Juliano is a rock star

I just got a book that I was dying to get my hands on - "Is Your Horse a Rock Star? Understanding Your Horse's Personality" by Dessa Hockley. It's a book that describes Horsenalities in a fun way for example: The Rock Star, The Goddess, The Macho Man or The Steady Eddy. The book is a fun addition to the Horsenality chart and all the information from Linda.

Based on the description in the book Juliano is a Rock Star! He loves the attention, has a strong ego, is very cocky but charming at the same time. "The Rock Star wants to live large and along the way enjoy freedom, fun and friendship". That's Juliano alright :)

Juliano - I do all my own stunts!

"If this horse has come into your life, it is time to widen your horizons and go play!" No doubt Parelli is the way forward!

Horsenality frenzy

Today I was supposed to play with only 3 horses, Juliano mostly and two of Justyna's and Marta's mares as they are both on holidays. As the day went by I got asked to look after another two horses. At first I thought "Oh boy, what did I get into", but soon I realised this day could be a great learning opportunity. I started thinking of something all 5 horses would cope with and something they didn't do with their owners before. Figure 8! I've cleared my schedule for the rest of the day, made a thermos of coffee for me, a thermos of linseed for J and headed off to the stables. I've written "Don't make assumptions" on my hand as I caught myself thinking which horse will do best and which will have troubles with the task. I've decided not to assume anything, not to pressure any horse as they are all used to other types of handling. Figure 8 would be a concept to play around not a goal.

First up, Ben the stallion. I've played with Ben few times before and it seems to me he is mainly a left-brain introvert. When he gets excited he goes into extrovert mode of course. Ben came out of his stall with a very dominant attitude. He wouldn't respect my personal space and would ignore me. This went on for quite a while until I got my act together. We've revisited jo-jo game, hide your hiney and changes of direction on a circle. I soon found out Ben was pushing with his nose way into my personal space when he was asked to face me and change direction. It was quite a challenge to get his attention then change direction and not get run over by him in the process. I knew that timing was everything here, if I went to fast up my phases I would provoke him and have a massive stallion argument on my hands. So I would maneuver around faze 1,2,3 with a quick faze 4 if he totally ignored me. I used a quick flick of a string on his chest for faze 4. This didn't get him all excited and what's more important it didn't give him an excuse to rear up. After he got tagged he would stand and start to ask questions. When we got our ground rules figured I've introduced him to the figure 8 pattern. Ben couldn't do it at a walk, after each loop of an eight he would go into either trot or canter. I took it and didn't mind his impulsion. It was his zone 1 I was focusing on. After a while of defending my space he relaxed and did a figure 8 without putting pressure on me. He faced me with his ears forward asking a question "Which way now?". I took it and Ben finally got it. He licked his lips, stood with me for few minutes, didn't try to chew on me. So figure 8 with Ben was more about his attitude then anything else. One would expect that with a LBI/LBE it would be about fun and play but is wasn't. Don't make assumptions. I've quit when I saw Ben offered his attention and positive attitude.


Ben the LB stallion

Second in line was Drezyna - a right-brain extrovert mare which went through a lot in her live. Her owner did an amazing job in making her calm and confident. Few years ago Drezyna lost her right eye due to large sarcoid that grew into her eyelid. Keeping all of that in mind I started of with a lot of friendly with the stick, especially on the side that she couldn't see me. I was pleasantly surprised that she wouldn't mind me rubbing her on her "blind" side and would respond in a very calm way to the lightest porcupine. After making sure she was OK with me and my tools I showed her around our little play field and what figure 8 pattern is all about. I was taking things very slow and rewarded her slightest try. 5 minutes later she was doing a perfect figure 8. She was checking in with me very often and was positive and responsive even when I had to dive her away from her "blind" side. What a brave little mare. This experience was so much different to Ben. With Drezyna it was about making my signals as clear but at the same time as light as possible. She remained left brain from the beginning till the end of the session and I was very happy with that. Sometimes we get caught in a trap of categorizing horses. "You are a RBE, show me RBE behavior" and we push horses into the right-brain of thinking because than we know what we are dealing with. "Play with a horse that shows up that day" - that's so important. I must admit, I was thinking of asking Drezyna to do the figure 8 in trot, but I wasn't there to test which horse could learn the figure 8 the fastest. I wanted to see what each horse would offer. Drezyna offered her confidence and I was thrilled with that.

