whip study

[the galah]

i was just reading a study in sweden about whip use and whether it makes horses go any faster.

they measured the horses speed 25 times every second in some swedish harness trotting races over the last 400m.

Basically their findings  could be summarised as whip use could make the horses run a bit faster,but that whip use in the last 100m actually makes the horses run slightly slower..

To use their words,the study found whip use seemingly pointless in making horses run faster overall.

the study suggested that the whip use in the last 100m of a race making them run slower,was  because of negative reinforcement.

In other words they theorised the average horse has had the whip applied previously,that its slowed down previously as its got tired,so now whenever the whip is applied that is how it will respond each time.

thats why they concluded the speed the horses ran over the last 50m of a race was generally slower than the previous 50m.

it also noted more experienced drivers did not use the whip as much, because the drivers had come to the realsiation similar to what the study had concluded.

actually i once bought a book by a fellow trevor payne,he called it fair means or foul,which referred to his time in england when  a new zealander invested a lot of time and money in trying to establish harness racing in england.I lent that book to some about 20 years ago and he up and died and the family couldn't find it when i went to get it back.Anyway he said he always knew if he was going to win or not,because if the fella beside him went for the whip before he did he knew it would stop before his horse did,as thats just what he had seen countless times. Pretty much the same thing as the study concluded.It was an interesting enough read. he said in it about how they didn't use to have photo finished when he was there for a start and if he was in a close finsih he would always come back quickly and raise the whip and come in first ,before the judge gave his call and that he won a lot of races that he didn't think he had been first past the post.

Edited 4 hours ago by the galah