A brand new British Using Golf equipment (BRC) rule on whip use has been launched to assist educate riders and enhance horse welfare.
BRC’s 2023 guidelines state that the whip should solely be used to assist the rider’s pure aids, and by no means when a horse or pony has turned away after a refusal, or after elimination. Use behind the rider’s leg or on the shoulder is allowed however by no means on the horse’s head or neck.
Head of BRC Rachael Hollely-Thompson informed H&H the organisation, which is a part of the British Horse Society (BHS), “takes horse welfare extremely significantly”.
“Horse welfare is one thing we discuss daily; it’s all the time on the forefront of our minds,” she stated. “The BHS is in a novel place because it has nice hyperlinks with different welfare organisations regularly doing research and analysis on whip use.
“We mirrored on what we’d like members to be doing and the crux was that the whip has to again up pure aids, nevertheless it shouldn’t be used to punish.”
The foundations state that applicable whip use will be to assist encourage a horse or pony to go ahead, or to remain straight on the strategy to a fence. “It mustn’t ever be used to vent a rider’s mood; any use for such a motive is routinely extreme.”
“As an support, the suitable time is when the horse/horse is reluctant to go ahead below pure aids i.e. seat and legs,” the BRC rulebook states. “Its use, for example, after a refusal when a pony/horse has turned away, is extreme. Its use after elimination is extreme.”
Whips should additionally all the time be carried within the forehand place, with the deal with pointing upwards, reasonably than backhand.
“To see over-use or the whip utilized in mood just isn’t one thing that’s tolerated by the BHS or BRC,” Ms Hollely-Thompson stated. “And except we put that within the guidelines, we’re not in a position to educate when folks do the flawed factor.”
Ms Hollely-Thompson referenced scientific research on the way in which horses study, “when a horse is in an anxious or harassed state, it reduces studying capability, and utilizing the whip as punishment isn’t efficient”.
“It doesn’t assist the horse study so if it’s not efficient, why are we permitting it?” she requested. “We’ve an enormous number of members, from grassroots to very aggressive riders, and a few riders want assist for his or her pure aids, and a few horses reply higher to supportive use of the whip, nevertheless it must be used on the applicable time.”
If a horse has refused as soon as and is approaching a fence a second time, the whip could also be used as back-up to the legs if wanted; it’s encouragement, not punishment, that’s acceptable. Misuse of the whip can imply as much as 25 penalties or disqualification.
“It doesn’t look good, it’s not useful to the horse and doubtless not useful to the rider,” Ms Hollely-Thompson stated. “And it’s most likely out of mood reasonably than what’s finest for the horse. Typically, I believe folks carry issues on by way of behavior but when a rule’s been there a very long time, it doesn’t imply it’s nonetheless appropriate and related, and if not, it’s doing one thing about it.”
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