What is Equine Assisted Learning (EAL)?
“Throughout history the horse has represented the archetypal virtues of honor, integrity, beauty, strength, loyalty, pride, durability and perseverance”
~ Ariana Strozzi, The Strozzi Institute
…maybe we can learn something from their essence…
Photo courtesy Pal-0-Mine
Spring Reins of Life is dedicated to helping people live better lives both personally and professionally. Horses are powerful and truthful teachers, these graceful creatures have an extraordinary ability to activate self-awareness in humans by mirroring hidden or conflicting feelings or beliefs. It is the horse’s natural gift to us to reconnect and renew human self-trust. This is accomplished through non-verbal interaction and exercises that can transform our perceptions and offer insightful outcomes.
In our modern era, we busy ourselves with the mobile office, career advancement and social stature, in doing so we tend to forget our need to be connected to natural world in which we live. Our hectic and sometimes overbearing lives spiral us away from our nature which then creates internal conflict with our biological need to be grounded in our individual truth. Nature offers us simple and accessible opportunities to learn vital life lessons. The horse’s essence is always grounded in nature as it is one of the few animals that while domesticated, never loses its primal wild instincts. They can lead the way towards finding our true nature and a solid ground from which to operate. The horse will wait patiently for each of us to arrive at the core of our aspirations and for us to speak authentically from the heart. Your openness to self-improvement and growth provides the platform for the horse to present you with your truth because their nature is intolerant of all falsehoods. Without clarity and true leadership the horse will suddenly become disengaged, directionless – which acts as a profound barometer for our own conviction / commitment. By developing the capacity to listen to our inner voice, core beliefs and intuition, we can then relax with the horses into self leadership.
At Spring Reins of Life we have carefully designed and customized workshop programs based on expertise and also derived from the pre-event screening we do with each EAL client. This enables us to zone in on the most prominent needs within your group or organization. We offer half day and full day EAL workshops (one to three days, 8-10 hours each day with breakfast and lunch included), or weekly workshops (lasting about 3-4 hours for a period of 4 to 8 weeks). For all of the EAL workshops we also provide post session assessment reports and also a 30 day online follow-up discussion forum which is specified to your group. Our scheduled workshops provide groups with a unique, interactive experience to learn and fine tune valuable skills which can be incorporated to enhance both personal life and advancement in the workplace.
No horse experience is needed to benefit from this training; in fact the majority of our clients have never been around horses before. All workshops are managed by certified facilitators and all EAL exercises are performed un-mounted. Spring Reins of Hope will target exercises and desired outcomes based on what you think is lacking – tell us what is not working or what you want to improve and we will put the horses to work on those specific issues or deficits. EAL sessions can also be arranged by appointment on an individual basis to cover the same basic principles as in the group workshops. Please contact us for more information or to schedule a consultation / evaluation.
REASONS TO TRY EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING:
- Overcome obstacles and blocks both personally and professionally
- Discover and re-define limiting patterns and beliefs
- Defining goals and objectives, both short and long term
- Building confidence and courage to find, work and live your truth
- Rekindle or originate self-truth, self-trust, and self-leadership
- Foster true team building skills to become a serving member of the herd
- Learn what it truly means to be a leader and to be led efficiently
- Cost effective – the money saved on increased productivity and performance based on true confidence and connectedness within the group
“Do horses make choices? Do they have strong wills of their own? How do they seem to know what people are thinking and feeling? Are they psychic or do they simply read body language of humans at a highly sophisticated level? The Tao of Equus (the way of the horse) is a study on how interacting with these animals can be immensely therapeutic physically, mentally, and spiritually, helping people reawaken long-forgotten abilities that are capable of healing the imbalances of modern life. At a time when horses are no required to work in our fields and carry us through war, they can do something arguably more important – work on us! Equine facilitated work employs horses in teaching people of all ages and backgrounds how to achieve a state of greater physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance.”
~ Linda Kohanov
Epona International Study Center
Best-selling author, Tao of Equus
