131 Investigating equine facial whorls and owner perceptions of temperament

Abstract

Many stereotypes exist about facial whorls and temperament. A survey was created to assess facial whorls and owner perceptions of temperament. The survey included photo submissions of the horse's facial whorl(s) and statements (n = 17) describing temperament traits. Owners scored each statement's accuracy for their horse on a Likert scale (strongly disagree = 1 to strongly agree = 5). Owners for 61 horses completed the survey, but 7 horses were eliminated for unusable photos. Remaining horses (n = 54) were categorized by whorl number (WN), vertical whorl placement (VWP), and horizontal whorl placement (HWP) using a standard graphic overlay. Categories for VWP were low, middle, high, or very high, with the middle category level with eye position. Categories for HWP were center, left, and right. Total positive (PS) and negative (NS) scores were calculated as the sum of scores for traits typically perceived as positive vs. negative, respectively. Total PS tended (P < 0.10) to be affected by VWP, with horses with very high whorls (28.9 ± 2.2) scoring lower (P < 0.05) than horses with high whorls (35.0 ± 1.2) and tending to score lower (P < 0.10) than horses with middle whorls (35.0 ± 1.9). Scores for owner willingness to compete their horse (based on temperament alone)showed a significant (P < 0.05) effect of VWP, with horses with very high whorls (2.5 ± 0.6) scoring lower (P < 0.05) than horses with high whorls (4.1 ± 0.3) and tending to score lower (P < 0.10) than horses with middle whorls (3.9 ± 0.5). The remaining traits did not show any significant (P < 0.05) effects of whorl placement. Owners tended (P < 0.10) to score horses with single whorls (4.3 ± 0.2) higher than horses with multiple whorls (3.8 ± 0.3) for being friendly toward people, but also tended (P < 0.10) to score horses with single whorls (1.8 ± 0.2) higher than horses with multiple whorls (1.1 ± 0.3) for being prone to biting/striking/kicking. Overall, owners tended to give horses with very high whorls a lower total score for desirable temperament traits and a lower score for their willingness to compete those horses. While additional tendencies were noted for horses with single vs. multiple whorls, the specific traits involved seem to contradict each other. Additional investigation with a larger sample size and more objective measures of temperament would be beneficial.