BORDEN, Sask. – Celery clenched firmly between her teeth, Melissa Saunders braces herself. Obediently, she holds her head level, eyes closed, and waits for the crack of the whip. Splinters of celery fly high.
Will Gough has just demonstrated the precise art of whip cracking. His eye, arm and whip line up and with each stroke, his whip slices a small chunk of celery.
Gough has been entertaining and teaching people with his whip-cracking skills for a quarter century. The Borden, Sask., cowboy uses the whip as a tool and also makes and sells custom whips.
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He was once asked during a Wild West performance to outdraw a gunslinger using his whip. Just as the gun cleared the holster, Gough’s whip cracked and pulled the gun out of the shooter’s hand, with the crack of the whip breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom.
He was born in Australia where whips were commonly used with cattle.
“(Grandfather) was probably the most accurate that I’ve ever seen in my life. He could put a cigarette in somebody’s mouth and take three steps, turn around and then just take it,” said Gough.
Gough filled his afternoons practising the whip, honing his accuracy, timing and rhythm. The hard work paid off for Gough, a five time world champion whip cracker.
Before moving to Canada in 1996, he worked on a 57,000 head cattle ranch in Australia where whips are commonly used.
Gough said the whip is steadily being added to the cowboy’s saddle in Canada.
“It’s becoming a good tool for them to have. A lot of them feel that if they don’t have a whip and a rope together, they don’t feel like they have enough tools,” he said.
He said a whip and herding dog can be assets for ranches.
“I won’t say that the whip replaces the dog and a dog doesn’t replace a whip. They can work really good together,” he said.
Gough said whips are tools for directing noise.
“With a whip, you can simply sit back, sound your whip and they just move off in a direction. You can actually train your cattle to work a lot easier and keep a low stress,” he said.
“If they get bottlenecked and jammed up in the gateway, they start to mill a little bit. You can take the sound of your whip, instead of directing it behind the mob, you can direct that sound to the ones a little bit further in the front and push the front through,” he said.
Gough warns against its overuse.
“If you crack the whip all the time, the cattle start to ignore it. You’re desensitizing them,” he said.
“If you use good common sense, you can train your cattle to work off the whip.… A good man with a whip is probably as good as five or six men with no whips,” he said.
When he’s not performing or teaching whip cracking, Gough makes whips to sell.
“I try to get ahead of orders but quite often as soon as we get them made, they’re gone,” said Gough, who has made more than 3,000 whips over the past 25 years. Prices range from $200 to $600 each.
Gough prefers the Australian stock whip, saying it is the easiest to work and carry.
“You can get all the power you want, use it all day long and you won’t get tired using it,” he said.
He makes his whips in two to five days with four, eight or 16 strands, often out of kangaroo hide, and uses tapered fibreglass handles. He said the best length for working in the yard or on a horse is 1.7 metres long.
“I get very attached to my whips. I put my heart and soul into each and every whip,” he said.
He credits his grandfather for showing him how a whip should look, feel and react.
“You want a whip that once you start the motion, it does the rest.”
Gough said a well-maintained whip can become a keepsake.
“If you treat it like a tool and look after them, they’ll last you a lifetime and probably two or three lifetimes,” he said.
