Beginner Driver Question--Whip

[the_other_mother]

Im new to driving and struggling with the whip. I fumble trying to hold my reins and the whip at the same time, it is just so awkward and frustrating I end up sticking my whip back in the holder and driving without it. Is there a knack for whip holding or is it just something you develop a feel for? My whip is a nice lightweight fiberglass one so its not too heavy. Just cant seem to get the hang of it.

Also, if Im carrying my whip in my right hand with the tip going across my front and pointing the the left, how is it possible to gracefully use it on my horse? Am I supposed to be flicking his right side or left? Im so confused.

[twofatponies]

How many days a week do you drive? If it’s just one or two days a week, in particular, take your whip home to practice extra. Walk around with it in the driving position. Point it at things, hold it to the left, hold it to the right. Just get used to it.

If you drive every day, then you’ll get used to it soon enough. But it helps to carry it around without the reins, just to get more familiar with the sensation and less distracted.

I think I rest my thumb on it, as that helps keep it from waving randomly around. Imagine it is an extension of your arm… I dunno, those are things that helped me when I started driving.

[twofatponies]

just to add, I think of it as a pointing action to keep it simple. Kind of like a wizard raising his wand up and then pointing it to the left, then to the right, with your thumb pointing the same way as the tip of the “wand”? Does that make sense?

Maybe someone else will have better metaphors or tips! LOL

[IronwoodFarm]

Your whip is the equivalent of your leg in riding. You cannot totally drive with your hands or voice. As 2FP said, it’s all about practicing. But you really do need to drive with a whip and learn how to use it effectively.

[pegasusmom]

I had the same problem, and if I took the two wheeler out I had the added “fun” of smacking my passenger in the face. It just takes practice. I have been driving for about 9 months now, 4-6 times a week and not only can I use the whip to touch both sides of my pony, my right hand doesn’t ache anymore.

One more thing that helped me was I invested in one of the ultralight graphite shaft whips, and will definitely be purchasing them again as time goes by.

[Thomas_1]

You need a comfortable and well balanced whip that feels right for your hand. I personally don’t like them too light.

You hold it quite well up the handle in your right hand and with the thong thrown round the stick.

It needs to be held nearly horizontal across your body, your right hand level with the pit of your stomach and about 4 inches from your body.

You carry it without swinging and keep the thong hanging under it.

Driving tuition ordinarily includes use of whip and I’d suggest it would be a good idea to be shown how to hold it and use it.

[2tempe]

In order to use the whip really effectively, the reins are held in the left hand, so the right is free to direct the whip w/out messing w/ the contact… In my old reinsmanship classes, we had to do a little “test” as part of the class, driving a pattern w/ one hand, whip hand held out way out to side…

[Thomas_1]

It’s one of the reasons why I assert you can’t drive properly with a rein in each hand.

[the_other_mother]

Thanks everyone. I do take driving lessons and have been shown how to hold and use it. It just seems awfully awkward to me and it’s something Im struggling with. I guess its just a “feel” you develope, or so I hope. Just wondering if there were any hints or if I was doing something wrong. I’ve concluded that Im probably just a clutz. Yeah, that’s it. ;o)

[Thomas_1]

It takes time and practice.

Preferably to start with without a horse and carriage! I’d suggest practice with a reining machine first.

Otherwise when you start it’s like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach!

[jcotton]

For practice: sit on a bucket or chair, put 1 bucket(single horse) or two buckets (1 bucket for each horse) out in front of your chair. Place the buckets, where the horse’s shoulders would be if hooked to your carriage. Practice hitting each shoulder lightly. That means on a pair, the inside shoulder, too, on both buckets.
Add some old reins to mimic what you would have if you were really driving.

You could set up a rein board and practice that way too.

[SmokenMirrors]

[QUOTE=Thomas_1;5026842]
It’s one of the reasons why I assert you can’t drive properly with a rein in each hand.[/QUOTE]

Not everyone is is this way Thomas, I drive with both hands, a line in each and drive just fine. Same when I show, I can drive with both hands AND hold the whip and do quite well often enough to know I am good at it.

