Equine-Assisted Learning
No book, conference, or class quite captures what a horse teaches you.
What is Equine-Assisted Learning?
Equine-assisted learning is a leadership and team development technique in which people interact with horses to build skills for career and life success.
It’s a heartwarming, experience-based, fresh-air-filled alternative to all the other ways you could receive personal or professional coaching.
You can use equine-assisted learning to:
Who We Help
Equine-assisted learning is ideal for anyone with new mandates, shared goals, ongoing challenges, or horizons to explore.
- Executives, Managers, and Team Leaders
- Nonprofit and Religious Leaders
- Professionals in New Roles
- Business Owners
- Corporate and Departmental Teams
- Mission Teams
- Sports Teams
- Boards and Committees
- Homeschool Groups
- Adults in Career or Life Transition
- Caregivers
- Children and Students, ages 3+
- People Seeking Work/Life Balance
Why Horses?
Their qualities make them natural teachers, motivators, mentors, and friends.
Horses take you right where you are. They deliver swift and honest feedback but never judge.
They are a safe place to learn.
Working with a horse means finding what motivates him and applying it with a balance of authority and respect. Just like with people.
They teach you to be a leader, partner, and friend.
Horses pick up on the energy that you or your team bring to an activity, and they reflect it back. In the gentlest way, they reveal shortcomings in your approach or your team’s culture.
They teach you to recognize and face your challenges.
If teams don’t sync their approach with a horse, the goal in question is hopeless. Horses, like workplaces and projects, reward harmony, not chaos.
They teach you to build a strategy and calmly implement it.
Horses are excellent non-verbal communicators. They give you the self-awareness and empathy you need to build relationships.
They teach you to be a better communicator.
Horses are imposing, impressive, and capable of great feats of speed and strength. When you work with them, you develop your own strength, confidence, and discipline.
They teach you how to get things done.
Equine-Assisted Learning Activities
Examples of our work with people and teams.
Lead a horse or a herd
Guide a horse, or a group of them, through an obstacle course that they’re unfamiliar with. Learn to take charge, communicate, build trust, make judgment calls, and solve problems.
Accomplish a team task
Work in a group to catch a horse in the pasture, or help him to reach a target. Add constraints like not touching the horse, not dropping a ball, or not raising your voice. Learn to collaborate, rely on each other, and create a calm environment.
Connect and Reflect
Groom a horse in need of top-to-bottom attention. Spend time in the present, focus on a task, and build a connection. Learn to reduce stress, manage emotions, improve your concentration, and rediscover yourself.
Reward Your Team
Most group learning activities end with refreshments and relaxation around a campfire (weather permitting), with the gentle hills and starry sky as a backdrop.
Corporate Team Building Workshops
No matter the challenge your organization is facing, or the size of your team, we will create a custom team-building program that fits your needs, budget, and schedule. Contact us today for custom pricing and availability for these unique group experiences.
Benefits of Equine-Assisted Learning at Horse ’N Soul
You start with a classroom in the great outdoors and a warm and fuzzy (literally) teacher. You leave with a lot more.
Executive leaders need to deliver on corporate goals. Equine-assisted learning helps you build the complex set of skills required for that.
Religious leaders, mission teams, and other servant leaders must meet the needs of their people nonstop. Equine-assisted learning gives you the empathy, relational skills, and stamina you need.
Whether you’re ramping up for a new role, training for competition, or just finding yourself stalled, equine-assisted learning helps you find your strengths, overcome your weaknesses, and grow.
You can be intentional — and successful — in combining efficiency, compassion, and fun in your organization. Equine-assisted learning helps you foster the relationships and collaboration for this.
If you want to make a change but don’t quite know what that should mean, equine-assisted learning helps you figure it out. It makes your vision clearer and your transitional time actually enjoyable.
