Leadership - How does the program work?

Equine-Assisted Learning Programs have the ability to be a powerful journey of learning and understanding. Horses in this program are powerful teaching tools, they immediately respond to what the participant is doing. Trained facilitators watch for those "teachable moments" that the horses identify. Quite simply, the horse does the teaching; facilitators are there to provide an explanation and offer guidance to individuals while working in a group to find a solution.

The single most asked question is, why are horses uses? Horses are extremely sensitive, aware of their surroundings and quick to react. For their mere survival, a wild horse, must constantly be on guard, through herd training they gain trust and respect for each other. Nature provides them with instincts and senses that are very astute. They watch for the slightest movement and look for threatening body posture. Horses know how to discern the difference between a calm non-threatening approach and anxious, nervous energy. However, every horse is different and teaches each participant something unique.

To understand how this process works we must first realize how horses learn and understand their own rules of survival. In a horse's world, the rules are clear, easy to understand and dealt with swiftly if challenged. By realizing this about horses we can alter our facilitation techniques to become more efficient.

Horses look for strong leadership and are willing to follow only after they find mutual trust and respect. If we provide contradictory behavior they start to question and challenge our authority to lead. Horses respect the stringent outline of the hierarchy. The head mare rules the herd, the stallion protects from danger. The head mare and stallion work together as a team for the safety and strength of the herd. The entire herd works together to teach their offspring the rules of survival. Valuable lessons of respecting self - family - community.

In a horse's world, team work is expected and respected. Horses respond favorably to positive stimuli even though the consequences are swift and immediate. Horses respect fair consequences then crave to be led by you.

Horses are tough and steadfast dance partners and if we are willing to listen, they can assist us with guiding groups to becoming better individuals. Horses don't judge, but they don't forget, participants must earn their relationship(s). They don't let you cheat and their feed back is honest and instant. Learning to listen to what horses have to say is powerful and acts as the stimulus to individual change. By including horses in these specially designed experiential exercises, equine-assisted specialists have proven repeated success to each participant's journey to self discovery.

Quite simply . . . Equine-assisted learning works.