Mare ‘offended’ by whip

[Hormonal Filly]

So it seems in the school my mare can be less reactive off my leg, fine hacking and no leg needed in open spaces! She’s only 5 so we don’t do much in the school, although it’s a nice big one.

I use a long schooling whip, but if I use it to back my leg up she takes great offence. Instant tail swish, leg kicked out or buck.

Are rubber spurs worth a go in that environment? As long as I’m very careful with my leg aids?

It’s like using the whip makes her angry and has a negative effect.. if that’s possible - very different to my 2 geldings but do kinda like the fact she has her own opinion!

 

[Maddie Moo]

Does she do the same thing with a short whip? Maybe the lash bit on the end is tickling her and she’s reacting like she’s trying to get rid of a fly?

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Does she do the same thing with a short whip? Maybe the lash bit on the end is tickling her and she’s reacting like she’s trying to get rid of a fly?

I’d say probably so, yes, although I haven’t tried a short whip for a while. Will see what she’s like!

 

[ycbm]

I would desensitise her to the long whip, you never know when you might need to use one. From the floor to start with, if she bucks.
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[LEC]

She is being resistant to the aid - mares get much more offended about it but I hate using spurs as the schooling whip is a much more useful tool and gets a better result. Often two schooling whips works better if ignoring the leg as much clearer in backing up the aid and weirdly they are often less offended by it because they understand it better.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

In one of the videos of the TRT method he has a horse in that disliked the whip. Might be worth a watch.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Thanks all.

She is being resistant to the aid - mares get much more offended about it but I hate using spurs as the schooling whip is a much more useful tool and gets a better result. Often two schooling whips works better if ignoring the leg as much clearer in backing up the aid and weirdly they are often less offended by it because they understand it better.

That’s definitely worth a go. If she’s lunged, I just need to hold a lunging whip and she respects it - never had to touch her with it. Just lift it and she reacts. I can’t really hold one of those while on her, but think 2 whips would be clearer. Currently she doesn’t really understand schooling whip = forward, it’s more schooling whip = pisses me off.

 

[LEC]

Yep, two will clarify the message and keeps them straight. It basically does the same role as your legs and because it’s even in pressure applied they don’t actually get so pissy. On the whole I prefer to ride with two schooling whips when getting horses more off the leg as you can be more subtle and it teaches forwards and straight.
I have ended up over the years riding a lot of backwards horses, I rode one the other day for someone who was struggling. I think I did two circuits and was puffing and told the owner I shouldn’t be puffing! Then started putting the work in to sort it and got a pretty good result in 20 mins before sticking the owner back on.

 

[ihatework]

You could do a little in hand work just teaching her a bit about the whip, using it as an aid.

I also always use a home made whip on all young horses (or angry nappy older ones.) I wrap a schooling whip in padding (soft ban) then wrap it in vet wrap. They seem to accept it much better

 

[Skib]

I hack a mare that I was warned disliked anything touching her hind quarters. So no long riding mac and no long dressage whip allowed. As we leave the yard, she idles down the drive way and I need to tell her that I expect her to do the work and that I wont be using leg at every stride of walk. One strategy learned from Mark Rashid is to bring the (short) whip sharply down on my own lower leg, either boot or half chap.
However I usually want to change my whip from the left hand to my right hand as we set off, (so the whip is between my horse and passing traffic) and I accidentally discovered that changing the whip over in an amateur and unprofessional way so the whip waved a bit over her head was enormously effective and that no whip was needed for the rest of our hack. I believe what it does is to show the mare the whip, i.e. she sees it, and she then knows that though I am an old and gentle rider, I am the one who calls the shots and I do have a whip with me if need be.

For other riders, I do not recommend waving a whip near the head of your horse. But the horse's field of vision is such that changing your whip from one hand to the other is probably enough to inform the horse that you are riding with a whip.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

You could do a little in hand work just teaching her a bit about the whip, using it as an aid.

I also always use a home made whip on all young horses (or angry nappy older ones.) I wrap a schooling whip in padding (soft ban) then wrap it in vet wrap. They seem to accept it much better

A picture would be appreciated, I can’t work out what that would look like

She’s extremely responsive on the ground with the whip, she will walk sideways, cross her front legs or back legs. It only has to touch her. Be interesting if I was on the ground and someone else on her. It’s almost like when I’m on her she gets confused and offended by it.

