Activities

Experiential Based Activities

During a session the Facilitator will choose any number of activities from the list below. The activities will be chosen based on the desired outcomes for each session. The EFL activities are facilitated on the ground and the RFI activities are facilitated on horseback. All of the EFL activities can also be used within an RFI session.

Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) Activities

Mandalas

What is it?
Mandala is a Sanskrit term from India and Tibet meaning circle. A mandala is a holy circle or bounded place, that is a representation of wholeness, and reminds us of our unity with all living things. Mandalas are a form of subjective artwork that are either drawn or painted by participants and are usually created with a specific, meaningful question in mind. Once the Mandala is finished it is given a unique title by each participant that sums up the subjective meaning of the artwork to them as an individual.

How does it work?
Mandalas act as a window to the subconscious/unconscious allowing us to bring what is unconscious into the light of our conscious awareness. Once we gain this self-awareness we open the door to personal transformation and change.

Outcome
This is a useful activity for both participant and Facilitator as a visual representation or documentary over time to observe the process of transformation, personal growth and healing.

Body Scan

What is it?
The Body Scan is a guided process that allows the participant to move their awareness throughout the entire body.

How does it work?
This activity directs participants to get in touch with all the different sensations and messages within the body, learning to use the body as a sensing device that provides important information to enhance body awareness, intuition and insight.

Outcome
The body scan enhances your ability to trust the intuitive wisdom of your body and the meaning behind the sensations you experience. When this intuitive wisdom is integrated into daily life, you will experience a greater sense of inner peace, grounding and mental and emotional clarity.

Meet the Herd

What is it?
Meet the herd is an activity where you meet the horses for the first time and observe your first impression of them. This exercise is done in silence and encourages you to observe and document your body sensations, emotions and intuition, during each interaction with individual herd members. Once you have documented this information you return to the Facilitator and the group and share your experience.

How does it work?
Meet the Herd utilizes the electromagnetic field of the heart and gut to acquire information. We often do this naturally, though unconsciously. It may also be sometimes referred to as nonverbal communication and intuition. The purpose of this activity is to make these forms of communication more conscious, so they become a useful tool to navigate our interactions with the world around us and within our lives.

Outcome
Meet the herd develops your ability to tune into, and trust the intuitive wisdom of your emotions and body. When you tune into your intuition you have access to more information through subtle energies and impressions that your body senses in its interactions with others. This information leads to a clearer, more authentic and more empowered form of communication when interacting with others.

Merge the Herd

What is it?
Merge the herd is an activity where two or more participants are required to get a small herd of horses to merge together to become one herd. Depending on the goal of merge the herd, they may also have to get the whole herd moving in one direction together.

How does it work?
Participants have to communicate and work together as a team to achieve a common goal.

Outcome
Merge the Herd brings awareness to the dysfunctional aspects of communication between team members so they can work more effectively as a team.

Embodying the Goal – Active Round Pen

What is it?
Embodying the goal draws together elements of the body scan, an intuitive connection to the horse and the added task of performing a specific goal.

How does it work?
Participants envision a goal to be achieved with the horse before performing it, and then proceed to embody this goal. By recognizing and moving beyond false thought patterns, memories and stories, the participant learns to develop assertiveness necessary to realize the goal.

Outcome
Participants will learn to: get information from their bodies to communicate and collaborate with another being; use their body language in a more powerful and dynamic way when communicating and collaborating with others, visualise a goal before performing it; develop non-verbal leadership skills that lead to greater levels of assertiveness, timing, focus, energy modulation, boundaries balanced with a sensitivity to the needs of others, to engage both embodied reason and embodied intuition in the process of realising a goal.

Reflective Round Pen

What is it?
Reflective round pen allows participants to learn to access the intelligence of the body.  Specifically, the heart is accessed, as an organ of perception that has its own ‘wisdom’ and agenda.

How does it work?
By getting to the ‘heart’s desires’, the participant learns to access and support goals that the body/heart sets. This is important in discovering one’s authentic calling and motivations, especially during times of transition. Sometimes the body/heart can be a more profound navigator through uncertainty than the thinking brain.

Outcome
Reflective round pen develops the participants ability to utilise and trust the wisdom of the heart which leads them to embody greater degrees of self love and authenticity. Reflective round pen teaches participants to reconnect with and utilise the wisdom of the heart in their day to day lives.

Leadership Through Relationship

What is it?
Leadership through relationship uses various steps with the goal of having the horse follow you freely, without a halter and lead rope, increasing connection and trust as a result.

How does it work?
The formula of commitment + crescendo + immediate positive feedback is relevant here.  Various steps that progressively increase power and influence to motivate the horse to come to you are used. This is similar among humans to a Leader motivating an employee to complete a task which a “1” on the “power dial” involves 1.) texting the person to check in or remind him of a deadline, then 2.) calling him if there is no response, then 3.) stopping by his office to check in on progress, then 4.) calling him into your office for a formal meeting, then 5.) engaging in a more serious yet still private “difficult conversation” to up the ante, then 6.) formally writing him up, then 7, 8, 9.) moving through steps for possible dismissal. This activity helps participants develop an understanding of their own “dial of power” in the motivational process.

Outcome
This activity enhances the participant’s Leadership and non-verbal communication skills by helping them have an effective strategy for utilizing their power in an assertive but compassionate way.

Connective Round Pen

What is it?
The connective round pen allows participants to work on their communication skills as a team to achieve a specific goal provided by the Facilitator. The horse becomes the expert in this experience, as they provide feedback on how well participants are communicating with each other and the horse.

How does it work?
Two or more participants will go into the round pen and move the horse around the pen to achieve a predetermined goal. Once the participants feel the goal has been achieved they will then debrief with the Facilitator to talk about what elements were successful and what elements were not. They may then repeat the activity to put into practice this new insights and information.

Outcome
This activity enhances the participant’s abilities to communicate, collaborate and work as team. It also allows participants to develop more awareness around their style of communication and what might make them more powerful and effective in their communication and team work dynamics.

Boundary Setting

What is it?
Boundary setting is an activity that assists the participant in claiming their personal space that they need to feel safe, and engaged with another individual. Boundaries are an essential life skill that allow us to maintain our dignity and sense of self as a human being. They are an integral part of both personal and professional relationships.

How does it work?
This activity uses the interaction between horse and human to display the simple act of setting a non-verbal, physical, space boundary. For example, when the horse is approaching the human, the human sets the boundary by tuning into their body sensations and then using a boundary device (e.g. whip) to stop the horse from coming any further. And when the human is approaching the horse, the horse sets the boundary by display of body language.

Outcome
This activity teaches participants to set energetic and emotional boundaries as well as recognise the boundaries of others they are in relationship with. As a result the participant will be able to stay connected and respected in their interactions with others without causing unnecessary resentment and hurt.

Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability

Horses mirror and respond to dynamics that remain largely unconscious in humans. Yet when we become conscious of what we are communicating to others, and what they are communicating to us non-verbally, a whole new universe of information becomes available to us. In this activity through learning how to sense and set boundaries with a horse, or how to motivate move and improvise with a 1000lb being, participants see, feel and know deep in their bones, what leadership presence really is.

Riding Focused Instructed (RFI) Activities 

All of the EFL activities can be used for the RFI activities as well, though they will be slightly altered. The following are RFI activities only. 

Blind Folded Obstacle Course

During the blind folded obstacle course the participant who is riding the horse is sited while the participant on the ground is blindfolded. The participant riding has to instruct the ground participant through the obstacle course. This activity allows participants to fine tune their verbal communication skills, build trust and discern the difference between internal vulnerability and external fear.