RB Drezyna

Zawieja - 20 year-old mare LBI mostly, sometimes very right-brain and spooky. Zawieja is a horse I've known for a very long time, when she was younger she was a threat to all riders, she would buck most people off. Now as Zawieja is older and wiser and you have to work for every step that she takes. Today, Zawieja was lacking character a bit with the figure 8. She would do it, but it wasn't very exciting for her. Every change of direction she would go on to do another loop of an eight with a face saying "Blah, blah, I'm moving my feat" but her mind was somewhere else. So I've quit doing the pattern with her and moved on to the ball. Zawieja used to be as afraid of the ball as Juliano was. I asked her to approach it, she did, I asked her to touch it, she did. I soon found out that ball on the ground wasn't a problem any more and she is ready for the next level - ball in the air. I played the friendly game by rubbing the ball on her feet, than shoulders as she wasn't allowing me to go for the withers yet. Soon that also changed. The ball was on Zawieja's back and she was confident. Zawieja offered me trust, trust that the ball in my hands will not hurt her. In the future I would love to see Zawieja get interested in the pattern, but who knows maybe she will and after obedience exuberance will come.


20 year-old Zawieja

Juliano was the horse I was waiting to play with all day. We had some unresolved issues from yesterday and I was anxious to see what state of mind he was in. Yesterday he was very playful with the catching game. Yes, he came to me when he first saw me in the paddock but soon started his usual routine "Not gonna catch me, not gonna catch me". He would come to me and than take off bucking and stop at the other end of the field. This went on for 30 minutes. After a while Juliano came to me again, but I knew he would take of just as soon as he reached me. I gave him a treat, didn't face him, instead I run across the paddock, over the fence and didn't stop until I knew Juliano couldn't see me. I hid behind some trees and looked back, he was standing there shocked. He stood there for at least 5 minutes, trying to figure out where I went, he even walked toward the fence. Of course I came back after a while and the roles finally changed, Juliano wouldn't leave my side. This was yesterday. Today I could see Juliano standing at the gate every time I came back from playing with first Ben, than Drezyna and Zawieja. He was ready, he wanted to do something with me and he was more and more anxious every time I walked by. I took it as a great compliment and finally after 3 hours with the other horses went to pick him up from the paddock. He pushed his head into the halter and was almost prancing with joy when we were walking to the play field. If I was to judge him by his performance on the figure 8 he would get a 2 maybe a 3 but he offered me something that I liked even better. His mind was with me straight away, he was asking me questions and wanted to put his feet on everything. It looked as if he was asking me questions about each foot, for the very first time I could direct him to put either right or left foot on something. He was amazing! He was exuberant and obedient and this doesn't happen very often. I was so pleased with him, he was showing me all the time "Look I can do this and this, look, look". I was pleasantly surprised by yet another horse. I didn't expect Juliano to be so connected. He has given me trust, confidence and exuberance plenty of times before but today he gave me his heart and mind.




At the end of the session we went crazy with Juliano :)

The last horse I've had a chance to play with was Eparol. A beautiful Arabian gelding who is a mystery to me. Just like Juliano he is an ex-race horse. He is a LBE around horses but with humans he tends to go RBI. A very hard horse to read and I must admit I always have doubt whether he is obedient or introverted and is hiding inside himself. It was very hard for me to disengage his hind-quarters and get a connection. He was obedient and he would do as asked but I could feel that he does not trust me. I would love to see more playfulness in him around people. After a while Eparol started looking at me with a bit more sparkle in his eye. He would even through in a question or two. It was very subtle and shy and hard to read but it was there. Eparol still remains unclear to me and I guess it would take a lot more time for him to open up to me. He offered a tiny window into his heart today and for me this was plenty enough for that session.


Arabian gelding - Eparol

It was a long and exciting day. A lot of horsenalities and a lot of changes in horsenalities as we went along. I didn't want to assume anything and expect or demand anything from any horse. I think I've done a good job at that. What I've learned today I will use with Juliano from now on.

1. Take what the horse is offering you, even if you didn't want it at the time. If he offers, take it and appreciate it because if you shut him down next time he might be to shy to offer.

2. In the boldest print of all - Play with a horse that shows up that day. Juliano is LBE most of the time, but he can go RBE and even sometimes LBI. Treating him always like you should treat a LBE would be a mistake. If he goes RBE I help him get his confidence back by retreating for example. If he goes LBI I help him get his mojo back by giving him a purpose.

3. If you have a chance, play with different horses, you don't have to teach them or set goals for them. Most of us have one horse and we become experts in one horsenality. Observe other horsenalities as one day your horse may need your support of a flexible horseman.

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.