Horse Sense

Last December, I was part of a demo on Equine Assisted Learning--a method for teaching individuals and teams about themselves with the use of horses.  It's fascinating work. I became interested in learning more when Debbie Stjernholm, the owner of C-Horse Consulting talked about what makes horses suited to this type of work--how they are social animals that don't tolerate incongruency.  So if I nod my head "Yes" and I really mean "No," the horse sees through me pretty quickly.  They mirror the dynamics of a group easily, by providing a reaction that is congruent with what they are sensing.

For the demo, my colleagues and I split into groups of 2 and 3.  Our assignment was to get one of four horses to cross over a wooden bar, about 2 feet off the ground. Without talking to each other. Without touching the horse.  With horses easily weighing 1000 pounds. Yeah, right.

Here's what I learned about horses:

• Horses are listening and communicating all the time. The average observer just doesn't notice.  Hmmmmm....sounds alot like people. I found out that watching their ears can give you clues to what they are listening to. 
• Horses don't just listen and communicate. They act on the information. So while we were trying to get one horse to cross the bar, I swear that another horse was helping us, moving its body close to the back end of the target horse to get it to move forward.  And when it had completed its task, it tapped me gently on the head, as if to say, "Hey, how about that?" 
• Horses get distracted, just like people.  In the process of trying to work with one horse, we could see it wanting to see what the other horses were doing. 

What I learned about myself, working with horses:

• I can stay calm if I keep my mind on the task. Being around such large animals can be a scary thought, but I focused on watching the horse's ears, trying to figure out the horse's language.
• I don't mind breaking the rules if I think it can help me get the job done. I admit to talking to my partners in doing the exercise.
• I don't want to get woo-woo here but at one point, the horses started to run from the far end of the arena to where our group was standing.  I trusted that they understood where our space was and sure enough, they made a big arc around us, instead of going through the group.

I have alot more respect for horses after this experience. In fact, it makes me aware of how much intelligence there is in the world, outside of the human species. Maybe that's the biggest learning--look for intelligence in new places and expect to be fascinated, surprised, and awestruck.