Monty Roberts Advocates Whipless Racing.

About five years ago, we began to visit the Scandinavian countries with our demonstration events. As I became familiar with horse people in these countries, I discovered sensitivity to whips in racing that I had not experienced in most of the rest of the world. While it's true that England had placed restrictions on whips, and Germany had created a special 'no pain' whip for 2-year olds, nothing had been done in the United States.

It was then, and still is, my position that precious little has been accomplished compared to where I believe we need to go in this business of whips in racing. With that in mind, I began to communicate with prominent individuals in the Scandinavian race fraternity. I found trainers, officials and owners to be receptive to my suggestion that whips were unnecessary in the racing industry.

Without claiming responsibility for all of the decisions, I certainly was a voice on the side of whipless racing. Many rule changes have been made since my first visits to that part of the world. Denmark has reduced the use of the whip by about 80 percent. Sweden has accomplished about a 90 percent reduction in the use of the whip. Norway leads the world and has enacted a most interesting approach to eliminating the whip.

In 2007, Norway introduced a rule that allows a jockey to whip his mount as many times as he chooses and as hard as he chooses to use the whip. The fact is, however, that a jockey must not remove his hands from the reins to whip the horse. He is disqualified should he do so. This allows the use of the whip to guide the horse, which some whipping advocates insisted was necessary to be safe.

Rune Haugen, leading trainer in Norway, employs my concepts and calls regularly to update me on how well his horses are running. He won four races today (June 15) out of four entries and called me in France to relay the great news.

It is my opinion that no whip has ever made a race safer, whether it is used to guide the horse or strike the horse for pain. This decision, however, takes opinion out of the scenario and leaves the whip in the hands of the jockey should it be deemed necessary. The consequences of this rule have been very positive, and most of the jockeys are choosing to leave the whips behind. I have spoken with many of the trainers who insist that the racing is safer and that the jockeys are just as effective as they were before the rule was enacted.

Recently, a statement was made for the press in the United States that asserted that if the jockeys had no whips we would have horses running uncontrollably all over the racetrack.