Zito's thoughts on whips

[paisjpq]

sort-of off topic but we had a standardbred filly who was a total bitch....talented but ornery. she won her first 4 races with ease, was second in her elimination heat in some summer series....anyway, the final rolls around and at the head of the stretch she was sitting second and had plenty of steam left, the driver smacked her once (first time in her life) with the whip she immediately went off-stride and ended up last. After that night she would go off-stride whenever she saw it raised.

When I trained horses off the track I always had better success wearing spurs rather then carrying a stick...they could see the whip and were always waiting to get hit with it, it was hard to get them to focus on anything other than what was in my hand.

banning whips isn't really practical IMO, but limiting use would help a lot.

[Danzig]

as i said elsewhere a day or two ago, no doubt steve cauthen was glad to have one when he was riding the belmont.
obviously, much like anything else in this world, there is a possibility of abuse with a whip. there are rules regarding use-follow the rules set forth. i don't think a complete ban is necessary, as there are instances when one is needed. leave it to the rider to decide whether to carry. after all, he is supposed to be the professional. i'd imagine he'll opt to carry 99 times out of 100. as a jock, you have no seat or legs to use to communicate. all it comes down to is two arms attached to about 115 pounds worth of human.

[GenuineRisk]

And, of course, it varies horse to horse- is it Samba Rooster who absolutely can't be ridden with a whip? There was some three-year-old prep this spring where I remember Jerry Bailey saying if the horse didn't think he was getting to run off with his rider, he wouldn't run at all. And I remember Johnny V saying Gomez's advice to him before last year's Belmont was not to use the whip on Rags and it was neat watching JV trust that and just wave it at her as she was battling Curlin down the stretch. But I just think it's dangerous to take it away in all circumstances- Eight Belles went towards the rail in her races and scraping the rail would be a lot of damage to a jockey's leg at 35 miles an hour. I agree; set up stricter rules to limit usage, but don't take it away.

On the personal anecdote side, I was working with a trail horse trying to get him to yield and walk sideways. No amount of rein or leg did anything. I finally took a stick and touched, literally just touched him, with it and he did the most perfect sideways steps you ever saw. And this horse HATED the whip under any other circumstance. So go figure. I guess, as humans are the ones with the better reasoning ability, it's up to the riders and trainers to be flexible and figure out what makes the individual horse tick, rather than expecting it to be the other way around.

So where do we go to start our movement for stricter regulation of whip usage?

[philcski]

I am a terrible rider, but I never ride with a whip and don't ever need one. Don't know if that translates to race riding, and I would guess each horse's temperment towards it is individual, but doing away with them completely seems excessive.

Some riders deserve suspensions for overuse, however.

[LARHAGE]

I never ride a green horse without a whip, especially if riding on streets, sometimes they go through your leg cues ( and Jockeys can't use any leg) and if they start to go into traffic or an unsafe area the tapping of the whip against their side to move back in is invaluable, theres a far cry from " whipping" a horse and using it as a tool for control.

[the_fat_man]

Yeah, and I typically drive BRAKELESS except when I'm on that tight path that goes around the Grand Canyon or on that tightrope over Niagara Falls. But I only use them at speeds > 100 mph.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Yeah, and I typically drive BRAKELESS except when I'm on that tight path that goes around the Grand Canyon or on that tightrope over Niagara Falls. But I only use them at speeds > 100 mph.

You are just a softy. No whips, no gelding, etc.