Richard Hughes quits over new five-day ban

I hate it when my candy is taken away and this pacifier sucks, so to speak.

I think I will refuse to drink from my bottle for awhile. That'll show my parents!

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/horse_racing/15304099.stm

with reference to the above article (link) excuse the ignorance but what is the difference between 5 and 7 whip smacks? or 3 for that matter delivered at the right time? or none?

That's the point I have been trying to make Don.

@easy- I respect you and your riding style and can easily see that you have an afinity with animals, the same cannot be said about many of your profession. The deliberate missuse of the whip cannot be condoned. I am no bunny hugger and my little tale is a slight illustation of my distaste of people that mistreat the animal for finacial reward or even worse through fustration seek to deliberatly punish. Even a bigger bug bear is that of people that are supposed to be equipped with some form of intelligence and have adiquate sensory devices used for audio reception, but choose not to use them. Yes, I will not be missed nor will any of the other of the small owners that have realised
that owning horses paying and feeding them does not reward one like it used to. Better riders know why and how the whip is to be used and those other little fella's that kicked horses in the gut at the starting stalls are soon out of the game and those that remain do not get to ride the best and will continue flogging to no avail.

Easy a jockey...:

"$%jockey ()

ps the strike has been called of,talks have been arranged..

Don Wrote:

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> with reference to the above article (link) excuse
> the ignorance but what is the difference between 5
> and 7 whip smacks? or 3 for that matter delivered
> at the right time? or none?

The problem with that logic is, where do you stop? Do you condone eight, twelve, or twenty cracks of the whip? Whatever limit you set, someone will always argue "but what if it needs one more?" Surely there has to be a limit. I don't claim to know if seven is about the right amount, but somewhere a line has to be drawn. We certainly cannot afford as a sport to go back to the days when you could beat horses half to death to win a race - modern western society won't accept that.

gregbucks Wrote:

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> Easy a jockey...:

Sorry my bad, thought Easy was that nice Island style chappie, this Easy lives on a different Island.

My point exactly! ...................Would Jocks not be best placed to know the difference that 3,5 or 7 smacks make and when......surely that is their domain?

As per usual a few spoil it for the rest. Most of the top guys do know when to hit or not and how often but some of the others( including apprentices who think the stick is the 1st thing to go for before even punching the horse out!) do use the stick far too much especially if the horse has been backed . How do the authorities sort that out? As I said earlier, if a horse is not going to give of its best after 5 cracks with a crop then it is not going too. The jockey can still show the stick as an aid to keep him concentrating.

This thread has hit an American publication X(