The Science of Hair Whorls and Laterality Part 6, Hair Whorls and Associated Behavior

When I met Temple Grandin in 1993, she was trying to figure me out and what I learned from studying hair whorls and the behavior associated with the different hair whorl patterns. The language I used was not scientific because I was not a scientist yet. She was patient in her attempts to disseminate the meaning behind my words and why I did certain things with horses that didn’t make sense to her. Temple had experience with horses from her time in boarding school in Vermont as a teenager. The school had a horse riding program and a barn on campus. Because she was autistic, she didn’t have much social life at school like the other girls her age, so she spent most of her time playing with the horses at the barn. She became a decent rider, even showed in equitation, winning some medals.

One day as we sat and talked during lunch, she told me about a horse at boarding school she rode named Lady. Lady was a Palomino mare about 12 years old at the time. The school bought her as a lesson horse because her ground manners were impeccable, and she was safe for the kids to ride. Lady stood in the crossties all day as content as any horse could be as students fawned over her, groomed her, and tacked her up. She was also like a good little soldier in the arena, riding in circles all day without complaint, doing her duty knowing that at the end of the day was a meal that included grain and carrots as a reward.

But Lady had one problem, she was barn sour, and when they tried to ride her outside on the many trails through the woods surrounding the school, she’d throw a fit and try every way possible to go back to the barn. The students were amateurs and unable to control her when she had these fits. She became dangerous, so the barn manager hired a professional trainer to see what he could do. With spurs and a riding crop, he made Lady leave the barn and took her on many rides out on the trails. Well done, or so everyone thought, including Temple. But soon after the trainer left, Lady quickly reverted to her old barn sour ways. Temple then asked me,

“What would you do?”

My response caused Temple to lean back in her chair with a look of disbelief when I said, “When Lady turned back to the barn, I would have LET HER GO BACK.” When she said, “Wouldn’t that just reinforce the behavior? I said, “No, it would give her confidence that I wasn’t taking her somewhere she was unsure of and afraid. Forcing her at that point would have only reinforced her FEAR.” You see, I went on to explain, the first time someone asked Lady to do something that she was not used to, or knew was predictable and safe, like all her routines at the barn, her only desire was to return to where she knew she was safe. Forcing her away from the predictable and safe environment she knew caused her fear. When people mistook her fear for stubborn disobedience and punished her by forcing her to leave the barn only worsened her anxiety and fear.

The riding instructor at the school was “‘old school” and believed in discipline when the horse misbehaved. I use the words “old school” not to mean some rough and abusive way; it’s more like “OLD SCHOOL” is “CURRENT SCHOOL,” the way most horses are trained today and not much different from the way the trainer approached Lady’s behavior at Temple’s boarding school 60 years ago.

I would have taken a therapeutic approach to Lady by taking her out for a ride, and when she got upset and turned back to the barn, I would have LET HER GO BACK. When she settled down back at the barn door a few minutes later, I would have gently encouraged her to return to the trail again with patience, kindness and showing her my sincere concern for her well-being. The first time we might go 100 feet; the second time, 300 feet; the third time, one-quarter mile, and so on. Each time she would have gained more confidence in me and learned that I was the benevolent leader horses need in their life.

Lady’s paradoxical behavior is easy for me to explain. She was naturally fearful and probably had a high-hair whorl who had HABITUATED to her life in the barn where everything was predictable and routine. Lady’s true nature was MASKED by the predictable routine in the barn. But, exposing her to the NOVELTY of riding out on the trail for the first time and mistaking her fear for disobedience or stubbornness revealed her true nature, effectively reinforcing her fear. Now, if Lady had been a low fear (low whorl) horse whose barn sour behavior was motivated not by fear but by laziness, stubbornness, or just wanting to get back to where the food was, the ass-whooping she got from the trainer would have worked.

When I finished explaining this to Temple, she said, “You’re right; I’m sure of it. There’s no better explanation I can imagine. I don’t know why I never thought of that.”

I believe my approach to horse training is “NEW SCHOOL” because I discovered a genetic marker outside the body that predicts a horse’s reactivity (fearfulness) and the strength of its tendency to have side preference that inhibits training. Laterality, or side preference, indicates the horse’s fear of what you do with them. Fear is a strong motivator for a prey species animal and preoccupies their attention and inhibits learning. FEAR INHIBITION is why it takes so long for horses to learn simple things like standing still for a farrier. Please don’t misinterpret my occasional use of all caps as shouting. I only mean to emphasize the most important words I write.