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Ride the Right Horse: Understanding the Core Equine Personalities & How to Work with Them
A good personality is the single most desirable quality in a horse, yet it is much harder to assess than conformation or gait. Describing the four basic equine personality types — social, fearful, aloof, and challenging — and their various combinations, Yvonne Barteau shows you how to recognize distinct behavior patterns that can indicate any horse’s personality. Stressing the importance of compatibility between rider and horse, Barteau helps you achieve equestrian success through finding a horse whose personality best matches your individual riding style.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 11, 2012
The author, Yvonne Barteau is an experienced FEI dressage trainer, rider and instructor as well as a USDF bronze, silver and gold metalist. What differentiates her from a lot of other professionals is that she didn’t start out with the golden spoon. She started working from the ground up with all kinds of horses: thoroughbreds and standardbreds from the track, she competed as an endurance rider, she also worked as a performer in evening dinner shows with arabians, lipizzaners and a variety of other breeds. Eventually, she began to work with warmbloods and really focus on her dressage career. This rich and diverse background has given Barteau a unique perspective when it comes to riding and training horses. She really has seen it all. Her approach has always been gentle and compassionate focusing on her horses’ well-being as her first priority, she truly loves horses.
In her book ‘Ride the Right Horse’, Barteau makes good use of her experience with a variety of different horses to come up with a personality typing system which she documents in it. I’ve read personality typing books in the past which I wasn’t really convinced by, there were inconsistencies in the logic and I found that in many cases the authors’ opinions on personality type did not mesh with my personal experience. In my opinion, Barteau has really nailed it with her book.
She defines four personality types: social, aloof, fearful and challenging. I’m sure, just like me, you can think of horses you know that fit into these personas. Barteau writes that each horse can be passive for a particular persona or aggressive. A social-passive horse for example might always have their head out of their stall enjoying all the activity in the barn, a social-aggressive horse would likely bang the stall and stretch his neck trying desperately to join the fun. Barteau also points out that some horses can even be combos of the four personality types, showing their secondary persona more distinctly when pressured or stressed. An example of this might be an aloof horse who is constantly nagged by its rider. An aloof horse will tune a rider out but if that rider pushes the aloof horse too far he might become challenging and buck the rider off, seemingly out of the blue – this is a dominant aloof horse with a secondary challenging persona.
Through reading ‘Ride the Right Horse’, I have had many revelations about horses I’ve worked with in the past and the horse I currently own. For example, my last horse came to me very fearful and I always assumed that that was his personality type and nature. Through instinct I found myself riding, training and caring for him in a specific way. What I realize after reading Barteau’s book is that my gelding was actually aloof by nature and through the experience he had before I bought him, he had artificially became fearful as a secondary persona. In his older age, the fearfulness faded significantly and I was left with his original nature of being aloof. Some of these characteristics included that he was a one person horse, he liked to have horses in visual distance but liked to have his own space. He didn’t love to be groomed but did love to be on inside board, in a stall in a quiet part of the barn. Although I was still able to accomodate to his preferences through instinct, it would have been much easier to have been able to predict his behavior rather than just guessing and testing.
My current horse is a coming 2 year old and totally different from my last horse, he is very ‘social’ according to Barteau’s personality system. He IS that horse I mentioned above who stretches his neck out of his stall banging the door for attention (social-aggressive). Since understanding him and defining him through this persona system, I am better able to predict his behaviour. I realize now that my biggest challenge with him is distraction not fear. When he is outside and I am leading him to the arena, he often holds his head up high looking almost spooky. Prior to reading this book I had taken the approach of quietly talking to him and reassuring him. Now I realize, he is not worried, he is just nosy and trying to check out what all the horses in the other pens and field are doing. My new tactic is to encourage him to bring his attention and inside ear toward me. It may seem like a subtle difference but I believe horses are all about subtleties and that these small training tweaks are the difference between success and failure.
