Our national dressage coach, Clemens Dierks, is worried, worried by what he sees as the misuse of whips on the part of our dressage riders:
"I see very little understanding of the purpose of the whip. Almost every day I see riders totally misusing their whips, they are using whips but without any skill whatsoever."
"The whip should be there to assist the horse to learn the correct responses. It should help the young horse to respond. Okay there are times when a reprimand is called for with a really difficult horse, but for most horses, the whip is there to teach not to punish - to teach the horse to move from your seat and from your leg and go forward. Many riders hit the horse when they - the rider - gets frustrated, many riders hit their horse fifty times, instead of once. If you have to use the whip, you should use it once properly, so you don’t have to use it another 49 times. The problem is that the riders don’t know when or how, to use the whip effectively. As a result the horse gets numb - he either takes no notice at all, or he becomes tail twitchy, upset and cranky. He still doesn’t move because they punish him every step he takes!"
"Over the years, whips have grown longer and longer and longer but the riders still don’t have the skill to use them. One of the most important things is the timing, they use the whip well too late. Instead of using the whip to give the horse a little touch up to prepare them, but most people use the whip after the horse makes a mistake. It is like the horse missing a jump and pulling a rail, and the rider flogs the horse afterwards, instead of giving the horse a little touchup before he lifts his legs up. That is just stupid, that is punishing the horse not teaching it anything, that is just the rider letting go because he is frustrated, and that is not acceptable."
"It is sad to see riders who do not have the skills but they think they can flog in a piaffe - but there is a timing in the use of the whip. There is no point in touching the horse to put his leg up at the time he wants to put his leg down. There are different spots on a horse - a spot for piaffe, a spot to create engagement, to increase activity, they are all different spots and they have different effects. But people just keep hitting the same spot."
"It makes me feel frustrated and I hope by raising the issue publicly then there will be more discussion of the skills involved in whip use. The fundamental thing to remember is that you lose if you use the whip incorrectly, it doesn’t just have no effect - it has a bad effect."
Do you think that is a part of a general tendency - I see riders who nag the horse with their spurs every stride, and then when the horse really jacks up, they take their legs off because they are scared… Instead of punishing the horse when it does something really bad, they back off then, and punish it when it is trying to be good?
"That’s absolutely correct. It comes back to they don’t know how to use the whip. They are not quick enough to use it. You also find many people only keep using the whip because their poor horse doesn’t chuck them off - they should be riding a horse that is not so nice, and they would learn their lesson. It is the same with all the aids and responses. They are too late with the legs. Instead of preventing something going wrong, they create it. To reprimand a horse, or to teach it to respond, you have to be very quick to make it so the horse can understand. By the time most riders think about it - it is too late."
Is that where the expression ‘one good big one’ comes from - that it is better to give the horse one decent kick, or slap with the whip, instead of nagging all the time?
"One effective use of the whip is better than 50 little pats. The whole purpose of a spur or a whip, is that you don’t have to use it. The horse has to take you where you want, he has to respond, the more you kick the slower he will go, the more the horse will die on you, the more it will go against you. It is the same with the whip and the spur, same with the heel. If they had more skill, if they were prepared to use the whip correctly and quickly, they would only do it once, instead of using the whip all day long and every step. It is just stupid."
The horse should be in cruise mode until the rider does something to alter that - the rider shouldn’t have to push every stride…
"When you break in a horse and it doesn’t know how to move, then you may use a whip, or you maybe give him a kick, but that is to train him to respond so you don’t have to kick or hit him again. When you come to a higher level of training, depending a little bit on the level of training of the horse, then the horse should work for you by himself with the small, most minimal aids possible - you are teaching him to be sensitive and to respond. I have never seen a horse piaffing while you kick him - the only ones that piaffe properly do it by themselves. The trouble is that there are so many unskilled riders but there are also many advanced riders who get carried away with the whip, and use it when it is totally unnecessary."

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