Mare In For Training, Horse Whorls

By Neversummer November 3, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments
This mare has high double whorls. She is in training to help her with some issues her people had with her.
Double whorls have a bit of a reputation, many people will say to avoid them at any cost. She is here because she couldn’t be safely handled. Does that mean that the reputation of double whorls for being ‘bad’ is true?
Not even slightly. That said the whorls are clear indicators of what problems her people were having with her.

High double side by side whorls show a horse who is sensitive, and an extremely quick learner. Bold, calm, curious, and confident, they can concentrate intently on a job but will get bored with repetition. You have to give them a reason to be interested, repetition bores them and they will start to look for other ways to entertain themselves. When that intelligence, sensitivity, and focus is properly contained they can be a super power. Without steady confident handling they can completely run over a person smashing through them literally as well as figuratively.

The whorls have feathering coming up from both of them. Feathering shows a brave and curious horse. They are thinkers who can think up all sorts of trouble with their very active minds. They are curious and clever, very friendly and add even more pushiness to an already assertive demanding horse.
A confident horse who has no hesitation about pushing through, or over people can cause trouble with the wrong people, ones who are easily intimidated. The traits themselves are in no way a bad thing. They can be an incredible thing. With the right training.

This mare was striking when unhappy and running people over when they tried to make her do things she didn’t want to do. She will not be forced into doing anything. In this case refusing dewormming or shots.

Luckily they sent her to the right place to find help. Positive reinforcement training works wonders with this type of horse. They can not be forced to do anything. If you can convince them that it will be a good thing and give them proper incentive, these horses will do anything for you. They will also stand at the gate and demand that you come work them with the same fervor that they refuse to do things that are forced on them. The determination and focus they are able to give needs to be directed in a healthy happy fashion. Once that is accomplished they make amazing horses, fearless, sensitive, devoted.

Looking at whorls on horses is not about labeling them, jumping to conclusions before allowing the horse to tell us who they are. It is about gaining every clue we can to what will best suit the horse. It is about finding the best matches between horse, human, and training style before huge commitments are made to everyone’s detriment.

Beyond the whorls on the head we can look at the rest of the body and see how the horse will move. Whorls are closely tied to conformation and muscle capability.

One her chest this mare has a small center whorl. That will bring her neck down to come lower out of the chest and put her a bit onto the forequarters.  It is small  so the effects it has shouldn’t be overly dramatic.The whorls on the crest of the neck show where she will bend through the neck when she tucks her nose. Whorls on the underside of the jaw are easily over looked but extremely important. When these aren’t evenly placed it will affect the entire body to the point that front hooves will grow unevenly. Even the whorls on the underside of the belly have information to give us. Where these are placed is where the hind legs will track. Hers appear to be mostly even, spaced moderately apart, and up a nice distance under the belly. Sometimes they will be in the center or placed with one far forward and one towards the back. In extreme cases one side wont have a whorl at all. Those horses have lots of trouble controlling hind legs and performing basic gaits.

This mare has all the makings of a very nice horse. No body issues and forehead whorls that can make a great horse. Hopefully when she goes home the training will be able to continue.

 

Bay Gelding, Horse Whorls

By Neversummer October 28, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments

I stopped by to see my friend Verla Schear, of Schear Quarter Horses, the other day. She breeds some very nice horses. This one is not of her breeding but is still a very nice horse. She says he is great fun to ride cutting cattle.

The first thing we noticed looking at him was his perfectly straight profile, steady. The nose bone is pronounced though, determined. His chin has some slight dips and ridges to it for a slightly complicated temperament. At each temple he has small whorls, this shows a horse who is a thinker, extremely smart they spend a lot of time thinking up ways to keep themselves entertained and can often out think their people.

From the front we see a slightly high whorl for some slight extrovert traits, emotional, reactive, sensitive. Most of Verla’s horses had high whorls. Most of her horses are bred to be good cow horses, fast moving and alert. I don’t think it is coincidence that they have whorls that go along with that desired temperament type. He has large well defined brain muscle, it is supposed to show a smart horse, if nothing else it shows a healthy horse  without apparent teeth or jaw issues.

His chest was very interesting. A low zipper whorl. This shows a horse who will work well off the hind quarters, being set low will give an arched neck without being set high. The pectoral whorls are high, almost like a shield, the hair is growing upwards until it reaches mid chest. I don’t know the exact trait that this accompanies.

