Coaching and Personal Development in Equine Assisted Learning

You’ve tried everything, but have you tried horses? Learn how Equine Assisted Learning helps 

people break patterns, build confidence, and achieve what once felt impossible.

Coaching/Personal Development in Equine Assisted Learning 

Have you been unable to complete goals you have set out to do multiple times, getting caught in the cycle of motivation, determination, reality setting in, and giving up? Are you exhausted after trying different methods to attain goals without any success? These goals may include more interaction and socializing with others, becoming more self-confident, increasing trust in peers, or understanding communication, both unspoken and spoken. Have you ever considered that involving horses in these endeavors may be the key to achieving your personal goals? 

Horses have the innate ability to aid you in your pursuit of these and similar goals. Here at Horses Help, our approach is through Equine Assisted Learning, where the participant can work one-on-one or in a group with a horse and trained Equine Specialist for lessons that do not involve riding—groundwork only. Before beginning the session, participants identify specific goals they want to focus on in their lessons, and the Equine Specialist tailors each lesson to build upon those goals. The session structure is an hour-long lesson a week for a 6-week block, which individuals repeat until they feel they have achieved the desired results. The following paragraphs will delve deeper into how horses can improve some of these goals, namely an individual's self-confidence, trusting in others, and communication skills. 

Self-Confidence 

Horses are big animals, take up a lot of space, and their weight can average anywhere from 900 to 1,500 pounds, even more if it is a draft horse. For someone who has not been around horses, a horse that is taller, bigger, and stronger than them is quite intimidating. Even thinking about leading the horse with a halter and lead rope is daunting. Our Equine Specialists do a wonderful job at teaching general safety and conduct around horses, grooming, how to properly halter a horse, and how to confidently lead a horse on the halter and lead rope. Starting off with doable tasks with challenges, with skills building upon themselves, until a task that seemed impossible at the beginning of the whole experience is attainable. An individual's self-confidence develops and progresses in these Equine Assisted Learning activities, one of which is seen as the individual safely and successfully leading a 1,000-pound horse around an obstacle course, compared to being nervous every time the horse took a step at the beginning of their experience. The individual realizes that if they can lead an animal many times their weight and size around an obstacle course, they can do a lot of things that seemed intimidating and challenging before. 

Trust 

The basis of a relationship between friends, significant others, siblings, etc., is trust. For some individuals, trust does not come easily based on previous experiences or other issues. While it may be troubling and unsettling to try and foster trust with another person, building trust with a horse that does not say a word enables the individual to take a different approach than before. In learning horsemanship skills, developing and maintaining trust between the participant and the horse is vital. For example, this can be viewed as the participant trusting the equine to not kick or step on them, and the horse trusting the participant that they will not treat them badly. In addition, the horse's blind spots are directly in front of them, directly behind, the space above their back, and under them. Letting a person be in those spots that they can't see while interacting with them shows tremendous trust of the horse toward the person. An individual can learn from the example of the horse trusting and apply those principles to their own relationships. 

Communication 

Working in a partnership requires communication from both sides. Since horses do not communicate the way we do, a major focus of EAL lessons is learning how horses communicate primarily through body language, how to recognize and respect what they are expressing, and how we can communicate with them. These exercises invite reflection for the participant's own habits of communication and can be applied to how they can better understand the body language of those they interact with. 

"In her quest to learn more ground skills with her horse Shadow, Diana has learned what it means to demonstrate respectful communication when leading Shadow in the arena. Diana’s new approach to communicating with Shadow is expressed with a variety of techniques now, which have taught her how to be resilient and patient with her horse. Diana is very creative with her grooming techniques, and Shadow appreciates their relationship!" 

Our horses are the master teachers of specific skills that enable individuals to achieve personal goals. Come and find out for yourself what is possible when you partner with one of our horses. Contact Lauren, the Program Manager, to start the process and prepare to achieve your goals in the upcoming program year (starting mid-September).

By Lauren Smith,

Horses Help Therapeutic Program Manager

Please visit this link for more information on our EAL program:

https://www.horseshelp.org/eal

Or contact Lauren directly via email at lauren@horseshelp.org

Please click below to download our EAL application:

Horses Help EAL Application (1).pdf

Download PDF • 225KB