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Anonymous
| | Posted on Friday, 11 April, 2003 - 03:20 pm: | |
If a pony is going flat out and giving its all is it really neccessary to carry on whipping it? My own opinion is that with correct feeding and training and obediet horse will require little encouragement with the whip. However, if a horse is not willing to go faster, or does not have the stamina no amount of whip will make him.
Whips are one of the few aids, along with with the voice and reins that drivers have, and should be used to encourage, reassure and reprimand. However, if the whip is continually being used, surely the horse will become immune to it's effectiveness. In the BHDTA rulebook, regualtions on overuse of the whip are quite vague. Does the animal have to be suffering an act of cruelty before action is taken?
Should societies, such as the BHDTA and its affiliated clubs, be discouraging uneccesary use of the whip? Or, is this style of driving, whereby the horse is continually pushed, an acceptable display of high class horsemanship?
I'd be really interested to know what anyone else thinks about this issue. |
Alan
| | Posted on Friday, 11 April, 2003 - 07:24 pm: | |
Everyone who has anything to do with driving horses and ponies should know the whip is there as an aid and not as a weapon to use on the animal (this does not necessarily apply to our riding friends). Out of interest does your question stem from anything that happened at the Indoor finals? |
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