If you weren’t aware, I love horses. I’m so excited that I can use them to help others in their healing journey as well. While I tend to focus mostly on mental wellness in my blog posts, I figure it’s time to shake things up a bit. Today, I’m going to talk about whorls on horses.
Whorls are patterns of hair growth normally found on the face, neck, or chest. Think of them like cowlicks. Growing up around horses, I had always heard that whorls could help determine a horse’s personality. But, hang around the horse world long enough, and you’ll hear that about all sorts of things. Coat color, face markings, sock and stocking placement. I’ve always chalked it up to folklore. Sure it’s fun and all, but surely there can’t be any basis behind these old saying right? Then again, I’m a firm believer that all myths, fairytales, folklore, have some small basis in reality. So I started doing some research.
The Bedouins had all sorts of sayings about horses’ personalities based on their physical features. This has always interested me since Bedouins started keeping immaculate breeding records centuries ago. Plus, as an Arabian owner, I feel a certain bit of bias towards these old sayings. For example, there is an old Bedouin saying, “The best of all is the bay, chestnut, or black with a star and three stockings.” I do have a bay Arabian, but alas, he has three socks, not three stockings. I digress–back to whorls.
There are all sorts of folklore about whorls. Some of these are:
- whorl high up on the forehead, between the eyes indicates a a smart, energetic, and outgoing horse
- Right sided whorls, the horse will be reactive and emotional
- A whorl below the eye may be lazy, stubborn, or introverted
- Left sided whorls, the horse will be confident and willing
- Two or more whorls the horse is complicated or interesting
Let’s check out the whorls on my horses.
Amaza has the pretty standard whorl high on her forehead between her eyes. She is definitely smart, energetic, and outgoing. Lots of people call her “sassy.” That’s a good description for her.
She also has a very distinct whorl pattern called a “wheat ear.” It runs along her neck. For years I thought it meant bad luck due to the book King of the Wind. In it, the main horse is born with a wheat ear and the prevailing sentiment in the book is the wheat ear is “an omen of bad luck and misfortune.” It didn’t stop me from purchasing Amaza. And…she has not brought me bad luck. In fact, I’ve had two veterinarians tell me the wheat ear is rare and a sign of a very good horse. Subsequently I’ve discovered in folklore, this specific whorl is a positive sign meant to bring love and prosperity. The more focused and tight the whorl, the better the luck.
Maj also has the standard high centered whorl in his forehead. However, he has two whorls on the side of his neck. According to legend, this means he is a bit more complicated. I find this is also true.
Great, but is there anything to back up these claims? Actually, there is. Trust me, I was incredibly surprised to learn this. Some pretty big scientific studies were done to examine the correlation between whorls and temperament. The bottom line, whorls form in the womb at the exact same time as the horse’s nervous system. “The nervous system and the skin, which contains the whorl patterns, come from the same embryonic layer,” explains Grandin. “This may explain the apparent relationships between body traits and temperament.” Fascinating.
Am I going to use whorls, markings, and coat coloring to determine which horses I use in therapy, or which horses I decide to buy? Probably not. But, I will take it into consideration as part of the whole animal. When I’m looking for a horse to use for equine-assisted therapy, they need to be responsive to individual’s feelings. They need to also be smart, kind, and safe. Those are the must haves. If they happen to be a bit “complicated,” that’s fine too as long as they are respectful of personal space and responsive to feedback.
I’d love to see pictures of your horse’s whorls, swirls, markings, coat patterns, etc. Drop them below. And, if you have any questions or comments, I would absolutely love to hear from you.
To Health, Hope and Healing,
Krista
Krista Demuth, MS LPC, CATP is a professional counselor specializing in mental health for children, adolescents, and adults. She is a Certified Child and Adolescent Trauma Professional. She is licensed in Wisconsin and provides service to the St Croix River Valley and surrounding areas.
References:
Grandin,Temple (2014) Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals, 2nd Ed. Academic Press https://doi.org/10.1016/C2011-0-07148-X
Hi Krista I’ve recently got a Gelding 2yr. Palomino Mustang . Dooley has a whorl between his eyes a wheat ear down his neck and wheat ear that runs all the down the top of his neck from behind his ear to his wither on both sides. Interesting to read about whorles and their meaning.
Hi Krista,
My name is Catherine and I also believed that wheat ears were bad luck after reading King of the Wind. I’ve had eight horses and three by the time I was 11 years old. Three of those horses had a wheat ear. My current Overo Paint horse, Ally has a very unique one. Her world on her face is in the center between her eyes and she is very smart, but she can be Squirrley sometimes even at 22 years old. She still tries to buck sometimes. Anne has thrown me twice. I’ve had her since she was going on eight but have known her since she was a baby filly.
HI! Thanks for sharing. In my own experience, wheat ears end up making the horse extra special. Thanks for telling me about your overo. She sounds like a great horse!
I was wondering what you thought of my horses markings.
Hi Sarah–there are no accompanying photos. Not sure what your horse looks like. Could you try an upload them again?
I have a 9 year old gelding with a perfect diamond shape made of 4 whorls on his forehead one in the middle high two above his eyes evenly spaced and one lower below his eyes in the middle
Nice! And how is his personality?
Above eye level but in middle of forehead… My gelding has a 1 whorl on right side going counterclockwise then next to it and connecting to it just off to the left(not below right) is another whorl going clockwise. He is suppose to be a blue roan and he starts to shed out as such but as summer continues he gets almost black. What can you tell me about his whorls please.
Hi Debbie. I’m no whorl expert, but according to folk lore, a double whorl means your horse has “complicated” personality. A whorl on the forehead, or between the eyes means the horse is fairly sweet. Does this seem to match with your horse? That he’s sweet, but also a bit complex? Let me know!