Check out swirlology here.
This actually turned out to be a fascinating read. Phebes has a wonderful tight swirl right between her eyes, and I'm thinking ...yeah right...then I lifted up her forelock and she has three swirls (one on top of two more in a tight pattern).
"Multiple swirls side-by-side: Requires
patience, very focused, great work ethic. Horses with multiple swirls
are the bipolars or the schizophrenics of the horse world, with each
swirl representing a separate personality. When the swirls are side by
side the temperaments seem to be similar, kind of a Jekyll and Jekyll.
The majority of Grand Prix horses will have side by side swirls very
high on the forehead with extremely tight symmetry. These horses tend to
have impeccable focus or work ethic if you have the patience to work
with them." and "Multiple swirls on top of each other:
Untrustworthy, unreliable. This is the kind of horse that when you ride
by the mailbox five days in a row with no problem, but on the sixth day
she freaks out as if it’s the first time she’s seen it. You’re dealing
with two very opposite and contradictory personalities, and you never
know who’s going to show up at the gate. These tend to be accident-prone
and very untrustworthy horses. If you’re up to the challenge, this is
your type of horse!"
Journey's swirl is dead center, and just a tiny bit low. " Horses with whorls below the eyes usually have above average
intelligence and like to make a nuisance of themselves by opening gates
etc." Well there you have it.
It was a long article, but the farther you go the more you wonder...is this woo woo, or does it have merit. Certainly some prominent equestrians believe it is so. It sure pegged my mares. Check out your swirls, and let me know if Swirlology runs true with your equine friends.
Source page: http://foxpointfarm.com/Swirlology.html
I read that article when I had my heart horse. Brought the article to the barn so I could carefully match my horse. Sparks was a people magnet, exhibited at horse fairs several times a year, extraordinary parade horse, a 4H demo horse, an unnaturally bombproof horse, ended his life as a therapeutic mount. The swirls were very easy to match to the article. The description of the swirls? A very high spirited horse, hard to control, independent, distrustful of humans, required constant attention... There could not have been a more 100% wrong description of that animal!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun read, and I can't wait for the snow to let up so I can check all my boys! I always heard them called "whorls," though. No biggie, same thing. :)
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