What is Equine Assisted Learning?
And why horses?
Unlike humans horses are prey animals. Instinctively, as prey animals, their survival depends on their ability to sense underlying emotional current in their environment. They use their animal wisdom - keen sense of smell, hearing, body awareness, and vigilance - to keep themselves safe. Because they are fully present and without agenda or judgement, they invite us to be the same. It's actually more difficult to not be present around the horse. And this is where the deepest and most effective work transpires.
Horses are powerful messengers that mirror back their direct experience of humans. They are completely congruent and authentic with what they experience – in other words, what they show on the outside matches what they feel on the inside. They don’t deny or mask their feelings and our masks/personas don’t fool them.
Like humans, horses are herd animals and rely on each other for safety and survival. Whether clients are engaged in individual or group activities, interacting with horses provides an opportunity to work on dynamics related to relationships, isolation, asking for help, and one’s role in the human herd. Areas that are commonly addressed include boundaries, assertiveness, trust, powerlessness, and frustration tolerance.
The Learning is the Doing
Equine Assisted Growth and Learning is an experiential and short-term approach for real and lasting change. It is a unique opportunity that goes beyond the traditional to restore balance in people's lives while teaching problem solving, leadership, clear communication, goal setting, and social skills.
Understanding the patterns that keep you stuck is only the beginning. Our approach gives you the time and place to discover solutions. Participants have the opportunity to:
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Learn to take responsibility, confront situations, and recognize non-verbal communication
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Apply creative thinking and problem solving techniques
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Gain insight into how to successfully approach relationships, challenges, and communication.
The process begins by interacting with the horses, then identifying and reflecting with the staff on what transpired. Participants learn and practice new strategies to achieve goals outside the arena. Talking is minimal as the horse provides critical feedback that no human can offer. It is the task of the InBalance licensed professional to invite the client to explore their interactions with the horses, and the metaphors that inevitably emerge, to bring about insight and change.
Horses intuit our emotional states and respond accordingly, and therefore we learn the most valuable of lessons: by changing ourselves, the world around us can change.
