Not enough or too much?

[Riot]

Originally Posted by 3kings

My question is do all horses bruise the same. Some people bruise much easier than others, is this also true for horses?

PS I'm not sticking up for the action of the jockeys and realize that breaking the skin of horse requires a serious strike with the whip. I was just curious.

Some horses have physically thinner or finer skin (young fillies vs older intact males) Horses have a thin muscle right under their skin which gives them the ability to independently twitch a little bit as under a fly. Their skin is extraordinarily sensitive to pinpoint touch and pressure.

Whips are more mental than physical. Ever see jocks "showing the whip" to the horse alongside it's head so the horse merely sees it and responds?

Whips cause motion inducement via touch, noise, learned response to it. Not pain. A horse can be struck with rather significant-appearing force but it shouldn't be much different than an open-handed palm slap encouragement where the sound, touch and the learned reaction on the part of the horse are the inducement forward. Not sharp pain let alone leaving bruising.