GB2281186A

GB2281186A - A whip

Info

Publication number: GB2281186A
Application number: GB9317723A
Authority: GB
Inventors: James Mahon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1993-08-26
Filing date: 1993-08-26
Publication date: 1995-03-01
Anticipated expiration: 2013-08-26
Also published as: GB2281186B; GB9317723D0

Abstract

A humane whip for use in horse racing comprises elongate self-supporting spine 10 of glass fibre, carbon fibre or the like, surrounded by an outer flexible sleeve 16 of rubber or soft plastics material. Shock absorbing means are disposed between the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve, and may comprise air or other gas trapped between the spine and sleeve, a foamed latex filler (24 Fig. 2), resiliently flexible spacers (26 in Fig. 3) between the sleeve 16 and spine 10, or flexible tubing (30 in Fig. 5) wound helically around and along the spine 10. The spine 10 may have a more flexible tip 12. <IMAGE>

Description

A Whip The invention relates to a novel form of whip suitable for use in horse racing.

Occasionally public concern arises over what is considered to be excessive use of the whip in horse racing. It is generally acknowledged, particularly by riders and others having experience of horses, that in racing it is essential to provide the rider with a whip for controlling the horse. For example, a horse being ridden in a race may have a tendency suddenly to veer to one side or the other and this can be dangerous, particularly in jumping races, due to the risk of interference or collision with other horses. The rider therefore requires a whip to provide instant control of the direction of the horse.

However controversy sometimes arises regarding the use of the whip on the hindquarters of the horse for the purpose of encouraging the horse to greater effort in order to win the race.

Whips for horse racing have hitherto been made from a variety of materials. For example, whips have been formed from tapered lengths of cane, whale bone or similar hard but flexible materials. In more recent times, however, whips have been formed from glass fibre, either being formed entirely from glass fibre or comprising a thin flexible steel rod sheathed in glass fibre. In spite of the flexibility of such whips, the outer surface of the glass fibre is hard and this, combined with the comparative rigidity of the material, means that application of the whip to a horse's hindquarters can be extremely painful for the horse and can result in physical damage, and breaking of the skin of the horse to draw blood, upon repeated application.

In an endeavour to reduce the pain and physical damage caused by such whips, it has become the practice for glass fibre whips to be covered with a felt wrap having, at the end, flaps which extend beyond the extremity of the glass fibre. While this has alleviated part of the problem by slightly softening the impact of the whip, and spreading it over a larger area, the hardness of the glass fibre can still be felt through the wrap and unacceptable pain and damage may still be caused to the horse through persistent use of the whip by the rider, especially where the wrap has become wet from sweat or rain. Furthermore, the felt flaps at the end of the whip can themselves cause excessive pain and damage, again particularly when they become wet from the horse's sweat or from rain.

The present invention sets out to provide an improved design of whip which will fulfil the purposes for which a whip is necessary when racing, but will not cause excessive and unacceptable pain and damage to the horse even though it might be applied to the animal's hindquarters with great force and persistence by the rider.

According to the invention there is provided a whip comprising an elongate self-supporting resiliently flexible inner spine, an outer flexible sleeve surrounding the inner spine and spaced therefrom, and shock-absorbing means disposed between the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve along at least part of the length thereof.

With this construction the outer flexible sleeve which actually contacts the horse's body can be of comparatively soft and flexible material. As the comparatively soft surface of the outer sleeve strikes the horse's skin its movement is arrested and the following inner spine is slowed down and cushioned in its subsequent impact by the shock-absorbing means. The effect is therefore of always providing a cushioning and protecting layer between the horse's body and the hard inner spine of the whip.

It is found in practice that such a whip, even when struck with greater force than a conventional whip, will cause less pain and less damage to the body being struck due to the in-built cushioning effect.

Preferably both the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve are tapered and are of circular cross-section. The inner spine may be formed from glass fibre, carbon fibre material, graphite composite material or any other suitable resiliently flexible material. The outer sleeve may be formed, for example, from natural or synthetic rubber or from a suitable flexible plastics material.

