I was afraid of horses. Not so much that I screamed at the sight of them, but simply - I avoided them. They seemed alien to me, too big, too smart, with eyes that seemed to hide books. Everything changed on the day when I accidentally ended up on a farm near the city. My friend and I came there for a photo shoot - we planned to take pictures at sunset. But the sun set too quickly, and the horses remained.

I was allowed to approach one. Her name was Mira. She stood quietly, her head down, and slowly blinked until I decided to put my hand on her neck. I still thought that she would not like it. But she just breathed, softly, dully, as if she was whispering something only to me. And that's where our story began.

The next day I signed up for a trial lesson. My instructor laughed: "It's not often that people come here with shaking hands and still stay." I stayed.

Horses have amazing intuition. They sense you even when you're lying to yourself. If you're anxious, they're wary. If you're calm, they trust. They're not animals, they're mirrors. It's impossible to hide behind masks or words with them. Mira refused to listen to me a couple of times when I tried to take the reins with irritation. And vice versa - she listened instantly when I was honest and calm.

We spent almost two years together. There were walks in the fog, through a field with tall grass, dressage lessons, and just moments when I sat on a bench next to the paddock and looked at her. I liked watching her lie down on the ground - slowly, carefully, as if the ground might be offended.

There were moments when I wanted to cry - after quarrels, failures, those days when everything falls apart. And then I just went there. I stood next to Mira, and she just was. Without unnecessary questions, without advice.

I learned how horses distinguish emotions. That they remember the smell of your hands, can become attached or offended if you disappear for a month. They do not know how to pretend, they do not like "just in case". They are either with you - or not. This became a new form of communication for me - without words, but with absolute understanding.

Sometimes I think: if it were not for that photo shoot, I would never know what it is like to breathe in unison with a creature weighing half a ton, and feel weightless at the same time. Horses taught me to be soft and brave at the same time. And now, even if I am not with them every day, I still feel this new breath in myself - free, confident and alive.