The Man Told Me Gee Was Up Hill And Haw Was Down Hill.

[Bumpus]

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The Man Told Me Gee Was Up Hill, And Haw Was Down Hill.

Was he right ?

I asked an old friend of mine many years ago in my younger days what did gee and haw mean in working horses and mules etc.
I new one was for turning right, and the other was for turning left, but I wanted to know which one was which, because I was not sure ?

Well he said gee was up hill, and haw was down hill.

I said … WHAT ? ? ? :confused:

Again he said gee was up hill, and haw was down hill.

He said they always lived and farmed nothing but hill sides land with no level ground and gee is for getting up the hill a little, and haw is for the horse to get down the hill a little.

He was raised on hillside land is West Virginia all his life, and had no bottom land to till or work on.

I said ok. When you get to the end of the row you are plowing and turn around to plow back going in a different direction which way is it then, and how does the horse know the difference.

He said horses and mules are not dumb, they know which way is up hill, and which way is down hill.

That may work fine if he stays on the hillsides but what a mess it would be if they were ever worked on flat bottom land.

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It makes no real difference what you teach an animal or a person as long as you use the same commands every time.

You can say Get Up for stop.
You can say Whoa to move forward.
You can say Back to turn left.
You can say Gee to Back up.
And you can even use the word Bugger to go right with any animal.

It also makes no difference which language you use either.

There are some Teamster who take there teams to Horse Pulls and never teach there horses or mules any kind of vocal commands.

People and fans in the crowds at these place get all excited when the teams are pulling really heavy loads, and they will shout GO, GO, GO, and the team will stop pulling dead in there tracks because It sounds to them like WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, and they will lose the contest when they might have won had the people not said anything.

Yet they stop. 🙁

Some Teamsters in Pulling Contests only use their check lines to signal certain commands to their teams on how and when to move, and the teams will not respond to any other voice commands from anyone.

bumpus
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[cousin jack]

working on my own a lot, I often sing as I go along. I have to be careful not to sing go, no, so, low otherwise we come to a sudden stop. I’ve taken to whistling more 🙂

[Scott G]

I’m for keeping universal commands. Horses & Mules, more often than not, change owners or teamsters sometime in their life. Changinging it up too much is asking for a wreck or a ruined animal from mixed messages in my opinion. Specialized commands are one thing, standard should be standard.

Although there may be some validity to what he uses. ‘Gee’ this hill is d*** steep! or ‘Haw’-ly sh** I hope I make it to the bottom of this thing alive!! 😀

[OldKat]

Hey Bumpus, interesting story. Maybe the man that told you that was a lot like the old timer in the cafe who upon seeing the guy next to him enjoying the chicken soup, which happened to be the soup du jour, said; “That is pretty good soup, but it isn’t soup du jour” To which the other fellow replied; “It isn’t?”. The old timer said; “Naw, I’ve had soup du jour before and it is tomato!”

I guess when and where you are may impact the way commands are used and what those commands are about like what day of the week it is impacts what the soup du jour is! 🙂

[TBigLug]

That’s a neat story. I always tell new horse owners that are looking for advice the same thing. Whatever you want your commands to be is up to you, just be consistent. It doesn’t matter if PEANUT BUTTER means left and JELLY means right as long as you always use the same commands! lol

[Rod44]

Typically gee is right and haw is left. To remember to can say “gee they did it right”. I just use the lines.

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