EFEL is about intention, action, results and relationship. It is about leadership.

Leadership Through the Way of the Horse
What an opportunity to really face who we are! Leadership is about expressing our vision and intention with clarity, confidence, passion and authenticity…yet respecting our own style. It is about relationship, asking without manipulating, listening and receiving others….supporting, coaching, etc.

The beauty of the work with the horses is that they mirror who we are and how we act extremely quickly. There is no room for stories, excuses, etc…in brief…no B.S. It is a great tool to create more awareness about our leadership power, our confidence, and the energy we transmit when we want to get things done.

Why Horses?
Because they are preyed upon in nature, these sensitive, mindful creatures have a highly developed ability to respond to their environment. Subtle changes and nuances that we may not be aware of can provoke reactions in them that give us information about ourselves.

"While I had an idea around the concept of experiential learning, I did not really know what to expect. Working with the horses, however, was one of the best experiences I've had in terms of gaining immediate and unbiased feedback. The exercise that we did became a very clear metaphor for me in terms of how my team currently approaches tasks and what will happen if we do not make specific adjustments in order to achieve our overall objectives related to product launch. The horses are better feedback mechanisms with respect to leadership assessment than any manufactured management tool. It was great learning." Keeshia Muhammad Corporate Sr. Director, Strategy and Commercial Development ALTANA Pharma US, Inc., a division of NYCOMED

Their responses help us identify behaviors that impact our lives and careers in a negative way or keep us from moving forward. Through the authentic connection that horses require of us, we learn to clearly communicate our intentions.

Horses respond to our clear and authentic communication with trust and full engagement-Just what leaders are looking for in their employees; just what employees are looking for in their bosses and place of employment and what customers are looking for when they do business.

Because it is impossible to make a horse do anything, they teach us the difference between willingness and compliance. From this we understand that it is just as difficult to force employees to produce quality performance.

Horses help us develop our emotional intelligence, one of the most important differentiating factors in powerful leadership.

Most importantly, horses are great partners in leadership and organization development because they have no investment in the outcome of our relationship with them; they don't lie, they have no egos or master plans. Horses simply are who they are, clearly, purely, without any need for things to be right or wrong. That's why the information they give us about ourselves is so powerful. They are perfect mirrors for us to look at how we are creating our current reality.

To learn more about why horses...

Value of EFEL in Leadership Development:

• Identify limiting behaviors and work processes that negatively impact results
• Develop powerful alternatives to move forward
• Explore your Emotional Intelligence and how this impacts your leadership
• Learn how to create clear roles and responsibilities while staying connected and grounded in results
• Develop essential skills for building a powerful organization/team through authenticity
• Explore how to build strong inter/intra alliances throughout the system

How does this work?
By engaging in ground-work exercises with horses in a controlled setting, we work with the animals to uncover and highlight our patterns and habits of communication and interaction. Horses have no agenda; they are honest participants in the activities. Their reactions to our communication, behavior, and body language provide us with crystal clear, instructive feedback that we can use to identify opportunities for individual and team leadership development.

This experiential work is...

• Focused on results
• Systems based; looks at the entire picture and long term impact
• Done within the context of a regular off-site meeting; i.e. strategic planning, leadership or team development, executive coaching, etc.
• Incorporates clearly set objectives and outcomes, either for the individual or group
• Geared to facilitate these objectives through non-mounted exercises-no prior horse experience is needed
• Integrated into achieving the outcomes for the meeting and beyond
• Hosted at our facility near Woodstock, NY, as well as other facilities around the US, with the horse work taking up to 3 to 4 hours at a minimum (daily if multiple days)

Equine facilitated experiential learning (EFEL) ...first and foremost expands nonverbal awareness. Modern humans are literally mesmerized by words, yet psychologists have determined that less than 10 percent of communication is verbal. Vast nuances of information arise from behavior, emotional import, intent, and more subtle energetic exchanges, qualities so grossly downplayed in postindustrial society that people are losing their ability to function fully and authentically…..(people are becoming) increasingly blind to what's happening in the moment. Linda Kohanav Riding Between the Worlds