Whoa. A universal word horses understand. Well, most of them understand it. They may choose to ignore it, but they understand it. Caesar never obeyed it.
Caesar was the name of a Shetland pony that I owed growing up on the farm who at some point in his career as a baby horse failed to hear the word whoa.
The universal equine vocabulary bypassed his growing brain cells, but he understood other words. He was compliant when he heard “would you like to go for some grass?” and would leave without me if I’m wasn't just quite ready or fast enough for him. Another favorite phrase: “time for carrots”. He immediately headed for the garden and started hoofing around in the carrot patch. I had to dig them up but he would eat them dirt, green tops and all. So he knew what the the words Grass and Carrot meant, but whoa somehow he just didn't understand or just stubbornly ignored it.
Whoa is an important word. Whoa is the Supreme Commander of Equine Vernacular. It means “stop whatever behavior you are presently engaged in”. Without whoa the rider is left with pitiful alternatives such as screaming for help while riding under the belly of a run away crazy horse because the saddle had spun around,and resorting to profanity.
Fortunately, there is an alternate word that Caesar had learned. “Stay.” Now, that makes no sense whatsoever I know but if I told Caesar to "Stay!" He would be in the excact same place hours later. I used the phrase most every time I wanted to clean his stall. Having him stay just outside the doorway until I had a nice clean bedding of straw in place and a fresh pail of oats in his feed pale.
When I first met Caesar I tried to use the word Whoa! It didn’t work.
Out of desperation one day, I shook my finger at him and said "Stay!". That worked. At first I thought it was my body language. Later I realized I could say "Stay!" in any tone of voice without hand gestures and get the same result. He stopped what ever he was doing and stayed there until I called him to move.
An interesting episode with the horseshoer (farrier) proved Caesar's command of the English language. Caesar was a solid citizen who didn’t need cross ties and other horse paraphernalia for routine acts like grooming and shoeing. I park him in a nice, shady spot, slipped the lead rope over his neck so he wouldn't step on it, and he stood quietly for his shoeing. On this particular occasion he tried to follow me when I needed to fetch something from my tack trunk, leaving the farrier holding an imaginary left hind hoof. The farrier said “whoa”. Caesar kept walking. “WHOA”. “He doesn’t understand whoa”, I said. “Try stay ”. The farrier didn’t believe me, but he tried it. "Stay!". Caesar froze in his tracks.
I can leave this horse in the middle of anywhere, tell him "Stay", and walk away. He’d still be there an hour or even hours later. I couldn't get my Border Collie "Cindy" to "Stay!". Cindy wouldn't listen unless there was an amount of food involved. One day when she was helping me catch some chickens that got out of the pen, she was running after the chickens chasing them toward the pen and I needed for her to stay still until I got the door open so that the chickens could get into the pen. I called for her to "Stay!". She moved around as though she didn't hear me. Until Caesar approached and snorted a few times. Cindy seemed to understand what Caesar snorted for her to do,stopped and waited until I got the door open and then adeptly herded the loose chickens inside the pen.
Maybe I should have tried the word whoa on her.
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