Mary Miller (called “Molly,”), born in 1856, married Will Weyand, my grandfather, in 1880. Over the next 12 years hey had nine children. Eight survived and became orphans when both parents passed away. (Image courtesy of the author)

My grandmother, Molly Miller, was the youngest of 10, born in 1856 and raised on her family’s homestead near Granger in northeastern Missouri. My dad didn’t know when she had owned the riding crop, but her riding days probably ended in 1880, when she married my grandfather, Willie Weyand, and started a family that over a dozen years would include nine children, eight of whom survived to adulthood.

Although the couple operated a grocery on High Street that included a small stable with horses used for produce delivery, it’s more likely the riding crop had been used by Molly during her earlier days in rural Missouri when horsemanship was a necessary art. Assuming she had ridden horses as a young woman on the family’s homestead north of Granger, the crop could be nearly 150 years old.

My research has discovered a variety of riding crops and whips. Most have handles (frequently of bone, and occasionally silver) that could be used by the rider to open gates without dismounting. The jointed ends of the crops were sometimes fairly elaborate, some measuring several inches long and terminating with brush-like ends that could have been used to discourage horseflies.

I haven’t been able to locate a riding crop that closely resembles mine. However, one source showing a smaller but similar item referred to it as a “swagger stick,” probably used by the military, and traced it to the mid-1800s. Prices and descriptions of antique riding crops vary considerably, depending on age, condition, and materials used.