Balancing my Dressage Whip

 

So today I learned why I have so much trouble using my whip effectively.  See the explanation HERE.

The short version is that every dressage whip has a balance point and mine was about at the lash.  By weighting the top of the whip(with electrical tape) I changed the balance point so it is much easier to hold in position and use efficiently for tapping purposes in hand and under saddle.  Who knew?  Not me.

This all came about after my first lesson after the clinic.  LM gave a thumbs up to my work on Pillar 2, mouth/bit conditioning exercises, and rider position changes but posited that our root problem is that he doesn't stay with me.  He rolls at about 50-60% for everything in hand and under saddle.  Hence the need for effective use of the whip to tap him if his responses aren't immediate and to have him match my energy.

So we had a lesson full of immediate responses to my energy during leading, in hand, and under saddle.  Huge difference.  He is a bit offended but by emphasizing it on the ground first, we worked out a lot of the "feelings".  I still struggled though, to quickly tap him.  Enter Google and the realization that it was actually the unbalanced tool making things more difficult, not just me.  Who would have thought such a small thing could make such a huge difference?