[HairOfTheDog]

You are, of course, right about that. When I said hit, I meant overly whipped. I do recognize the difference.

Good. There are actually people who will try to say it should never touch them... People who have only acquired horses who someone already taught using it. They've never started one from scratch ;~D

[Duchess47]

:) Well, we've started a lot and most generally, they don't ever feel that whip unless they are very deliberately misbehaving. We use it more as a pointer and flick it behind them to send them forward, in front of them to turn them on the rail. That and body position generally works along with voice commands for everything, walk, trot, canter, whoa, easy, come here, turn, etc.