Whips in Horse-Human Relations

Abstract

Most people, and some animals, are familiar with the whip’s properties. As a material object, it is a little thin stick. In the hands of a human, it can inflict fear and pain. Knowledge about pain qualities is deeply embedded in most human cultures. Its bare presence is often enough to scare and raise concerns about abuse. As such, the whip has tremendous powers – human use through thousands of years have given it a sort of agency – it performs, tells of properties and powers, even lying still in a human hand.