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A cutting whip is of great value with bad-tempered 

 refusers. Horses that will stop and kick like furies 

 when spurred will often give in to an application of the 

 cutting whip. It does not seem to upset their tempers 

 in the same way as the spur. It is also of use in 

 making sticky, short- jumping horses jump out - more 

 useful, possibly, with such horses than with any others. 



But the cutting whip is of no use unless you know 

 how to pick it up and use it when picked up. The 

 picking up must be done like lightning, and as you pick 

 it up, say, with the right hand, enough of the right- 

 hand rein must be passed into the left hand to keep a 

 level bearing on the horse's mouth. If as you pick up 

 your whip you let one rein go slack, of course your horse 

 will swerve from the whip and run out. 



Then, when you do hit, hit hard and close behind 

 the girth. It is a brutal thing to hit a horse far 

 back. To use a whip properly and with either hand 

 requires quite a little practice. " But for any lad who 

 is going in for riding all sorts of horses, it is well 

 worth learning, and all, except the actual stroke, can 

 be practised at any time when riding about on quiet 

 horses. Once learnt it is not forgotten, and may often 

 come in useful in hunt or point-to-point races. It 

 should be easy enough to get an amateur or professional 

 jockey to show the best way of picking up the whip. 



A cutting whip properly applied is very useful 

 •with a queer-tempered horse that "sits up" with you on 

 the road. If you watch closely you can generally de- 

 tect signs of the coming trouble; then, before he has 

 quite stopped, let him have it once, but as hard as you 

 can deliver it. Very often a wild bound takes the 

 horse past the spot he had intended to select for his 

 battle-ground, and surprise and pain puts the whole 

 thing out of his head. But the blow should be given 

 quickly and without warning. Surprise is as great an 

 advantage in a horse fight as in any other kind of 

 battle. 



Probably in nothing so much as riding refusers, do 

 hands come in - hands and determination, the power of 



