How much pain does a horse feel when being hit with the whip by a jockey?

Question

How much pain does a horse feel when being hit with the whip by a jockey?

Answer 1

The use of the jockey's whip is not designed or intended to cause a horse any pain what-so-ever. The intent of the whip is to keep a horse's mind on running by giving the horse a little scare. A lot like when our children sneak up behind us and go boo !!!

Many jockeys simply show the horse the whip to achieve the desired result. Many other jocks will crack the whip against the saddle to get the horses attention. Jockeys will actually crack the whip against the horse, but again it is more to scare the horse a bit.

The pain is usually felt in my wallet when I bet on a horse that needs so much urging and attention.

Answer 2

Not much, horse hide is thick. You should see horses bite each other,OUCH!

Answer 3

it dont hurt them at all.

its just a signal to tell them to wake up.

you could hit the horse in the head with a 2 x 4 and it wouldnt hurt them.

the horses skin is very thick.

and so is the skull.

Answer 4

very little it is used to get their attention

Answer 5

Some horses resent the whip and do tend to put their ears back and start pulling themselves up when the stick is used, though in saying that most will lift each time their hit, some people thing that we hit them to hurt them but its more like chasing them up as horses are naturally flight animals and run from things apparently chasing them, the English style stick used by jump jockeys in Europe is sort of air cushioned so as not to hurt or mark them.

To answer your question in full if a stick is used the way it is supposed to be in a race then no it wouldn't hurt them due to their thick skinned hide and the huge amount of adrenaline pumping through them at the business end of a race

Answer 6

My horse is a very proud pasofino mix.  I think it would hurt his pride more than anything, since he always tries to please.

Answer 7

none at all it just persists them to keep going and they are tough animals

Answer 8

I don't know.... ask one.

Answer 9

Quite a lot I think, it certainly wakes them up

Answer 10

Well it would be like you hitting yourself with a ruler on your thi. Doesn't hurt too bad, but maybe after awhile it gets irritating..

Answer 11

From what i've heard, the jockey is not actually supposed to hit the horse with the whip- just crack it behind them to startle them a little into going faster, so i think therefore if they hit the horse it would be only lightly and so by mistake, i don't thinkit would hurt the horse too much if at all.

If it was harsh on the horse though if they werre hit, i'm sure the whips would soon be banned from the sport.

Answer 12

Well nobody would really know unless they asked the horse but if you think about it, horses are very tough.

If you watch a herd of horses or just two horses you will see that they practically bite each other to groom one another. Then sometimes they get kicked and that really doesn't bother them much.

Also a whip is really useless unless the horse knows what it means. For example, in the horses first race, when the jockey starts whipping the horse they basically go crazy and try to run from it and then after a few races the horse is used to it and won't respond. But if the horse is trained right then he will learn that the whip means to get moving.

Some jockeys use the whip non stop or whip the horse when they are like 10 lengths in from which I really don't like.

Answer 13

not very much. horses skin is very thick. it is probably the equivalent to somebody "poking" you to get your attention

Answer 14

Try this experiment.  When I started riding I was reluctant to use the whip. My instructor had everyone in the class hit themselves as hard as they could with their whips. Believe me, it doesn't hurt.  My understanding is that the horses don't like the sound, more than the feel of the whip.  That said, whips should only be used when other aids don't work.