Our man Sam Twiston-Davies on the whip, a busy festive period and a strong book of rides at Ascot

THE whip was in the news again on Thursday, with the Horse Welfare Board set to recommend a consultation with the BHA in February.

From a jockey’s perspective, it is a vital piece of kit for us to do our job.

I personally haven't had a whip ban in two years and the vast majority of the jockeys riding are incredibly responsible with it.

The whips these days are so lightweight, it's nearly impossible to do any harm to a horse, in fact I saw a stat from the BHA that on average just one horse out of 90,000 a year is found to be marked by a whip. They are purely for encouragement and correction.

Horses are flight animals and the noise the whip creates gets them to go forward. To the public sitting watching on TV, they just see a jockey hitting an animal. But where you’re using the whip, down the shoulder or on the backside, it’s very well cushioned.

We probably need to do more in racing to educate people about the whip, why it is used and what they are made of, maybe then people will understand a bit better. You’d pick up something more dangerous in Ann Summers.

I’ve got three good rides at Ascot today. Riders Onthe Storm (1.15) is in very good form.

It was unfortunate what happened last weekend at Cheltenham but this is a nice alternative for him.

He jumps brilliantly and gets into a rhythm. We have to hope he relaxes because he was very fresh at Aintree. Hopefully he can go and prove he’s a top-class animal.