hi it's josie and today i'd like to talk to you about dressage whips how we hold it and then
most importantly how to swap from one hand to the other without interfering with your horse that's a
very important skill a dressage whip is a little longer whip it's not a short flapper a whip it's
a longer whip because we'd like to get back and reinforce our leg aid with it but before we can
do all that we need to know how to hold it how do we hold it i've seen people hold their dressage
whip right up there i've also seen them hold them down there what you'll find is your whip
has a balance point on it a bit like a kitchen knife does where it feels the most weightless
in your hand okay so you need to find that bit on your whip because it shouldn't fit here i can feel
it's actually dragging on the bottom part of my hand if i move it up here it's pulled down onto my
thumb because the way you hold a dressage whip is literally in the middle of your hand with
your hand around it you don't grip it as in hang on to it because that's going to make all of your
arm tight and affect the connection you can have with your horse it just sits in your hand very
very lightly if you have a whip without a knob on top you're going to keep dropping it i promise you
so you that's what that to me that's what that knobs for so if it slips a bit it doesn't fall
through my hand and i can move it back up so it should sit across the palm of your hand
in the crook there with your hand wrapped softly around it because you've got to add your
reins into that hand as well so how do we hold the reins and the whip so we hold our reins
in the correct way with the reins between our little finger and our ring finger and
up over our index finger and our whip just sits in there now when i'm holding the reins
i've got a good feel on the reins but you can see that i'm not gripping my whip it's actually
sitting in my hand there it's not sliding anywhere you need a a whip with a bit of a hand a bit of
grip on the handle in some form so it doesn't keep sliding these little crystals not only look pretty
but they hold it there so that within my hand there i'm holding my reins but my whip is not
gripped really tight because that would also mean i'm squeezing the rein which is not nice for the
horse's contact so once you've got the way you hold it right in your in your hand now i often
every whip is different because it depends on the weight this particular whip i probably like to
have it there with about that much poking out if i go any further down there as i said i can feel it
drop the weight drops onto my little finger if i push it up here the weight drops onto my thumb
so when it's down here i feel like the whip is doing that when it's up here i feel like
the whip is doing that and it's got to be just balanced so it just sits there where you want
the whip to sit sorry rebel you're going to have to move a little bit mate can you move
i know you're having a nice snooze in the sun good boy so where you want the whip to sit
depends on a lot of things now there's a train of thought that it should be 45 degrees to the ground
but i think that that all depends on you as a rider and how long and short your arms are and
just a little tip when i'm going to not use my whip and i'm doing something else i pop it in
here and close my leg on it so that i don't have to put it down somewhere or i don't drop it so if
you're holding your reins correctly now i've done a video on how to hold your reins and how to use
your reins and i'm going to link that up here and down in the description but if you're holding your
reins correctly there should be a nice straight line this way your wrist should not be kinked
that way that way that way or that way and so when you're holding a whip you need to keep your hand
in that position as well that is the correct position to hold your whip in because the most
important thing i have with my horse is a connection with his mouth a soft connection
with his mouth where i don't interfere with his mouth so when you're holding the reins correctly
that is the angle that the the whip is going to sit on so i've got a nice straight line here from
my hand and if rebel was actually a little bit rounder it would be a straight line to his mouth
and so if i have the whip in my hand where is it going to sit i try not to move my hand and
i'll sit the whip there so that is where my whip should sit is it 45 degrees i actually don't know
but i've seen people try to carry it here and here now if you just come and have a
look at what happens just to my wrist when i do that that will be very interesting for you
so if i want to hold it look what happens to my wrist it is as stiff as buggery and i will not be
soft on my horse's contact if i hold it up here look what's happened to my uh wrist it's stiff
there's no giving in that wrist what you need to do is get your hand position correct first
pop the whip in there without moving your hand position whoops that's too high and that is the
position my whip sits at can i access his hind legs with this yes i can so usually we are using
a whip to access a hind leg on a horse most of the time that we want to access a hind leg is
when we're on a circle and so therefore we usually want to access the inside hind leg
i have explained to you why there is in my trot diagonals video and i'll link that one up here and
in the description as well you can go and see that so therefore we need to be able to change the whip
from one side of the horse to the other without interfering with the horse now most of the time
you're riding on a contact and if you're further along you're actually riding your horse on the bit
and the last thing you want to do is interfere with that connection that you get with your horse
that connection to me is probably one of the most precious things i've got and i don't want
to interfere with it so you need to change the whip from one hand to the other without changing
the feeling on the horse's mouth so i'm going to show you how i do that so how do we do that
so practice that without any reins or any contact on the rein to start with because that will allow
you not to worry about interfering with your horse's mouth how i do it is when the horse is
on the bit and i'm riding but for demonstration purposes and a way you can practice this
just do it on a loose rein so i've got my whip in this hand i've got my hands how they should be
hopefully rebel keep your head over there so you swap your reins into the hand that has the whip
in it and i use these two fingers so as i come over here i grab that ring with these two fingers
if i'm riding like this then i do bring my wrist up a little just softly everything
softly nothing's tense to bring the rip whip to a 90 degree angle i reach over with this hand
i grab it i bring it over and then i grab the rein and then i usually have to push the
whip down you can it depends on you don't want to move your hands too much so let's do that again so
i'm riding along i will show you this going in a minute i'm riding along i want to change the
whip to my left hand i put the rein into both reins into the hand with the whip i don't use
one finger i use two i don't know why it's just a habit i've gotten into so that's tucked under
there this comes to 90 degrees my hand goes over it flips that out and then i grab that
rein
so i've got my horse on a contact it's a long rein one here what i'm going to do is put both reins
into the hand with the whip under there 90 degrees pick it up sweep it over swap it over and then
push it down so let's do a change from the outside to the inside on a circle we'll do it in walk
so both reins go into the hand that has the whip in it under my fingers there
whip comes to 90 degrees hand goes over and then brings the whip in
so now we do it in trot both reins into the hand with the whip whip to 90 hand over comes over
i hope that helps you it's something you're going to need to practice
and then it should become quite easy just remember
in the beginning you're probably going to feel like you're all thumbs see you later