Lovely horsey day and a question....

[ally112038]

Today I had a dressage lesson from an extremely talented dressage rider named Liz Mason. She rides to Pre St George level and we are lucky enough that she lives close by and knows the owner of our yard

Comments

[glenatron]

What about using a cordero type thing- I often ride with a piece of light rope that I'll swing from side to side in front of me to back up my leg. In fact these days I'm usually riding off a mecate so I just use the tail of that, but swinging a rope is a good alternative to using a whip in that it's effective to the horse but typically it's not really making contact- with me it's more likely to hit my thigh than pony.

I think I would want my horse to be alright with whips being around even if I wasn't using one because people often do and I wouldn't want him getting anxious at a show if other people were wandering around with them. Also, you may find he's more or less alright with them now. Horses tend to live much more in the present than we do so we expect them to be traumatised by their past but that isn't always the way it falls out. Maybe it's worth just seeing how he reacts to one.

[ally112038]

That's a really interesting idea - I've never heard of a cordero though.......how long? how thick and where would I get one?
I see what you are saying about horses living in the present and I think you are right. But the whip fear doesn't seem to be going away - I tried a whip a couple of months ago and it was a no-go.

[appolonia]

When you tried the whip, did you approach it as an item of fear which needed to be overcome, or did you just pick up a whip and (while still being AWARE of his possible fear) expect him to be ok with it- to start, just being rubbed on him, and so on?

Horses definitely sense your intention. So, if you're expecting him to be afraid of it, he probably will be. If you act like you expect it to be no big deal (but again, be AWARE of his possible fear, and don't TRY to scare him!), its more likely that will respond positively.

[glenatron]

What I use is the string from an old parelli-style stick-and-string, which is something like this one - more or less 6mm marine braid, which I use doubled up so it works out as about 3 feet long and has a bit of movement in it.

[appolonia]

I wouldn't want him getting anxious at a show if other people were wandering around with them

Yes. I once had a very whip-shy horse, thanks to his previous owner, at the first couple shows I went to, we definitely had an issue with other people having crops/whips. Once he learned that it wasn't an instrument of pain and punishment, we were fine.

[blitzen_]

would find a rope to be extremely difficult to handle in comparison to a dressage whip if the purpose is for it to back up my leg? it would take a lot of practice to use it with any finesse.