Back to horses

My life is wonderfully interesting at the moment, which is great for me.  I have better health than I have had in 45 years (that's amazing and totally goes against any assumptions about aging).  I am also incredibly busy doing really interesting things.

 I have spent a couple of week in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan taking an Equine Assisted Learning Certification course and I'm going back next week. It is a part of my Masters Degree program, so not only am I loving it, but I will get something permanent out of it.   I may or may not use this professionally, but it has already changed how I think and will change how I facilitate workshops.

Equine Assisted Learning is an approach to facilitating or enabling learning in life skills, problem solving, teamwork, and even creativity using horses as 'tools' in exercises.  I am blown away by the concept.  I am trying to learn to be the kind of facilitator that makes the process as powerful as possible.  Mostly that means stepping back and watching, letting people figure things out, and if there is a problem, asking questions to help them reflect, review, assess, and try again, maybe in a different way using a different approach.  It is about support, encouragement, and the positive learning atmosphere. It is also about the horses.

I grew up with horses.  I have a feel for them, what they will do and how they will respond. I knew I was not exactly a 'horse whisperer,' but really, my response right now is, "Who knew?" 

Who knew that horses were so totally intuitive?  The instructors (who facilitate a lot of different people and groups and have lots of experiences) tell a story of a couple in their 30s who came from a nearby reserve to look at their program with an eye to implementing and funding it for the kids on their reserve.  They brought a couple of their own children with them.  They took the opportunity to try some of the exercises, and so did the kids.  The kids were cheering and high fiving each other because they were totally successful at working together and accomplishing the tasks with the horse.  One of the tasks was to get the horse to side step into a box. (You lead the horse in front of the square, then using pressure and release, you get the horse to step sideways until he is in the box. You don't even have to push the horse or even touch it, just the energy from your hands sometimes gets him to move.) The kids did it, but the horse refused to move for the parents. It didn't matter what they tried, it just seemed to annoy him more and more until his ears were laid back and he was stamping his back legs.  The facilitators were very worried - it was important to them to get this contract and the funding, but it looked like the couple were not having a good experience.  The facilitator was silently cursing the horse under her breath and couldn't understand why he was responding to them that way.  Finally she went over and asked them how it was going.  They looked at each other and started to laugh.  "He totally knew! He totally knew!" the wife exclaimed.  They were sold on the program.  Apparently that morning on the way to the farm, they had had the biggest fight of their marriage.  They were acting all happy and friendly to others but were secretly seething and and not looking at each other.  Not a team.  The horse totally knew! He refused to do anything for people like that who couldn't even get together.

 I watched a young teen-ager who was very scared of the horse.  She wanted to do this reaching-in  thing without getting very close.  The horse responded by trying to nip her, not with his teeth, just his lips.  She didn't like it very much.  When the girl got more assertive, leading the horse through the course, he did things for her that he normally hates doing and balks at doing (going in a tight circle). He wanted to help  her to be more confident. She did get more confident for awhile. When the horse was tied up again, she went back to the reaching-in thing.  He went back to trying to nip her.  It will probably take her a couple of weeks to get it that the horse responds better when she is more confident.  We get more confident when things work for us. Not exactly an earth-shaking observation, but for her, life changing. Did the horse 'want' her to be more confident?  Who knows? He certainly did reward her immediately for it.  Blew me away.

That's what they tell me:  horses bring down the too-agressive ones and bring up the unassertive and fearful ones.  They sense beyond anger to grief and then they comfort and help.  When people are just angry at each other, a horse often won't work with them until they get over it.  Who knew?