RIDING CROPS

A riding crop is a stiff shaft with a small flat tongue at the end. Almost all of the sensation comes from that tongue, which is why a crop stings in a small, precise area rather than spreading force the way a paddle does. The shaft flexes, and that flex is what makes it easy to control.

It is the most forgiving impact toy to learn on, and not because it is gentle. The contact area is small enough that you can aim exactly where you mean to, and light enough that a bad swing is a surprise rather than an injury. The intensity lives entirely in your wrist.

The part that catches people out is the noise. A crop is loud, considerably louder than it hurts, and the crack is doing a lot of the work. That is useful if the sound is part of the appeal and a problem if you share walls. It is also why people badly overestimate how hard they are hitting, so whoever is holding it should test it on their own thigh first.

They differ at the tip and at the handle.

• Leather tongue: the standard. A small flat flap that concentrates the sting into a precise spot and nowhere else.
• Heart shaped tip: the same mechanism with a shaped tongue, which leaves a mark in the shape of the tip rather than a stripe.
• Feather tipped: a crop on one end and a feather tickler on the other. The easiest way to alternate tease and sting without putting anything down.
• Crystal and steel handles: decorative shafts in rhinestone and stainless steel. The weight sits differently in the hand and the swing feels slower.
• Paddles: the thud counterpart, spreading the same force over a far larger area.
• Ticklers and Sensation Play: what to alternate with, since impact lands harder after a tease than it does cold.