Yep, it’s a European thing. It came here w/all the imports who are trained with it.
[QUOTE=Nestor;8450759]
Our German horses all know it from before they shipped to the US, and it has more than a few times been the single reason for a wild, loose horse to stop dead in their tracks. It’s a cue like anything else, and if properly trained it works![/QUOTE]
Yes. I have one from Germany and one from Spain, and they both came with it installed as a hard WHOA. It isn’t super useful as part of the dressage training, because it means HALT THIS INSTANT not calm or slow - but it is super useful when something goes wrong.
I always saw/heard it used to bring the horse down (canter to trot transition as an example) I tried it on my all American horse and he did slow down. I prefer to use actual words while doing ground work and a breath followed with the word while riding. i.e. breath out and quietly say “and walk”.
It is an annoying sound to me so not something I would pick up.
I teach it to all my horses. It’s like a verbal half halt. I use it out hunting when I want my horse to check but also want to keep of their mouths. I think it’s very effective.
My horse is naturally tense. My dressage coach would use a noise, kind of like a perrrruupppp sound when my horse got tense. It would distract him and worked a bit like a relaxation hh without any aids. I occasionally use it but can’t make the noise like she could LOL.
There is a real basis for the low, drawn-out “Brrrrrrrrrr” sound (and yes, you have to roll the r’s). It mimics the soft, comforting nicker of a mare to her foal. All horses know that sound (well, maybe not orphans who never knew their dam or had a nanny mare to raise them).
I first heard it used with horses back in the 80’s - mostly by European trainers (Dutch, German, Danish, and Swedish), but also by a fairly elderly American born colt-starter / hunter trainer who was a bit of a local legend in this area.
The sound is frequently used as part of the regular training/handling regimen with foals and young horses in Europe. Since the sound has already been imprinted on foals by their dams, trainers and handlers continue to use it to help comfort and relax the horses they are working with.
The sound can also be made a bit sharper and quicker - “Brrrt!” - which means “Stop what you are doing right now!” Or “Pay attention!”
It’s nice to have a sound and not a word- works well in english and german 
[QUOTE=joiedevie99;8450943]
Yes. I have one from Germany and one from Spain, and they both came with it installed as a hard WHOA. It isn’t super useful as part of the dressage training, because it means HALT THIS INSTANT not calm or slow - but it is super useful when something goes wrong.[/QUOTE]
Sophie will slam on the brakes (and look for a peppermint) when she hears “GOOD”
I’ve always used that sound as a calming aid on the lunge line as did my pony club mentors
It’s funny what annoys people and what doesn’t. I use the trilling nose as well as a modified “Huh ho” to calm mine down when they start to get wrapped around the axle. My gelding especially responds to it. I’d go mental if I had to share the arena with someone who exhaled to calm their horse. The worst, to my ears, is the very loud and showy BRAV, usually dispensed when there’s nothing brav going on.
Each to their own, as long as our horses understand what we mean.
My trills never seem to be consistent, and I’m not crazy about the sound, so I use a bit of a sing-songy soft whistle. Up for the first half, down for the second. To my horse that’s my verbal half-halt; he is starting driving and it works for both harness and saddle for him.
The noise is as effective as the training put into the horse.
I pretty much never use verbal cues when I ride, but my former horse was prepared for starting by my best friend, who does the whole bit with long lining and the works and does a fabulous job.
One day a couple years after starting my horse, I pissed him off over the most mildest of corrections (in my opinion, evidently not in his) for cross cantering AGAIN. I literally did the rein equivalent of a very camp gay man saying “SSTAHHP” and that lazy wrist flick, and the horse reacted like I had just beat his @$$ with a tazer.
He proceeded to squeal, leap in the air, nearly throw himself to the ground, leap again, and then porpoise down the long side at speed at an average elevation of 4 feet in the air. I spent the long side getting religion and praying he would successfully turn at the end, and finally when crossing center line it at last occurred to me to say one, short, “Whoa.”
God bless my BFF because the horse immediately halted.
I took a deep breath, made the sign of the cross, got my stirrups back and asked for right lead canter please out of the halt, and all was well.
My BFF is wonderful and puts up with me for some reason and I owe her like 8 million billion things, but that whoa is one I will never forget.
I learned it in Germany, where they use it (at the barn I was at) as a calming/slowing cue, not to ask for a hard halt.
I think it’s a stupid noise. I use my ass to calm my horse.
[QUOTE=purplnurpl;8454276]
I think it’s a stupid noise. I use my ass to calm my horse.[/QUOTE]
What kind of noise does that make? LOL
Sorry, couldn’t help it.
[QUOTE=purplnurpl;8454276]
I think it’s a stupid noise. I use my ass to calm my horse.[/QUOTE]
Exactly how does your ass help when you’re on the ground? :lol:
[QUOTE=Crash Helmet;8454425]
Exactly how does your ass help when you’re on the ground? :lol:[/QUOTE]
Intimidation factor, no doubt.
I too find that sound (I call the trilling the “raccoon noise”) annoying. On the ground I use a ho ho ho ho ho in the rhythm of the horses gait. I slow my ho’s to slow my horse. Hu-ho means slow whoa. Ho! means whoa now.
When it first started showing up with German clinicians in the late '70s, my friend called it “the German horse whisper.” I picked up “hup” from somewhere with my fruitbat TB. Mostly when longeing. It worked as a verbal half halt.
I use it…
I learned it from my trainer and I find it useful. A sharper “purrrrup” to my mare means “hey you, pay attention!” Only really use that from the ground. I will also use a longer, softer one that she has been taught means “don’t worry, you’re OK.” It’s more of an encouragement for my girl and I can use it on the ground when passing something scary or to avert an imminent spook. :encouragement:
