Equus Sept, issue facial whorls is your horse a right or left?

Question

I found it very interesting and went and checked my girl and my friends and on mine was wrong, my girl is a counter clockwise, and is a right-sided girl, and the other one is a clockwise and a leftie? How many of you found it to be true? Just thought is was a fun question.

Answer 1

I read about this somewhere other than Equus, and I'm definitely going to pay attention to the direction of the whorls and the left- vs  right-handedness in relation to the whorl direction, and see what I find!   Good question!

Ummmm, Curtis, you need to brush up on your history a bit.  The reason we do most handling and mounting from the left is that the practice (like most equestrian rules, including all those for dressage and eventing) stems from horses' early use by the military in Europe.  As most people are right-handed, the soldiers wore their swords on the left side, making mounting and leading the horses from the near side the obvious choice.  Personally, I've always found it really dfficult to mount my horse from the off side when I'm wearing my sword, as the sword bangs into my left leg as I'm swinging it over, and when leading a horse, when I've needed to draw my weapon, I've often hit my horse in the head when I'm leading him from the off side.  However, when I train horses, I do always train them to lead and be mounted from both sides, just in case they end up with a left-handed swordsman as an owner.

A horse's left or right-handedness is determined by many factors, including how he was positioned in the womb, and post birth factors, including injuries, stresses and strains.  Constantly leading horses from the near side, especially in the case of racehorses, is not a good idea.   And the one-way hot walkers are detrimental, too.  IMHO.

Answer 2

I don't get Equus anymore. What was the thing?

One was a clockwise, and the other two were counter-clockwise.

What do they mean?

Answer 3

I haven't seen the article yet... not real faithful picking up my mail daily lol.

But I have delved into it, and there is some truth to it I think.. but I can guarentee I will never own an animal with 3 facial whorls.

Answer 4

I think its all full of c**p. horses are naturally left handed. thats why we lead and get on and off on there left sides.