Left and Right Brain Characteristics

There are some common characteristics of left and right brain animals. A lot of them are listed in the horsenality charts in previous posts. But, what those charts don't explain is how you should work with a horse, depending on whether it is left or right brained.

As you saw with Jack, he was mostly a left-brained extrovert horse. When you work with a horse like Jack, you have to move through your phases quickly. It's not going to scare him if you go fast, and it will keep him engaged much easier. If you were to go too slow, he would not be engaged, which means that he wouldn't be in the learning zone. He would most likely also become bored, which means that he would quite even trying to pay attention to you, and he would try to find something else to entertain him. Another characteristic of a left-brained horse is that he's probably going to have a lot more "go", so you'll probably start out having to do a lot of matching his energy, and working harder to become his leader.

This is completely different from a right-brained horse. When I started working with Poncho, there were some definite right-brained qualities that he had. He would spook much easier than Jack, and he was also very tense and distrustful of me. When you work with a horse like that, you have to go through your phases much slower. If you go through them too fast, you could scare him, or you may just overwhelm him so he just wants to quit trying. I feel like a horse like this takes a lot more patience, because if you don't take your time with him, then he is just going to get more scared and more closed down, pushing him farther and farther away from the learning zone.