Rate Commands

Just wondering what your rate commands are on your barrel horses?

For Selena, for the sake of preserving her reining horse slide (Whoa) I say "Hey" when she needs to rate, so it's a distinct cue to slow instead of stop. I found out really quick that when I said "whoa" at the beginning to barrel training that she was going to slam on the brakes. One saddle horn in my ribcage later, we decided to change commands.

By yelling "Ho". My mom trained me, some reason Whoa has been shortened lol. All my friends who she taught or we helped say Ho too.
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LOL that's amazing! Mine doesn't really have any rate.... I make sure that he's picked up when we get to our pocket, but, he NEVER slows down at ANY point! He has more of a "Martha" type turn. When my leg is parallel to the barrel, then I'll drop my outside rein and sit, but he doesn't really have a cue to rate. That'll probably come back and bite me in the butt someday, but, for now, it's working...

I don't have a vocal cue for rate yet, but I might need one for Squiggy (still trying to figure that beast out) but for Peanut, I just drop my outside rein and sit back and that usually does the trick

I say "easy" just before we get to the barrel. But I say it really lengthened out... "eeeeeeeasy"

Then say "here" for out turn and when we complete the turn I always say "good girl/boy" unless we hit a barrel. Then I pull them up and don't say anything.

I'm typically a very vocal person with the horses. I find they respond better to someone talking to them as opposed to a quiet rider.

I sit deep and say Hey at the barrel, on JJ I say WHOA on the first to really get him listening and rating (his worst barrel).

The only reason why I don't talk to my guy is because he tends to get over excited and will quit listening.. besides that, I am very uncoordinated
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LOL ClaPorte..I say eeeeeasy too, just at the first barrel then hey at the second and third..I don't really need to use vocal ques with Nikki because she rates SO dang much before the first barrel. I really have to push her past it then sit and turn.. I just "bump" with the inside rein and she sets herself up.. Lark on the other hand....Whole different story..Work in progress lol

It all depends on how my gelding is running. The first barrel I will say easy as we are entering into the pocket. But the other two I don't say anything because if I say "Whoa" he will stop and turn and shoulder in the barrel. Don't go to the horn until about half way to three qaurters of the way through the turn.

Here or Easy. Rosie does more than just barrels, so whoa is used for real whoaing:P
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