I hold the whip with the plastic bag tied to the end of it only to communicate my intentions to Zum. I never hit Zum with the whip. When you hit a horse with anything, you teach him that he can be hit and live through it. It teaches the horse nothing constructive at all. It is abusive and the horse will hate people for doing it to him. I don’t nag Zum with the whip. Nagging a horse teaches him that the whip means nothing and is no threat at all. If Zum doesn’t listen to my kiss cue, the most I would ever use a whip is a tap on his hip to ask him to move forward.
