Standing in a Field with Horses

A memoir of equine connection.If you're not 'boss mare' material, can you still work with horses? This was the question Maeve faced each time she interacted with a horse. If it wasn't in her nature to dominate this animal, could she be around them and still stay true to herself? The equestrian world shouted in unison, 'Get after him! Tell him who's boss!' Yet Maeve couldn't. When she did, it grated against her soul. Could she successfully navigate a life with equines if her leadership looked different?

In this moving memoir, Maeve Birch explores the dynamics between traditional horse handling and her communications with horses, which often didn’t align with what she was taught. In the stories shared, human issues such as codependency, lack of boundaries, impatience, violence, and fear crop up again and again, shaping horse and human relationships. Standing in a Field With Horses provides a window into the mind, spirituality, and social undercurrents of a woman trapped between obedience and self-expression along with the horses. Will she be able to stand in the current or will she be pulled under?


As horse care and training evolve, so too do the humans who cherish their hooved companions. The two are inescapably linked together, both in the physical realm and in spirit. In the future, will we break horses to fit us and our human world, or will we allow them to guide us into new worlds, new ways of existing and experiencing? The horses have a lot to say if we are still enough to perceive their whispers through the demands of our human psyche. A new way of being with horses is on the horizon. The hoofbeats approach. Come, stand in a field, and listen closely… You may hear more than you expect.