Set the easily-swayed straight about Racing

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Whips are needed to help control the animal. Some horses need whipped to help them hit different gears and switch leads. I can only imagine the number of champions who wouldn't be if whips were banned from racing. The number of horses veering out and in would also increase.

Hell I'll even go as far to say catastrophic injuries would increase if you take away the whip.

It's a horrible idea and was a completely lazy excuse from Moss. The whip had nothing to do with what happened to Eight Belles.

I'm not that worried about the champions who wouldn't be champions if whips were barred. Other horses who respond to hand or voice or just run on sheer competitive will would have become champions in their place. If we allow all drugs, we'd probably have a lot of different and maybe faster champions, too. That doesn't mean it's a good idea.

I'm also skeptical about the necessity of the whip for steering the horse. Would you care to give an estimate on what percentage of the time the whip is used to steer the horse vs what percentage of time it is used to try to make a horse go faster? And how often has the whip been blamed for causing a horse to veer out of it's path? Possibly often enough to offset the number of times it is used to correct a path problem.

Even for the horses that have become dependent on the whip to change gears or switch leads--isn't that often a result of the training? Don't you think horses could be trained to switch leads by getting a message direct from the rider's hands?

I'm writing as a rank amateur in this area. But it seems obvious to me that 90%+ of whipping is done to make horses run faster, and it's not at all obvious to me why inflicting pain has become an integral part of the game.

--Dunbar