Riding whip

What is a riding whip?

A riding whip is a short whip with a sturdy, usually wooden handle and a fall braided from leather straps or rope. The object comes from cattle driving and was carried on the belt while on horseback. English has no exact word for it; quirt, the short braided riding whip, comes closest.

From Turkey, by way of a detour of centuries.

The Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands traces the route: the Turkish kırbaç reached the German Karbatsche through Polish karbacz, Czech karabáč, Hungarian korbats and western Russian karbáč, and so entered Dutch. From the same source came the French cravache and the Swedish karbas.

The oldest Dutch attestation is from 1616 and describes the thing right away. Russians on horseback, it says, usually carry “een corte dicke Sweep, dewelcke een Carbats ghenaemt wert” (a short thick whip called a carbats) on their belt, with a cord at the grip to slip the hand through. Short, thick, on the belt, with a wrist loop. Only in the nineteenth century did the form karwats come up alongside karbats, and for years both stood side by side in the dictionaries.

What sets a riding whip apart from a crop

The fall.

The German-language encyclopedia describes the Karbatsche as a whip braided from leather straps or hemp ropes and fixed to a short wooden handle, originally used to drive cattle. That braided end is exactly what the crop does not have: it is a stiff stick with a flat leather tongue on it.

The difference is in what the tip does. A braided fall can be made to move so fast that the end passes the speed of sound, and that is where the crack comes from. A tongue on a stick makes noise on the skin; a fall makes noise in the air. For whoever uses it, that mostly means the riding whip asks for more room and more practice than the crop, and that you don’t just aim it at a small spot. What else goes into striking work is on the page about impact play.

Where this fits on this site

Whips are part of what I bring, sharp and dull, from bullwhips to canes. On the page about the BDSM date you can read how we settle beforehand how hard it gets and where your limit is.

Sources

• karwats. Etymologiebank, hosted by the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, with the entry from the Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (Philippa et al., 2003-2009) and the one from the Etymologisch woordenboek by Van Veen and Van der Sijs (1997). Gives the borrowing route from Turkish kırbaç through Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Russian to German Karbatsche, the related forms cravache and karbas, the 1616 citation about the short thick whip on the belt of Russian riders, and the rise of the form karwats alongside karbats in the nineteenth century.
• Karbatsche. Wikipedia (German), with the definition from Walther Mitzka, Schlesisches Wörterbuch. Gives the description as a whip braided from leather straps or hemp ropes on a short wooden handle, the derivation from the Turkish kırbaç, the original use in driving cattle, and the observation that the braided end breaks the sound barrier when it cracks.

Related terms

• Impact play. The family the riding whip is a tool of, with the agreements and the spots you avoid.
• Crop. The calmest neighbor: no fall, but a tongue, and much less room needed.
• Bullwhip. The same crack, but with meters of fall instead of centimeters.
• Cat o’ nine tails. A short handle like the riding whip, but with nine strands instead of one braided fall.
• Flogger. Spreads the blow over many strands where the riding whip bundles it.
• Chain whip. The same short handle, but with loose metal links instead of one braided fall.
• Quirt. The American counterpart: two wide leather falls instead of one braided tip.
• Riding crop. The Dutch word for the crop, with the rules that equestrian sport sets for it.
• Single tail. The family of whips with one long strand, where the riding whip with its short fall falls outside.