Leading with HorsePower

New this year is Brook Hill’s Leadership Training, providing local businesses the opportunity to experience accelerated learning in areas of team building, leadership and relationship development.  This program provides a dynamic process of building leadership and self-awareness skills through horse-human interactions.  While interacting with horses, individuals are able to identify and shift their limiting behavior patterns that prohibit them from developing trusting relationships in business settings.

Why Horses?

Because horses are flight animals, horses use their body language to mimic a person’s non-verbal behavior, including intentions, emotions and thoughts.  Through the experience of observing a horse’s response to their requests and directions, each person learns how to communicate more effectively, face their fears, manage their emotions, and become more consistent and congruent with their actions.  The skills that are learned at the farm will impact the bottom line of a business, since successful team building, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution efforts are crucial in today’s marketplace.

Leading with HorsePower will help individuals to:

• Make choices and take actions based on courage and awareness verses automatic, ‘learned’ responses.
• Build trust in relationships and teams.
• Develop skills to work through uncomfortable, emotionally charged situations.
• Move from conflict into resolution and agreement more quickly.
• Face fears and learn new behaviors to gain personal power and respect.
• Experience breakthroughs that increase the depth of Emotional Intelligence.
• Expand cohesiveness and productivity within teams and partnerships.

Skills to be covered:

  • Eye contact–being genuine and interested
  • Gentle but firm attitude
  • Goal oriented–knowing where you want to go
  • Task analysis–how to get where you want to go
  • Use of appropriate acknowledgements and rewards

Example of a HorsePower Day:

Time:

  • 9am to 3pm
  • Includes 2 1/2 hour session with horses
  • 1 hour of a delicious lunch
  • 2 1/2 hours of practical application in the classroom

The day begins working with horses on the ground, in a team environment with the goal of learning how to approach building relationships and gaining leadership. The participants will begin to understand the nature of a horse, and learn to pay attention to their subtle body language, emotional messages, clarity in thought and confidence in achieving a goal while interacting with a horse.  This will have lasting results to the individual and to teams.  Group activities in the classroom with a licensed counselor will relate and understand the dynamics of their interactions with horses to be able to translate that experience back to the work environment.

No prior horse experience is necessary in this work. Safety precautions are thoroughly reviewed for each learning session.  In addition, Brook Hill Farm ensures that participants understand horses, their behavior, and how to stay safe while engaging with them. The staff honors both the human and the horse, and the intention is to create a setting that brings the best out in both beings. 

If you are interested in participating in this unique experience, contact secretary@brookhillfarm.org to set up an appointment to provide you and your team a powerful way to develop new relationship building and leadership skills.