Some people can’t drive with both hands, that is true. But to say that you can’t drive properly with a line in each hand is lumping everyone together, and that isn’t right.

I want to note, and yes, admitting, that driving a team of Percherons, my hands are not strong enough to drive them one handed. Have I tried? Yes, but I don’t like it nor do I feel like I am in control. I am sure you will have a reason why this is so and to each his own.

[Thomas_1]

It’s not possible to hold a rein in a hand AND use the whip effectively and correctly.

You will interfere with the reins … and the action on the bit. Which is most definitely not what you should be doing if you’ve taken the decision that you need to use a whip to back up or reinforce a command.

If you sit on a reining machine with a rein in each hand and then practice use of reins just see what happens to the pulleys and weights as you go to place your whip.

If you’ve got light responsive well trained horses they actually get a command AND a counter command that’s in conflict.

I’m not saying that people driving 2 handed don’t get by because they do. Over time their horses learn what they’ve to ignore and heed.

To me it’s no different to those who have riding horses and come along because they can’t get their horse to leg yield. Then when you talk to them and watch their ridden work you often come to learn that every time they ride out on the road and hear a car they turn to look over their offside shoulder. Do that in your chair now with your hands held out as if they had reins and your feet say a hip’s breadth apart. What happens when you turn your head over your shoulder is that you take with your offside rein, give with your inside and put your weight onto your inside hip bone and you put your inside leg on. Horse should track over to the offside with all those commands.

However that isn’t what the rider (or horse) wants because that means the horse might step into the path of the car. So if the horse drifts, the rider then gives a yank on the inside rein or places a whip on the horses offside to keep it in. Over time the horse learns that all those signals to leg yield are to be totally ignored because the owner actually wants you to go straight.

But try it for yourself. Sit in front of a reining machine with a rein in each hand and then use your whip to signal a turn and then see what happens to the action on the bit. Trust me I do know that there’s a command that is exactly the opposite of the direction you want to go in. Then do the same thing with a reining machine with 2 or 4 pulleys and practice putting the whip to the shoulder of one of your pair or one of your team of 4 with a rein in each hand. Just have a look and see what happens. You give one signal with the whip and a whole set of opposite and contradictory commands with your reins.

[Cielo_Azure]

Some other tips-

I think I may have some more mechanical tips for whip types and usage. It may not be “you,” but in the equipment you are using.

If you are like me, I have tiny hands. So, they aren’t the strongest part of my body.

I have to use a very long whip when I am training for dressage (18+ hand horses), and it does get to me if my whip is heavy. The longer the whip, the heavier it gets to hold. I use a very light weight whip for this reason.

Make sure you are balancing the whip at the fulcrum (the spot between the handle and the long whip). A good whip should have a balance point there. Balance is everything in a whip and the longer your whip, the more important that balance becomes.
Read this:
http://www.coachmansdelight.com/ProductPagewithGuide.asp?pg=STO&k=&sku=WHIP5-58

Lines:
Because of the size of my hands, I use thin lines for single driving -5/8 (I think that is the size) versus the usual 3/4. That puts less bulk in my hands. I use beta, instead of leather. Again, less bulk and the sides are nicely rounded -so the thin lines don’t cut into me.

Now, if you can afford really good leather, there are lines out there in leather that are thin but they are hard to find. If you do use leather, keep them well conditioned. Stiff lines add more difficulty in keeping the stress off your fingers.

Good luck! Good equipment can make a huge difference.

[Cielo_Azure]

[QUOTE=the_other_mother;5026585]

Also, if Im carrying my whip in my right hand with the tip going across my front and pointing the the left, how is it possible to gracefully use it on my horse? Am I supposed to be flicking his right side or left? Im so confused. [/QUOTE]

I think you wrote that you are taking lessons? What sort of driving are you looking to learn (pleasure, dressage, CDEs, breed show/hitch, just driving for fun)? Some styles are very much apples and oranges when compared to each other.

In the USA, many people use a whip for little else other than re-enforcing “go.” The whip is just a short little thing to whap the butt when needed (believe it or not, most horses tolerate this type of driving very well). That is how it is with draft horse driving. If you were to enter a draft horse class with a properly sized dressage whip, you would be laughed out of the ring. Horses are checked up and aren’t asked to bend laterally. The whip is short and the lash is short too.