Along an end portion of the whip the space between the inner spine and the outer sleeve may be filled with a material which is more rigid than said shock-absorbing means, so as to provide a handle portion for the whip. Preferably, however, the material which fills the whip in the handle portion is still resiliently flexible. It is believed that by providing a flexible handle, the handle will, when the whip is used, absorb some of the force applied by the user.

The other end of the inner spine may be provided with a tip portion which is significantly more flexible than the remainder of the spine. The tip portion may comprise a separate element of more flexible material secured to the end of the spine so as to form a longitudinal extension thereof. For example, the tip portion may comprise a tube of flexible material, such as polythene, partly fitted over the extremity of the spine and extending beyond it.

The outer sleeve may be sealed in airtight manner around the inner spine, in which case the shockabsorbing means may simply comprise the air, or other gas, trapped between the sleeve and spine. Such air or gas may be under a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure.

Preferably, however, mechanical shockabsorbing means are provided between the sleeve and spine. Such means may take any of a number of different forms, as follows: The space between the sleeve and spine may be filled with a flexibly resilient insert such as foamed latex or other cellular flexible plastics material. The insert may be bonded to the outer sleeve and/or to the inner spine.

Alternatively, the shock-absorbing means may comprise spaced support elements of resiliently flexible material extending inwardly from the inner surface of the outer sleeve to the outer surface of the spine.

Such support elements may be bonded to the inner surface of the sleeve and/or the outer surface of the spine.

The elements may be formed from the same material as the outer sleeve in which case the elements may be integrally formed with the sleeve.

The shock-absorbing elements may comprise annular elements lying generally in a plane at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the whip and spaced apart along the length thereof. Alternatively, the elements may themselves extend longitudinally of the whip being spaced angularly apart around the circumference of the inner spine. In this case each element may extend generally radially as viewed in cross section. Each element may, also as viewed in cross section, taper inwardly as it extends from the sleeve to the spine.

In an alternative arrangement the shockabsorbing means may comprise one or more resiliently flexible elongate elements wrapped helically around the inner spine. For example, the elongate element may comprise tubing of polythene or other suitable resiliently flexible material.

The following is a more detailed description of embodiments of the invention, by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic longitudinal section through a whip in accordance with the present invention, Figure 2 is a cross-section through another form of whip, showing the shock-absorbing arrangement, Figure 3 is a partial longitudinal section through a further whip showing an alternative shockabsorbing arrangement, Figure 4 is a similar view to Figure 2 showing another shock-absorbing arrangement, and Figure 5 is a similar view to Figure 3 showing a still further form of shock-absorbing arrangement.

Referring to Figure 1: the whip comprises a central elongate tapered spine 10 of circular crosssection which is formed from glass fibre, carbon fibre or graphite composition material or any other semi-rigid material having a suitable degree of resilient flexibility. The spine 10 is preferably solid throughout although the invention does not exclude arrangements where the spine is hollow, this depending on the nature and strength of the material from which it is formed.

At one end the spine 10 is provided with an extension tip 12 formed of polythene tubing, a part of the length of the tubing being fitted over the extremity of the spine 10 so as to leave a portion projecting freely beyond the extremity of the spine.

Adjacent the opposite, thicker, end the spine is encircled by a tubular hand grip 14. The material of the handgrip 14 may be natural or synthetic rubber, or a suitable plastics. Preferably the handgrip 14 has some flexibility and resilience so as to absorb some of the force with which a user might apply the whip.

The handgrip 14 and spine 10 are surrounded by an outer sleeve 16 which is formed of natural or synthetic rubber or some comparatively soft synthetic plastics material. The outer sleeve 16 is so dimensioned that it fits snugly over the external surface of the handgrip 14 but is spaced from the rest of the inner spine 10 so as to provide an annular gap 18 between the spine and the inner surface of the sleeve 16. The sleeve 16 is closed at its narrower end, as indicated at 20, and the closed end is spaced a short distance beyond the end of the flexible tubing 12.

An end cap 22, which may also be formed from rubber, fits over the wider extremity of the sleeve 16.

The various components 10, 12, 14, 16, 20 and 22 of the whip may be bonded together by a suitable adhesive or by any other bonding process such as heat welding.

