https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/opinion-its-time-to-let-go-of-the-whip/
1 Like
A whip is something you don’t need until you do. It’s a tool to say ‘hey now, we really do need to pay attention and go forward’. Not a thing to punish the horse with. Spurs are the same; a tool that can be misused. And I see he wears those.
I would much rather give a green horse a quick tap in front of a fence so he jumps it and goes away from that round thinking ‘I did it!’ Than have a stop and have the horse thinking ‘wow, that jump was scary. I’m scared.’
Also, on a personal level, I have a bad knee. I also have a horse that when he was younger and greener really needed a forward ride to the first jump on course. I couldn’t get in a deep driving seat and PUSH with my legs because it would only be one leg… so we would have gone sideways. So the crop was essential. One quick touch a few strides out from the first jump was all we needed. It would have been hard for me to get that done without a whip.
5 Likes
In case anyone wants to read the comments in the other thread on this topic, there is a thread in the eventing forum about this article too.
What we need is education for the rider. Whips, crops and spurs have their place as aids, not tools of punishment. Quality instruction and a willingness of trainers to speak up and redirect clients and use the tools like stewards at shows are the first step.
For the most part the whip is an aid, but what are you going to do to correct a horse that kicks out at another horse for example? There are times where a whip is absolutely an appropriate punishment.
4 Likes
