When horse people talk about being the horse’s leader, I joke that a horse lives 22 hours without us, and in the two hours we see the horse, we expect it to hand over the power to us? Distracted pea brains like us? You have seen the visual I use to make the point: a person walking next to animals with a thought bubble above the head, mind full.  For a horse to accept us as a leader like another horse, we must get present enough to direct their feet consistently.  With humans, it's always a guessing game. Sometimes, we are in charge, for example, walking down the aisle and not letting the horse sniff the other horses in the barn. But the next moment, we wrestle the sliding door and leave the horse in charge of himself without direction. That's why human leadership is a gamble for the horse. When we lead or direct, we are a leader, but when we drop our attention and intention, we leave our horse leaderless.  What if we leave the word leadership behind and find a new way to describe an ideal relationship with our horse? Join me. This episode wrote itself and clarified our relationship with hoses and dogs.  Show notes available here:https://www.mindful-connections.com/post/leadership-or-conscious-connection