Why Horses?
Oct 27, 2021
Why horses? People ask me all the time. Why horses to teach leadership? How can horses help my team? It sounds nice but is it worth the time?
10 years ago I experienced my first Equine Guided Education (EGE) class, held by the founder, Ariana Strozzi-Mazzuchi and it was revealed to me how to recreate all that I had innately learned from horses and about leadership in a more compact and accessible form that I could share with others. But I had really had my first equine guided experience closer to 30 years ago.
Simplified, Equine Guided Education is a method of coaching. Its primary inspiration and influence comes from exercises completed within a group of horses.
Horses have long held influence with humans in history and even now still represent such ideals as: freedom, power, wisdom, and gentleness.
The word, “Guide” was carefully chosen because it means, “one who can find a path through unknown or unexplored territory.” This describes the profound and magical aspect of horses in the learning process. The horse serves as a respected ‘guide’ in human growth, learning and development.
Horse herds have a similar social structure to human “herds”. Horses in the wild need each other to survive, just like humans, in the wild, would have needed each other for survival. (We still do need each other to survive but it’s just not as obvious now with food and shelter at our fingertips as long as cash is in our hand.)
Ditch P.C.
Like humans, horses have different roles within their herds, different strengths that make them more valuable in one role than another. They pick up on nonverbal and energetic communication very quickly, and as we work with them in these specially designed exercises, they either mirror back to us the same energy we are putting out there, or magnify the energy and reactions we are stimulating in others. They are showing us how our attitudes affect those around us. But it’s much easier for them to be more open and honest, they don’t have to worry about being P.C. or proper, they aren’t worried about what anyone is going to think of them, they just react to what your energy and actions are saying to them at that moment – and deciding if it is anything they want to be a part of.
For a quick example, with a group of people who work together, and in our personal relationships there are different personality types including:
The one who does too much, they are hustling and don’t ask for help - so everyone just stays out of the way.
The pushover or the wallflower.
The person who thinks they run the whole show, whether they do or not.
Imagine your own reactions when working with the different personalities in your life.
No, seriously think of 5 people at work or in your life:
- 3 that give you some reaction - make you eye roll or make you put on a fake smile to avoid conversation.
- 1 you wish you were more like
- Yourself
Be honest, do you move towards, away from or out of the room? What other responses do you have with these individuals?
The horses, as well, will have a different reaction to each of us and we can witness in a whole new way the power and impact we have on those around us.
We CAN change us!
And the mind-blowing part, the part you cannot replicate by just listening to a lecture, is if we don’t like what we see - the response we are getting from what we are putting out there - we can change it.
We can change us.
Try a new approach, and see and feel in real-time the change in response from the horse.
And with practice we can begin to use the same skills with those humans around us.