Everyone would prefer a light whip, of course. You have a whip in your hand for a long time and if you don't hold it properly, your wrist will get sore. At the same time, people also want a strong whip. Those two things clash, because strong basically also means heavy. That's why in the marathon you use a slightly shorter whip. After all, you don't need to give dressage instructions in this part. Above all, the whip should be strong, because if you get snagged on an obstacle or in the woods on a tree, you don't want your driving whip to break immediately.
Telescopic whips
The dressage whip is longer. After all, you want to be able to give dressage directions. The whip is the substitute for your leg and the idea is to be able to reach at least in front of the withers, at your horse's shoulder. For example, if you need to make a volte, you want to be able to signal at his inside leg that the horse should not fall inwards. Then it is even more important that the whip is not so heavy. Of course, the lever becomes very big if you have a 2m or 2.20m whip. And in a four-horse, you also want to be able to touch the front rail. You have telescopic whips up to almost 5m for that. Those telescopic whips may be very light because of the carbon fibre used as a material, but you won't keep driving around with those. If you need such a long mixing whip, ask the groom to indicate it.
Flexibility men's whip
In terms of length, I have whips from 1m to 5m in the range. The driving whips get longer in 20cm increments up to 2m20. Then you go to 2m90 and 3.5m and then to almost 5m. I also have the whips in different colours, different in flexibility of the sticks and in length of the strokes. Some drivers like the stick to be a bit flexible and others want the whip to be more rigid. Especially in a two-horse team. There, you want a short stroke. If you want to tap the left horse there, you don't want to hit the right horse by accident.
How do I measure whip length?
The displayed length of the whips on demenner.co.uk refers to the stick length of these whips. This length is measured from the ground to the bow. For the total length, the bow must be added and this amounts to 35 centimetres. So if you order, for example, a whip with a length of 1.60m, this is the stick length and you will receive a whip of almost 2 metres (stick length plus bow).
Besides the stick and bow, you also have the stroke, of course, but it is not included in the length.
Juliette Post/The Menner
