Rescuing Rusty

There are so many parts of the horses head that give us clues to their temperaments.

The chin and lips are some of these. They are unique from things like eyes and ears in that they are muscle.

The shape of eyes, ears, and profile are fairly well set. The horses are born with them and they don’t change. Chins and lips change and grow with the horse as the horse matures and develops their own unique personality. Which brings us to a very important question.

Does the shape of the chin and lips, the muzzle, show what the temperament will be or does the temperament cause the shape of the muzzle?

Frown lines don’t cause a person to spend their time frowning. Frowning causes frown lines to develop. Or, to the contrary, laugh lines. The way a person thinks, acts, and holds themselves is the cause of the way the lines of the face develop.

If a horse is curious and wants to explore with their mouth does this develop the muscles in the upper lip making it shapely and curvaceous? If a horse carries tension in tightly drawn lips does this build the muscling of the lips and chin adding lines, ridges, and layers for a complicated chin?

Some things, certain shapes and characteristics, are inherent and unchanging. A chin that comes to a point that gets hard with the lip flattening and extending when the horse is upset, is a born trait that accompanies several other traits. The sensitive skin that tends to wrinkle more than normal, that accompanies this chin type is far deeper than muscle development.

Looking at the way the muzzle develops over time can give us a lot of information. How much is cause and how much effect? That is hard to say.

All horses have them. A feathered whorl down each side of the chest above the front legs.

Usually the pectoral whorls are even. either both reaching high into the chest or both short and compact. The breed, type, and movement of the horse reflected in the hair.

Sometimes that isn’t the case. Occasionally the whorls will be uneven, one higher than the other. When this happens there will be a leg preference. The horse will want to reach farther with the leg that has the higher whorls. This will be the preferred lead, as the horse want to reach with that front leg.

What other consequences can it have?

It goes without saying but still needs to be drilled into our heads, the entire body is connected. When there is something going on in one place it affects all the other body parts.

When a horse is out of balance in the front legs, what does it do through the rest of the body?

The first thing we would do is check the underside of the jaw and belly to see what those whorls look like. If they are even the effects will be less. If those whorls are uneven too, the whole body will be working against itself. The crookedness having far reaching consequences.

The higher pectoral whorl shows a stronger front leg. That strength and preference is echoed in the opposite hind leg. With these two legs being strongest, the hind leg opposite the low whorl will be weaker. Between overloading the front leg with the lower whorl because they like to use and reach with the leg with the higher whorl, and overloading that front leg because the corresponding hind leg is weaker, the leg with the lower whorl is more likely to be injured. This can range in severity from tendon and other soft tissue injuries to uneven hoof angles, hi/low syndrome.

The connections through the entire body are so strong that any unevenness ricochets from the chest through the hind quarters then back to the front legs. Little thing,s like a slightly stronger front leg, can have far reaching effects.

Lots of horses have whorls down the underside of their necks. Most of them are small enough that they don’t make a lot of difference. A small whorl will be a small spot in the neck where the neck will be straighter. There will be a little bit of extra muscling there.

As the whorls get bigger the effect they have will grow. Long whorls the length of the neck will make a major difference in how the horse carries the neck. What that difference will be depends on the type of whorl. There are two basic types of whorls that take up space under the neck.

A zipper whorl is narrow and tight. The hair grows towards center making a ridge along the middle of the whorl. These whorls lead to an arched neck. A high arched neck if they are only on the neck, or a low neck that is carried forward instead of up but rounds nicely if the whorl goes down into the chest. These horses have a natural tendency to carry themselves balanced and working off the hindquarters.

An open splaying whorl, for lack of a better name, has hair that grows outward from center. If there is a ridge of hair it is along the outer edges of the whorl, circling it like a frame. A neck will curve downward into these whorls. Often horses with open splaying whorls will be built down hill and want to carry their noses in the air. With poor riding these whorls can accompany horses who will be uncomfortable and poorly balanced. They need help finding a good way to carry themselves.

Two very similar whorls with two very different outcomes. The small details are always important.

Looking at the forehead whorls on horses is understood and there are fairly basic rules. High shows an extrovert. Low shows and introvert. That much is simple.

What happens when we start looking at some not so basic equines though?

Most mules and donkeys have low whorls. Those low whorls almost always have feathering. Does that mean that all donkeys and mules, I’ll call them long ears for ease of typing, are left brain introverts? Is there so little variation among them?

No, It doesn’t.

Long ears are different than horses in more ways than just the ears. Whorls on horses are located in close relation to the olfactory bulbs. The olfactory bulbs receive information about smells from the nose and send it to the brain by way of the olfactory tracts. These are very important to equines who have such a strong sense of smell. It isn’t surprising that whorls would be related closely to such a strong link to the brain. The olfactory bulbs in long ears are smaller and rotate inwards. Their whorls are NOT in as close of relation to the olfactory bulbs as horses are.

Instead long ears have whorls that are set farther down the face.

A center whorl on a long ear is half way down their nose in a position that would be an extremely low whorl on a horse. A whorl centered between the eyes is a high whorl for a long ear. There can still be low whorls on donkeys and mules, they are just lower low whorls.

Seeing an extrovert long ear is very possible! They posses all the usual patterns we would expect to see in horses, High whorls, low whorls, even double whorls. The one whorl type that is far more common in long ears than horses is no whorl at all. This shows a right brain animal, emotional and sensitive.

We can apply all the rules of whorls to long ears that we can to horses. We just need to readjust our view a little.