It was a long time coming, but the Australian Racing Board ( ARB ) has finally set a code to limit the use of whips on race horses.
Only padded whips will now be allowed and there will be strict limitations on how they may be used. The jockey may not raise his arm above shoulder height when delivering a whip stroke and can not deliver more than twenty strokes per horse in any one race. There are also restrictions on the use of whips in the final, crucial two hundred metres before the winning post.
The new code may appease some animal lovers, but it also brings into question the need to cause an animal pain for a purely selfish motive - to get it to work harder under a punishment.
If no rider was permitted to carry a whip, theoretically all the horses in the race would be running under equal conditions. The use of a whip tends to put a more humane jockey at a disadvantage compared to a less humane rider who has no feeling for the horse.
Maybe its time for the whip to join another cruel item on the scrap heap of history. A century ago it was common for many riders of horses to fit spurs to their footwear - and it was not unusual to see horses return from a ride with blood streaming down their flanks.
That would be completely abhorrent today. Maybe more thought is needed on the use of whips !
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