Horses Race Faster When Not Being Hit?

[Patuxet]

Interesting research from Australia

http://blogs.equisearch.com/horsehealth ... -research/

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0015622

[majxmom]

I have always thought that you could make a horse go faster with your voice and by pumping your arms and legs than with a whip. The whip makes them take their mind off of their effort ("Ow! What the hell! I'm trying, can't you see that?") rather than urging them on as a partnership.

However, I don't believe whips should be banned, for safety. To quote Bill Steinkraus, US Olympic gold medalist: If you have it, you usually don't need it, but if you don't have it, sometimes you need it. I think a whip may be necessary to help a jock maintain a straight course.

When England first enacted its rules regarding whipping, where the jock could not exceed some total of whip strikes (maybe it was 8 or so), my first reaction was that there was no way a jock was going to be able to keep the countdown in his head. In the heat of battle, he'd lose count and then there would be a ton of stewards' actions. But I think that system has worked fairly well, and I would support it in the USA. I always hate to see some poor horse obviously giving maximum effort getting repeatedly beaten only for the reason that the jock is in a rhythm.

[zinn21]

Some do not respond to the whip but some do without question. I vote for continued use of the whip with the stewards eye on excessive use thereof.

[wangkw]

W/O a whip all riders will hv to train up not only their arm but aussi their leg muscles...w/o using whips...the rider's head might also be put in use.

[casallc]

Some do - some don't. I had a horse that broke 2 track records without being whipped (he would stop running and start bucking if you whipped him). I had others that you couldn't get out of a gallop with out whipping them.

[winds]

I worked for a gentleman that had a really nice horse named Dr. Kiernan. Dr. Kiernan won the GrII Bowling Green. He wouldn't have if he hadn't been hit with the whip. He just wasn't motivated unless hit.

winds

[BenB]

The whip rules in GB are changed, excessive use and strengh will have severe ban,s and punshment.

In all times purses will be redistributed.

[wangkw]

Use "high tech" whips" .. which will make sound as if coming from a real whip each time the rider swing it past the
horse side...train the horse specifically to respond to the sound... the runner will be DSQ if his whip lands on the
animal.

[bdw0617]

http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra ... ns/942637/


wow

[wangkw]

Bdw...it is the culture that is concerned...I am layman in race field..,whipping was not needed thousand years ago as either
horses had better sense of what their rider wanted of them..or they naturally ran much faster then due to the presence of
predators everywhere so riders will fall off their "seats" if they were urged further..Some said the stone age primitives
sprinted 100 meters in 8 seconds...logic is the same.

[Bast]

Bdw...it is the culture that is concerned...I am layman in race field..,whipping was not needed thousand years ago as either
horses had better sense of what their rider wanted of them..or they naturally ran much faster then due to the presence of
predators everywhere so riders will fall off their "seats" if they were urged further..Some said the stone age primitives
sprinted 100 meters in 8 seconds...logic is the same.

I've seen Quarter horses come back cut up and bleeding after a race. That kind of whip abuse should be lead to some serious discipline. (QH riders also whack horses in the head.)

Horses don't run straight when they are tired. A rider needs a whip of some sort to keep his mount (and others) out of trouble. They don't need a whip capable of leaving welts and cutting the skin.