The science behind the intuition As it is for humans, change is a constant in the life of virtually every horse. They will routinely be expected to cope with new situations, adjust to new people and get along with new horses, often with nothing in their life up to that point to prepare them for what they will encounter. Like humans, horses each have their own personality which will determine how they are likely to respond to those new situations, new people and new horses. What if we had to look at their personalities more objectively, to identify ways of improving their resilience and capacity for change? The psychology of equine personality In human psychology, the ‘Big Five’ personality framework provides an accepted model for understanding personality, defining it as a collection of five broad dimensions: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. According to this framework, personality can