The worst part was he was so cheerful all the time. Maybe he just had that good a work ethic...some horses do.

But it was such a bad example of a horse pretending to be fine.

I do think that we can and should listen to what horses want to do, though. Many issues in the horse world are caused by trying to fit a square horse into a round hole. There are enough horses out there that there's no need to make a horse, for example, jump if they don't find it fun. I know horses who hate jumping and horses who don't want to do anything *else*. And a mule who has made it very clear to his owners that he is, in fact, a saddle mule NOT a pack mule!

Not all horses care enough to express clear enough opinions to let them choose their job, but when they do...