicking tongue noise on her horse!

Does anyone else use it or is it a big no no?

 

[rema]

I am always doing it!!.I dont know if it's a good thing or a bad thing!!.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Kind of depends if your going to do dressage or not I guess.

 

[SecretSquirrell379]

When I first started having lessons my instructor would not let me talk to my mare as she said that she is listening to my voice rather than my legs & hands. This has relaxed a bit and I do click at her and give her a little 'come on girl' if she's a bit sluggish. I have a very clever mare though, during my lessons even if my instructor spells out 'and w-a-l-k' she immediatley goes in to a walk!!! She is clever and can spell!!!

 

[Ginn]

....I don't click to my car when going up a steep hill....

 

[sunny123]

How strange, i always click my tongue and use my voice, surley she would rather you did that than stab the horse in the ribs with your spurs? It is lovely riding a horse that is responsive to your voice, i have even heard a number of top people say that they use voice aids quietly in their dressage tests (but so the judge cant hear). What does she do when she lunges the horse?

 

[Chambon]

I put its a big NO! I cannot stand it when people click at their horses, drives me mad!

 

[kayleigh_and_rocky]

huh???why on earth would it be bad?? i always click to rock if hes being sluggish or ignoring my leg and he responds to it, i also do it when leading him

 

[Tia]

A big NO!!

I would be telling you off too. Clicking is very often the call-sign for canter/gallop, therefore you are totally confusing the horse if you were to click but were not to ask for a canter.......on the other hand, you might just disappear off into oblivion if you rode more than a few of mine and did this! Funnily enough, a person did do this with my cutting horse..........bye bye!!

I guess it all depends on how well the horse is trained and how immediate the response is to voice commands.

 

[ladylisa]

i would always 'click' to my pony when showing inhand and he knew it was time to trot, no need to tell him to or pull him in anyway!

 

[kayleigh_and_rocky]

My horse doesnt associate click with canter??? he associates click with move forward!

 

[SmokieJoe]

I didnt even realise that i was doing it! It wasnt until she pointed it out to me!

Well she rides with spurs and im sorry but i dont think the horse needs them, and i dont really like them. She has so much crap on the horse that its pathetic, the horse is really calm and sweet. I managed to get her to let me ride him minus the martingale etc and he went like a dream!

 

[Tia]

Ahh well that may be fine with a sluggishly trained horse - wouldn't be good for your health on an "immediate-response" horse though.

 

[Tia]

Let's hope she doesn't see this post then.....or it will likely be the last time you get to ride her horse!

 

[SmokieJoe]

Well he was a tb and when i clicked he just started to walk, my friends said that they notice that i click before I give a command. However ive never noticed this before!

 

[Tia]

Hmm that's worrying.

 

[SmokieJoe]

Tia im not riding him again anyway, she is selling him as she took a bad fall over the weekend, hence why i was riding her horse!

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Gaaagh NO !!

I was doing endurance with my mad arab a few years ago, and struggling with the brakes. I'd just managed to get him back to half sensible trot, when Mrs Lycra on her whippety arab flew by...obviously on a mission, she clicked her horse on. My boy pricked his ears up, plunged forward, and we involuntarily joined Mrs Lycra at the hip for the next 5 miles.

She wasn't pleased, and kept asking me to pull back, she wanted to ride on her own, but every time she clicked onwards we went.....


My arab now retrained to speed up to a 'kissy' sound instead...

 

[SmokieJoe]

Whats worrying tia

 

[Tia]

Oh dear, I am totally chuckling now!!

And the moral of the story is..........NEVER train your horses to a sound......always use a word....preferably one that no-one else will guess!

 

[Tia]

[ QUOTE ]
Whats worrying tia

[/ QUOTE ]

You making sounds that you aren't aware of....

 

[piebaldsparkle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Whats worrying tia

[/ QUOTE ]

You making sounds that you aren't aware of....

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL

 

[Fiona]

If a young horse is taught to lunge using voice comands, then I for one would use the same voice commands (including a click) when starting to ride the newly backed youngster off the lunge. Once ridden aids are established, then there should be less need for the voice, but if needed then why not. If horse is not listening to leg perhaps, then why not use a click. Can't see the harm really,
Fiona

 

[monica123]

i have VERY responsive tb...i click quite alot - i think, dont really pay attention to that kinda stuff but i know i do do it

 

[jemima]

Well this is kind of fascinating because the girl who was virtually unable to ride due to inexperience and pain is now riding her friend's horse and so experienced that she just clicks to it before she gives a command without being aware of it - although her firends are all used to her doing it. You WERE the OP of the "Riding lessons" thread where you were so badly treated by an instructor that she told you never to get on a horse again weren't you?

 

[Tia]

[ QUOTE ]
i have VERY responsive tb...i click quite alot

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry I really don't want to get into a bickering session here......but read what you have written??

Either the horse is not responsive as you say you have to do it "a lot" OR the horse has no idea what you are specifically asking for.

Perhaps if you were to sit on my cutting horse who reacts immediately to a voice or leg command you would understand what responsive is. Incidentally the same girl who clicked mine into gallop then promptly said "woah" to him.......he came to a dead halt immediately........and she fell off! (Having said that I have since wondered whether she could actually ride as proficiently as she had me believe

)

 

[Blackhawk]

One of mine is trained to stop dead at a whistle due to a previous career. God help me if anyone ever does it when we're at speed! He's been retrained out of it sharpish!

 

[sunny123]

Wow, i never knew all this! Your cutting horse sounds incredible Tia! But most of the horses that i have ridden havnt been trained like this and for alot of them a click works.

 

[dieseldog]

I click.... my instructor used to make me do it into a fence so that I kept the same rythym.

I do hate people who go 'HUP' in front of a fence though

 

[Puppy]

[ QUOTE ]
And the moral of the story is..........NEVER train your horses to a sound......always use a word....preferably one that no-one else will guess!

[/ QUOTE ]

Shall I train Star to my coxing calls I give to the rowers!!