His flank whorls end fairly high. We can see straight hind legs set well out behind him. A flank whorl that ends high shows a horse who wont reach up under themselves with the hind legs. How does that go with the zipper whorl?That is a very good question.

While looking at the flank whorls I noticed a slightly clubbed hoof behind. Because we had already looked at the rest of his whorls without seeing a reason for this I had to investigate further.

Not being willing to stick my head under the belly of an unknown horse, I stuck my camera under there instead. His belly whorls were very uneven! They were both set right up against the sheath. One of them, the one on his left, is just out on the belly. The other one is actually on the side of the sheath. The belly whorls show where a horse will track with the hind feet. Not very far up underneath himself, which we see also from the flank whorls, and towards the center. I’m not saying that the belly whorls are the cause of the very slight abnormality. They are certainly related though. The hoof doesn’t cause him any trouble and he is completely sound. It sure is an interesting trait to me at least.

All of this combines to make a horse who is reactive and quick to move after a calf, smart enough to think about how he can better be ready for the next move cattle might make, but also steady and dependable. He is Verla’s go to horse for getting work done, steady, dependable, and fun to ride.

Interview, Horse Whorls

By Neversummer October 27, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments
I had a very big day yesterday.
It was a bit of a secret, I thought about mentioning it ahead of time but there was no way to share it in process. Besides, what if I messed the whole thing up? I didn’t want to tell people ahead of time and have everyone know I did awful. So I waited.
I did an interview about Understanding Horse Whorls on our local radio station!
We live in a very rural area, a farm and ranch community. Things involving horses qualify as legitimate news. I expected maybe ten minutes. A half hour later we were still talking away. People were calling in with questions.
My favorite part of the whole thing was when an older gentleman walked into the studio. Very small town here, keep that in mind. The station is a cement block building that sits in the middle of a pasture just off the highway. The receptionist had left to do other things. All the doors are wide open.
He walked into the room where we were talking. It was during a break, so the mics were off. He said he was driving truck, hauling corn from somewhere to the south up into South Dakota. He had the radio on while he was driving, listening to us talk.
So he decided to stop in!
He said he couldn’t take notes and drive but wanted to remember the name of the book. Could he please get a picture of the cover?
It was so sweet it nearly made me cry. I wish I had been thinking clearly, I would have ripped the copy I gave the guy at the radio station out of his hands and given it to this guy instead. Or at least gotten his name and sent him a copy. It was such a shock my brain wasn’t able to catch up until much later unfortunately.
If you would like to listen to the interview you can find it at this link  

Negative Punishment

By Neversummer October 25, 2021 Clicker training No Comments

It’s hard to get past the idea that something bad has to be done before we can reward for being good.

We run into that problem with horses all the time. We think a horse needs to pull back before we can teach them to give to pressure. We think a horse has to spook before we can teach them things aren’t scary. We think a horse needs to say no before we can teach them to say yes.

It is easily over looked that we should be rewarding our horses for doing good without waiting for that spook or pull first. Think of all the trouble we could avoid if we didn’t wait for the bad but looked harder for the good that was offered willingly?

The school my children go to is trying very hard to use positive reinforcement with the children. Finding a reward that is motivating is much harder for teenagers than it is for horses. Finding a high enough value reward is only part of the problem they are facing though.

That idea that bad has to be done before we reward good is so deeply ingrained in all people, not just horse people.

Lots of children are well rewarded for lots of things. Children who are having trouble reading are rewarded for any improvement. Children who can’t sit still are rewarded for stillness. It works nicely in many areas. Children who don’t get work done are rewarded for turning in assignments.

The children who read well, sit still, do their work, try hard all the time, seldom get rewarded. They watch the children who seldom perform the behaviors being asked of them receiving a high rate of reinforcement and wonder why they are trying? Should the reward for doing good be intrinsic? Yes, in large part it should. Convincing an elementary students of that as they watch another child get treats and trinkets is a little more difficult.

Do the other children need a higher rate of reinforcement? Yes. They most likely do.

Does that mean that children who are performing the desired behaviors don’t need rewarded? No. It most certainly doesn’t.

