Spending time with horses is a practice that can hold many needs and intentions at once. There is no single type of person or issue that benefits most. Instead, partnership with horses opens a space for personal growth and discovery, accessible across ages and levels of experience. To meet a horse where they are at any given moment, we must also turn toward ourselves—recognizing that our state of being shapes theirs, and theirs shapes ours. Questions like “How am I arriving right now?” “Where am I holding tension or resistance?” “What am I expecting?” are not afterthoughts, but at the very heart of the work.

In practice, these questions unfold differently for everyone: a child may simply begin to notice frustration and find a new way through it, while an experienced horseperson may discover how their own tensions or expectations create obstacles. This work of attunement—of becoming more aware of ourselves in relationship with another—echoes through all that we do, whether in a quiet lesson, a retreat circle, or the everyday care of horses, who reminds us that connection cannot be forced or assumed. For many, this kind of exploration feels more approachable outside a clinical setting, made possible through the living, breathing partnership with a sensitive, powerful being.