Weekly Q & A

Dear Friends,

Starting this week, Wednesday is going to become Q & A day on my blog! The team at Savvy Central is going to be helping me by selecting the questions (we’ve got a lot to choose from!) and I'm looking forward to sharing this little tid-bit of education with you every week. Enjoy!

Question: What should I be looking for to assess spirit level in an introverted horse? Specifically, in the June 2009 Savvy Club DVD, "One Pat Parelli, Four Different Horsenalities," Linda said that high-spirited Left-Brain Introverts dig in with their feet. That was a real eye opener for me. I had judged my 10-year-old Left-Brain Introvert Quarter Horse to be low-spirited because he absolutely grows roots (though he no longer digs in as hard as he did when I got him 18 months ago).

Answer: Spirit is like an amplifier - it amplifies what your horse does well and it also amplifies undesirable behaviors! A horse’s spirit level can be determined by how much energy or effort he puts into the behavior, and how long he sustains it for. For example some horses have 'no bottom,' which means they can go all day. That would be talking about extroverts. Then there are the LB Introverts that dig their toes in and can keep doing it until the owner gives up! That's a high spirit level. It takes a lot of savvy to break through, whereas horses of a lower spirit level aren't that hard to get along with and their behaviors aren't very extreme.

Yours Naturally,
Linda