Since I started writing for Suite101 and this Web site, I have received a lot of questions about my feelings on whips, spurs and other artificial aids. This is a serious point of contention in the horse business, with some professionals swearing by them and others swearing them off.
I could give you my opinion on whips and spurs, or outline the benefits and drawbacks of artificial aids, but that wouldn’t help you at all. You already know how you feel about these tools, and my opinion isn’t going to change your fundamental belief structure. Nor should it.
However, it is important for all horse business owners to take a stand on whips and spurs and the like, and to decide how they want to deal with them in day-to-day life. You are responsible for what goes on at your barn or stable, so you don’t want to neglect this issue.
Riding instructors, for example, must decide if their students are allowed to use whips, spurs and other artificial aids in lessons. Some riding teachers have bins full of aids of different sizes and shapes that their students can use, while others prohibit these tools entirely.
Equestrian professionals who train horses or board horses must also take a stand on whips and spurs. Are these tools allowed at your facility? What happens if a client is caught abusing these tools? And if a client has a preference on whether you use whips and spurs in your horse business, do you honor that request?
A Question of Ethics
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: Using whips, spurs and other artificial aids does not constitute abuse. A rider or trainer can strap on a pair of spurs or carry a whip without hurting the horse, and it is important not to judge those who do utilize these tools.
The ethical issues surrounding whips and spurs are not related to their use but to their misuse.
Whips and spurs are intended as supplements to natural aids: hands, voice, seat, legs. If a rider relies exclusively on artificial aids to communicate with his horse, he is more likely to cause injury to the horse—or at least screw up his training.
Some riders and trainers also use whips and spurs for punishment. This is not the intended use of these artificial aids in conventional and ethical training, and in many cases leads to abuse. Artificial aids can make natural aids stronger, but they shouldn’t be used to punish the horse.
And finally, you have different types of whips, spurs and other artificial aids. Tom thumb spurs, for example, can’t do much damage to a horse, even if used incorrectly. The same goes for a plain-jane bat with a wide leather loop; it isn’t often going to harm the horse.
However, there are whips and spurs that can inflict serious damage. Spurs with pointed spokes and whips with metal attached to the ends, for example, come under the category of weapon rather than aid.
When setting and enforcing a policy on artificial aids, it is important to consider these ethical issues and address them accordingly. In the horse business, you will encounter two types of clients and colleagues who use whips and spurs incorrectly: 1) abusers; and 2) people who just don’t know any better. You must prepare for each type of individual.
Legislating the Use of Artificial Aids
If you are going to implement a policy or directive about the use of artificial aids, you have to decide if you have that authority and how important it is to you to enforce it. In some types of horse businesses, it is possible to control whether and how artificial aids are used; in others it is not.
Riding instructors have perhaps the greatest duty to legislate the use of artificial aids. If your students are using whips and spurs, you are duty-bound to teach them how to use these tools correctly; if they are not, you must still teach them about these tools and why they aren’t used in your business.
If you have a moral or ethical opposition to artificial aids, make that clear. Explain your reasons behind this opinion and provide sound logic to back it up. Some riding instructors have no such opposition; they simply believe that riders should learn to cue with natural aids first so that they only use artificial aids in specific situations.
My tenth-grade English teacher and I got into an argument one day about the use of fragmented sentences. I held the opinion that fragments could be used to great effect when placed deliberately in a text for artistic purposes. If we used fragments in our essays, however, she would deduct five points from our score.
She explained that yes, professional writers sometimes broke grammar rules with artistic license. However, she would not permit her students to break these rules until she was satisfied we had mastered them. This made perfect sense to me, and I conceded her point.
This is an excellent philosophy for riding instructors, and many of my clients and colleagues have adopted it. Teach students how to ride without artificial aids and they will be less likely to abuse them later on.
Other horse business owners don’t always have this luxury. If you are allowing horse owners to board their animals at your stable, for example, you don’t have much control over how they ride their horses as long as no abuse is involved. However, you can take a stand against whips and spurs if you so choose.
You might also like:
- Dealing with Aggressive Horsemen
in the Horse Business - Teaching Riders to Use Less Leg
- Where Do Riding Instructors Stand?
About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.
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