Back in focus horse11/26/2023 They opted to work with cattle that have whorl patterns similar to horses as they needed a large number of animals without extensive handling so the results wouldn’t be influenced by training. Grandin and Deesing decided to see if these correlations held up under scrutiny. She became interested in whorls when her assistant Mark Deesing, who trains and shoes horses, shared his casual observation that horses with whorls high on the forehead or two whorls tended, in general, to be more reactive and ‘highly strung.’ The validity of whorl analysis took a huge step forward early in this decade with the work of animal scientist Temple Grandin PhD, of Colorado State University. ![]() In short, whorls can lead us to a deeper understanding and acceptance of our horses. Although considered a pseudoscience, the study of whorls can aid in the understanding of the nature of a horse and may help owners choose the horse partner that is best suited to their goals and reject an unsuitable horse before time, money and emotion are invested. In many horsemen’s opinion, studying whorls can offer important clues to both horse personality and performance. Thinking horsemen are always striving to understand and maximise their horses. One study has found that horses can be shown to have left or right-footed lateral motion depending on the direction of growth of their whorls. Hair whorls in horses are also known as crowns, swirls, trichoglyphs or cowlicks and can be either clockwise or counterclockwise in the direction of growth. Locations, where whorls are found in equines, include the stomach, face, poll, neck, chest, flanks and sometimes in random, odd places on the body. Whorls occur on animals with hairy coats and are often found on horses and cows. A whorl is a patch of hair growing in the opposite direction to the rest of the hair. Here we will uncover some of the thinking behind the importance of these swirls of fur. Ancient students of the horse may have studied things and made conclusions that we find foolish today but, as with everything that is old and becomes new again, the study of whorls always has had its believers. Horses have been a huge fascination since 30,000 BC when they were first drawn on the walls of caves. ![]() Charlotte Cannon explores the fascinating topic of horse whorls'įrom the most ancient times, man has studied the world around him for signs and clues.
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