Is a horse born with a certain attitude/personality? Do people shape it? Can it change over time, and/or due to environment? Yes, Yes, and YES.

How do I know this? This face is how.

When I first met this horse (~2018) he was a fiery 3 year old who someone told the owner prior to me “how are you going to stay on that thing?” when she bought him. He would pin his ears and turn his butt to you if you walked in his stall. His personality was, well, hateful dragon-esque? As someone who likes a friendly horse with a lot of personality (Ahem:FIZZ) I didn’t pay this horse a lot of attention for several years. Fast forward to late 2020, when I was asked by his trainer at the time to show him in his debut driving class. I tend to never turn down a fun opportunity to show, so I agreed. I fell in love with this horse that day, but I didn’t even know it. He was a BLAST to show-hit the show ring and turned ALL show horse, and I remember thinking “OH SHIT” because I was completely unprepared for that switch flip as soon as we hit the show ring gate. It was like he KNEW. Over the next year, I continued to show him for his previous owner and we had a lot of fun in the ring together-he earned my trust as a solid driving horse. But still, his personality… He had come a ways from hateful dragon through the care and attention of his trainer during that time, but he still wasn’t super friendly. He was just indifferent, and so was I.

His trainer at the time was just SURE he was coming to live with me, and I kept saying no. I said no to this horse so many times. I refused to believe he was what I needed. Then, his previous owner called me and begged me to take him, and it was either that or probably lose him for good so I agreed. Summer of 2022, he and Fizz came to live with me.

Those of you who know Fizz, know he’s always been full of personality. He’s as friendly and kind as they come (as long as you follow his rules) and he never meets a stranger. That is what made me bring Fizz home, even though he wasn’t what we expected when we got to Alabama. He walked up to us, curious and interested, ears up and happy to meet us. Those are the things I love about him, but since I’ve had him for so long and he has always been that way, I didn’t know how I was going to adjust to having a horse who was just indifferent to people. Regardless, since I was taking him, I vowed to love Duke anyway for who he was. For the first 6 months he was here, I wouldn’t clean his stall with him in it. I wouldn’t go into his stall to fill his hay with him in there. I was very careful around him because he’d nip you if you weren’t watching and he would kick at you over any kind food.

I vowed to love him, and love him I have (and do), despite the challenges along the way. I forced my love on him-didn’t give him a choice. I groomed him and scratched him and spent time with him without expectation and low and behold, a personality started to form. A bond. TRUST between us. He was given to me with warnings, and I heeded them, until I didn’t need to anymore. Over the last year, he’s totally turned around and now has personality for DAYS. In some ways, he’s got an even bigger personality than Fizz does now. He’s still not super friendly to just anyone, but he believes in me now, and I believe in him-and it shows. Is he perfect? No. Do we still have bad days? Yes. Doesn’t everyone though?

So can horses personalities change? Yes, they can. They can change from completely shut down to incredibly goofy and fun. Duke did. Also to note, I have taken this “wild useless beast” to shows in harness and under saddle, we’ve been trail riding on some fairly difficult trails, I’ve ridden him bareback, ridden him in a halter, played with him at liberty, all the things people think “crazy saddlebreds” can’t do. I can’t speak for ALL saddlebreds, but MINE, they do it all and they mostly do it without complaint. For who they are and who they aren’t, I’ll love them to the ends of the earth anyway and they’ll live with me until the day they leave this earth, hopefully many MANY years from now.