As in the photos, I was taught to hold the whip at about 45 degrees and to always keep it behind the dash unless it’s being used. The photos show the ideal position of the whip. My question is about that long, neatly-furled lash. If you have to use the whip, how do you get it re-wound around the whip shaft? Or do you hold the lash to the whip shaft so that it doesn’t un-furl when used? And if so, what’s the point of having the long lash?
I am in complete agreement with the point about it being impossible to have a rein in each and and NOT influence the horse’s mouth to some degree when you use the whip. You can simply look down at your hands, imagine a rein in each hand, then add the whip to your right hand and then imagine USING the whip and see that it’s physically impossible to use the whip and maintain steady contact with the right rein. Unless you have two wrists on your right hand, you are going to pull the right rein upward, outward as you raise the whip and eventually when flicking the whip you are going to pull the right rein to some degree.:eek: And, yes, horses can and do learn to ignore all the superfluous rein messages when driven in this manner but it’s hardly ideal for them. I aspire to one-handed reining at all times but I do back-slide now and then. Nice to have understanding and patient ponies. :lol:
To be absolutely honest this is one of those things that I’ve always just done. It comes as a distinct advantage learning to drive as a child and truthfully I can’t actually remember being taught how to use a whip or when I couldn’t furl and unfurl one.
I’ve spent HOURS training others how to do it though. And I’ll freely admit to finding it hours of fun! Indeed the antics are ordinarily very funny.
Strictly speaking, once you’ve mastered the reins :yes: THEN comes mastering just how to hold and furl and unfurl the whip :yes: and then comes mastering use of the whip. :yes:
THEN…:eek: put the whole lot together and it helps if you can already juggle 5 balls and run on the spot :no:
Don’t forget we’re not even putting a horse into the equation yet :no::sadsmile:
I challenge anyone to start out trying to furl and unfurl without use of any bad language! I’ve had some terribly well-mannered customers who even in the most fraught of circumstances keep their charm and polite language who fall to pieces with “now let’s learn the whip”. I have a swear box with a £1 per bad word for leukaemia research and trust me they’ve benefited quite a bit from my customers’ challenges of trying to furl and unfurl :yes:
Basically you need a flexible wrist and that develops over time. You hold the whip about 3 parts up with the end of the thong in your right hand. Then throw and sort of twist to loop it and catch round the stick. You can be really clever - and I can be and twirl it to leave a loop at the end (on a teams whip) and vary it from 3 to 5 wraps round and I can even get the threads so they come exactly right on the whip mountings. I clearly wasted a lot of time as a youngster !
To unfurl is a flick and a twist as you move the whip and put your hand out.
But much better that I quote from the “bible of driving” The Badminton Library by the Duke of Beaufort for the instruction:
[I]"One of the most important, and at the same time the most difficult, things to do is to use a whip properly. It is all very well to say that bad workmen complain of their tools, but it is quite certain that no one, however good he may be, can get along comfortably with a badly-made whip. The best way to learn is to get a first-rate tutor who will provide you with a good article, make up your mind not to lose your temper or patience, sit on the box of a coach without any horses in it, and practice as long as you can. After several hours of abject failures and days of irritating disappointments, all at once you will find your thong flies into its proper place as though by magic. You begin to abuse yourself for being so stupid as to have been so long over the job, which now seems so easy and ever after you will find it the easiest thing to do. No rules can be followed but it will come all the quicker if you will never try to catch your thong with your stick. throw the latter right away to your right front, the thong will follow after it and will soon catch it itself. It is a bad habit to catch your thong over your head, because although it might be extremely pretty in Piccadilly and in some parts of the Park, yet there are places wherein by doing so thoughtlessly you might get fast in the bough of a tree, in which dilemma it is always best to let your whip go and send back for it, otherwise you may break your thong and also greatly interfere with the head decorations of your passengers.
