If You Want to Know Who You Are, Ask a Horse
By ML Ball

It sounds a little wacky but the amazing thing is, it works.

Imagine you’re a high-powered CEO and your company is doing well but could do better if your employees weren’t afraid of you. Or you run a global business with teams in the U.S. and China and the two groups don’t get along because they have totally different cultures. Or your organization’s president retired, someone new is in charge, and no one knows what the new direction is.

Who can provide clarity and get everyone pulling together?

Horses.

Specifically, horses at The Horse Institute (THI) in Ancramdale. Founded by Marie-Claude and Larry Stockl over 20 years ago, THI utilizes Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) to help teams and individuals discover where they are stuck and how to become unstuck. By the end of an EAL session, participants have learned how to be better leaders, communicate effectively, agree on goals, and work together as a team. They have also learned how to take this learning back to their workplace, with the goal of transforming their organization’s performance. 

As Marie-Claude explains, “Many years ago, I read an article in The Chronicle of the Horse on equine assisted psychotherapy and I thought, what if I borrowed some of those activities and applied them to the work environment, because for 20 years I had been in public affairs in big companies and then was a leadership coach for 15 years, and I was tired of all that. And that’s how we started.” 

Unlike most human interactions with horses, with EAL there is no riding. Sessions take place in the Stockl’s indoor arena, where participants share the space with one or more horses who are free to engage with them, or not. The horses innately pick up on a person’s non-verbal cues and body language, and choose to approach the person or walk away.

“It’s immediate feedback,” Larry says. “Horses are prey. A horse cannot afford to make a mistake and misread the situation. So when a horse walks away from someone and then that person changes their actions or demeanor and the horse returns, the person needs to figure out what changes they made in themselves that enabled the horse to trust them. Then they can apply that learning to the office.”

Out of a possible 35 to 40 exercises, part of Larry’s job is choosing the ones that address a client’s specific issues. “I match the personality of the horses to the activity in order to drive the particular outcome we’re looking for.”  

Are the horses trained to do this? “No, we don’t train them,” Marie-Claude says. “All we ask of them is to be horses and give feedback. They tell us what’s going on with the people they interact with.”

In addition to THI’s three signature programs—Communication Skills, Emerging Leaders, and Team Development—THI is now offering a half-day summer workshop called Aligning with Horses. “People are stressed out, they’re burned out,” says Marie-Claude. “This is about re-grounding yourself and getting your stress out with the horses.” Sign me up! —thehorseinstitute.com