Horses can teach us about teamwork, collaboration, leadership, friendship, the impact of the environment (culture), and a whole lot more.
LEARNING FROM HORSES
Horses have much to teach us about connection and how we relate to one another in all aspects of our lives. Like us, they are social herd animals, reliant on co-operation and collaboration in order to survive. Simply spending time watching them opens up questions around power and leadership in groups, sharing and friendship, conflict and resolution, how to get attention, the importance of play in our daily lives, the role the environment (culture) plays in shaping our behaviours.
Once we start to interact with them, a whole host of other insights about ourselves start to emerge: how we respond to feelings of fear and powerlessness, how we can establish boundaries that keep us safe, how we can stay calm in times of stress, how we can find ways to be assertive that aren’t aggressive.
EQUINE-FACILITATED LEARNING
The potential for horses to educate us as humans is being increasingly recognised, and something known as “equine facilitated learning” is now a sector in its own right, active in the field of mental health and trauma, as well as in business. The use of horses – whether it’s in healing, or in their ability to provide insights for people in business, opens up a whole host of complex ethical questions that sit alongside the ethical questions already present (and largely unresolved) in our relationship more generally with horses. Some of the ethical questions can be addressed through the general approach taken towards horsemanship: how you care for and train your horses, and the terms upon which you interact with them.
FREEDOM BASED TRAINING
I choose to work with horses via a training system known as Freedom Based Training, that was created by horse trainer Elsa Sinclair. Freedom Based Training means you are unable to use any tools or rewards to encourage any kind of behaviour. All of your interactions with the horses are done ‘in freedom’ – you have no means to keep them with you against their will. With no ropes, head-collars, pens or treats the horses are free to leave at any time, so the only reason they stay is because they are curious, and they enjoy spending time with you.
RESEARCH THEMES
The themes I am currently exploring that relate to how we learn from horses and what they can teach us that can be relevant to the way we conduct ourselves in the workplace, are below. If any are of interest to you as an individual or an organisation, please get in touch.
THEME 1
The role of the environment: Setting yourself up to succeed.
THEME 2
Soft power: different approaches towards leadership.
THEME 3
Finding balance: between assertiveness and passivity.
THEME 4
Teamwork: ideas on how we can share leadership and work together.
THEME 5
Reading the sub-text: the power of non verbal communication.
Where the line is between play and fight with horses can be tricky to read
The three horses here know they can relax, while the one in the distance stays alert
WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM?
Finding the balance between what we get from our horses, and what they get from us, sits at the centre of the ethics of the nature of our relationship with horses and I spend a good deal of my time thinking about this. Many of my herd are either rescue horses, or ones that have complicated issues around forming relationships with other horses and with humans that need to be worked through. I invest my time in helping them learn how to socialise and be better herd members to one another, which I believe results in giving them a better and more enjoyable life. I learn as I do this, and I apply those learnings to my life and to my work. My hope is that this balances out, and we are helping each other.