She uses the idea of eight personality traits that turn into sixteen different personality types. This is also a type of personality typing commonly used in human psychology, although Hockley changed the eight personality types to horse traits instead of human traits (and as a psychology student I can't help but mention that psychologist feels that the sixteen personality types are the most accurate personality test/typings out there). I read and of course, I couldn't help myself, I tried applying them to Socks.
The eight personality traits are:
Dominant or Submissive?
Energetic or Lazy?
Curious or Afraid?
Friendly or Aloof?
Hockley gives detailed description about each which makes it easier to choose. While I consider Socks to be a friendly horse she is not the, waiting at the fence, attention completely on me, begging for hugs the entire time I'm with her kind of horse. She likes attention but then she likes to be alone.
For Socks she fit the bill of Dominant, Energetic, Curious and Aloof, or DECA. After discovering that, I turned to the DECA chapter of the book since DECA is one of the sixteen personality. I read the chapter and I have to say, I was pleasently surprised. First off, there was nothing about my horse's favourite colour, which was a relief. Hockley gives a detailed description and I could have sworn that she was describing Socks. Almost every detail described Socks, and the ones that didn't definitly described her when she was younger. Some things I already knew, like Socks needs a job and gets extremely bored extremely quickly. She hates repititon and likes to have an opinion. There were also some points that made me stop and think,and a few things that just made sense that I never would have thought of on my own.
At this point I was thinking, Okay, might be a fluke, let's try Thor. Once again, I was surprised. Even more so this time. The description was once again him, but provided some reasonings for some behaviours he has that I've never been able to figure out. The personality types are not scientifically proven and of course, each horse is different but I really do believe that Hockley's book provides a very interesting read and can even help you to understand your horse a little bit better. She didn't personify horses and try to fit them into human personalities. Her personality types remain very much horsey. I never thought I'd be raving about a horse personality book but this one was truly great. I picked it up just to skim through it and I was hooked on the first page. Hockley used training experience from hundreds of horses to help devolp these sixteen personality types.
And just for fun, here's what my horses personality types came out to be, minus Hades and Artemis. They're just babies still and have a lot of growing up to do first, physically and mentally. I have not included descriptions of the personality types because I feel like the ones on Hockley's website, http://www.horsepersonality.com/ don't do the actual descriptions within the book any justice. To read the smaller descriptions provided on the website you don't get a real idea of what the personality includes. Honestly, to read the smaller descriptions, I don't think they sound like my horses at all. However, you can take the personality quiz on her website and if you provide your email and your state or province, they will email you the longer, detailed description.
Socks- DECA- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Aloof- The Macho Man
Jimmy- DECA- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Aloof- The Macho Man
Pawnee- DLAA - Dominant, Lazy, Afraid, Aloof- The Skeptic
Thor- SEAF- Submissive, Energetic, Afraid, Friendly- The People Pleaser
Sadie- DLCF- Dominant, Lazy, Curious, Friendly- The Reluctant Rock Star
Sev- DLAA- Dominant, Lazy, Afraid, Aloof- The Skeptic
Cas- DECF- Dominant, Energetic, Curious, Friendly- The Rock Star
And in case anyone is wondering, yes, it is very difficult at times having that many dominant horses. Sev for instance, while being dominant, is low in the herd pecking order but that also means that he is constantly challenging the horses above him. I often wonder if this is why they break into so many smaller herds within one large herd, because there's so many dominant horses.
Once again I honestly never thought I'd be going on so much about horse personality typing. Seriously...I know a lot of people out there will think I'm crazy, especially for calling my horse a Macho Man, but I highly suggest that everyone, if not buy the book, then at least you go to Hockley's website and do the personality test for your horse and make sure to be emailed the longer, detailed description. If anything, it'll at least be worth a good laugh.
4 comments:
how interesting... I would certainly need to read the descriptions in the book because my horse may react one way to me, but another way to horses or other humans. I do love personality type theories though, most particularly the Myers-Briggs. Glad you were able to gain more understanding into your horses!
Really cool and fun that you have a guideline to the personalities of your other horses. A couple of years ago, one of the other horse bloggers (I can't remember who) posted a link to the test. Gem turned out to be the Reluctant Rock Star. :-) I think I may have to buy the book......
That sounds interesting. I kind of want to read it now - I think a lot of people scorn the whole personality thing because of Parelli's 'horse-onalities' (sp?)
So according to this, Jack would be 'the reluctant rock star', Sugar would be 'the people pleaser' and Lady would be 'the macho man' =)
Megan- Parelli's horse-onalities just did not work for Socks...a few of my friends were trying to figure out what their horses were on his classification but apparently Sock's personality doesn't exist in his system.
The horses I get along best with are the "People Pleaser" and the "Macho Man" :)
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