When we withhold a reward we are performing positive punishment. When these children are watching another child receive something while they get nothing for the same behavior that is strong negative punishment.

Don’t think they don’t notice. Comments are made all the time. As the children get older the negative punishment achieves exactly what it would be expected to. Many children stop trying. They get bitter about the rewards. We have conditioned them to negative associations with the rewards and the work the rewards are supposed to be rewarding.

What if instead we looked for the good that was willingly being offered?

There are no easy answers. Horses are so much easier to train than children. The try should always be rewarded though. If we punish the try we soon loose the greatest power a child, or horse, possesses.

 

Phrenology, Horse Whorls

By Neversummer October 20, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments
phre·nol·o·gy
/frəˈnäləjē/
  1. the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

This was once considered to be a valid science well studied and deeply believed. Now we dismiss it and mock former believers.

Yes, people in the past have been wrong. That is what science is. Trying to figure out what is going on in the world around us. Science often lands on the wrong answer a few times before getting it right. Just because people have been wrong in the past doesn’t mean they weren’t on track with the right basic idea. For example, people long ago thought that diseases were caused by the bad odors around them. They were close. It wasn’t the odors, and covering the odors with good smells didn’t cure disease.

The causes of the odors, rot, decay, filth, and sickness, did cause some of the disease and infection they were trying to cure by masking the odors. Once science was reached a point where germs were discovered we mocked those who thought a bad smell could cause disease. They were doing the best they could with what they had. The same with phrenology.

Another attempt that was on the right track.

That the outside of the body can give us clues as to what is going on inside still makes perfect sense. As with germs though we need to find the real cause and correlations. Not make assumptions based on what we think should be. The ‘inventor’ of phrenology arbitrarily decided what part of the head should correlate with which part of the brain. He did do some comparisons. He also placed traits on these spots such as a tendency to commit murder or theft. Such very exact meanings for a small bump in the head.

What does this have to do with the study of whorls?

To many people who dismiss whorl analysis as phony science, quite a bit. In reality there are similarities. The same as thinking bad smells cause disease is related to the discovery of germs. All studies have to start somewhere. We will make many wrong attempts at explanations before we find the correct answer. That doesn’t mean the early attempt were foolish. It means they had less to go on. Because of early attempts to explain natures phenomenons, we have shoulders to stand on. Each generation learns a little more and gives the next generation a head start in their studies.

Science is not a single concrete answer, it is an ongoing study.

Sight Unseen, Horse Whorls

By Neversummer October 13, 2021 Horse Whorls, Rusty No Comments

We’ve all seen the pleas, about to ship, this horse needs saved now.

I know there are pitfalls and a definite dark side to the slaughter horse industry. Setting that aside for the moment, what if you decide that you can’t let the horse go? How do you decide to take the chance and pull that horse? There are many reasons horses end up in kill pens. Lameness and behavioral issues are two big ones. There are also many good horses who end up there through shear bad luck. What are the odds that a pitiful looking horse you only get to see a few bad grainy pictures of could actually work out for you?

This is one place where whorls are put to perfect use. They aren’t always visible in those bad pictures. When they are, it is likely the only clue you will get as to what that horse will actually be like. I’ve seen a few of those ads where the whorls made me sad. The whorls on the horse made it unlikely that the horse could be rehabbed to a happy life. Maybe it would be better to put the time and money to use on a horse with more likelihood of a positive outcome.

Other times we can see a horse who is overlooked because of plain coloring or homely looks. The whorls and head show a willing, steady horse who would likely make a dependable mount for someone lucky enough to search out things more important than looks.

Looking at the whorls before purchasing any horse can help avoid heartbreak. A dressage or reining  prospect with uneven body whorls will have a hard time reaching the upper levels. A hopeful child’s mount with a diagonal double whorl could make life miserable for both of them. When we are buying horses on the regular horse market though, we will be given much more information, a history, video, the life story. Kill pen horses come with none of that. They are a gamble. We need to do all we can to stack the cards in our favor.

This is my kill pen horse. Young and ugly at the time. He did come with the warning that he ran people over. With that lovely bit of information, these pictures, and, because he was lucky enough to have been sent to the sale with his papers, knowledge of his good bloodlines, I took the chance. Would knowing what the whorls were on him have changed anything? Not in this case. I was lucky to get a high double whorl. He lives up to everything we would expect from those. With training and care he learned not to run people over and is now practically perfect.

