Whorls- Do they mean anything?

[Ant123]

My Irish Draught has two vertical whorls- one below and one above the eye line. Does this mean anything? they are perfectly lateral. I would love some information about this if anyone knows anything.

 

[angrybird1]

I was told that they are lucky. Old wives tale but interesting.

 

[paddy555]

the link below will get you started. If you google "Linda Tellington Jones whorls" lots of links will come up.

https://horseandrider.com/horse-health-care/horse-hair-swirl-patterns

 

[Pinkvboots]

I have read that article before as I googled the meaning of whorls as one of my Arabs have 2 whorls on his forehead, his definitely not as straight forward as my other horse, can be quirky and sharp and is a bit to clever sometimes, his in no dangerous though and his character is lovable, my vet thinks his hilarious and said his got masses of character and was a bit of a challenge with some vet procedures.

 

[Tihamandturkey]

My mare has two side by side high on her forehead - each going a different direction one clockwise one anti.

She also has two on either side of her neck halfway down in exactly the same position.

She is very intelligent sensitive and highly strung and definitely has a split personality - one day an angel ? the next a devil ? which is what the whorls are meant to mean ?

 

[PurBee]

i looked into whorls when my foal developed lots of them. He’s now 8 and certainly sharp, yet never dangerous. He’s weirdly brave, almost like the reverse of a flight animal...he goes towards intriguing danger! His dam is similar with a few less whorls, but still a fair stack.

while researching whorls, an old timer american cowboy-type trainer i read about said in his experience, more whorls meant harder to train.
I also read about behaviour quirks.

..but my experience personally is that the horses are just very alert.

...does anyone know of a dozy easy-going super predictable horse with lots of whorls?
?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Every time I read stuff like this it really annoys me because my experience of horses' temperaments and their whorls is that there is no correlation between the two things.

My grey has loads of whorls with three in between her eyes alone. I bought her as a weanling and met both her parents. Her parents are lovely tempered and trainable. Guess what... my grey is lovely tempered and trainable like her parents. She learns with few repetitions and tries hard to get things right. If she's worried she tries to suppress her fears. You can see this as her heart rate will be soaring (maybe loads of dirt bikes are going by), but she'll still stand like a lamb because that's what you asked her to do.

There are other individuals I know that also don't fit but I'd be here all day if I went through them all.

 

[Equi]

My mare who thinks she’s a stallion has one bang on her wither. It’s an absolute pain in the bum cause minis get measured to the last mane hair and her last hair points to her head ?

 

[Tihamandturkey]

TBH I do find whorls to be fairly indicative of a horses' nature ?‍

 

[Meowy Catkin]

But are your expectations influencing how the horse behaves? *twilight zone theme*

I have known a couple of people who 'didn't do mares' and invariably mares responded bady to them. When you looked at their body language they behaved in a much more irritable manner to the mares than they ever did with geldings. A self fulfilling prophecy if you will... if you are irritable around a horse they will pick up on it and behave accordingly. If they had treated the mares that same as the geldings and had been calm, would the mares have responded to the human better? I think so.

 

[Tihamandturkey]

No and rest assured I am never irritable around horses - am bowing out now - not looking for an argument

 

[Orangehorse]

Linda Tellington-Jones' book is very interesting, but she does say that you have to look at the whole horse, just don't take one thing and build a picture of the horse from that.

She covers such things as the shape of the face, ears, mouth, eyes. In my experience she is pretty much correct. The "honest" horse with a Roman nose, or with a moustache.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

No and rest assured I am never irritable around horses - am bowing out now - not looking for an argument

Don't worry, I wasn't accusing you of anything, it was just an observation I had made about real people and wondered if that effect could explain why people find that 'whirl' effect to be true. I was just hoping for an interesting discussion (I don't want an argument either) so if you do want to say more on the subject please do go ahead.

 

[milliepops]

Don't worry, I wasn't accusing you of anything, it was just an observation I had made about real people and wondered if that effect could explain why people find that 'whirl' effect to be true. I was just hoping for an interesting discussion (I don't want an argument either) so if you do want to say more on the subject please do go ahead.

I think there's a lot of truth in what you said. I know people that "aren't mare people" and it's true that they approach mares in quite a confrontational way that sets them up to fail. Starting off with the hackles up, that kind of thing.

I remember quite a transformative effect when I decided to stop being frustrated with one of mine who was immensely difficult, and just accept her for who she was, it really seemed to be the time that she started to blossom. I wasn't aware that I was treating her any differently other than what was inside my head but whatever it was, she noticed the difference.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I've always heard that whorls mean something! i.e. their location/pattern, etc., I think its fascinating!

I would love to know more about this!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I think you can see her forehead whirls here (old pic as the more she greyed out, the harder they are to see). Three, all in a vertical row.