Equine Assisted Team Building Retreats

Published: 18 November 2023 | Written by Teresa Elvin

Do you want to build your team and leadership effectiveness?
Do you want a healthy team?
Do you want to learn from a new perspective in a non-traditional setting?

Well trying something new & different –

EQUINE ASSISTED CORPORATE TEAM BUILDING RETREATS

Our Program:

Our program offers a unique and non-traditional opportunity for organizations to build a stronger team in an outdoor natural setting through our customized Equine Assisted Programs. Our programs will help develop leaders and improve communication, collaboration and cooperations between all staff members.

What’s not traditional – is team building with horses. Each session becomes an experiential learning with opportunities to teach grounding skills, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, improve confidence, and improve communications skills.

Our horses will do most of the teaching in the specific activities we have designed to develop problem-solving skills while encouraging participants to work as teams to achieve positive results.

Why Horses:

Horses are 100% honest, 100% of them time. No matter who you are, the horse will be an authentic team member who will let you know if things are working – or not. And most often they will give you plenty of chances to get it right.

Without judgement they teach us to be present, honest, clear and committed. Like people, horses come with a wide range of personalities, moods, and unique quirks. They react differently to each person and each situation.

The horse’s herd mentality offers powerful leadership lessons. A horse will respect a herd leader who demonstrates awareness, fairness, consistency, and respect when guiding towards a goal. Horses will challenge a leader who is vague, confusing or lacking commitment to the good of the group. As a tool of survival – horses are highly sensitive to nonverbal stimuli, they are experts at reading the most subtle behaviors such as body language, posture, expressions, determination, and emotional charge of people. They seem to sense personal level of trust, confidence, awareness and interpersonal skill providing us with valuable, visible, and uncensored feedback immediately. With all of this information we learn if, when, or how we need to do something differently to meet their particular needs at that moment.

Effectively Lead & Manage

Our skilled facilitators know how to define the teachable moments in this unique style of the horse/human interaction that makes for an effective approach to building team leaders’ strong team dynamics.

In a very real sense, the horses do most of the teaching – event facilitators are there to provide explanations and guidance through each experience.

Horses have a great deal to t ach us, largely because they have so much in common with humans. They are also surprisingly good at revealing the hidden dynamics within any team. These sensitive creatures can actually hear our heartbeat and will react to even the slightest changes within a group.

For many this experience proves to be absolutely life-changing. It builds trust and communication in a fun, engaging and full collaborative atmosphere. Because these events make such a lasting impression, participants tend to retain the lessons far longer than in a typical classroom experience.

Programs are offered with certified professionals in both the equine industry and in corporate team building sessions. Each session is limited to 10 participants. No horse experience is necessary. All work is unmounted (no riding required).

207-370-1150