He Rides Her Cruel & Easy,” titled after Ruth Stone’s poem The Season, is a personal exploration of human relationships, filtered through my own experiences and observations of those around me who seek connection amidst loss. The piece reflects my time spent on a racehorse farm, where I moved across the country in pursuit of a relationship. Over time, I began to feel my sense of self unravel, my anatomy no longer solely my own, but something shared, reshaped, and controlled by another. In this dynamic, the boundaries between two individuals blurred to the point where my identity became inseparable from the routines of my partner, a horse trainer.

As I became immersed in his world, I found myself not as a partner, but rather as a part of his daily ritual, existing less as an individual and more as an extension of his practice. The horse, in this context, became a symbol of isolation and control; a reflection of the emotional and physical boundaries that I had lost in the process. My body, no longer mine, was absorbed into his routine, and in this, I examined how the desire for connection can gradually erode personal agency, leaving one to question how to exist alone.

This work is a meditation on the fragility of selfhood and the complexities of intimacy, control, and dependence. It speaks to the delicate balance of human connection and the unsettling, sometimes disorienting, way that relationships can redefine us.