When you have caught your thong, take the lower part of it from the loop which makes it a little more than half-way up the stick and place it down in your right hand; or else if you leave it as originally caught, the first time you hit a wheeler the whole thong will come undone…"
… “When your whip is not in use, which with a well broken team it very seldom will be, always carry it in your hand about the top ferrule, your thumb pointing slightly upwards at the same time holding secure the point of the thong, which should lap round the stick three or four times about a couple of inches below the top of it, and should be held, your right hand just above your left, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, pointing out a little to the front. this position will keep the thong from dropping down and irritating the near side wheeler, and at the same time not interfere with the nose of your box-seat passenger”[/I]
And lest you get despondent and disheartened by slow learning I’d like to quote you from Edwin Howlett who ultimately inspired Achenbach (with highlighting for emphasis!)
“When you have thrown the thong TWO OR THREE HUNDRED TIMES at different intervals, as I have said the wrist becomes more pliable, which enables you to obtain the double thong passing from position one to position two.”
Perhaps it is because I drive a team of Percheron drafts and we do things differently, as I have not had any formal training like many on this board or think I know everything about every horse and every form of driving because of where I am and what form of driving I have only done. Wish I knew everything about driving, must feel good, but I learn something everyday and watch how others drive.
When I show I carry a whip in my right hand and my mare, Smoke, works off of voice alone. I can get my team to work off of voice and very little hand movement as well, it takes patience and practice. I have tried driving one handed and did not like it at all, that is me, my hands are not nearly as large as most men and I think that is part of my reason why I prefer both hands.
I hope, with the new pleasure driving club my husband and I joined, they don’t hold it against me for not driving one handed nor using my whip unless I really need it. But, I think that in the end, they will understand better why I do what I do and accept how I drive.
How you end up doing something in terms of driving isn’t about the sort of horse you have. It’s about how you started out: how you were taught. How you developed technique, how you practiced and how in time you learnt what was right and comfortable and correct. It’s also about what sort of discipline you are going to enter. Good technique though will never hinder the discipline you choose.
Driving doesn’t have anything to do with the size of your hands either. I’ll freely admit to having great big hands but some of the best four in hand drivers I know are petite women.
End of the day there’s plenty of folks get by doing what they’re doing and it really doesn’t matter if it’s technically “correct” or lacking in the finer points.
However given the opportunity if you can start out getting lessons and learning good technique and then become competent with good technique then you don’t limit yourself.
You can if you want just have a lifetime of pleasure and fun driving around safely or you can if you have any desire progress on to competition driving of some sort.
Once you have the basics they’re there forever.
However it’s VERY hard to have to unlearn something you’ve relied on or get by with to learn good and different technique later in the day.
Renae - ROTFL! Wish I had begun driving when I actually had teenagers in the house! My eldest might actually have benefitted from your technique!
Ahh, there have been lots of great posts in here. Lots of great ideas and tips here!
I was a beginner driver last year at this time and fumbled with the whip a lot. I found it almost impossible to use while longlining, so about gave up on it before we even drove. Once in the cart behind the horse, handling lines, I was about undone. But I made the conscious decision I was going to be one who drives with the whip in my hand at all times - so I’d have it when I need it. I found it so much easier to use after a short time of not using it - just holding it. Balance is crucial and the handles of mine aren’t the balance points. Find the balance and just get used to it being in your hand.
I often use the method, both lines in left hand, offside line pulled over in the right hand, and whip in right hand. Remember to switch the line out of the whip hand when you want to use the whip. My reinboard helped with this a lot. Thomas is right - if held together, you will be cueing the horse through the bit no matter what you do. The reinboard will show you that.
I don’t even know when I finally figured it out - one day it just all came together for me. I need to learn the technique of how and where to cue. I rotate the lash in a little circle to the left on the nearside and to the right on the offside so the horse gets just a little flick. To use near the saddle, I flick the wrist as CA mentioned as in fly fishing. The shaft & lash are long, so it really takes very little effort. My whip is too long to reach her butt. Don’t know what to do about that.
Just take it along and don’t allow yourself to put it in the holder till you’re parked again. It’ll come! I am the world’s greatest klutz. If I can learn the muscle patterning, anyone can!
