Running with Horses
Horses have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Before I knew how to describe what freedom meant, I think I already understood it through horses. I grew up around them. My family always had horses, and my mom had a piece of land where we could be around them, ride them, and simply spend time with them. There were different kinds over the years. Percherons, ponies, and all the horses that became part of our family and, in their own way, part of my childhood.
I loved them so much that even their smell excites me.
There is something about the smell of a horse , the hay, the leather, the earth, the warm breath that immediately takes me somewhere familiar. It is a smell that feels like home.
My mom was the one who introduced me even more deeply to that world. She used to take me to vaulting classes. Vaulting is gymnastics disipline or yoga on top of a moving horse. It is a performance that combines balance, strength, movement, and trust between the horse and the person riding it.
I remember going to competitions and preparing my own routines. I would choose my music, create my choreography, and then perform it on horseback. For me, it wasn't simply a sport. It was a way of expressing myself while connected to an animal that was moving underneath me.
And I remember the horses. Gregorio. Huesca. Coca-Cola. Hopla. Maya. Ilusión. Esperanza. Thomasa. Palermo. Bucefalo. Media Luna. These are some of the names I still carry with me.
Throughout history, horses have been deeply connected to human life. They have carried us across landscapes, helped us travel, worked beside us, and become companions rather than simply animals we ride. I have always been fascinated by the relationship between horses and Indigenous peoples of North America. Popular stories and films, including Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, often portray that relationship as one built on freedom, trust, and a deep spiritual connection with the animal.
What moves me is the idea that a horse can be beside a human without losing its wildness.
That relationship between trust and freedom is something I find incredibly beautiful.
Horses have been so close to humans for centuries, and yet they still feel wild. They can be powerful, sensitive, intelligent, and incredibly aware of the people around them. What an amazing animal.
There is something almost sacred about being beside a horse. And there is something especially powerful about running with one. Running with horses feels purifying to me.
When a horse starts running, everything else seems to disappear. The noise in your head becomes quieter. You feel the movement of its body, the rhythm of its breathing, the ground beneath you, and the wind against your face. For those moments, there is nothing else to think about.
You are simply there. Moving. Breathing. Feeling alive.
There is a song by Winona Oak called Horses that has always resonated with me because of the way it connects horses with home, running, and freedom. Whenever I hear it, something inside me moves. It reminds me of that feeling of wanting to return home, of running toward something familiar, and of knowing that somewhere inside myself, there is still hope.
Maybe that is why horses appear so often in my dreams.
I have noticed that whenever I dream about horses, they are almost never standing still. They are running. Usually, they are running through the mountains, completely free, wild and powerful, moving as naturally as the air we breathe.
I wake up from those dreams with a feeling that is difficult to explain.
Sometimes I think the horses in my dreams represent the freedom I am looking for. Other times, I wonder if they are connected to my mom.
My mom has always been a free spirit around horses. There is something about watching her with them that makes sense to me. She understands them without needing to control them. Maybe I learned from her that freedom isn't about running away from everything. Sometimes it is about knowing where you belong and still having the courage to move freely.
When I dream of horses running through the mountains, I think about home.
I think about the land, my childhood, my mom, and all those moments when life felt simple. I think about what it felt like to be young and believe that the world was wide open.
And maybe that is why horses continue to find their way into my dreams.
They remind me of a version of myself that has always existed the part of me that wants to run, explore, feel, and live without being afraid of where the road leads.
There is something beautiful about a horse running without a rider, without a destination, without anyone telling it where to go.
Just running.
Wild as the air.
Sometimes I think that is what freedom looks like.
And perhaps that is why, no matter how far away from home I am, horses still bring me back.
Back to the land.
Back to my childhood.
Back to my mom.
Back to myself.
Running with horses feels like coming back to something ancient inside me. It feels purifying, almost like washing away everything that doesn't belong and remembering who I am underneath it all.
I think of home how, I'm running with horses and I see where the shore is, I can save myself I can still have hope, when I'm running with horses, getting lost in the forest I can find myself.
Have a question or opinion? Write it in the comments below.
This blog was written by DO.
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