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The hooped whip is one of the outstanding values of Hungarian folk art, an indispensable part of shepherd culture and shepherd art. In the families of most shepherds, the craft is passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, and the making of the instruments is part of the complete mastery of the craft. The beautiful whip was not only a herding tool for the herdsman, the goulterer and the hen-keeper, but also a coat of arms, so special care was taken to ensure its beauty. To make their whips more agile, the cattlemen used to add a ring to their whips, which gave them the name of a ring. The shepherds of the lowlands mainly use the hooped whip, while those of the Transdanubian and Highland regions use the longer-handled, shorter-handled, heavy whip. Although shepherds used to call their whips by various names, today all shepherds' whips are known as "karikás".
The Palóc are a subgroup of Hungarians in Northern Hungary and southern Slovakia. While the Palóc have retained distinctive traditions, including a very apparent dialect of Hungarian, the Palóc are also ethnic Hungarians by general consensus. Although their origins are unclear, the Palóc seem to have some sort of connections with the Khazar, Kabar, Pechenegs, Cuman and especially with the Avar tribes. The writings of Kálmán Mikszáth gave new prominence to the people in 1882 with his work The Good People of Palóc. The Palóc village of Hollókő was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 because of its preservation of traditional Palóc architecture and land use.[1] Two branches of the Palócs can be distinguished based on their place of residence and customs: the western and the eastern (Barkó) Palócs, although the folk customs of both branches are mixed with remnants of ancient inner Asian beliefs and Christianity. They can be further grouped based on their dialect. The residence of the Palócs extends to the often-mentioned Palócföld (Palócland), which used to belong to Hont and Gömör and Kishont counties, and today it covers partly Slovakian and partly Hungarian areas (Pest, Nógrád, Heves, and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties): Cserhát, Mátra, Bükk mountains and north of these horizontal basin and the Ipoly Valley - nearly 150 settlements.

The Palócs never had special rights, so their first written mention dates only from 1656, when the notary from Nagykőrös recorded the following in his account book: "I bought ten pairs of mother of pearl knives from the Palócs". Their own specific ancient name is "had", which is the name of all the Palócs living in the same community who bear the same surname, even if they are form a separate family.A karikás ostor a magyar népművészet egyik kiemelkedő értéke, a pásztorkultúra, pásztorművészet elengedhetetlen része. A legtöbb pásztor családjában a mesterség nemzedékről nemzedékre, apáról fiúra száll, a mesterség teljes elsajátításához hozzátartozik az eszközök elkészítése is. A szép ostor nem csak terelőeszköze volt a csikósnak, gulyásnak, kanásznak, hanem címeréül is szolgált, így szépségére különös gondot fordítottak. A csikósok az ostorukat – hogy mozgékonyabb legyen – karikával látják el, és ilyenkor karikás a neve. Karikásuk elsősorban az alföldi pásztoroknak van, a dunántúliak és a felvidékiek a hosszabb nyelű, rövidebb sudarú ún. nehéz ostort használják. Habár régen többféle elnevezéssel illették a pásztorok ostoraikat, ma már mindegyik pásztorostort karikásként emlegetik.