Does size of horses ears mean anything?

Fools Motto

Fools Motto

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 June 2011
Messages
6,600
Visit site
Just thinking...

Have been told large ears mean speed and generosity ??
..but my mare has tiny ears and is fast and always willing to please!

Turns out filly (12.3 NF x 2yr) has larger ears than mare. Any chances she will either grow into them, turn out to be generous or fast :eek: or just continue to look like part donkey!? !!;)

Thoughts on ears please!
 
old fashioned i no! but big ears = more intelligent

1 reason i bought my gelding........wish it turned out to be true!

haha! that a little rude, hes very intelligent when it comes to un-wrapping polos from their wrappers!
 
I find that big ears = kind personality.

Both my girls have big ears.

I really want to hog Saffy's mane as she's got a big wind knot that I just can't untangle but she would look even more like a ginger donkey if I did that. :(
 
OP my NFx also has enormous ears - I bought her as a two year old and she looked like a mule. Don't worry - by the time the body has all come together the ears don't look so massive. Mine's three now and looking better.....
 
My understanding is that horses with big ears are from hot climates and horses with smaller ears from colder.

My Spanish has bunny ears and my friends Welsh has very small...but thats the only comparisons if its right or not?
 
My mare is just about 15.1hh but has tiny ears, almost as wide as they are tall when you are sitting behind them. They are also clearly missing a washer as they flop about quite a bit. She is highly intelligent and kind if decidedly cheeky and fond of playing tricks on me.
 
I was told somewhere along the line that mares tend to have bigger ears than geldings I think because in the wild they tend to be the guards listening out for danger. My New Forest also has enourmous ears and I always say she is part donkey. My arab mare has bigger ears than my arab gelding but who knows!
 
We have one big eared nutter. Dozy cow to take your head off in a split second :rolleyes: Very kind 99% of the time, broodie not ridden though.

The rest have normal ears... I love donkey ears on horses :)

Pan
 
Pie has whopping great ears, bigger than my hand from wrist to fingertips by some way. He has the biggest ears on the yard and as he is blue and white he looks quite donkeyish. I NEED to borrow a child to take him in the fun biggest ears showing classes, I'm sure he would win! He's an Irish beast of unknown breeding, very switched on.
 
Pie's mum said:
Pie has whopping great ears, bigger than my hand from wrist to fingertips by some way. He has the biggest ears on the yard and as he is blue and white he looks quite donkeyish. I NEED to borrow a child to take him in the fun biggest ears showing classes, I'm sure he would win! He's an Irish beast of unknown breeding, very switched on.
Click to expand...

Interesting that you say he is Irish as in my experience, alot of Irish horses, especially the TBs have enormous lugs.
 
Linda Tellington-Jones did a big survey into horses' heads. Shape, size and shape of ears, nostrils and eyes. She looked at all the horses she had through her hands and then also did research from photographs that people sent in. The results were interesting. Some of it confirms what we all know about kind eyes, etc. but some of the details were fascinating. Although she warned that the whole head should be observed and not just pick up on one thing, you can get a very accurate picture of the sort of character the horse has. So timid, challenging, intelligent, stubborn,
awkward, kind. There was one horse that was a champion show jumping horse and she said she had never seen such character and intelligence in a horse, and he had huge pointing forward ears. On the other hand there was one sad case of an ordinary looking horse that looked different depending on what angle he was seen, and he was so awkward and difficult to train she said he should really be ridden and possibly had some sort of brain deficiency.

Book is worth reading, especially as it might help you to avoid an award one. Some of it is obvious, but there are quite a lot of interesting little details that you might not think about, like the size of the horse's chin, or if it has a bump between its eyes.
 
Fools Motto said:
Just thinking...

Have been told large ears mean speed and generosity ??
..but my mare has tiny ears and is fast and always willing to please!

Turns out filly (12.3 NF x 2yr) has larger ears than mare. Any chances she will either grow into them, turn out to be generous or fast :eek: or just continue to look like part donkey!? !!;)

Thoughts on ears please!
Click to expand...

Mammal that have evolved to live in cold areas have small ears (to retain heat) and those that have evolved in hot areas have large ears (to cool them). It's as simple as that. Your mare is almost certainly part Welsh, as welsh ponies and cobs have disproportionately small ears.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top