Bottle on the whip.... er... really?

[Amanda Seater]

But... would you climb on and give it a rattle behind your leg...........yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaw!



Yes if that horse and the training warrented it, ive not read the topic just your reply, I take it its an impulse thing, and if so no worse than a whip wop, or other aid, it how those aids are used and if it stops horses neing jabbed in the ribs then I dont see a problem , surely any one with hlf a brain will have done spook busting desensitization so there would not be frightened by anything theere human chooses to use!

as above. I will pretty much do ANYTHING before hiting the horse with a whip for forwards or to get a reaction to the leg.

To be honest even my sky rocket sensitive types wouldn't over react to something like this as it is me ( that nutty human who does wierd stuff)that is holding it. It would get their attention though as it would be something new.

[BJMM]

Jasmine would have no reaction to that at all - she would pull her best camel face and look at me as if I was mental ;D
She is not the most 'forward' of horses, although she is improving with age! (now 6) but a wip wop illicited zero response, as did a plastic bottle with a bit of gravel in (used to try to get forward gear when teaching her to longline two years ago)
I came to the conclusion that she would find forward in her own good time and I was right! Blaze would think it probably contained food (she's a cob, she can't help herself ;D ) Poor Marygold would be mortified if anyone waved a bottle at her!

[Pony-Nutt]

Makes sense to me. Similar to the wip wop relying on startling them rather than pain to get forwardness.
Kanga I should think that your horse would also go doolally at the use of a wip wop? But that does not make it wrong.

[wabuska]

No.. I used one PN out of desperation when he was first with me and a terminal napper/spooker out hacking. Woke him up to moving forward. Soft rope kind back and forth over the wither. Worked a treat but took patience over weeks.

[bevnfurryfriends]

I would think if you used it on a sensitive, spooky, sort of horse then you would be in outer space but then you wouldn't need a whip either.

Perhaps it would work with a calmer sort of horse that you want to go more forward but then I would imagine they would just get used to it (being of a calm nature anyway) and just ignore it.

Anyway, I'm definitely not volunteering to try it out LOL

[Amanda Seater]

As someone I was speaking to last night said - it is all very well but once the horse is moving forward at say the trot the gravel in the bottle wouldn't stop rattling so would be a continual aid that the horse would get used to and ignore.

Good for and initial energy stimulation but withthe above fault.

For me though any of these things are only temporary and the aim is to get the horse responding to the leg or better still the intent and breath not to keep using the "energy stimulator"

[SarahW]

I agree that some horses could become desensitised in the end but can you imagine what would happen if your first rattle startled the horse and set him off at a good trot? Hands being what they are tend to grip when frightened (and would be grip the reins as well as the whip) so wouldn't let go so now you have got this shaky thing coming with you - sounds like a rocket launch to me.

The only time I have used anything to rattle at a horse when on board, I used a small cardboard box - actually a Keratex box, so that once the horse had moved I could crush it right down so that it no longer made a noise. Now this did work well but I had it in my hand not on the end of a stick. I don't think there is any need for the stick.

[Deleted]

The original description didn't have gravel in the bottle. Just the empty bottle taped onto the end of a whip. If you taped it on securely the bottle itself would only crinkle/ rattle if you tapped it against something.

[mandal]

Yes, I didn't think it had gravel in it.

[wabuska]

Gravel...............haha.................oh, god, that's hilarious................ can you imagine! Lol.

[specialized]

But surely this is only being suggested as an aid for a reluctant horse, those with highly responsive, flighty horses are never going to be tempted down such a route so it is purely hypothetical what their reaction 'might' be.

[wabuska]

Just looked it up... it's under 'stopping sluggishness'.

[cbc]

I took the zooming off comments people as being tongue in cheek

[Pony-Nutt]

Could be good for older ones that are dead to the leg, something to get them thinking forward. Say if they have had a wooden rider and they have learnt to pretty much ignore everything the rider does out of pure necessity. And now they have a new and sensitive rider to re school them.
Ive had two switched off jumping ponies both from Ireland and both came round with the tactful use of the schooling whip along with leg. When I got them they both just stood there and braced themselves ready for the thud into their ribs as though they had to put up with it so were just stiffening up ready for it anytime I used any leg at at all. One of them was in Horse & Hound a few months ago having won an affiliated ODE he was a really sensitive chap who picked up lateral work and anything else I asked of him in a jiffy but when I first saw him the dealers rider was booting his ribs in whilst he stood in the corner of the arena and refused to move so even responsive sensitive horses can and do completely switch off to the rider. I think that the bottle job could have helped both of them actually but dont think Id put gravel in especially with a new pony.

[SarahW]

I must have been imagining the gravel then! What was I thinking? - still don't think I'd like a crinkly bottle, why not just use a whip-wop? Heather Moffat has a sort of bauble on the end of her stick but I think that's more so that it is clearly visible (not audible) and stops the stick stinging in any way at all.