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GT Riding crop
GT Riding Crop
Being a great jockey means being a great horseman, including understanding how a horse’s skin is so sensitive that a fly landing on its shoulder can elicit a subcutaneous shudder. If so gentle a touch can draw an immediate and natural response from a young horse, might a gentler touch be as effective down a racecourse homestretch? To answer that, National Museum of Racing Hall of Famer and three-time Eclipse Award leading jockey Ramon Dominguez is daring to revolutionize a riding aid as old as Genghis Khan: Meet the 360 Gentle Touch (360 GT), the next evolution in racing crops and, if Dominguez has his way, its spongy foam padding at the end of a stick will be the crop of choice for future Olympic, Pan American, and World Champion equestrians, too.
The Gentle Touch started taking shape a decade ago when Dominguez, who started out show jumping in his native Venezuela, was riding at Delaware Park and like many flat jockeys in the United Kingdom and United States, began using cushion crops. Heralded as the most humane crop on the market, their longer, wider poppers were louder, while their improved force distribution seemed less painful compared to then-standard designs using short poppers and/or leather fringe at their ends.
But Dominguez saw a flaw: Popper shapes had changed but the seams where they stitched to a crop had not. Seams that, with use, honed to a knife like edge along a flank.
CManchegoSports
Ramon Dominquez
“I started using (cushion crops) and noticed a couple of things that could improve, so I started working on a prototype. We have learned a lot and we're proud of what we've been able to accomplish.” The 360 GT has larger, cushioned padding at the end, designed to minimize impact on a horse’s sensitive skin while simultaneously appealing to their acute hearing.
Every jockey winning a Triple Crown race this year carried a 360 GT so getting it into the hands of Olympic riders doesn’t seem unrealistic. “The 360 GT may look like a foam pool noodle married a cattail,” he says, “but there’s no laughing over how it was carried to victory in all three Triple Crown races this year.”
L.A. Sokolowski, The Original Equinista™ is an award-winning equestrian sports and lifestyle journalism, and reputation management/media relations expert. Fashionista + Equestrienne = Equinista. Follow L.A. on social media @latheequinista.