08/06/2026
Nailed it!! 🫶🏻💪🏻🫶🏻
What Horses Teach Us About Self-Respect🥺
Have you ever felt like you're the one who is always adjusting?
You work around other people's schedules. You wait while they finish what they're doing. You let them talk over the top of you because you don't want to be rude. You change your plans because you don't want to inconvenience anyone. You apologise when someone bumps into you. You don't want to make a fuss, cause conflict, or be difficult.
Then one day you find yourself wondering why nobody seems to notice you. Why people don't wait for you. Why they don't listen. Why they don't seem to value your time the way you value theirs.😣
It's a painful feeling.
Not feeling seen.
Not feeling heard.
Not feeling significant.
The funny thing is that many of us walk straight into the paddock and continue the pattern with our horses.😖
The horse lifts its head while we're putting on the halter, so we awkwardly chase it around. The horse walks away from the mounting block, so we scramble aboard before the opportunity disappears. The horse drifts while we're cleaning its feet, so we shuffle after it. The horse rushes through the gate, so we rush too.
Without realising it, we allow the horse to set the schedule.
The horse decides when things start, when they stop, where they happen, and how quickly they happen. We react, adapt, accommodate, and it always feels like a bit of a argument to do what you need them to do.
One of the biggest changes I see in people who learn to become more effective with horses is that they stop surrendering responsibility for timing.
They slow down.
They organise themselves.
They put the lead rope in the correct hand. They arrange their reins before asking the horse to move. They stop at the mounting block and deal with the horse walking off instead of treating it like an inconvenience. They finish one thing before moving on to the next.
Most importantly, they stop allowing every movement of the horse to capture their attention and dictate their behaviour.
And something interesting begins to happen.
The horse starts waiting.
The horse starts paying attention.
The horse begins looking to them for information instead of making all the decisions itself based on what has got their attention in the neighbours paddock next door....
Not because the person has become more dominant.
Because they have become more significant.
I think this is one of the most important lessons horses teach us.
Many people spend years trying to get others to notice them, respect them, validate them, or take them seriously. Yet they move through the world constantly accommodating, adjusting, reacting, and surrendering their place in time.
Horses expose this pattern with brutal honesty.❤️🩹
They show us how often we rush, follow, accommodate, and react. They show us how easily our attention gets pulled away from what we're trying to do.
And they offer us a different possibility.
To become organised.
To become deliberate.
To hold our ground.
To stop rushing, reacting, and to behave as though our time, attention, and actions have value.🥰
Because perhaps self-respect isn't something you find.
Perhaps it's something you practise.
One deliberate action at a time.
One organised moment at a time.
It's about finally stopping the habit of chasing everything that moves.❤
Collectable Advice 227/365. Hit SHARE or SAVE. Please no copy and pasting. ❤
