What to do with a whip shy horse

A horse you are riding spooks badly as you pass your whip from hand to hand. Do you:

  • Total voters
    0
Flibble said:
Interesting how circumsatnces affect your opinion. I would always have said take time and care to desensitise the horse however I have been riding my friends mare who is incredibly whipshy and the only way to cope with her is no stick. So thats my vote she has panic attacks and there no real benefit in upsetting this little mare.
Click to expand...

Voted for desensitising, but I agree with this - it really does depend on the horse, and whether you feel the absolute need to have a stick. I think if you're going to be jumping it esp XC, it's safer to be able to have a stick, but if your horse is very sensitive, you'd have to learn to use other aids.

I rarely carry a stick (except when jumping), both my horses can be nappy, but I don't feel the stick makes a lot of difference to either of them except to get them upset.
 
I would desensitise. My boy was very whip shy and wegot round this by first carrying a short whip and not swapping it about hand to hand, but have it in a different hand each time you get on so that you are desensitising each eye. When things are going well with that I would start by slowly 'feeding' the crop from one hand to the other. Still got a reaction at this initially but soon accepted it and is now totally fine with whips - although doesn't like other people carrying them with their horses :rolleyes:

As someone else mentioned, I used the whip on my boot first to make a tapping noise and again progressed from there. With the vast majority of horses this approach is very doable.
 
Some great desensitizing ideas on here! I love the "horse fishing" with a whip with a carrot on the end -what a great picture that conjours up. I am impressed by the amount of effort some people have put into a desensitzation program. Any horse I had that was so whip-shy that it was scared by one yards away would be eating and drinking from buckets with whips in them.

To the people who have said "put the whip down" and "simply don't carry a whip" do you accept that you can't safely take the horse anywhere where someone else could wave a whip around? Never go to a show, a fun ride, move yards to a yard where people carry whips, go for a hack with anyone who carries a whip and may use it? I couldn't accept that myself.
 
I voted not to carry one because i never use one on a horse.

Having said that they are occasionally useful for poking non-horse things so if I was going to be around the horse long-term and no-one was going to continue scaring it with whips I'd probably desensitise, on the ground to start with.
 
I don't like any of the options! I choose to ride my horse with a small whip when hacking out etc and jumping. I also use a schooling whip. In the past I have had a very very whip shy horse and opted not to use one as he was so upset it was similiarly not worth it..
 
Alibear said:
None of the above, I'd work with the horse in hand just getting it to accept me holding the whip etc and work up from there.
Click to expand...


I did something along these lines! He is an ex-schoolie so probably had bad experiences with whips - he was odd though, if you didnt have a short whip while riding, he wouldnt even walk forward!! :eek: You carried a whip & he would do anything but you would never need to use it! Now a long whip or lunging him with a whip was a different story altogether, he would turn himself inside out to get away from either so worked inhand with him to get used to both & now I can lunge him & carry a schooling whip & he understands them quite happily now :)
 
Desensitize - but not by flooding. Passing from hand to hand would be fine if the horse isn't too averse to that and still rideable, but I personally would prefer to work on ground first.

Not carrying a whip may be reasonable too, depending on circumstances.
 
Last edited:
Er... as someone who was being nosy and wanted to see the results, and the poll didn't have an option for my actual answer (desensitise on ground first) may I just point out that I voted "I would beat it" but didn't actually mean that as my actual answer :o :D I am relieved that there is only one vote for that option! ;) :D
 
fidleyspromise said:
depends on the horse, how whip shy it is but have to say I'd prefer to have horse used to whips. To me its dangerous not to - anything can happen. Out at a show some thoughtless person could be waving a whip about or out hacking passing another horse, if a whip is flapping.
I prefer not to pussyfoot about my horses and would work on building their confidence up rather than avoiding everything they don't like. If I did that, I'd get no-where with my youngster as she was nervous and shaking at everything when I got her.
Click to expand...
This!
 
We actually had this issue with my lad, he was extremely whip shy when we bought him. He had been badly beaten and would turn in and try to attack you if you tried to lunge him with a whip. I know that doesn't sound whip shy but he would not come anywhere near anyone with a whip, his way is to attack rather than shy away it is just his nature.

Now to be controversial, we tried Parelli's Friendly(with the carrot stick) and it worked. He wasn't happy at first but became better and better with gentle conditioning and masses of patience, going at a rate he was comfortable with. He is now happy with them, to the extend that now he loves playing with whips, swinging them and being scratched with the handle and likes to carry it to and from the arena. It took time and patience but it worked.

Just to add he was always okay with them ridden, just not on the ground because he had been beaten with them on the ground.And we only bothered to desensitise him because it was part of a programme of putting him into a happier and less stressed state of mind, getting him to understand that things that have hurt in the past no longer hurt now or in the future. He actually lunges without the whip, going off the voice.

Haven't voted because none of them applies.
FDC
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top