Barteau also talks about people’s personalities and I realize that I prefer an aloof horse so it is my spiritual journey to adapt to my lively social butterfly. I am the type to be very patient with fearful-aloof horses, very compassionate, but I find myself feeling strangely and uncharacteristically impatient with my new ‘social’ horse. Since I have no plans to sell my social horse, I need to learn to adapt to his ‘energy’ which I feel ultimately will be a character-building experience for me. Because I can never hope to satisfy my two year old’s urge for excitement, instead of battling for his attention in general, I’ve devised some tactics to get his attention on the task at hand. For example, I make sure that when I work with him, I switch up our routine. Sometimes, I tie him to brush him, sometimes I work on ground tying. Sometimes, I tie his jolly ball next to him while I work with him and I always keep our schooling sessions short .
Understanding a horses’ motivation and correctly understanding the emotion behind it is key to proper training. As a rider and trainer, we must be open to learning from others and from our horses.
For more information visit Yvonne Barteau’s website - http://www.kybdressage.com
I am giving ‘Ride the Right Horse’ a rating of 5 our of 5 as I feel this book is one I will pick up again and again. The writer is very experienced and knowledgable and I feel a strong sense of trust and faith in her judgement. Finally, I’ve implemented suggestions from the book into my coaching and training with much success.
--------------------------------------------------------------
For more reviews check out my blog - www.thoughtsondressage.com
In her book ‘Ride the Right Horse’, Barteau makes good use of her experience with a variety of different horses to come up with a personality typing system which she documents in it. I’ve read personality typing books in the past which I wasn’t really convinced by, there were inconsistencies in the logic and I found that in many cases the authors’ opinions on personality type did not mesh with my personal experience. In my opinion, Barteau has really nailed it with her book.
She defines four personality types: social, aloof, fearful and challenging. I’m sure, just like me, you can think of horses you know that fit into these personas. Barteau writes that each horse can be passive for a particular persona or aggressive. A social-passive horse for example might always have their head out of their stall enjoying all the activity in the barn, a social-aggressive horse would likely bang the stall and stretch his neck trying desperately to join the fun. Barteau also points out that some horses can even be combos of the four personality types, showing their secondary persona more distinctly when pressured or stressed. An example of this might be an aloof horse who is constantly nagged by its rider. An aloof horse will tune a rider out but if that rider pushes the aloof horse too far he might become challenging and buck the rider off, seemingly out of the blue – this is a dominant aloof horse with a secondary challenging persona.
Through reading ‘Ride the Right Horse’, I have had many revelations about horses I’ve worked with in the past and the horse I currently own. For example, my last horse came to me very fearful and I always assumed that that was his personality type and nature. Through instinct I found myself riding, training and caring for him in a specific way. What I realize after reading Barteau’s book is that my gelding was actually aloof by nature and through the experience he had before I bought him, he had artificially became fearful as a secondary persona. In his older age, the fearfulness faded significantly and I was left with his original nature of being aloof. Some of these characteristics included that he was a one person horse, he liked to have horses in visual distance but liked to have his own space. He didn’t love to be groomed but did love to be on inside board, in a stall in a quiet part of the barn. Although I was still able to accomodate to his preferences through instinct, it would have been much easier to have been able to predict his behavior rather than just guessing and testing.
My current horse is a coming 2 year old and totally different from my last horse, he is very ‘social’ according to Barteau’s personality system. He IS that horse I mentioned above who stretches his neck out of his stall banging the door for attention (social-aggressive). Since understanding him and defining him through this persona system, I am better able to predict his behaviour. I realize now that my biggest challenge with him is distraction not fear. When he is outside and I am leading him to the arena, he often holds his head up high looking almost spooky. Prior to reading this book I had taken the approach of quietly talking to him and reassuring him. Now I realize, he is not worried, he is just nosy and trying to check out what all the horses in the other pens and field are doing. My new tactic is to encourage him to bring his attention and inside ear toward me. It may seem like a subtle difference but I believe horses are all about subtleties and that these small training tweaks are the difference between success and failure.
