Saturday, March 15, 2008

My new dressage whip! Shameless product endorsement

Having lost my 3rd dressage whip in the last 18 months (last time was not my fault!), I'm trying a different approach. Instead of buying cheap and easily replaceable whips, I decided to find my ultimate dressage whip--one that I will want to care about and keep. My dream-whip qualities are: light, flexible, easy to hold, and possibly having initials embedded somehow. This kind of thing is hard to search on the Web (how do you get  a feel for a whip?). Any company that acts on the inspired idea of using gel in the whip handle is a company I'll take a gamble on -- especially for $16! I'm now the happy owner of a Gelwhiptm from SmartPak. It's comfy to hold, molding  to your hand, and it's soft yet slightly tacky for a good grip. I didn't find this whip anywhere but through Smartpak Equine. Oh, it doesn't have initials, but I hope my fondness for this whip will aid me (get it?) in keeping it.

Next, I need to train my own horse to do this...




Dressage whip resources and advice

The Good horseperson discusses whips
Take a look at this great blog article on whips. I've never read a thorough discussion of whips, and this one is both unique and insightful. Good work!

How to hold a dressage whip an excerpt from Googlebooks. How to hold a dressage whip, an excerpt from The Beginning Dressage Book: Expert Advice on How to Train Your Horse by Kathryn Denby-Wrightson.

Various discussions on the Ultimate Dressage bulletin board...
More whip questions...
Help Me Find the Perfect Whip
Best dressage whip?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcIlit2A_KM


3 comments:

  1. I can never seem to keep a whip either. Unless it's broken, which is the condition of my current whip. A week after I got it Kaswyn got the end of it in his teeth without me seeing and in about four seconds chewed the lash off. Of course I've had the whip that way for over a year. I know the second I get a new one it will get broken or lost! Such is the way with good whips.

    Let me know if you like it. At that price I might have to test fate and buy one myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that is a handy trick to teach a horse. I couldn't begin to count the times I've had to climb off or recruit someone to retrieve my dropped crop.

    ReplyDelete

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