I've, for one reason or another, always attracted people and animals with big personalities. Finally, I've come to realize this is probably because I've been a right brain introvert until I was about 16 and then I became much more extroverted. We often mirror the surroundings and personalities in our lives. Something that Parelli natural horsemanship emphasizes a lot is knowing your horse's horsenality (horse personality) and are they a left brained or right brained, introverted or extroverted. Well, for the most part we and all animals are all of the above, depending on our environment, so this, I found, can be quite a task to figure out. Knowing a horse's horsenality helps you work better with them because you have to mirror their energy so horse and rider become one. Yup, that sounds totally coo-coo but it's true.
My main squeeze, Visene, is a 27 year old Arabian stallion. You may think he's an old man but he still thinks he's 5 and doesn't look much older than 10. Learning Parelli on a stallion is a challenge to say the least. On top of learning his horsenality, which is hard enough, I have to learn how to not "challenge" his dominance. Visene has been in our family since he was 6 years old so we've grown up together and have become best friends BUT that doesn't mean best friends don't argue and fight.....but getting in a fight with a 900 lb stallion with a high spirit isn't something I would like to get into. And in a herd of horses, no matter who is buddies with who, dominance is always being challenged in a herd. Parelli says not to practice with stallions until you're at level 5 or higher and I'm only at level 1-2, so no tips or guide book/dvd is even close to my grasp. Thrilling.
Anyway this is him.
Because I'm on a tight budget, I'm just going along with the online courses available through being a Parelli member, so buying the $400 horsenality test is, sort of, way down on the list of priorities. I figure enough patience and observing will get me the right answer to his horsenality, with that $400 in my pocket :) So far I know he's an extrovert, no doubt about that, Mr.I'mthesexiestthingever. No really, he thinks he's amazing, and he is, but horse egos are never really something I've experienced with any other horse but him. He can be left and right brained, but I would say hes right brained for the majority of the time, I think most stallions are. So that's great we're both right brained extroverts BUT that still comes with the challenge of me mirroring his energy if he's feeling more left brained. Ugh, confusing I know, it's how I feel every day.
So anyway, on a quest to have THE ultimate relationship with my horse I'm writing this blog. Either to help out someone who's experiencing the same problems as myself or just a bored reader, I'm going to be updating this a few days a week with some text and peektures (too keep it interesting). Enjoy!
