My wonderful Fire horse temperament mare, Cerise, loves to be praised but she prefers charitable giving to being forced to comply. When I ask her nicely to do something and she is in the mood she will give it her all. On the other hand, if she is not feeling good or is having a bad day she is not so interested in my needs.
Being consistently soft and and being willing to flex laterally is something Cerise struggles with. Some days she can do this easily so I suspect her lack of flexibility is much more mental that physical. I have been working with Cerise for 6 years now and I am finally clearly seeing her pattern of behavior.
As a Fire horse temperament, Cerise wants my attention. When I spend regular quality time with her she flexes well and works for me. When I don’t work with her or am distracted when we are together she sees no reason to comply with my demands. I know this about her and yet I still find myself expecting her to meet my needs when I don’t meet hers.
After a hard, cold winter with little riding I started Cerise back in work. The first few weeks were ugly and she was very aggravated that she had not been worked in so long. Even though I understood where she was coming from as a Fire horse temperament, I patiently insisted she flex. Now that we are on a schedule she is flexing much better but still withholding about 5%. She is not quite ready to trust that I am fully appreciating her.
For those of you with a Fire horse temperament trust me when I say they need a relationship with you. I could force Cerise to flex but she would hate me for it. I sure don’t want that so we continue to sort out our relationship. She has to understand I can’t be with her 24/7 and I have to do a better job of finding the time to spend with her. Cerise is a great little horse and worth the time and energy to build a lifetime partnership. Madalyn
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Loved reading that, I know the feeling well, I have two horses with that temperament! Ones a mare which I have had for 9 yrs and yes, only when she feels like it so I have always done just as much as she’s willing to do, she has been recently retired, in her 20’s and loving it. The other one is a 5 yr old Arab,which I have had since a yearling colt, so very much a work in progress with plenty of attention which he totally demands!! Like bucking in the stable and biting the wall if I don’t go to him first! But the most wonderful partner when we get it right. So we’ll just keep on working together and learning about each other.
Linda,
It is such a fine line between getting along and still asking for respect and obedience. I try to look at things from the horses point of view and sometimes I have to say, just do what I ask! Amazing how a horse can step up and try, even if your presentation is not perfect, when they think you are basically fair with them.Madalyn