What If We Stopped Asking?

What If We Stopped Asking?

What if the horse could simply be,
Not shaped by what we want to see?

What if we listened, soft and still,
Instead of bending to our will?

What if a pause could just be pause,
And not a reason to enforce?

What if a turning of the head
Meant, “I need a moment here instead”?

What if we didn’t need control
To feel that we had reached our goal?

What if we traded “make him do”
For “let’s discover what is true”?

And what if, somewhere in that space,
We found a deeper kind of grace—

Where trust was never something earned
By doing what the human learned,

But something freely given, grown
When both are safe enough to own

Their choices, fears, their yes, their no,
And where they wish the path should go.

Perhaps the greatest gift we give
Is not to teach the horse to live—

But to become the kind of friend
Who doesn’t need to have the end

Already written, planned, or known.

Who can walk beside a soul
And let that soul remain its own.

Because when we stop demanding “more,”
We may discover what love is for.

Not having.

Not control.

But presence—

Together,

Free,

And whole.

O

If these reflections resonate with you, they're explored more deeply in my book, Chosen, Not Obeyed: On Trust, Consent, and Autonomous Horsemanship. It's a journey into seeing horses not as problems to solve, but as individuals whose voices deserve to be heard. https://a.co/d/09GNEwxO