The Horse as a Mirror: What’s Inside the Human, Shows Outside the Horse

Dennis Cappel
5 days ago
2 min read

Clear Mental Horsemanship with Dennis Cappel

Ronald Reagan once said, “There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.” And while that sentiment rings true for many of us who have experienced the healing nature of horses, I’d offer a companion idea: What’s on the inside of a man will show up on the outside of his horse.

If you’ve spent any amount of time around horses and people, especially together, you know just how true that is. You can’t separate the internal world of a person from the behavior, tension, or peace of the horse they’ve been entrusted with. Horses don’t lie. They reflect. They absorb. They reveal.

I believe horses are mirrors—gentle, intuitive mirrors—that show us what’s really going on inside. That’s part of why they’ve become so popular in therapeutic settings. But I’ll be honest: I think the real healing happens not when we insert structured human frameworks or labels, but when we simply let horses be horses, and let people be with them.

There is something innately healing about the horse just being. Their nonjudgmental nature, their presence in the moment, their complete honesty—it’s a kind of medicine the world desperately needs. And it doesn’t require a psychologist to translate it. In fact, when we try to overlay our own emotions, ideologies, or man-made wisdom on top of what horses already know how to do, we often cloud something that is already pure.

Horses are born with a God-given gift to connect with us on a level that words can’t reach. Their instincts, their innocence, their ability to just be—that’s what brings healing. And that’s what people come looking for, whether they realize it or not.

So, in a way that might not sound very polished, I’ll say it like this: Sometimes the best thing we can do is step aside and let the horse do the work they were born to do.

Mindful Riding,

Dennis Cappel - Master Horseman

www.cappeltrainingandshoeng.com