“When you believe in things,
That you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way.”
– Stevie Wonder in his song, “Superstition”
The great Stevie Wonder didn’t believe in superstition. However, some horse owners do. Just look at the horseshoe, which is one of the greatest symbols of good luck anywhere in the world. There’s even superstition about which way the horseshoe ought to be displayed – some insist up so the horseshoe catches the luck, others believe down so that luck is poured upon those entering a home.
Horse markings and colors are also a great cause for superstition. The reality is, however, that most of it is simply not true. Darker horses are sometimes believed to be difficult, while gray-colored horses were popular centuries ago when they were believed to offer protection against the evil power of witches.
An even greater stronghold is upon that of white-legged horses. Some are perceived to be good, while others are bad. A long-held European poem about horses was popular in the 1800s:
If you have a horse with four white legs, keep him not a day;
If you have a horse with three white legs, send him far away;
If you have a horse with two white legs, send him to a friend;
If you have a horse with one white leg, keep him to his end.
The placement of white on legs is also reason for superstition. Some suggest that if one fore and hind-leg on the same side were white, that’s unlucky. Still others maintain that a horse’s level of unpredictability is linked to the amount of white on its body no matter where it’s located. Even hooves have superstitions associated with them – white-footed horses have weaker hooves than horses with darker ones.
Another superstition insists that if a horse were to have four white feet and a white nose, one should “knock him in the head and feed him to the crows.” People who have a distaste for white often admit that it doesn’t apply to all breeds and types.
These superstitions are a lot to process, and with little scientific evidence to prove anything, you might be better off steering clear of the nonsense.
