Horse Whorls, Lop Sided

I went to see some friends the other day. We were playing with horses, talking about horses, looking at horses.

What else do people do with their friends???  😉

As we worked with this nice mare I was looking at her feet, noticing the slight imbalance. Her right front hoof is much straighter than her left front. As I heard a story about her taking a good tumble and her regular stumbles I thought about that hoof.

I checked out her chest whorls, perfectly even. I looked at flanks, same. Nothing unusual on the sides of her neck. Her head shows a friendly, willing horse.

As I looked at the head though I noticed a whorl on the back side of her jowl. I’ve seen these before a handful of times and always put them down to being part of the throatlatch whorls that were always present with them.

Could a whorl on the side of a jowl be related to an upright hoof on the opposite side of the body?

As I kept looking there was a spot on her neck where the hair grew towards the right. Not ‘whorl’ just a patch of side swept hair. Then I peaked under her belly. With it not being a horse I was familiar with I was cautious. The view is hard to get. I stuck my camera under there instead of my head and took a handful of shots hoping to be able to see something in the end.

Looking at the pictures the uneven belly whorls were clearly visible. One at the center line while the other was set out a ways.

The end conclusion?

The jowl whorl may well be related to the hooves. There’s no way to tell for sure without many more horses to look at. But, the jowl whorl combined with the neck whorl and the belly whorls are clear signs pointing to the unbalanced sides of her body.

A lack of balance from side to side can be the cause of a horse being ‘clumsy’ and having a tendency to take spills or get hurt. We can never just look at the head. The entire body contributes to the temperament and behavior of a horse.