So, What Do You Actually Do?

Equine Assisted Learning, that's like Horse Therapy? Right? Well, no actually, it's not. However, that is usually what most people think of when I explain I work with horses to help people. What I actually do is skill development, which makes my background as a teacher far more relevant. My horses and I help people develop, arguably, the most fundamentally important skills that every single person on the planet needs for a happy, healthy life. However, these skills don't get taught in schools and while most people have heard of them, the majority of us are not actually very skilled in them.

So let's debunk this therapy assumption. I am not a therapist and what I do is not therapy. So if you're worried it's talking to a stranger and divulging your deepest darkest secrets to be fixed while being stared at by horses, rest assured, that's not what I do.  

It's also not horse riding.  All the work I do with horses is on the ground.  So if you are thinking I'm going to teach you how to ride, there are much more skilled people out there than me to teach you that!

My work IS about tapping back into the wisdom and skills we've lost in our fast paced, modern society. We have forgotten we are not only meant to be connected to the natural world, we are inextricably part of it, no matter how far removed we have become from nature.

Horses have not forgotten. Healthy horses embody the skills that make for a happy, healthy life. They are grounded, aware, they can self regulate, they are authentic and have healthy relationships with their herd.  They communicate clear boundaries, they feel and express themselves in the moment, and then let go and go back to their calm state. There is so much we can learn from their way of being.

By tuning back into the natural world, taking time in nature with animals and taking steps to relearn healthy ways of being, we can take back control of our lives. Lives that often got swept out from under us when we weren't looking, distracted by the busyness of modern life and derailed by stress and confusion.

It's amazing what happens when you stop for a moment and start to reignite your awareness. With awareness, we can make choices. We are in the driver's seat.  We can start navigating life, avoiding those potholes and cliffs we once hit without warning that sent us reeling and taking off in directions we didn't actively choose. Without awareness, we are on autopilot, reacting and being caught up in whatever strong current overwhelms us. Life quickly feels out of our control.

Luckily, awareness, like the other Horse Wisdom skills, can be learned, practiced and developed; growing like a muscle with exercise as we practice it. Learning more about these skills and then experiencing how they work by practicing them with horses, means we don't just learn them cognitively.  We experience them.  This is a much higher form of learning. Experiential learning allows us to integrate that learning into lived experience. This means when it comes to implementing it in our lives, we've already started, before we even leave the session.

Best of all, horses are non judgemental. Trying out new skills for the first time can be challenging. Everyone makes mistakes when they are trying something new or working on skills that are a little rusty. Horses will give us feedback if we get it wrong, but they don't judge. This makes horses the most beautiful learning partners we can get.

Every one of us can benefit from further development of these essential life skills. Social and emotional fitness is just as important as physical fitness and has a profound impact on our lives. Just as healthy people work on their physical fitness to remain in good shape, so too healthy people work on their social and emotional fitness to keep life healthy and happy.

Engaging with the Horse Wisdom Program is not about fixing anything that's broken. It's about learning things you can do right now, to make your life more meaningful, more purposeful, calmer, happier, healthier and in your control.

If this sounds like something you could benefit from, I'd love to hear from you.