 

[ihatework]

It

A picture would be appreciated, I can’t work out what that would look like

She’s extremely responsive on the ground with the whip, she will walk sideways, cross her front legs or back legs. It only has to touch her. Be interesting if I was on the ground and someone else on her. It’s almost like when I’m on her she gets confused and offended by it.

looks like a long padded whip!

 

[Hormonal Filly]

It

looks like a long padded whip!

Ahhh - dohhh!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Louis will buck and kick out if you use a whip sometimes I just tend to wave it rather than make contact he much prefers it, he will really take offence to being touched by it sometimes some just do although I very rarely need to use it.

 

[spacefaer]

Mares are very clever - I hqd one who had learnt very successfully to dislodge her previous novicey owners by a combination of a slow spin (where apparently they got off) building to a little plunge forward followed by a buck.

She got very offended when these strategies didn't work with me and I'd give her a tap to get her to move on.
If she felt the tap was justified ie she'd been resistant - she'd walk on. If she felt I'd tapped her for the wrong reason, she'd buck me off

It made me think why I was tapping her and did I have options?

 

[maya2008]

I had a mare who wouldn’t take a long whip behind the saddle. It was no big deal - she responded just fine to a tap on the shoulder with a short whip instead. She really really wouldn’t take the whip behind the saddle though, no matter how much desensitisation was done. Always bucked. Sharers and kids tapped her on the shoulder, and used their legs. I used a whip and if she was being naughty I used it and sat the buck. Didn’t impede her in any way from learning to school nicely, going to shows or looking after children. It was just her, being her.

 

[IrishMilo]

I'm going to sound very woowoo but I'd probably start by questioning why she's got the objection to being asked to go forwards in the arena. I think it's actually quite rare for a horse to get more backwards when asked for forwards unless there's an issue. That being said she's young, probably quite unfit and unbalanced so it could be nothing.

I don't particularly like long whips, I find people either end up yanking the mouth at the same time as trying to use it or constantly flicking by accident. I prefer a short thick padded whip used sparingly but meaningfully. On a lazy bugger I take one hand off and give a tap behind the saddle every stride for as long as it takes for the horse to move according to what I'm asking.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I had a mare who wouldn’t take a long whip behind the saddle. It was no big deal - she responded just fine to a tap on the shoulder with a short whip instead. She really really wouldn’t take the whip behind the saddle though, no matter how much desensitisation was done. Always bucked. Sharers and kids tapped her on the shoulder, and used their legs. I used a whip and if she was being naughty I used it and sat the buck. Didn’t impede her in any way from learning to school nicely, going to shows or looking after children. It was just her, being her.

That’s really interesting. Today I rode with a short whip and a chunky end on it, so rather than a ‘sting’ end, it was more a smack noise. I gave her one tap on the bum for being nappy and she instantly moved forward, no tail swish, no bad reaction.

Wondering if she prefers the end on the short whip, and doesn’t like the ‘sting’ of the schooling whip.. I mean, I’d of said to myself last week don’t be so stupid but seems so..

I'm going to sound very woowoo but I'd probably start by questioning why she's got the objection to being asked to go forwards in the arena. I think it's actually quite rare for a horse to get more backwards when asked for forwards unless there's an issue. That being said she's young, probably quite unfit and unbalanced so it could be nothin

I believe it’s nappiness, the arena is right by the stable block and she can see her friends coming in/out. It’s only at home she’s like it.

I’m going to use the short whip from now on, better like you say to give one short smack than able to nag her with a schooling whip as I’m worried about her reaction to it!

 

[millikins]

Mares are very clever - I hqd one who had learnt very successfully to dislodge her previous novicey owners by a combination of a slow spin (where apparently they got off) building to a little plunge forward followed by a buck.

She got very offended when these strategies didn't work with me and I'd give her a tap to get her to move on.
If she felt the tap was justified ie she'd been resistant - she'd walk on. If she felt I'd tapped her for the wrong reason, she'd buck me off

It made me think why I was tapping her and did I have options?

We had one like this, she enjoyed schooling on the whole but humped her back and kicked out if in her opinion she was already doing her best and a tap was unjustified. I would also second the 2 schooling whips which worked well when we were starting out.