Unleashing The True Horse

"Horses may not always do what we want them to, but they always do what we tell them too."
Most horses have "taught" attitudes and horsenality's. Humans teach them to behave a certain way, punishing them when they step out of the bounderies we've set for them.
So many times we slip into the habit of just getting the task done. It's great to have obedience, becuase that is what is going to happen when you aren't provocative enough. I can honestly tell you this, I didn't fall in love with obedience. I fell in love with my horse. His horsenality (RBE).
These past few days I've really been seeing his horsenality. Play....play some more....have a treat....play...etc. I can not tell you how much fun it is! I have had to set jumps up (not to high, we have snow so its really slick, limiting our play sessions) only to have him purposely paw them down. Sure. I set them up again, and he paws them down again. It's alot of work, but its also alot more fun.
Before I would see he wanted to knock it down so I'd suddenly push him over the jump. It wasn't fun, he didn't like it, I didn't like it. Lets not dwell to much on my past though :)
I'm seeing the horse I fell in love with. Not the one after 2 years of non-parelli techiques had forced him to have a completely different horsenality.
I have a question. What horsenality is your horse?
Think hard. Think long.

Send your horse up to a jump, barell, etc. it doesn't matter what he does when he gets there just let him do it. You might have to repeat this process over and over untill your horse suddenly realizes that you've totally turned over the keys to him. He can do whatever he feels like. Just wait when he gets to the item. It may take a couple minutes for him to realize that you aren't going to tell him something to do so he'll do what he wants.
Now what horsenality is he/she?
*Play (pawing, bumping with nose, sticking foot on it, etc)-RBE
*Interest (nuzzling, nudging) -LBE

I hope I wrote this to where it was easy for you to understand. It was difficult to convey my true meaning, and I'm sorry if I made you feel at all confused (or angry, I'm not implying that you don't know your horse).

Keep it natural,
           Kaylee
If you have questions about this post please feel free to comment... thanks!