How To Correctly Flip Your Dressage Whip & 1 Easy Whip Hack You Should Know

It is throwback Thursday and we are revamping some of the old videos into a more modern format. This is one of the earliest videos here at Dressage Hub to go viral. So we decided to bring it back to life for you!

Learning how to flip your dressage whip takes a bit of coordination and practice and yet we often see it done wrong in the warm up ring and in the dressage ring. So we decided to bring you the quick and easy to tutorial on how to flip your dressage whip and also one quick stable hack for how to help you hold your whip correctly balanced when you are just starting out in dressage.

Enjoy this throwback Thursday edition of how Dressage Hub started out!

[elkefaber]

Touching a horse with the wip can be softer and more gentle then permanent pushing with legs and spurs. It helps to minimalize aids when Timing and dose is optimal.

[janets]

Proper use of a whip DOES NOT NEED to inflict pain nor should it.

Each horse has different levels of feeling. Some horses you can look at and say "boo" 😮 and they run for the hills. Others will stand there and say, "Are you kidding me? Is that all you got?!?"

Each animal is different and should be treated that way - including respect.

Of course, there is always the most likely culprit ....
The rider! 😮😆

[crazycanuck]

Saving this clip to share as find many beginner dressage riders are unclear on how to change the whip from side to side. 👍 This method is quick, easy, and great to use with a “sensitive” horse.

[KathySierraVideo]

It would be easier to just not *need* to use a whip at all. There’s almost no chance the horse simply did not *feel* the leg, so maybe a better question to ask is why the horse does not *want* to respond, and fix *that* instead of making it more painful with the whip. I know most people do not use the whip abusively, but it’s still a mystery to me why some disciplines — especially dressage — see it as a non-optional tool almost forever, rather than finding other options… 🤷🏼‍♀️