OR it is just “country driving” you are learning, when often (not always) the whip is used very, very rarely. Really only in an emergency. “Country driving” is my term for the kind of driving many people do, just a little trip down the road. Nothing fancy. More like a slow trail ride. This kind of driver never shows, never competes and just like to drive. Usually with the same horse and same harness -fitted by someone else. They just slap it on and go. Nothing wrong with this but the learning part of driving stopped a long time ago. It is just a relaxing time spent with horse.

If you are learning show pleasure, reinsmanship or dressage, the whip is often used instead of a leg aid. It is a completely different style of whip use. The whip there should be long enough to flick the shoulder, or the barrel of the horse. It is used to reinforce turns as well as lateral bends. Think more like fly fishing -just gentle flicks and touches. The whip is long and so is the lash, compared to the above whip used in many breed shows. In this style of driving, the whip is used much more actively (especially for driven dressage). It takes practice and fine tuning to use such a whip properly.

So, take some time, do some research and figure how your instructor is using the whip. Does she/he show and in what discipline? What kind of horse is it? Is it a long or short whip and long or short lash? I think what you are describing (where you can just put the whip back into the holder and leave it there) sounds more like that of a draft horse driver or country road driver.

Ergo: people here are giving you apples and oranges. The first thing you should try to figure out is just what kind of driving discipline are you learning, and is this the style of driving you want to be learning? Are you a country road kind of driver or do you want to compete and if you want to compete, what in?

[lisae]

I am also a beginner driver and last year at Walnut Hill Carriage competition I tried several whips from one of the vendor’s displays. There was one that was perfect, and I could tell immediately. It was so well balanced it felt like it wasn’t even there. And like many of the things I am drawn to, it was the top of the line and I couldn’t afford it. :no:

My point being that finding the proper equipment for you, by feel as opposed to sending away for it online or by catalog, would probably make a big difference too.

[the_other_mother]

Thanks for your response, very helpful, I appreciate the time you spent to respond in depth. I think that the whip I have is pretty well balanced, it is one of the better fiberglass ones from Carriage Driving Essentials. The whip handle is the smallest diameter they had, I do have small hands. It seems fairly well balanced when I hold it out on the inside of my index finger. In answer to your question, I am beginning to show in country pleasure driving so I do need to learn how to carry and use the whip properly. I’ve been shown/corrected and it’s just that it seems awkward to me. I get frustrated in lessons and just stick the whip back in the holder. My instructor does CDE and is very good, I just seem to be having whip isues I guess! :winkgrin:

[QUOTE=Cielo Azure;5031123]
I think you wrote that you are taking lessons? What sort of driving are you looking to learn (pleasure, dressage, CDEs, breed show/hitch, just driving for fun)? Some styles are very much apples and oranges when compared to each other.

In the USA, many people use a whip for little else other than re-enforcing “go.” The whip is just a short little thing to whap the butt when needed (believe it or not, most horses tolerate this type of driving very well). That is how it is with draft horse driving. If you were to enter a draft horse class with a properly sized dressage whip, you would be laughed out of the ring. Horses are checked up and aren’t asked to bend laterally. The whip is short and the lash is short too.

OR it is just “country driving” you are learning, when often (not always) the whip is used very, very rarely. Really only in an emergency. “Country driving” is my term for the kind of driving many people do, just a little trip down the road. Nothing fancy. More like a slow trail ride. This kind of driver never shows, never competes and just like to drive. Usually with the same horse and same harness -fitted by someone else. They just slap it on and go. Nothing wrong with this but the learning part of driving stopped a long time ago. It is just a relaxing time spent with horse.

If you are learning show pleasure, reinsmanship or dressage, the whip is often used instead of a leg aid. It is a completely different style of whip use. The whip there should be long enough to flick the shoulder, or the barrel of the horse. It is used to reinforce turns as well as lateral bends. Think more like fly fishing -just gentle flicks and touches. The whip is long and so is the lash, compared to the above whip used in many breed shows. In this style of driving, the whip is used much more actively (especially for driven dressage). It takes practice and fine tuning to use such a whip properly.

