About Equus Coaching®
Equus Coaching® is a unique and experiential approach that includes partnering with horses to combine nonverbal interactions and powerful coaching tools to explore self awareness, leadership, and personal growth.
By providing immediate, clear, and genuine feedback, horses offer us and our teams an opportunity to learn how and where we are being either clear or incongruent in our communication.
If we are aggressive or try to dominate, the horse will flee. If we lead from fear or try to coax a horse, it will be easily distracted or disinterested. If we lead from clear intention and deliver a confident, congruent message, the horse is eager to join up and follow us. The lessons are immediately transferable to our relationships at home and work.
Equus coaching offers numerous benefits, including increased self-awareness, improved emotional intelligence, enhanced leadership skills, better communication, and the development of authentic and impactful leadership qualities. Participants often report greater confidence, resilience, and the ability to overcome challenges in both personal and professional life.
Top 10 Things I've Learned From Horses
- My expectations affect those around me.
- To examine or challenge the stories I tell myself, both personally and professionally.
- Be present and live in the moment.
- How to adjust my energy levels as needed when leading a group.
- Congruence with my thoughts, feelings, and actions.
- How to better identify and enforce boundaries.
- How to improve my leadership skills.
- What I pay attention to, and focus on, matters.
- How to shift my attention between my needs, my team's needs, and what's happening in the world.
- Overcoming challenges I was once intimidated by.
FAQ's
- Do you need experience with horses? No, you are welcome with all levels of experience and comfort levels with horses.
- Will we be riding the horses? No, all activities are done on the ground, no riding involved.
- What should I wear for a coaching session? For your safety, closed toes shoes are required when working with horses. Wear comfortable clothes that you can move in, and don't mind getting a little dirty.
- How much does it cost? Pricing starts at $250 for an individual session. Group rates vary depending on number of participants, 1/2 day, full day, ranch fees, food, number of facilitators required, etc. I also have for profit and non-profit rates. I am happy to work within your budget to create a special Equus experience. Let's talk!
- Is this the same as therapy? While both coaching and therapy can help individuals grow and achieve goals, the key difference is that therapy focuses on addressing mental health issues and often explores past experiences to heal emotional wounds (uncovering, recovering), while coaching primarily focuses on setting and achieving future goals, with a more present-oriented approach and without diagnosing mental health conditions (discovering).
- What if I am scared of horses? First of all safety is #1, all sessions include a safety demonstration covering how to work safely around horses. Transparently, when I started this work, I was very scared of horses. Once I saw the safety demo and it was explained to me that horses are prey animals and want to move away from us if they don't feel safe, not attack us, I was comfortable. I also explain during sessions that this work with horses will move us from our comfort zone to our learning zone, but we do not want anyone in a panic zone. All participants are empowered to stop a session or ask for assistance from the facilitators at any time.