Barteau also talks about people’s personalities and I realize that I prefer an aloof horse so it is my spiritual journey to adapt to my lively social butterfly. I am the type to be very patient with fearful-aloof horses, very compassionate, but I find myself feeling strangely and uncharacteristically impatient with my new ‘social’ horse. Since I have no plans to sell my social horse, I need to learn to adapt to his ‘energy’ which I feel ultimately will be a character-building experience for me. Because I can never hope to satisfy my two year old’s urge for excitement, instead of battling for his attention in general, I’ve devised some tactics to get his attention on the task at hand. For example, I make sure that when I work with him, I switch up our routine. Sometimes, I tie him to brush him, sometimes I work on ground tying. Sometimes, I tie his jolly ball next to him while I work with him and I always keep our schooling sessions short .
Understanding a horses’ motivation and correctly understanding the emotion behind it is key to proper training. As a rider and trainer, we must be open to learning from others and from our horses.
For more information visit Yvonne Barteau’s website - http://www.kybdressage.com
I am giving ‘Ride the Right Horse’ a rating of 5 our of 5 as I feel this book is one I will pick up again and again. The writer is very experienced and knowledgable and I feel a strong sense of trust and faith in her judgement. Finally, I’ve implemented suggestions from the book into my coaching and training with much success.
--------------------------------------------------------------
For more reviews check out my blog - www.thoughtsondressage.com
July 27, 2017
This was a really great book! I learned a lot about the four basic horse personality types, their mixes and how to identify them. The case studies with horses the author had worked with really helped to make the topic approachable and practical. The title is somewhat misleading, because there is no "right" or "wrong" horse; depending on their personality, they have different needs for training and riding though, and need different handling by the person riding them. The book really helped me to identify horse personalities, and I cannot wait to apply what I learned to my own horse.
September 13, 2013
I really enjoyed this book - a great find in the bookshop :) The author spends a lot of time describing the different horsey personalities as she sees them through years of training and working with them. Lots of case studies are used, which I found really interesting and which puts this book above similar titles. There are lots of great tips on handling, weaning, backing and riding each type and mixtures of type. I didn't enjoy the last few chapters as much, as they deal with humans, which aren't half as interesting, but the other parts of the book more than made up for it. Definitely the fun part of this book was using the descriptions to match my horses, and those of my friends, to their personality type. A brilliant book that will probably be passed round my horsey friends before I re-read it in the future.
October 12, 2013
In addition to being an exceptional trainer, Yvonne would have been a great psychologist!
The book is good, but to me most of the content is common sense (e.g. if you don't ride well, don't put yourself on an aggressively challenging horse). With that said, this book can serve as a good reality check for this of us who aren't 100% honest with ourselves and our abilities.
I really enjoyed her examples of horses that have been or are still in her life. It's not as dry and mind-numbing as I thought it would be, actually a quick enjoyable read.
The book is good, but to me most of the content is common sense (e.g. if you don't ride well, don't put yourself on an aggressively challenging horse). With that said, this book can serve as a good reality check for this of us who aren't 100% honest with ourselves and our abilities.
I really enjoyed her examples of horses that have been or are still in her life. It's not as dry and mind-numbing as I thought it would be, actually a quick enjoyable read.
September 1, 2010
An interesting presentation of basic personality types in horses. Full of real life examples and a selection on matching the rider's personality and level of experience to the horse. Well worth reading for any horse lover or equestrian. Really gets you thinking about the horses you know. I have been blessed with mostly social horses who got along very well with their people.
February 28, 2012
An absolutely amazing book on understanding horse personalities and how to work with them. I would rank it as a must read for all horse owners who want to develop a true working partnership with their horses.
August 22, 2015
Great predictor of success! I've found everything within to be true
May 1, 2016
Although I was not entirely convinced, I still loved the book and learned some new things
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews