In 2002, Chris Irwin came out with a book called Horse’s Don’t Lie. In the book, he teaches us to “think like a horse” in order to learn to communicate compassionately and intuitively with these beautiful, strong animals. Irwin is a “horse whisperer,” a practitioner dedicated to developing relationships with horses based in deep empathy, patience, and non-verbal communication.

Many of the horses Irwin and others who practice this brand of equine training have come from traumatic backgrounds. Some have been mistreated. Others come from the wild, never having had contact with humans before. Some simply have difficult or finicky personalities. But no matter what the circumstances of a horse’s background, a horse whisperer perseveres patiently in cultivating a harmonious relationship with the h…