Whip

In Straightness Training we use the whip as a subtle pointing device.

The whip is used while doing groundwork, longeing, work in hand, riding and at liberty.

Whip size

The whip should be as light as possible and you should choose a good whip that is easy to handle and fits the size of your horse.

With very small horses you’ll use a size 1.10 m / 3 ft in groundwork, work in hand and riding. With very large horses you might use 1.30 or 1.40 m / 4.5 ft. Most common is 1.20 / 4 ft.

The whip as extension of your arm

With the whip you can extend your arm and energy.

The whip should always be used in an animal friendly way and the horse should never be afraid of the whip.

It’s never the whip that is uncomfortable for the horse, it’s always the human behind the whip that makes a whip uncomfortable.

Check out this article: It’s Always the Human behind the Tools »

A longer whip used at liberty

At liberty, we often use a longer whip that has a look and feel of a 'driving' whip. 

With this whip we can create more or less distance and work easilly in both extension and collection work:

Different whip sizes used at liberty

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' size, it totally depends on what you want to practice and also with how many horses you are working at the same time: