Do you hesitate to carry a whip for fear of your horse's reaction to it? If so, I encourage you to get yourself and your horse over it by viewing the whip simply as an extension of your arm. Why bother? Because, my friend, it is infinitely easier to offer clear guidance to horses when you have a really long arm.
To illustrate, here is a progression of pictures in which I'm teaching 10-month old Haven to walk on my right side. As you can see, when we started out she was walking well behind me and to my left. All I had to do was use a little body language to move her to the desired position...easy-peasy because of my super long arm. I didn't even have to touch her with the whip, but rather just reach it toward her. How is that, you ask? Well, when these photos were taken, I'd already been working with Haven for a couple of weeks. (She is quite young yet, so we're only focusing on ground manners.)
I introduced the whip in the second session, taking time to get her comfortable with it by letting her sniff it, rubbing her with it, etc. Then, each time we worked on her moving away from pressure from my hand, I made sure the whip was in the asking hand.
Once she caught on to moving away from pressure, she began moving at just the hint of a touch, rather than an actual touch. Since I'd been carrying the whip the whole time, she naturally began to see it as part of my hand; therefore, she began moving away from just the hint of a touch from it as well.
Horses speak in body language and we must do the same if we're to make any sense to them. Having a super long arm helps make your body language crystal clear. So, begin thinking of your whip as an extension of your arm and you'll be surprised how quickly your horse follows suit.
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"Just got your book and I can't put it down! Packed with knowledge and instruction, can't wait to pass on the gold!"
-Katie Keller Trosclair
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