How Important is the Whip in Horse Racing and What is a Good Stick Man
One of the things that will keep me from betting on a horse, no matter how highly I may rate its physical attributes, is the line, "races with no whip.
" If I see a horse that is being raced and the jockey is not carrying a whip, I won't bet it.
It doesn't matter how good it may appear.
Maybe I'm being a little superstitious, but my experience over 50 years around horses has taught me that betting on horses when the jockey doesn't have a whip, is a waste of money.
It has nothing to do with wanting to see a horse whipped, but it does have a lot to do with horses and their attitudes.
Almost any horse, in the heat of a race, will allow you to whip it and will usually respond to the whip by giving a little more.
There is nothing wrong with that as long as the whipping is confined to the saddle blanket or rump, where most whipping occurs.
To be honest, horses are strong willed animals and if it bothered them that much, they wouldn't run faster.
If you do something to a horse that it doesn't like, antagonize it, it will react in a negative way.
It may run a little faster but will also balk, jump, veer and do many things that would make it too dangerous in a race.
I know because I have owned at least one horse that was like that.
He didn't object to the whip, he objected to doing anything he didn't want to do and was finally sold to an Amish farmer who hitched him to a wagon.
There are jockeys who know exactly how to whip a horse and how much to whip a horse to encourage it to race as hard as it can, without damaging the horse's psyche.
They are good stick men and women.
Any good trainer will tell you that they want the rider to use the whip enough to encourage but not to discourage or abuse the animal.
Horses that do not respond well to the whip, who slow down or act up in the stretch, have either had a bad experience with a whip or are just too contrary to be good racers.
There may be some exceptions, but I haven't seen them.
Horses who race without a whip rarely last long at the race track and racing without a whip is a last ditch effort to figure out what it is that is keeping it from winning.
If you don't believe it, ask yourself how many times any horse you have seen race without a whip has won and how many more times it raced with or without a whip.
" If I see a horse that is being raced and the jockey is not carrying a whip, I won't bet it.
It doesn't matter how good it may appear.
Maybe I'm being a little superstitious, but my experience over 50 years around horses has taught me that betting on horses when the jockey doesn't have a whip, is a waste of money.
It has nothing to do with wanting to see a horse whipped, but it does have a lot to do with horses and their attitudes.
Almost any horse, in the heat of a race, will allow you to whip it and will usually respond to the whip by giving a little more.
There is nothing wrong with that as long as the whipping is confined to the saddle blanket or rump, where most whipping occurs.
To be honest, horses are strong willed animals and if it bothered them that much, they wouldn't run faster.
If you do something to a horse that it doesn't like, antagonize it, it will react in a negative way.
It may run a little faster but will also balk, jump, veer and do many things that would make it too dangerous in a race.
I know because I have owned at least one horse that was like that.
He didn't object to the whip, he objected to doing anything he didn't want to do and was finally sold to an Amish farmer who hitched him to a wagon.
There are jockeys who know exactly how to whip a horse and how much to whip a horse to encourage it to race as hard as it can, without damaging the horse's psyche.
They are good stick men and women.
Any good trainer will tell you that they want the rider to use the whip enough to encourage but not to discourage or abuse the animal.
Horses that do not respond well to the whip, who slow down or act up in the stretch, have either had a bad experience with a whip or are just too contrary to be good racers.
There may be some exceptions, but I haven't seen them.
Horses who race without a whip rarely last long at the race track and racing without a whip is a last ditch effort to figure out what it is that is keeping it from winning.
If you don't believe it, ask yourself how many times any horse you have seen race without a whip has won and how many more times it raced with or without a whip.
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