Mm.

It's just that I was pushing too hard instead of finding all of the foundational pieces that needed to be firm in our relationship before that was the natural next step.

And so I got to this point in the year where I felt like if I could just let go of that goal, if I just didn't need to ride her, I could just enjoy each step of the foundation that needed to be built naturally, and eventually, maybe we'd get to riding.

But I'd set myself this goal, and I was filming a documentary, and it felt really important, and this was a really valid question.

And so I was really torn.

Okay.

For me, I wanna build a foundation for my assertive leadership, so that means my choices are to be different from the horse or the same as the horse.

Count four times in a row.

Really?

Yeah.

And her first question was, "Do you think horses like being ridden?" And I was like, "Yeah, I think they love it." She goes, "No, but what if, what if they had been raised as an independent horse in the wild, and they had everything they needed? Would they still wanna be ridden by a person?" And I said, "Yeah.

Yeah, we bring in mustangs all the time from the wild as older horses, and we teach them to be ridden, and I think they really like it." And she said, "Yeah, but Elsa, do you think they had a choice?" And I was like, "Oh.

Yeah, I don't, I don't think they had a choice." [laughs]

So what about those horses that don't get to be in a group?

It's hard.

So there's a theory that I teach about points of attention, um, the different focuses that a horse can have.