When dominance dies, and old patterns of possession and power are no longer thinkable, what happens next?
The Horse-Human connection runs deep into history, ancestors becoming-with ancestors in complex, storied relations millenia long. Horses’ legacy is deeply entangled-with our own:
From wild wanderers roaming freely across the Americas,
​
Wind Horse carrying his injured boy to the afterlife,
​
Carrying the weight of Human violence on their backs, as weapons for war and colonial expansion,
​
Black American cowboys, White Natural Horsemanship gurus,
​
Plow Horses tilling fields, carriage Horses pulling carts on the highway,
​
Showjumping champions clearing fences in the clouds, to a cheer of breath-taken audiences,
​
Fashioned into mirrors to become tools of Human healing,
​
Relations, family, friends.
We have inherited an equestrian history full of violence, pain, and struggle.
But also, one of deep dedication to companion species, ecological importance, and friendship despite all odds.
.png)
The work we do through Reflective Equine isn’t about going back into an idyllic, wild past, long since gone and dusty,
not into a utopian future, where Horses and Humans live happily ever after, forgetting the complex stories of our ancestors, and neglecting honest nows.
Our work now is about going INTO the Trouble of the present:
Not throwing away the histories, cultures, lessons, teachings, mistakes, People, and Horses that got us here,
But composting this equestrian history into something that leaves room for all of us to flourish, even if difficult and beautifully imperfect.
Because perhaps, the skills we need to steward compassionate, liberated relationships with Horses, are the very key to continuing life on earth.
