Whipping a Horse

I'm not so sure you can raise a welt with a lunge whip. The hair must protect the horse from visible damage. I expect the noise gets to the horse more than the contact.

Yes, it will leave a weal

A bull whip, yes- A lunge whip, no- too light and a horse's hide is pretty thick. Not saying it wouldn't hurt, but I doubt it would leave a mark.

Yes, a lunge whip can. It'll raise a small welt (no hide missing) if it hits just hard enough.

And yes, I've seen it happen.

Depending upon where the horse is hit and whether it has a winter coat on, absolutely it will show up. Race horses are routinely checked to see if jockeys have whipped them excessively.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Ditto. A longe whip can certainly leave a welt. I've seen it too.

More horse beating

You don't even need a whip. One of my horses (before he was mine) was lent out by his previous owner. When he came back he had scabs all over his rump from being hit with the ends of western reins. He was hit so hard that it too strips of fur, about an inch to an inch and a half long and about 1/4 inch thick off. When the person that borrowed him was confronted about it, the person said the other horses did it. The prior owner was stupid enough to fall for it but I made sure the horse never was loaned to him again. . . .

So a lunge whip if it's at its "snap" point can hit hard enough to take hide off. It can leave a weal too. It's going to be a short section that's as wide as the whip. Something fatter and wider like a riding crop is more likely to leave weals than cuts.

A lunging whip can definitely leave a mark, don't forget that you can get various lengths of lunging whip which would affect the 'ease' in which a mark was left. If you're looking for cruelty to horses, one of Monty Robert's books details how horses were frequently 'broken'.

Yes, you can ... which is why you have to pop the whip behind the horse, in front of the horse, or over the horse's butt, not directly at the horse. It's the noise, not the pain, you should be using as a signal.

If the character doesn't realize that, and thinks that they should be lashing the horse like a ship's captain punishing a crewman, they could leave welts, maybe lacerations. They could also have the experience that a local wannabe trainer had with his horse. Horse got fed up with the whipping and charged straight for the center of the circle to permanently stop the problem ... it was used to being lunged, but the idiot was hitting the horse, not just using the whip as a noise making signal device.

"Leave a mark" - what does that mean TO YOU? It's possible to raise a wheal with a riding crop or whip that will dissapear after a few minutes. Do you mean strip away hide and flesh? Is this supposed to be an accidental occurance or through repeated applications? Is the mark noticed moments after the occurence, or are we talking about something that happened days earlier?

jclarkdawe said:

Depending upon where the horse is hit and whether it has a winter coat on, absolutely it will show up. Race horses are routinely checked to see if jockeys have whipped them excessively.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Click to expand...

Yes, but jockey's aren't using a lunge whip. Their whips leave marks much easier.

It is possible to leave a welt with a lunge whip, however, you'd have to get closer to the base of the whip. They are pretty flexable. A shorter whip would produce a welt much easier.

Other things you could do with a lunge whip aren't very nice, either...your character could let the whip hit the horse in the face repeatedly, making it rather head-shy. Then later when something comes at the horse's face, the horse could throw your character off his back *grin*