Under the heading Examples of Speech – Horse Language, Victor Strode Manley in his Regional Survey Of The Warminster District (Volume 4, pages 187 – 188) (unpublished), compiled in the 1920s, noted:
In commanding a plough horse the position of the man seems to indicate the direction desired as in turning a furrow the driver may alter his side.
When the man is on the left of his horse he says ‘Wugg-off!’ meaning ‘Go right!’ and ‘Come-ee-ah!’ for ‘Go left!’
If he is on the right then ‘Wugg-off!’ means ‘Go left!’ and ‘Come-ee-ah!’ is ‘Go right!’
‘Weigh’ equals ‘Stop’, and ‘Hout back!’ is used in turning round for the next furrow when the traces are slack and the man sits on the off-side plough handle.
‘Heit!’ is shouted on going up a hill or entering a small opening in a hedge with a sudden jerk-pull; sometimes it is ‘Git-ah!’
A Westbury ploughman turning his horses to start a new furrow shouted ‘Butchee! Waught-ah! Waught-ah!’
A Norton man, a native of South Wales, said ‘Hup de day dah!’.
Manley collected these words at the Warminster & Mere Branch of the Farmers’ Union’s Ploughing Match at Greenhill Farm, Sutton Veny, on Saturday 13th October 1923.