Tesco Whips Update.

No response from Tesco, about their heavy duty crops, but I have been approached on Google Plus with a request to join my circles by a firm who say their company was "was founded by horse lovers for horse lovers. Horses have been in our families for several generations, and our passion for these gentle and noble animals only grows with the passage of time."

Which presumably explains why they sell whips and advertise child's hammer head spurs. Apparently " Lots of people love these spurs because they are angled so they don't squash your foot when you wear them. Stainless steel. Size: Childs 1/2" Neck."

Well on that basis I'm off to get some. I spend the long winter evenings worrying that my foot might  get squashed by the spur when I kick a pony in the ribs with the nice hammer headed metal tip. At last I can kick the pony in the ribs with absolutely no risk of hurting myself, and even more important I can teach children to do the same thing. With health and safety regulations you wouldn't want to be sued because some kid had hurt his foot putting a metal tipped boot into his pony's ribs.

Yes, like the owners of the firm, I share a passion for these gentle and noble animals,
hang on, that last sentence seems just slightly stupid. Gentle, noble animals........... sell metal spikes so kids can kick them in the ribs safely,....... sell an enormous variety of whips none of which will squash your hand, stuff the pony, your hand will be all right..........something just a little bit out of whack here.

I'll think about this and update you tomorrow.

Tesco's Christmas Whips.

Tesco's Christmas Whips.

I don't spend a lot of time thanking Tesco's for anything, but this is Christmas and they have provided me with two Christmas presents.

The first has nothing to do with whips, ponies, chariots or any of the topics that normally occupy my mind. Tesco chose "The Fairytale of NewYork"

Lyrics | Pogues lyrics - Fairytale Of New York lyrics

But Tesco's have chosen to play just the music which gives us all the perfect Christmas Game of pin the lyric on the donkey. Which lyric, from Fairytale of New York, in your opinion, best describes Tesco?

But the second present is back to an old Christmas theme of mine, All I want for Christmas is a whip.  I wrote this in December 2008 just before I got Obama, and put the principles into practice.

Since then I have received some vitriolic abuse for saying anything against whips. Whips are just a signalling system, you only need a tap, it's just a reminder, it's an extension of my arm, he loves it really, I only use it to scratch him.

Thanks to Tesco I can safely say this is crap.

Tescos have three whips available, basically you can have hats, gloves, jodhpurs to keep your kids safe and warm, and whips for them to hit the pony.
There is the standard riding crop for £4, which every pony will see as stunning value, the Harry Hall Glitter crop which makes being hit a real visual experience as the glitter whistles through the air, and the

TESCO HEAVY DUTY RIDING CROP BLACK.

OK, this is the other Christmas game. If the crop is just for signalling, why do you need a heavy duty version? This isn't Tesco's fault, they aren't a horsey operation, they just got in a "professional horse person" who told them this is what you need.  So WHY do you need the HEAVY DUTY WHIP???


I will be back to this issue until Tesco get rid of whips, and the equestrian establishment stop pretending the whip is a signalling system. It is for hitting horses. That is why you need the heavy duty version, because the standard one is only capable of signalling, not of doing its job, flagellation.

Tesco. Please do the decent thing. Let some ponies and horses enjoy a civilised relationship. Try asking yourselves, not some "equestrian expert" what other animals you would sell whips for, and then ask what ponies have done to deserve this unique status. And Obama will be visiting your Exeter store to find out if the whips are still on the shelves.


Update.
Just sent this email to Tesco Corporate responsibility.
Dear Sir,
I have just posted this comment on my blog. http://saddlechariot.blogspot.com/2011/12/tescos-christmas-whips.html
I hope you will remove whips from sale. There is no good reason to hit horses with whips (there are plenty of bad ones) and I feel selling whips does nothing to improve your image.
My name is Simon Mulholland, I can be contacted on 07929524260.
Yours
Simon.ps the display is at Tesco's Exeter. I will be visiting the store soon with Obama the pony and hope to be informed that whips are no longer for sale. Obama hopes the same.

Just in case anyone still thinks whips are necessary,  I drove Obama up here, or he pulled me up here, whichever you prefer, without a whip, bit or spurs. So why does anyone need them?

