Embodied Truth in a World That Demands Proof
We Don’t Need More Proof to Practice Care
Why Heart Work Must Come Before Research
Lately, I’ve felt a deep weariness rise in me.
Not from caring too much—but from watching energy, money, and attention poured into research that tries to prove what many of us already know in our bodies, in our relationships, and in our gut.
That horses feel pain.
That restriction harms.
That relationship matters more than control.
That safety is felt, not forced.
And still, the studies continue.
As if compassion requires permission. At first glance i find myself excited to see the study that proves XYZ and then I pause and think why do we need a study to treat living beings with compassion. What world do we live in when the same people who herald these studies do not practice congruently with the horses they are in relationship with? It’s maddening and its tiresome.
I want to be clear: this is not an anti-science stance. Research has its place. Knowledge matters. But when research becomes a delay tactic—when it keeps us circling obvious truths while harm continues in real time—something has gone deeply off course. When intuitive knowledge gets thwarted by fear of lack of data or lack of credentials something is really wrong.
When Research Becomes a Gatekeeper to Care
There is a familiar pattern here.
Historically, Western science has been used to decide who is worthy of care by asking whether they are sentient, intelligent, capable of pain, or fully human. These were not abstract philosophical debates—they were institutionalized studies used to justify enslavement, colonization, medical experimentation, and systemic neglect.
There were literal efforts to “prove” that Black people were human.
That they felt pain.
That their suffering counted.
The question itself tells us everything.
When lived experience, testimony, and embodied knowing are dismissed in favor of “objective proof,” harm is allowed to continue while institutions move slowly, carefully, and protectively around power.
And this same logic quietly echoes in the horse world today.
“We still don’t know if tight nosebands cause pain.”
“We need more data before changing practices.”
“We can’t anthropomorphize—we need evidence.”
Meanwhile, the horse is already communicating.
Horses Are Not a Theory
Horses are not hypotheses.
They are living, relational beings.
They tell us through posture, breath, avoidance, shutdown, aggression, and collapse. They tell us through softness, curiosity, willingness, and relief when something finally feels safe.
When we ignore that communication in favor of waiting for consensus, we’re not being neutral—we’re choosing distance over relationship.
This mirrors what happens in the therapy world too.
Entire careers are built researching modalities that ultimately confirm what attuned humans have always known:
Regulation is relational
Safety comes from presence, not technique
Healing cannot be forced
And yet those findings take decades to trickle down—if they ever do—while people and nervous systems wait.
The Cost of Endless Proof
Research is slow by design.
Bodies are not.
Horses don’t get to pause their experience while we collect data.
They live with the consequences now.
There is also a quiet colonization embedded in the demand for proof:
Only what can be measured by dominant systems is allowed to be real.
Only what can be quantified is taken seriously.
Only what fits institutional language is considered valid.
But relational knowing—especially intuitive, embodied, nonverbal knowing—has always been dismissed this way. And yet it is often the most accurate.
What We Need Now
We don’t need more studies to justify kindness.
We don’t need permission to soften our hands.
We don’t need credentials to listen more closely.
What we need is practice.
Practice being present.
Practice noticing subtle signals.
Practice choosing curiosity over dominance.
Practice changing our relationships now, not later.
Heart work doesn’t replace rigor—it redefines it.
Rigor becomes:
Consistency in care
Willingness to be changed by relationship
Humility when a horse says “no”
Accountability to the beings in front of us
At True Nature, this is the work we center—not because research doesn’t matter, but because relationship cannot wait.
The horses are not asking us to debate their pain.
They are asking us to listen.
And maybe the most radical thing we can do right now
is to stop outsourcing ethics
and start practicing care—today.