Horse Welfare, Laterality, Hair Whorls, Cognitive Bias The Paradox of Double Whorls Part II:

After several years of observing thousands of horses, I still hadn’t figured out the puzzle of the double whorls, but I finally believed in the predictive value of hair whorls. Most horses with high whorls were reactive and fearful, but not all. I began to suspect this must be due to experience and upbringing. For example, I made most of my observations in the home environment, which could have masked fearfulness and reduced reactivity. And for most horses, horseshoeing is not new. I began to focus my interest on the effects of experience.

Horses with high whorls and excitable temperaments often had agitated owners or owners who handled their horses roughly. A probable explanation was that the reactivity and fearfulness of calm horses with high hair whorls were being masked by experience or changed in young horses handled gently. I noticed owners who seemed afraid of their horses or managed them without compassion had the hardest to handle horses.

Notwithstanding my relentless search to find answers to the paradoxical nature of the double whorl horse, I finally found a clue in one of the most unlikely places, and it wasn’t a horse that provided the clue. One night, I was washing my dirty clothes in a Laundromat and noticed a young boy there with his mother. I could tell he was a “problem child,” running around wildly, climbing on washers, acting like a wild child. Each time his mother tried to settle him down, he was up and running around again within minutes. When he happened by me, I noticed two pronounced whorls on the back of his scalp. Unable to contain my curiosity, I started a conversation with his mother. I asked the usual questions about if her son was ambidextrous. She said he was, and her husband was too. When she asked what it meant, I explained what I noticed in horses.

She owned a horse as a teenager, was easy to talk to, and seemed pretty familiar with the differences in horses I spoke of. SHE GOT A DISCONCERTED LOOK when I explained the unusual behavior in horses with double whorls. She told me that her son was well-behaved six months earlier and had only recently started to change. When I asked what had made him change, she mentioned being recently separated from her husband and going through a difficult divorce. They were sharing custody at the time, and she explained some inconsistencies in how each of them handled their son. She tried to reason with her son if he misbehaved, and her husband thought spankings were more appropriate. He spent weekends with his dad and the school week with his mother. She said he always came home from his dad’s house nervous and upset. I thought, “Many children go through their parents’ divorce and accept it. What was different about him?” She went on to say how he was brilliant and schoolwork was easy for him. He was soft-spoken and polite, well-liked by his classmates, and had many friends. But over the last few months, his behavior had changed. He longer showed interest in school or his friends, and the school counselor was concerned he had ADD or ADHD and wanted her to take him to a child psychiatrist.

A highly sensitive child is very attuned to their environment, experiences, relationships, and expectations. A child’s high sensitivity is about their temperament. Temperament describes how children approach the world; it’s the “real” why of their behavior. Shy, sensitive children often internalize and externalize stress reactions and, as a result, may experience significant depression, anxiety, or anger; violent reactions are the extremes. Their emotional responses may be unpredictable or explosive.

As I listened to her, my mind reeled with the answers I was seeking related to the double whorl horses. Horses with two whorls are highly intelligent, overly reactive, susceptible to slight environmental disruptions, and more likely to exhibit behavior problems, including hostility and violence, especially when faced with inconsistent handling or cruel or violent treatment.

The first thought I had after talking to the woman in the laundromat was why my mare Jenny’s behavior was so good. She didn’t have any of the malice or dangerous behavior I had seen in so many double whorls. I realized I needed to look into her past and learn who raised her. The name of a woman who purchased her as a weanling from a breeder was on her papers. I looked up her number and called her on the phone. The breeder bred Doc Bar QH horses for racing and thought Jenny was too small to race, so he sold her. He had a lot of young foals born every year and didn’t handle them until weaning time. Jenny’s first and only negative experience is when he forced caught her and put a halter on her head so he could transport her to the woman I was speaking to. She was a middle-aged woman with a two-acre pasture behind her house and raised Jenny there. She spoiled Jenny with love and kindness. Soon, she overcame Jenny’s negative previous experience, and by the time Jenny was old enough to train, she was a gentle pet. Her neighbor helped her train Jenny to ride when she was two. She was adamant that Jenny was easy to train and “lovely to ride.” The woman’s hobby was raising young horses and selling them after training, then starting over with a new foal. She sold Jenny when she was 4 to the guy I bought her from. I was the guy’s farrier. He had Jenny and a Buckskin he bought to impress his new girlfriend. They hardly rode the horses for the year they had them, and when they did, it was mostly walking around the pasture. After a year, he lost his girlfriend, had financial difficulties, and wanted to sell the horses. He called me and offered both horses, his trailer, and all his tack for a price I couldn’t pass up. I immediately sold the Buckskin for more money than I paid for everything and was left with Jenny. At first, she was so lazy that I decided to get her in shape before trying to sell her. I started to ride her daily, and within a month, she suddenly “woke up” from the life of leisure she had for most of her life and became the horse she was by nature. I love that mare more than any horse I had before. When I was on her, I was on a real horse for the first time. I had her for nine years before selling her to a young girl who boarded her horse on my pasture. The girl wanted to get into barrel racing, and her horse was not up to the job. I started to let her ride Jenny, and she became so enamored by Jenny that I ended selling her to her and she went on to win two junior state championships on her. That’s what happens when the double whorls are handled correctly.