Red dragon, Green dragon, Blue dragon

Continuing a theme of what we can learn from animals, this dragon analogy was recently shared with me by a horse riding instructor.

She was explaining why a horse was aggressive and why they were OK with it, even glad of it.

Green dragon is representative of a happy, relaxed, friendly, confident state. What we generally want most people and animals to be. Red dragon is representing the state experienced when threatened. Its associated with the flight/fight responses. So, fear, anger and activity. Blue dragon represents freeze. So the animal or person who does nothing when they are threatened.

It's often quite difficult to tell the difference between Green dragons and Blue dragons. Particularly in horses. Horses could be expected to be pros at hiding their physical state. Predators pick off the weak. To survive, prey animals, like horses, instinctively maintain an impression of being fine.

But this can lead to challenges when horses are owned by people who don't recognise this. As my friend explained to me, Anabelle was a high level competition jumping horse worth a lot of money. The thing is, for 15 years, no one noticed that she hated jumping and hated competitions. For 15 years she suppressed her feelings and became a Blue dragon. But everyone around her thought she was a Green dragon, because she appeared happy and friendly. Until she was bought by someone who realised she hated jumping. This person gave her a break from her work. Anabelle became the grumpiest horse on the yard. She became aggressive and difficult to handle. Her new owner was glad, to the surprise of everyone else. Most people saw a Green dragon, who had become a Red dragon. While the owner saw a Blue dragon who had become a Red dragon and thus the hope that one day Anabelle could become a true Green dragon.

This reminded me of my work with dogs. In my experience, many people seem to be most concerned about dogs that growl or snap (Red dragons). But for me, the most concerning dogs are the ones who seem great, but are bubbling underneath (Blue dragons). These are the ones that do serious injury "with no warning". There's a trend to force dogs to submit that is quite worrying to me. Owners who do this think they are getting a Green dragon, when actually they are living with a Blue dragon.

It also reminded me of my experiences. I was brought up in a culture where fear and anger are made out to be bad. In dragon terms, to be a Red dragon is bad. To express fear is cowardly, to express anger is evil or means you are a bad person. To avoid being a culturally unacceptable Red dragon, I became a Blue dragon. I was unhappy, but to everyone around me, I seemed happy. Even I thought I was happy. With time I learnt. Now I work towards being a true Green dragon. But I find, like Anabelle, that this is not possible without going through a Red dragon stage. This makes sense. I've had to relearn how to communicate my fear and anger. But few people seem to get this. I meet a lot of people who seem sad or concerned that I am experiencing fear and anger, rather than pleased for me. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be scared or angry. But I've had to fight to welcome a step on the path to where I want to get to.

So I loved the Red/Green/Blue dragon analogy as an easy way to explain the situation. I don't want to be a Blue or Red dragon. But I'm willing to accept a temporary Red dragon, in order to become a Green dragon.

Which colour dragon do you associate yourself with?

Do you think it is preferable to be a Blue dragon or a Red dragon?

🐉 🐲 wishes to you all.