Horsenalities

Juliano – left-brain extrovert (used to be right-brain extrovert)
Way more “go” than “whoa” not only because he used to race.


EXTROVERT features

High energy, more "go", tendency to run: As Juliano is a thoroughbred he has few hundred years of breeding to back his high energy levels. He used to be very explosive and still tends to be quite rushy when he is learning new things. His answer to all new things is: speed up, run. Now he has learned that after running he can stop and face feared thing. He is much more confident and I can see he gets curious about things and situation that could potentially have scare dhim in the past. The biggest challenge for him is to stand still.


Quick: He is quick in everything he does, whether it is getting from point A to B in the pasture, eating grass. His best friend is a left-brain introvert so it is very interesting for us to watch them in similar situations and how they react to it.

LEFT BRAIN FEATURES

Dominant: He tries to dominate every horse, big, small, stallion, mare - he thinks and acts like THE BOSS. Few years back he treated me like a private carrot dispenser. He still tries to dominate me but in more subtle way.


Pushy: Same as with dominance, he pushes geldings and mares around in the pasture. "You stand there. You! Stop eating grass". When people came with carrots to the fence J pushes all the other horses away, same thing happens when standing before the gate, he has to be first one to go to the stables.

Tolerant: He is very tolerant towards his herd. When he plays with geldings he will allow biting on the rump or hocks to some extent. He is very tolerant to my mistakes. Just the other day we were jumping with two carrots and I accidentally put a carrot stick in his face. He put his head way up but just few seconds later I could do a friendly game with the stick and I guess he understood this was not on purpose.

Unconcerned: He can sometimes go into this "I can't see you, not interested" mode when playing on the ground and things are going to slow for him. If you are not moving his feet and asking him to do different things his mind just drifts away.

Confident: This switches from confident to unconfined depending on situation. I'm happy he is much more confident now than he used to be and in new situations he tries very hard not to loose it.

Curious: He is very curious. If he is unsure about something you can see in his eyes that he is scared but at the same time wants to approach scary thing and smell it. When we go into the woods he often suggests that we choose paths we've never walked before.

Playful: At pasture he has to be everywhere at the same time. He plays with Dum one minute, next minute he is eating grass, gets bored, runs up and down the fence. Under saddle you sometimes get a feeling he is not sure what he wants, weather to canter, trot, eat grass or go sideways. On trail rides he can gallop one way, slide-stop, turn and gallop in the opposite direction, not because he got scared, he just felt like it. Funny little horse.


Smart: He learns very fast. You want him to put his leg on a pedestal, next thing you know he puts his leg on a chair and tries to balance with two front feet on a lying pole. He saw me once getting carrots out of my car, same day he run away from his stall, stood by my car ant tried to brake in. He knew exactly which car to pick from 20 others. So once he overcomes his fear issues he gets everything very fast.

Charismatic: Always the leader, most horses answer to him. He is the first one to greet the new horse in the herd. Liked by all geldings, adored by all mares.

Naughty: Oh, yes! As soon as he realizes you can't handle him he is over your head. When bored in his stall and there is a saddle or head-collar he can grab he will grab it and throw it. He undresses horses from rugs in the paddock and bites tails and manes off.

Mischievous: When he learns a new thing and is confident about it he will use it against you. When we started learning sideways he started doing beautiful half-passes toward grass. Now that he likes standing on the pedestal he wrestles with me on it when I ask him to get off. Best scenario: he will get off and than back on in few seconds when I'm not looking. He knows the rules of catching game very well. Once he run away from his pasture and wanted to play catching game in the woods. Every time I lost interest and tried to walk away he would gallop past me, stop and face me within 10 meters from me. He loves to change my games into his which makes it even more interesting for both of us.


Tendency to bite:
Not so much any more. He used to strike very often few years ago.

Mouthy: If I ignore him and leave the saddle on his door I can be sure to find saddle on the ground and saddle pad in the water bucket. If he is not out in the pasture after lunch by 3pm he grabs and throws his head-collar in front off his stall. Than he pulls down the rugs. Usually by than people who work in the stable are so annoyed that they take him out.



Willful: He knows when he is "naughty" and he does it on purpose. Sometimes you can see in his eyes that he is laughing at you.

Exuberant: He can be very exuberant, especially when he is in his stallion like mood. When playing on line or at liberty it is very easy to ask him for collected trot. He likes showing of both around horses and humans.


Friendly: He is friendly towards horses now. He used to be very aggressive but now he is friendly towards all geldings who accept his leadership. He is getting more and more friendly towards people.