George - Right Brained Extrovert

George is the horse that brought me to Parelli. About five years ago, I was teaching at a facility in central Texas, and we had a mini tornado- typical weather for Texas! This little tornado picked up the little shed that George was standing underneath and took it away to the other side of the pasture. George truly thought that he was going to die, and went running around the pasture like a maniac. Two hours later I went to retrieve him so that we could go to our jumping lesson. When I led him to the horse trailer, he stopped 20 feet in front of it and refused to go inside. Imagine that!

In my typical non-savvy fashion (I had no clue about natural horsemanship), I attempted to drag and then bribe George into the trailer. Within minutes, about 20 people suddenly appeared and tried to offer assistance and guidance. Now I had twenty predators around my prey animal and all trying to shove him into a small metal cave! Understandably, he would have no part of it!

George topped the charts in right brained behavior. He could not keep still and it was like flying a kite when I “led” him. He always ran over me and I thought that there would be NO way to lead him with him following respectfully behind me. I evented George through the Preliminary level, so he was very impulsive, high headed, and bracey. I just thought that it came with the territory. He was no different than my other eventing horses! This really frustrated me when we attempted to do our dressage test. He was never truly soft and supple…he always had that “edge” to him. Now I know that he was right brained the whole time!

After taking George through the program (he is my levels horse and my sacrificial lamb!), he showed a dramatic change. His right brained behaviors have drastically diminished if not disappeared altogether, and he began to show more positive left brained extroverted behaviors such as exuberance and playfulness! George was always clever, but now he is even a little devious!

George is now close to twenty and in semi-retirement after a serious case of EPM a couple of years ago. He has completely recovered. I try to keep his work load light and not very stressful since this can send him into a relapse. He loves to play, and enjoys teaching my students the Parelli ropes!