Why Horses?
The equine-assisted process is truly unique, highly effective, and deceptively simple. In the wild, horses survive through their innate ability to sense incongruancy within their environment and within other members of their herd. It's this organic survival instinct, finely tuned and honed through time, that makes them so effective in the realm of human learning and personal development.
Horses perceive and respond to minute changes in the energy, body language, and behavior of humans in their presence...often with subtle changes in their own behavior and body language. At the same time, they interact with people using the same principles of behavior applied to the herd. They investigate, approach and retreat, test boundaries. They respond to clear communication and leadership while disregarding unclear communication and weak cues...all while remaining completely in the present, completely unbiased, and completely nonjudgmental.
When utilizing these aspects in a leadership or teambuilding context, horses become powerful tools for human learning. Horses serve as both metaphor and biofeedback for many aspects of communication and interaction within teams and between individuals. As people begin interacting with the horses, the effectiveness of their learned behaviors and patterns quickly reveal themselves.
The pure responses of the horses during the session evokes curiosity and invites individuals to be explore ways of being more authentic, facilitating exploration and creating change and adaptation in real-time. People learn how to adapt patterns of communication, leadership, and collaboration to become more successful...resulting in long-lasting outcomes.
Participating in an equine experience gives people the unique opportunity to "do" as they learn, enabling learning to take place at its deepest level. As Confucius said, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."
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