So, take some time, do some research and figure how your instructor is using the whip. Does she/he show and in what discipline? What kind of horse is it? Is it a long or short whip and long or short lash? I think what you are describing (where you can just put the whip back into the holder and leave it there) sounds more like that of a draft horse driver or country road driver.

Ergo: people here are giving you apples and oranges. The first thing you should try to figure out is just what kind of driving discipline are you learning, and is this the style of driving you want to be learning? Are you a country road kind of driver or do you want to compete and if you want to compete, what in?[/QUOTE]

[Renae]

Carry your whip around the house and use it on your family I come across quite a few amateurs who find just holding a whip to very taxing/tiring on their hand/wrist/forearm, no matter what kind or how fancy of a whip they buy. There is no solution other than actually using it.

[goodhors]

We find that the “handle” section of driving whips is VERY SELDOM the part that the driver actually holds when driving! Almost always, the whip is held up higher on the stick than the handle extends to. We hold hand out, see where whip balances across your thumb. This part is the balance point, whether handle or stick, and where you want your hand to be placed while driving. Thomas already mentioned that hold location, above the handle.

Whips by their very design are not balanced in many cases. Leverage weight of longer stick above hand with lash added, WILL OUTWEIGH the handle section. That upper pull of gravity just makes your hand, wrist, ache before very long. Some whips have a balance point WAY UP the stick, you can’t actually drive holding the 5 or 6ft stick midway of the length.

So modifying your whip with added handle weights, changing the balance point on the stick, will improve comfort in holding the whip for long times.

The ultralight whips are delightful to carry, much recommended by those folks with arthritus. I find some whips to have a very heavy cord lash, so those need reweighting to improve comfort when carrying them. Others have the nylon lash, and are truly light weight to use. As already mentioned, sometimes you just have to try handling a lot of whips at a seller’s so you can find what you like best.

With our large horses, we need the longer stick whips with longer lashes to reach the shoulder or Leaders. Proper weighting of the whip, makes a terrific difference in how comfortable that whip is during a long driving session. Lots you can do to tweak the whips for comfort, which makes driving more fun. A badly balanced whip is like hiking with shoes too small, all you feel is the pain. This makes nothing you encounter along the way fun, you can’t get away from the discomfort. Get an inexpensive whip or two in various lengths, experiment to make them comfortable, balanced.

Better to play with cheap whips than cry when you break the expensive one! Expensive whips seem cursed to short lives at our house. You try to be so careful and amazing things happen to damage them ANYWAY! One new, first use, ultralight, 4-in-hand whip never made it out of the barn aisle. Lash got wrapped around a hub in two revolutions and cut off. I did rebuild it later, but it was amazing to watch whip commit suicide before my eyes. Husband was being SO CAREFUL too!

I have a couple REALLY nice Holly whips, but they never come off the whip reels. I have been thinking of selling them, since we are too chicken to use them and see how badly they get broken!

[Thomas_1]

![]('ve been trying to find some photos of how I hold my whip and which demonstrates it properly.

I’ve come to the conclusion I drive like a slob most of the time!

I’ve got modern whips for training but I much prefer my old holly whips. They’re beautifully balanced. I hope you can see if you can see where they’re typically held and how far up it is.

If you balance yours on the crook of your thumb to find it’s fulcrum and that’s where it needs to be held so there’s no weight in it and so it’s not too hard work.

I’ve recently got a new member of staff and have been training her how to long rein using coachman rein technique and she’s doing very well indeed and so we introduced a whip… She’s really good with the horse. She’s really good with the whip but together When I saw her practicing with the horse and shouted across the field “where’s your whip” she shouted back “It’s ****** difficult enough just with the horse you can stick the $@!* whip!” :eek: :lol:

Anyway have a look at my web site but because they’re mainly moving slide shows or else here:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/flodden_edge/Driving/WeddingDay048.jpg)

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/classic_carriages/DSCF0045-2.jpg)

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/classic_carriages/cardphoto.jpg)

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/classic_carriages/DSCF0063.jpg)

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/classic_carriages/off.jpg)

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/flodden_edge/Driving/freisianpair0009.jpg)