The speaker
The speaker of this poem is a woman admiring female racehorses. She is closely identifiable with Ada Limón the poet, as Limón has acknowledged that her poems are highly autobiographical. The speaker feels drawn to the wild, animal power of the horse and wants to have this power herself, and to have the certainty of winning that the mares seem to have. She has a conversational, almost conspiratorial tone in the poem, inviting the reader directly into her thoughts.
The lady horses
Female racehorses are the subject of this poem, admired by the speaker. The horses are confident and triumphant: they make winning look easy and fun. The speaker addresses the mares playfully, saying "Ears up, girls, ears up!" The horses' female power is seen as dangerous but impressive and inspiring.
The reader
The reader is not often included explicitly in a poem, but Ada Limón addresses the reader directly in lines 14-15, asking us: "Don't you want to believe it?" The reader is invited to join in the feeling of inspiration and awe that the speaker feels for the horses. The reader's role in the last four lines of the poem also becomes, primarily, to admire the speaker: to give her an appreciative audience for her own wild feminist power.