In the simplest form of the whip, the sleeve 16 is hermetically sealed so that the annular space 18 between the inner spine 10 and the sleeve 16 is simply filled with air, although it might be filled with some other gas. In this case the air or gas within the sleeve itself acts as shock-absorbing means.

When the whip is used on the hindquarters of a horse it is the comparatively soft outer sleeve 16 which first contacts the skin of the horse, and the stiffer inner spine 10 then impacts on the inner surface of the outer sleeve 16. However, the air within the sleeve, surrounding the spine 10, serves to cushion the impact of the spine 10 on the inner surface of the sleeve 16 and thus reduces the force of the impact. At the same time, the material of the sleeve 16 spreads the force of the impact over a greater area. The effect of this is to reduce the force per unit area transmitted to the body of the horse, thus reducing the pain inflicted on the animal by the blow and also reducing the risk of damage to the horse's skin and flesh.

In a modified version of the whip, the air or other gas within the sleeve 16 is pressurised so as to be above atmospheric pressure. For this purpose the handle 14 may be provided with an inlet passage communicating with the annular space 18 and fitted with a valve by means of which a hand pump or compressed air cylinder may be connected to pressurise the interior of the whip.

Preferably, however, mechanical shockabsorbing means are provided between the spine 10 and the sleeve 16. One such means is shown in Figure 2 where the inner spine 10 is surrounded by a tapered sheath 24 of latex foam or other resiliently flexible material having a cellular structure. In this case the foam 24 serves as a cushion between the spine 10 and outer sleeve 16 so as to reduce the force per unit area transmitted to the horse's body by the inner spine 10.

In the modified arrangement shown in Figure 3 the inner surface of the sleeve 16 is formed with a number of annular inward projections 26 spaced apart at intervals along the length of the sleeve 16. Only one of the projections 26 is shown in Figure 3. As viewed in cross-section each annular projection tapers inwardly as it extends inwardly from the sleeve 16 towards the spine 10. The inner periphery of each annulus 26 engages the outer surface of the spine 10 so that the annulus, again, serves as a shock-absorber.

In the arrangement shown, each annulus 26 is integrally formed with the sleeve 16 and is thus formed from the same material. If required, however, each annulus 26 may be separately formed from the sleeve 16 and bonded to it, in which case each annulus may be formed from some other resiliently flexible material, such as a suitable flexible plastics, which differs from the material of the sleeve itself.

Figure 4 is a cross-section through a further form of whip in which the inner surface of the outer sleeve 16 is integrally formed with a plurality of ridges 28 of generally triangular cross-section, the ridges extending along the length of the sleeve 16. The inner edges of the triangular ridges 28 engage the outer surface of the inner spine 10 so that they act as shockabsorbers between the spine 10 and sleeve 16. As in the previously described arrangement the ridges 28 may be separately formed from the sleeve 16 and bonded to it, instead of being integrally formed with the sleeve as shown.

In the arrangement of Figure 5 the shockabsorbing means comprises a length of polythene tubing 30 wrapped helically around the spine 10 and extending along the length thereof. The diameter of the polythene tubing 30 is preferably equal to the width of the annular space 18 between the spine 10 and sleeve 16 so that the tubing contacts the inner surface of the sleeve. The polythene tubing 30 has a natural resistance to compression across its diameter and it therefore serves as a shock-absorber between the spine 10 and outer sleeve 16. The ends of the tubing 30 may be sealed so as to enhance its resistance to compression.

In any of the arrangements described above the sleeve 16 is also preferably hermetically sealed so that the shock-absorbing effect is enhanced, in use, by the compression of air within the sleeve 16.

The components of the whip may be of any required dimensions. The drawings are purely diagrammatic and not to scale. The materials employed for the components of the whip may also be of any suitable form and the invention is not restricted to the particular materials described by way of example.

Since the major components of the whip, i.e the inner spine 10 and outer sleeve 16, are preferably tapered, they cannot normally be formed by extrusion and therefore require to be formed by an injection moulding or dipping process. A dipping process is to be preferred since it facilitates manufacture of the components without a longitudinal seam and it will be appreciated that such a seam is undesirable since the outer surface of the sleeve 16, in particular, requires to be smooth to prevent damage to the horse.

