Winston Churchill

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man"

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Is my horse a LBE cusp LBI or a LBI cusp LBE and what does it matter?

I got Cisco nearly a year ago and I feel I know him pretty well. He loves food, doesn't like running very far and when he licks his lips his tongue stays in his mouth. So he must be a LBI. But wait a minute, he also loves putting everything in his mouth and can be quite wilful. Okay, so he is cusp LBE.
Well anyway, that was my diagnostic and I stuck with it and decided that I would treat Cisco like a Left Brain Introvert. Lots of incentive, go as slow or slower than your horse wants, don't push him...This worked more or less well while Cisco was in his 3rd year but then things started being not as good. Nothing dreadful, but I felt that he was loosing respect for me. He didn't come and meet me at the gate as willingly. He was doing less and less and I was doing more and more. Very much like having a teenager in the house, sleeping in till midday and spending every day light hour eating not cleaning up after himself. Horses are such good human trainers! and Cisco had trained me perfectly!

Rather than waiting for things to get worse, I ordered my horsenality report. The computer said:
"Cisco is a LBE cusp LBI" Surely, I know my horse better than a computer program and I must be right! This was my initial reaction. Well, I am a LBE cusp RBE so I know better!
Fast forward a couple of weeks. After reading and re-reading the report, I started seeing a pattern emerging. Actually, yes Cisco was perhaps more LBE than LBI! Maybe I was wrong!
So I started treating him like a LBE. I paid a lot more attention to what he was doing and realised that he had been challenging my leadership in very subtle ways time and time again and I had done nothing about it because I didn't want to upset my 500 Kg baby! In horse world, everything means something but I had been too blind with love for my horse to see it! And the results? We have so much more fun! and Cisco is now offering to do things that we have struggled with for months such as figure of 8 or canter circles.
As for my humanility match report? I am not going to reveal all my secrets right now, but let's say that it was amazing and a little spooky to read about myself in such details!

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