Adrenaline to RBE

RBE= Right Brain Extrovert, or in layman's terms--not thinking/reactive, and having the need to move.

That is what Bently did the last time I played with him. He has done it often, but recently he has been so left brain I guess I was not expecting it. But his adrenaline went up, and suddenly he went right brain.

We were playing on the 45 foot line...about the fourth time we have played with it. He was doing great...I decided to work on some lead changes/changes of direction at the canter. He was fine going from the left lead to the right, but when I would ask him to switch through from the right to the left he would push into the pressure with his shoulder, and kept going rather then yield. I decided to slow it down...

I brought in the line, had it so he had about 30 foot or so of rope, and asked him to change directions at the trot...got those going well, so then asked again at the canter...no go. Hum, I wonder maybe if I sped it up...

I asked him into a right lead canter, which he offered willingly, I asked him for a stronger canter, then I asked him to change directions--he changed directions, up came the adrenaline and then went about a half circle around to the left--before he went completely RBE. I took a strong hold on the line--sending some energy down it to get his attention--even though he is RB, he is still a very sensitive horse--it didn't take him to long to quite running like a maniac, but he was still on high adrenaline and RB--I had him back up until he started to calm down. It took about 50 feet of back up before he started to try and blow the adrenaline off.

This is nothing new for him, but it did take me a bit by surprise as he hasn't gone RBE in months. I found myself losing my temper a little, thinking "you haven't done this in forever, why are you doing this..." but I was able to regain my cool, quick enough to help him calm down...

I got him back completely left brain using back up, sideways, and small circles with frequent changes of direction. once he was fully relaxed we ended the session with changes of direction at the trot on a larger circle. Got those really good and called it a day. It was a very windy day, so that might have been one of the factors that sent him RB. But we ended on a good note, and that is all that matters.

Anyway this happened about 2 days ago...I haven't had time to play with him since, so it will be interesting to see how he is next time.