HorseSafe and Petcover Partnership
Petcover Partners with HorseSafe: Innovative Horse Monitor & Web App
Read more7 September 2017
Petcover will take you through the meaning of these whorls and the myths behind them…
Whorls can be found on every horse, mainly along the face, flank, neck, or stomach. Many horses will have a whorl between their eyes, and no matter the size of the animal, every whorl is different and unique to that particular horse. This is often why they are used as identification for a horse and can be written on paperwork as they do not change as the horse grows and gets older. It can be said that they are a form of an equine fingerprint. Some types of whorls include:
The myths behind whorls date back to beliefs held by the Bedouins and their beloved Arab horses. They believed that the whorl on their horse related to the horse’s personality and the value of their horse. Some of these myths are based on areas that the whorls are located, the number of whorls, and the size of these whorls. These myths include:
With these whorls relating to behavioural characteristics, they also believed in bad whorls that foretold more than behavioural traits. These included:
Although many of these myths are obviously not true, the ones about behavioural characteristics of the horse may have some merit. A Polish study in 2006 found that horses with high whorls on their head were more difficult to manage than those with medium or lower whorls.
Another study was done by the Ireland’s University of Limerick also concluded that horses whorl had some link to their preferred side (left-handed or right-handed). It was found that horses who demonstrated more right sidedness tended to have whorls going clockwise, while the left-leaning horses had counterclockwise whorls.
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