From the horse.com network, this video discusses the idea of reading forehead swirls. An interesting concept I had never heard of and supposedly this hair has a connection with behavior in the equine animal.
This video provides a brief overview of the history and a demonstration for reading your own horses swirls.
I found the rest of the swirl series with Chris Irwin, this is part one of a 10 part series.
Here are links to the rest of the series, (links open in a new window).
Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6 | Pt. 7 | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Pt. 10
What do you think, a viable theory? What does your horses swirl say about them?
Im on the fence about this theory. One thing he didn’t talk about was horses with multiple swirls… Ive seen horses that have a high swirl and a low one… or two side by side 😛 My horses swirl is very average haha.
That is very cool but you are right he did not talk about low or high swirls
You guys need to go to the website and watch all 10 videos in this series. Chris covers high, low, multiple, etc. on several different horses. This video is simply the FIRST in the series!
I watched all the videos and checked my horses. Pretty much ran true… I do have that multi-personality horse he talked of. This explained a lot of her behavior issues. Even thought the swirls say that most of my horses have average intelligence I tend to believe most of my horses have above average intelligence, but I guess who doesn’t think that. I have an Amish farrier so I asked him if he knew anything about swirls… he said he won’t buy a horse without checking the swirls. It can make or break a sale for him.
I believe that there is a lot to the theory of the swirls.
I’m a believer. I heard about this over a year ago. I watched all of Chris’s videos and bought Linda Tellington-Jones’ book for reference.
I have a AQH with two swirls side-by-side slightly above the eyes, and he really does have “two horses” in him, and he’s very intelligent. He can be very emotional and over-reactive, and needs time to “get over things”. Or he can be “Mr Calm” and a Steady Eddie. All in all, he’s very safe, but I don’t push him when he’s having a left brain moment. He’s the type of horse that likes the carrot over the stick. The more you keep him on his happy side, the better your ride. I’m really hoping Linda is right that once you get “both horses” working for you, you’ll have the BEST horse! Because he is NOT and easy horse, but we are learning together as the years pass.
I also went through all the horses at the farm and found their swirls to be accurate to their temperament as well. I found all the sweetest horses had a “feather swirl”.
I’m a believer. I have two horses and were there swirls are describes there personality. I wish I would have new about this theroy sooner. It would have helped with picking out horses and seeing what i have to work with