Why Teaching Tricks Helps Overcome Fear In Horses

By Neversummer October 12, 2021 Clicker training No Comments
We know that by teaching tricks we are teaching our horses to be fearless. It just works. It also makes sense that teaching a horse that it’s fun to play with tarps and all the various weird toys we come up with desensitizes them to many of the things horses are usually scared of.
I also like to say that it builds their confidence in themselves and their trust in us. Which it does.
The science of it goes so much deeper than that though. And it all comes down to choice.
When we give our horses choice in what we do together it inhibits the amygdala, the fear circuit in the brain, to put it very simply. The amygdalae help define and regulate emotions. This makes the horses less afraid. Letting our horses have some control over what they do on a regular basis conditions the brain to expect to have control even when the animals don’t actually have a choice. Then when they encounter a situation where they don’t have control their brain reacts in that same way they are used to reacting, with choice, and the amygdala is still suppressed.
The brain has been reformed to not feel as much fear!
Horses brains develop in completely different ways when they are given choice. Choice causes horses, any animal, to respond to fear and stress in a proactive manner. To take control and try to shape what is happening to them. When a horse isn’t given choice they respond to fear and stress in a reactive manner. The spook, they run, they strike out.
So yes, we are teaching our horses not to fear all of these specific things that we are working with. It goes so much deeper than that though. The depth of the change that giving choice makes on animals, and people, is just amazing. We know and can easily see the difference it makes. That it can completely rebuild the brain structure dumbfounds me.
Which it shouldn’t. We already know that positive reinforcement rebuilds the way the brain functions. That looking for the good in things causes us to find the good in life and can even help to ease depression in some cases. We already know that teaching animals to look for more and different solutions allows them to solve problems on their own far beyond what animals without that experience are able to do (https://www.clickertraining.com/the-unexpected-benefits…). So it should be a simple thing to say oh, of course this is how it works. Still the intricacies of it all never cease to intrigue and enthrall me.

 

Understanding Horse Whorls

By Neversummer October 7, 2021 Horse Whorls No Comments

Understanding Horse Whorls is now available in paperback!

Since its release as an ebook in April of 2021 Understanding Horse Whorls has sold around the whorl. Here in the US, next door in Canada, from England to Australia, and even Norway, Germany, Paraguay, South Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Netherlands.

People kept asking when it would be available in paper form? An ebook is great but a book you can hold in your hands has a special appeal. After lots of work and with a few new pieces of information the transformation is complete and ready to be offered as a real book.

Full of pictures and in depth explanations Understanding Horse Whorls covers the whorls on the head, as well as throughout the entire body, the meanings of head shape, and even possible effects of color are covered. From old stories to new science every aspect of horse whorls are explored.

Then in the end the individual pieces are brought together as we look at real horses and show how a horse whorl analysis is done.

You can find a walk through of the book here

The book on Amazon here

Treat Box

By Neversummer October 2, 2021 Clicker training No Comments

I got the biggest surprise in the mail yesterday!

There was a box, with my name on it. I hadn’t ordered anything. We happily tore into it anyway. With a small child’s help we ripped the box open to find….

Beautifully wrapped horse stuff.

Behind the festive paper we hand crafted horse cookies, Molasses cookies with candy corn and pumpkins on top, which my child promptly ate 🤦🏼‍♀️ and pumpkin spice flavored cookies, which haven’t been eaten by children, yet. A beautiful spiderweb tail bag. The most darling little spooking horse sticker, that I had to fight the other child for. In my refusal to let it be wasted by randomly sticking it somewhere It may have gotten lost. I wanted to put it somewhere that I’d be able to enjoy it long term, so now I can’t find it anywhere 🙁  And my favorite of all, a nylon headstall! Not just a headstall, a headstall in the perfect shades of purples, pinks and oranges printed with pumpkins! And coffees, I’m betting pumpkin spice flavored coffees.

That one isn’t in the picture because I had to run out immediately and put it on a horse! It was so perfect we decided to do some Halloween type things while he was wearing it. We put a mask on and played fetch with the severed hand.

A big thanks to my mom for gifting me with the box and to Whinney Wear for packing such a great assortment of fall flavored horse fun!