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Another Eloquent Voice Against Whipping

June 19th 2008

 3 comments

Good Thursday morning. I received in the mail last week a thoughtful, hand-written note from Dr. Robert Reichard, of The Villages, Florida, who took the time to offer his perspective on the use of whips on harness horses. I thought about writing Dr. Reichard back directly-- and still may-- but I think his letter is worth sharing, in part anyway, to the harness community.
 
From Dr. Reichard: "Many times, when I was in the paddock, I saw horses that raced coming in to the paddock with welts all over their back and sometimes some on the inner sides of the stifle that were bleeding. I also saw during races the driver shoving the whip under the tail.... There are whipping rules, but the judges do not enforce them. Perhaps they should go to the paddock and observe the horses that raced."

Comments

Murray Brown said...

Short of banning whipping entirely, there is one guaranteed way of stopping the abuse of the whip. That is to require the drivers to keep both hands in the hand holds ALL THE TIME and then back it up by severe penalties for those who abuse the rule. Its physically impossible to severely whip a horse when you have both hands in the hand holds.

I don't think that fines will do the job, but consider fifteen days for a first offense; sixty days for a second and six months for a third with no possibility of appeal or postponement.

As opposed to our Thoroughbred brethren we are somewhat fortunate in that we are not in the public eye as much as they are. Believe me, our whipping looks a lot worse than theirs does.

Unless we do something, its only a matter of time before racetracks get picketed and even shut down by animal rights organizations.

posted at 6:23 PM on Jun 19th 2008

Kathy Parker said...

Andrew,
It seems a no brainer that someone in the paddock would observe horses as they return and report any signs of whipping. I can say that I've stood in many a paddocks...when I lived in the Pompano Beach area, I was at Pompano many nights in the paddock and watched scores of overnight horses return without a welt or sign of being touched by the whip. I can also tell you I was in the paddock on Jug Day one year and saw a horse come back with blood on his side.

It seems to me that judges could easily be aggressive and eliminate any abuses of the whip. It's already happened in Indiana, where PJ Tim Schmitz took action when a top driver there brought a horse back with obvious injury from the whip.

However, we still have a problem with fans seeing the whip being used and believing that injury is being done to the horse. And of course, sometimes a horse might be abused without showing physical signs. As a child my younger sister used to watch a driver at The Meadows and she would make mental notes about his abuses with the whip and report them to my father at the end of the night. Whipping is a negative, and pretty much impossible to defend.

posted at 9:43 AM on Jun 19th 2008

Allan said...

Better yet, ban whipping. The whole problem goes away. Being judges can't enforce the rules, it is only the proper thing to do. If you don't want to ban whipping, then have a racing official in the paddock examine the horse and if they come back with welts or bleeding from whipping, fine and suspend the driver.

posted at 8:03 AM on Jun 19th 2008

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