Use of whip is not abuse, insists trainer

May 17 2008 The Journal

OUTSPOKEN as anyone can be as one of the leading trainers in Europe, Mark Johnston would stand out like a sore thumb in the diplomatic service.

Opinionated about everything in the sport, he is never afraid of upsetting others and he takes no prisoners.

Once a regular contributor to the Racing Post, he admits he misses that platform, so it’s not surprising a man like Johnston has built his own with a “Straight Talking” feature in his monthly newsletter, the Kingsley Klarion.

The use of the whip keeps rearing its ugly head and Johnston has strong views on the subject. The ever increasing penalties for breaking the whip guidelines, together with ever-changing legislation, will never placate those that object to the use of the whip.”

He says: “This only serves to confirm their belief that whip use is wrong and, regardless of changes in its structure or its use, they will never be satisfied until it is withdrawn altogether. The way to deflect criticism is to explain to people that those who actually work with horses have no interest in abusing them.

“There may well be cases where horses are not obviously responding to the whip but where its use is still justified and does not constitute abuse. We must try to understand how and why it works.

“There is no point in thinking how you yourself might respond to the whip as it would not have the same physiological effect on humans. In breeding and training, horses to race we have honed their flight response to a great extent and we have reached a point where they need very little encouragement to run.

“But there probably comes a point in a race where, at a very subconscious, even chemical, level, the flight response starts to wear off. At this point, I believe, the whip can induce a further response which hormonally enables the horse to draw on extra reserves, reserves that humans simply don’t have, and it can easily be argued that this response is, to some extent, a natural safeguard for the horse.

“It is ludicrous to think that the horse thinks ‘this hurts, so I’ll run faster’. It is most likely that, if the horse was even capable of thinking about the whip, it would have exactly the opposite effect.

“But that is not how the whip works. It works at a level well below conscious thought and that is why I believe it is essential that we retain it.”