“In all the time I’d known the old man, I had never once seen him offer advice to anybody on how they should be handling their horse, even when the slightest bit of information from him could have helped tremendously. It was the same reason why he had ignored the thoroughbred that was acting up in the barn at the boarding stable. The woman didn’t ask for help to settle the horse down, so he offered none. In order for her to have asked for help, she first had to admit that she was perhaps doing something wrong. Most people don’t like to admit that and will often take offense when help is offered. So, instead of running the risk of offending the woman and in turn perhaps making things even worse for the horse, he simply did nothing at all.
On. the other hand, I had seen people ask the old man for his help, and it was like opening the floodgates. Information would pour out of him like water through a broken dam, and both horse and rider became better of it. However, if they didn’t ask, he didn’t offer” (33).
Excerpt from Considering the Horse by: Mark Rashid
A good thing to keep in mind… but very hard to do!