It is found that whips according to the present invention, even though they may be applied with great force by a user, result in much less forceful impact on the body to which they are being applied, causing considerably less pain and damage than conventional whips. The whip according to the present invention is specifically designed merely to submit the horse to a stinging sensation rather than the pain and bruising action of conventional whips.

It is anticipated that, in use, the organisers of a particular horse race will require riders to use only a whip supplied by the organisers and of the kind according to the present invention. This will ensure that all the riders ride under the same conditions and that all horses in the race are protected from undue pain or damage due to excessive use of the whip by a particular rider. However, the normal rule constraints on riders regarding use of the whip may also be applied in addition.

Claims

1. A whip comprising an elongate self-supporting resiliently flexible inner spine, an outer flexible sleeve surrounding the inner spine and spaced therefrom, and shock-absorbing means disposed between the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve along at least part of the length thereof.

2. A whip according to Claim 1, wherein both the inner spine and the surrounding sleeve are tapered and are of circular cross-section.

3. A whip according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the inner spine is formed from glass fibre, carbon fibre material or graphite composite material.

4. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the outer sleeve is formed from natural or synthetic rubber or from a flexible plastics material.

5. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein along an end portion of the whip the space between the inner spine and the outer sleeve is filled with a material which is more rigid than said shockabsorbing means, so as to provide a handle portion for the whip.

6. A whip according to Claim 5, wherein the material which fills the whip in the handle portion is resiliently flexible.

7. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 6, wherein one end of the inner spine is provided with a tip portion which is significantly more flexible than the remainder of the spine.

8. A whip according to Claim 7, wherein said tip portion comprises a separate element of more flexible material secured to the end of the spine so as to form a longitudinal extension thereof.

9. A whip according to Claim 8, wherein the tip portion comprises a tube of flexible material partly fitted over the extremity of the spine and extending beyond it.

10. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 9, wherein the outer sleeve is sealed in airtight manner around the inner spine.

11. A whip according to Claim 10, wherein the shock-absorbing means comprise air, or other gas or fluid, trapped between the sleeve and spine.

12. A whip according to Claim 11, wherein said air or other gas is under a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure.

13. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 12, wherein the space between the sleeve and spine is filled with a flexibly resilient insert.

14. A whip according to Claim 13, wherein said resiliently flexible insert is foamed latex or other cellular flexible plastics material.

15. A whip according to Claim 13 or Claim 14, wherein said resiliently flexible insert is insert is bonded to the outer sleeve and/or to the inner spine.

16. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 12, wherein said shock-absorbing means comprise spaced support elements of resiliently flexible material extending inwardly from the inner surface of the outer sleeve to the outer surface of the spine.

17. A whip according to Claim 16, wherein said support elements are bonded to the inner surface of the sleeve and/or the outer surface of the spine.

18. A whip according to Claim 16 or Claim 17, wherein said support elements are formed from the same material as the outer sleeve.

19. A whip according to Claim 18, wherein said support elements are integrally formed with the sleeve.

20. A whip according to any of Claims 16 to 19, wherein said shock-absorbing elements comprise annular elements lying generally in a plane at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the whip and spaced apart along the length thereof.

21. A whip according to any of Claims 16 to 19, wherein said shock-absorbing elements extend longitudinally of the whip and are spaced angularly apart around the circumference of the inner spine.

22. A whip according to Claim 22, wherein each shock-absorbing element extends generally radially as viewed in cross section.

23. A whip according to Claim 21 or Claim 22, wherein each shock-absorbing element, as viewed in cross section, tapers inwardly as it extends from the sleeve to the spine.

24. A whip according to any of Claims 1 to 12, wherein said shock-absorbing means comprise one or more resiliently flexible elongate elements wrapped helically around the inner spine.

25. A whip according to Claim 24, wherein the helically wound elongate element comprises tubing of polythene or other resiliently flexible material.

26. A whip substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any of Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.