At 19:06:59 on 14.03.10, flashboy wrote:
hi, i have a welsh cob, about a year ago my horse was being hit with a whip by this girl on my farmi did not know untill people was telling then one day i went pase his stable holding a whip and he shot to the back of his stable really scared,,, i moved my horse out of that stable across the yard away from her.. but know he is still scared of whipts i do naturalhorsemanship with him and is know getting use to them again

At 18:58:10 on 19.03.10, plodalong wrote:
hello Flash boy My horse was also very scared of whips, i do some parelli stuff with him and it took quite a long time before he worked out that the carrot stick was a nice thing and not a hurting thing well done for understanding his fear and listening to him . go slowly and take the time it takes and your fella will come fine.

At 21:02:30 on 19.03.10, Tina S wrote:
What on earth was that girl hitting him for??? :/ Grrrr! Anyway.... Agreed, whatever method you use, time and patience will be needed. And ditto, Plodalong, well done for recognising his worry. Just a thought....This is something clicker training might also be useful in overcoming. At the start of clicker training, the horse is rewarded (click, treat) for doing something simple to get them used to it - usually reaching to touch a cone or ice cream container or something similar with their nose. Once they associate the "I did it right!" with "click, treat", you can move on to something more difficult ...like reaching out for your whip. Any regular users of clicker training here who can describe the process more clearly for me? Good luck :)

At 21:50:09 on 19.03.10, flashboy wrote:
hi thanks i will try the clicker method it sounds good, i notice his worry when i was riding him he was verry lazy so i i got a whip i asked him to walk on and he was verry stif and nervers then i moved the whip and he shot of and i fell off really badly so thats when i found out

At 18:47:09 on 20.03.10, chrissie wrote:
my welsh cob was also scared of whips so one day I took it in the stable with me holding it close to my leg so that magic didnt see it, after a while of sniffing me I let him see the whip against my leg & he sniffed it a few times, after a few days he didnt bother about it & I let him put it in his mouth & play with it, he was waving it around all over the place( may have been trying to hit me with it.!) after that had no problem.

At 18:51:31 on 22.03.10, Flicka wrote:
Yes be very careful as your horse is very frightened-our horse was whip shy when we bought him and he bolted with my husband down a busy main road and also a second time across a crossroads before we realized that it was because he'd spotted the whip. So never forget that if he has a genuine fear then he will do anything to get away from it. I got him used to me carrying a very short jumping whip but he totally freaked at the hunting whip my husband needed to carry so I spent a long time riding him in the school holding it out and allowing him to move his feet and go wherever he liked whilst keeping calm. Then I had to move on swinging it next to him whilst I rode. Unfortunately out on a hack on my own he bolted when I held it out and even a ploughed field didn't slow him down so I chucked it so he could see it go and he calmed down enough for me to pull him up. When I got home my husband went mad at me for leaving his whip in a field-that's gratitude for riding a horse he was scared to ride at that time!! Anyway he found his whip and I did get our horse used to it in the end, even allowing me to crack the whip and he's been a whips horse for quite a few years now. I didn't know about the Parelli method then but it would have really helped.

At 18:55:01 on 28.07.10, Natasha wrote:
My horse use to be scared if whips but i took her on the lunge nd ut the whip on her bak, she got use to it and it worked! x

At 03:35:12 on 08.08.10, Polkadotpolly wrote:
I hate whips too, and think they are very unecessary. I don't and won't use one a I have never let my kids use a whip. I don't own a whip, I don't have a whip on the property and we all get along just fine...