Whips, soft gentle things used for gently stroking racehorses.

Trying to persuade the public that horses need to be hit is back in the news. And it is worth reading not just the article but the comments by readers. One quote is a classic

Moreover, the modern whip is so light and cushy that it is painless for the horse - and indeed it is just as much used in being shown to the horse as it is in hitting its quarters.

Of course the reason for showing it to the horse is that the modern race whip looks remarkably similar to the  Race Exercise Whip.

Racing and Hunting Saddlers - Country Clothing - All Stable Requisites E J Wicks, Lambourn, Berkshire, RG17 8PB Email E J Wicks Tel: 01488 71766 Fax: 01488 71707 Monday to Friday 8am to 5.30pm / Saturday 8.30am to 12.30pm   HOME | PRODUCTS & SERVICES | SHOP | RACING COLOURS | DIRECTIONS | CONTACT US     Home » Racing Equipment   Race Exercise Whip The Tuff Whip is a very well priced race exercise whip. These are supplied to us by the same people who supply our official race riding whips. Email Friend Price: £ 17.99   « Previous | Next »   © First Ideas 2009

Of course if you used one of these little beauties on the race track, you would be banned, but when you are at home, out of sight of all the whingeing do gooders you can use one of these to teach the horse what a real whip feels like. Then, when you show it the race whip, it expects the same degree of blinding pain that being hit with plastic, not foam, plastic wrapped glassfibre, generates.

If I hit you regularly with nice heavy weight brass knuckles, on social occasions I will only have to put my hand into my pocket to persuade you to say, "Yes Sir" Of course I wouldn't dream of using brass knuckles in public. What a disgusting idea, and if you were to suggest I did such a thing, it would be libel.

Horses die more often in races after whipping. It is about the only known result that whips produce. If nobody carried a whip, what would be unfair?

Unfortunately I know the answer to that one. Some horses like to race, some horses need to be "persuaded". Some very rich and very influential people own horses that without persuasion, are dogmeat, but with persuasion, are worth millions. I am afraid banning the whip would be grossly unfair to some very rich and very influential people, so the horses will just have to carry on suffering. It's only fair.                

Squatter's rights.

The Dale Farm evictions are the final stages of a process begun in the Eighteenth century, to separate people from land.

In this history book, the destruction of the "squatters" is shown to be ethnic cleansing to justify taking land from the poor to give to the rich.

Where are the last remnants of a group that was wiped out to justify the enclosures?
At Dale Farm.
Were the original Enclosures legal?
Is the desperate desire to eradicate any groups of free moving people necessary to ensure nobody is in a position to question modern land ownership?
Just read these pages and ask where the squatters are now.  

Saddlechariot update.

I have been concentrating on the iBex of late, mostly because it amuses me, but also so that everyone who wants, can enjoy the feeling of exploring.


To keep an eye on my latest activities this link should get you to what I am doing. Since I tend to use Blogger as a website more than a blog, it is worth using the tabs at the top of the page.

I have also been mucking around with training ideas, mostly based on not using force, and on a pretty random sequence of rewards. The randomness is because I can't concentrate on anything for very long, so I tend to forget whatever system I start the day with, and have to invent a new one to finish the day.
Luckily Obama, like all ponies, is quite capable of working out what the moronic human actually wants. That doesn't mean I get it, just that Obama is well aware what I want.


My system is mostly based on belief that ponies work better if there is a purpose. So I originally trained Obama to take me and my Saddlechariot from Brecon to Birmingham.
Why? I hear you cry. Because I wanted to go to Birmingham, I would have thought that was obvious.
To achieve this Obama had to get used to roads, fields, canals, industrial estates, cows (terrifying) and anything else we might meet en route. The system is simple. I walk in front of him towards anything that frightens him. This is called leadership. It can only be done from in front. If I go first, Obama knows that whatever threatens him, will eat me first, which gives Obama time to run.
Now we can go most places, and we can take wheelchairs most places. I am trying to increase the places that the iBex can go. Some serious work on Dartmoor is called for.

Blogger working again I sincerely hope.

Can I write what I want and actually get published? Can I put up pretty pictures? Can I stop asking fatuous questions?














My current blog is
http://sadedlechariotibex.blogspot.com/

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