Swirls

Haven’t been able to visit Aliy for awhile now but I think about her often. Today I as pondering swirls. Swirls is the name for those places on a horse’s body where the hair forms worls. According to some people the location of swirls predicts a lot about the horse due to the flow of energy through the horse.

Excerpt from the article:

“Many Grand Prix horses in both dressage and jumping have very high, very tight side-by-side double swirls. This type of double swirl seems to give the ability to hyper focus. These horses are challenging and gritty, like most double swirl horses, but the ability to hyper focus and not back down from a challenge can be an asset in professional hands.”

Now I am not sure I really believe what the article is saying but I thought it is pretty cool that Aliyah has double swirls on her forehead above her eyes. So did her mother, by the way, but her sire did not.

Bedouins and other groups considered whorls as a description of an horse’s physical and personality characteristics. Linda Tellington-Jones regards whorls as able to tell you the temperament of the horse. But she also cautions whorls are only an indicator of what a trainer can expect and should consider the whole picture while training rather than narrowing looking at one single behavior or attitude within a horse.

Below is one page from the internet that I found discussing swirls. But I still say I am not sure I really believe in swirls as strongly as the write-up wants me to believe. I do however agree absolutely that a trainer must see the whole picture when working with an animal as well as being aware of seemingly insignificant details also.

Web address for information on swirls: