THE WHIP. 407 



the animal travel faster than he is doing without punishing 

 him. 



Mr. Edwin Martin tells me that he teaches his boys to 

 carry their sticks in the left hand, so that they may use the 

 whip equally well with both hands. Unless a lad is left-handed, 

 he will have no difficulty with the right. Agreeably to the 

 remarks made on the use of the whip, it should, as a rule, be 

 carried in the left on a right-hand course, and vice versa; 

 for horses generally have a tendency to " bear " towards the 

 outside of a course. 



Bad as the spurs are, with respect to ruining a horse's 

 temper and breaking his heart, their evil effects are as nothing 

 compared with those of the whip. I may safely say that 

 a large percentage of horses which have been once severely 

 punished with the whip, are thereby rendered useless, as 

 racehorses, for the remainder of their lives, whenever they 

 have to contend in a close finish. Cecil, in his excellent 

 little book, Stable Practice, remarks about the whip, that 

 " not much benefit often results from it, except with game 

 and indolent animals ; and in using both that and the 

 spurs, unless the horse is found to respond to the call, 

 good feeling and prudence forbid their use. Inflicting pain 

 on an animal when he is doing his best, is not only wanton 

 cruelty, but appears something like punishing him because 

 he is going as fast as his powers will enable him. Horses 

 have retentive memories, and there is no doubt many will 

 cease to struggle at the moment they are called upon to 

 do so, from reminiscences of former punishment." 



The use of the whip with the crouching seat, is a subject 

 t have not studied sufficiently to write much about, beyond 

 stating that, in this case, the whip would in all probability 

 have to be employed under-hand, and not over-hand, as 

 is the usual English custom. The rule observed by all our 

 best old-time jockeys, is that a rider in a race should 



