Yes, thank you. Taking public perception seriously and addressing their concerns seriously, even if you personally don’t see a practice as abusive or a tool as almost “per say” abusive, is integral to helping a sport involving animals survive long-term - especially at a high level like the Olympics. It’s important to have these discussions and there will be continual shift and evolution in what standards are acceptable for equine sport, and public perception is an important factor in those discussions.
I don’t actually have a strong opinion either way on the whip rule, but I think it brings up important discussion and I think it highlights the fact that use of these types of tools is very easily misunderstood, and we should be making efforts to both reduce use that would be easily misunderstood (and obviously reduce abusive use generally), and to understand how these tools are being interpreted - there’s a public education element here, too.
I’ve considered how using a whip is and would be viewed in the context of training other animals…in some contexts, like elephant training, just the presence of the whip is naturally repulsive to the general public (me included). Obviously very different context, but whips and animals do trigger a strong response quite easily…How would you feel about someone using a whip on a dog in training? I’m not saying the impact on the animal is the same, or that either is inherently abusive - but with most other animals, I do feel suspicious/distaste towards whip use. Whips carry a significant negative connotation in most contexts.
