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{{Short description|Whip with a braided leather lash}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2008}}
[[Image:Quirt.jpg|200px|right|thumb]]
[[Image:Romal.jpg|100px|thumb|A quirt is attached to the end of a set of ''romal'' reins]]

A '''quirt''' is a short [[Whip (implement)|whip]] associated with the [[Southwestern United States]]. It often has a braided leather lash.<ref>{{cite web |title="quirt, n." OED Online |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/156770 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=21 May 2019 |date=March 2019}}</ref>

The falls on a quirt is made of [[leather]], usually cowhide. The core of the quirt can be a leather bag filled with lead shot; the main part including the handle is often made from braided [[rawhide (textile)|rawhide]], leather, or [[kangaroo]] hide and is usually somewhat stiff but flexible.<ref Name="Franciscans">{{cite book
 | publisher=The Franciscans Fathers of St. Michaels Arizona
  | title =An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language
  | year =1910
  | url =https://archive.org/details/anethnologicdic00arizgoog
  | quote=Quirt.
  | page =[https://archive.org/details/anethnologicdic00arizgoog/page/n324 314]  }}</ref>

The old-style horse quirt is still carried by some Western horsemen, and this style of quirt is seen in the early Western [[Western movie|cowboy films]].

The quirt, due to its slow action, is not particularly effective as a [[riding aid]] for horses, though at times it has been used as a tool of punishment.  Rather, it is an effective tool to slap or goad [[cattle]] from horseback.

In the [[cowboy|''vaquero'']] tradition, a quirt with a long handle, known as a ''[[romal]]'', was attached to the end of a closed set of [[rein]]s. The ''romal'' was primarily used as a noisemaker to slap or goad cattle.  (The handle made it too slow and of the wrong length for use on the horse.)  This combination of ''romal'' and closed reins, today referred to as "''romal'' reins" or "''romal''-style reins", is seen primarily in the [[horse show]] ring in certain types of [[Western pleasure]] classes.

A quirt is still commonly used by horse-riding herdsmen of [[Mongolia]].  They can be highly individualized.  Most are braided rawhide attached to a carved wooden handle or to a handle made from a segment of a stout tree branch.  Others are only braided rawhide, with a loop at one end that serves as the lanyard.

Quirts were also used by some staff at [[American Indian boarding schools|residential school]]s to punish students. The severity of such beatings included broken skin on the bodies of [[Indigenous peoples|First Nations]] children.

==In culture==
''The Quirt'' is the title of a 1920 novel by [[B. M. Bower]].<ref Name="Bower">{{cite book
  | last =Bower
  | first =B. M. 
  | title =The Quirt
  | publisher =Little, Brown, and Company
  | year =1920
  | location =Original from the University of California
  | url =https://archive.org/details/quirt00compgoog
  | quote =Quirt.
  | page =[https://archive.org/details/quirt00compgoog/page/n316 298] pages  }}</ref>

Quirt Evans is the name of John Wayne's character in the 1947 film ''[[Angel and the Badman]]''.

==See also==
* [[Crop (implement)|Crop]]
* [[Whip (implement)|Whip]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Horse equipment}}

[[Category:Horse tack and equipment]]
[[Category:Livestock herding equipment]]
[[Category:Whips]]