Birching horse

A birching horse is an item of spanking furniture used for birching, i.e. corporal punishment given with a birch. Similar items are the birching block, the birching table, the birching donkey, and the birching pony. When such a "horse" is used for other forms of chastisement or punishment, it is also known as punishment horse or whipping horse, or similarly.

Birching horses were used in the UK for judicial and prison corporal punishment, both for juvenile and adult offenders. It is unsure if they were also used in the military or in schools.

The delinquent was positioned over the horse and restrained with straps or rope by his wrists. Optional additional restraint points were his back and/or legs. The spankee's legs would be on either side of the horse so that he/she was straddling it. The birching was generally given on the bare bottom.

In schools, a vaulting horse or vaulting-buck was sometimes used in a similar manner (albeit usually without restraints). Aboard training ships, a capstan, bitt or the barrel of a cannon was used (see kissing the gunner's daughter).

Birching horse vs. Spanish horse

A birching horse looks somewhat similar to the Spanish horse, but the Spanish horse was a torture device designed to bring severe pain and genital injuries to a person forced to sit on its sharp upper edge. The birching horse, in contrast, was designed to lie on and was often padded so the delinquent was resonably comfortable lying on it.

The birching horse in film

• A New Job (Lupus Pictures) uses an elaborate, newly designed birching horse that's hinged in the center and includes knee and hand rests.

Gallery

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  Drawing of girl on a birching horse by P. Fusty (1909).

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  Drawing of woman on a birching horse by P. Fusty (1909).

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  Illustration by Georges Topfer for the novel Au bon vieux temps by James Lovebirch.

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  A wooden horse (Foltermuseum Freiburg, Germany).

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  Woman on a birching horse, drawing by the same artist.

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  Drawing of a birching horse by Louis Malteste.

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  F/F spanking at Folsom Street Fair, 2010.

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  Horse: photo by Robin Roberts

See also

• Sawhorse
• Spanking bench

Links

• Birching Girls, article on the Beauty and the Birch blog ((Adult site))
• Photo of a female on a birching horse ((Adult site))
• Vintage drawing (F/F), artist unknown

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