Leadership In Motion…

There is an activity that I have named Leadership in Motion that I facilitate with my clients that I wanted to deepen today through my own experience with it.

When I was taught this activity in my training we called it active round pen, part of my own exploration in this space is giving myself room to rename activities and hold it a different way.

Active round pen didn’t always resonate with my clients so I renamed this exercise and named it Leadership in Motion.

The purpose for this share and writing today was I wanted to offer a lens on a different way of holding this activity and also share my own process with it.

I didn’t mean to be a client this week in this activity and that’s what happened and the teachings were potent so I wanted to share that here.

In the space where I am teaching and the training for those that are seeking to become an equine-guided coach and are aligned to the way I teach, I like to offer them empowerment in how they find their way with activities.

We can name or hold these activities however we like, there isn’t a rule book that says you have to do it this way or facilitate it this way.

I also think the most important space around exercises and activities is more so around the learning of them and the purpose of why we go to a certain activity than what it looks like or how it is done,

Leadership in motion, or why I named this activity this is because we are stepping into finding our effectiveness and embodiment of our leadership in the movement.

Asking a horse to move is establishing leadership with them, we know in a herd of horses, how we know or seek out the hierarchy and the role of leadership is who can move who.  When we step into asking a horse to move we are asking them to be in a relationship of leadership with us.

I use the word leadership instead of dominance because I truly believe this is a learning of how we lead not just the horse, but in ourselves and in life.

So the learning in this exercise is for us to find the pathway of bringing our energy and body language to successfully create movement and connection with our horse teacher.

What that movement looks like doesn’t matter, because that is not the point of the pathway of learning.

I don’t care if a client moves a horse in a complete circle or not, that’s not where the learning comes from and that gets into more of a performance which takes us out of being receptive to the learning.

But rather where they can make the connection around where they are successful and how that feels and when that happens, that is what we look towards and find the learning from.

This is an advanced exercise, I don’t start with this, we build to it and I never demo it with a full circle because I don't want to set them up to think it has to look a certain way.

I do speak about the use of any aids and where to focus our body and energy but that’s not the learning.

Moving into my own journey with this, I wanted to share this piece to share my own learning with this activity and where we can support our clients with it.

The space of this experience with my Mare Kali came organically, I was going out to the herd to do some groundwork with some of my younger horses when Kali volunteered herself with me, which is not something she typically does so I honored that.

Part of the space of any activity I do is also honoring who steps forward to teach it, I think it really important to put attention and to honor who is stepping into the pen with us.  Who is this horse, what is their energy? Why are they showing up for us? So it becomes about what we are learning in the activity and who is doing the teaching for us.

In this, we need to know our horses, their energy and what they bring to a space, what their teaching and medicine are. This is how we continue to leverage our horse partners and our relationship with them.

Whenever we are doing an activity we want to have an intention, where is this activity going to be meaningful for us and what it represents.

And the intention sometimes emerges in the activity.

I didn’t have a certain intention when I stepped into to work with Kali but it emerged.

Our first experience in this groundwork exercise wasn’t pretty, in fact, it was a battle, it was messy and full of both of us trying to figure out what we were both asking.

I am an “expert” and I still got humbled this is the power of the horse.

The groundwork session ended when Kali got spooked by the other horses in the field, she bolted, flipped her head, and fell.  She got back up immediately and recovered, I was of course more impacted by it and then we stopped the session.

I am sharing all the pieces of this to unpack my learning and also to share how we unpack learning with our own experiences with our horses and our clients.

I walked away from that session feeling embarrassed that it went so south and also worried that I had somehow wounded Kali, it also triggered all kinds of fear for me of doing to my horses or triggering trauma they have with people.

My herd is all former rescue horses that have varying degrees of trauma including with people, Kali being one of them, so I was very aware of this.

Part of what is important here and this is another layer of us being present and aware of our own projection, that although yes I have to be a responsible horse owner and I am super protective around my horses in activities and sessions, I also need to allow them to step in if they choose and not project my fear.

Kali was very clear in letting me know she wanted to engage in this kind of activity, it is a chance for her to step into another space where she can teach others and I can't allow my own fear to not allow her to step in.

Here was a mirror for me, I myself have stepped into leading into a new arena this year with the birth of my new business Tala Leadership Institute, I am stepping into a different kind of leadership moving into more corporate to bring this work with horses into another field, and it’s pushing up on all of my buttons on where I belong.

I am being asked to step into another edge and growth in my leadership and Kali was mirroring that for me, so I had to recover from that and not let my fear keep me in comfort.

Part of Kali’s medicine and who she is as a teacher is she calls us to our edges, she is a fierce, sassy, dominant yet sensitive mare, who is not afraid to be her full self and forces us to be with an intensity that sometimes is uncomfortable.

She is not about comfort, she is about calling us forward deeply to our edges so we can face them and grow into our brilliance.

And so of course it made sense that she stepped in with me and also reminded me that it wasn’t just my fear that was holding me back but it was holding her back too, how could I not allow her to share her gifts because I was afraid.

So I sat with what is this bringing up in me, what does this remind me of in my life, what is this showing up and where is this helping me to deal with something that is challenging me right now.

How can I use this opportunity with Kali to support my own growth and honor her?

She encouraged me to try it again, to recover, to let go of how the first time looked, permission in our leadership for us to be messy when we are trying something new, this is important because this activity can create a lot of frustration in people because we want to do things right, but that is not where learning comes from.

So I stayed in that space of curiosity, we want to do that with clients too, what is the learning and what is the recovery, and what is being asked of me.

Kali is also a horse that forces you to be in your full range at the same time, if you are too soft with her she will challenge you and run into your space, if you are too fierce or loud with her she will bolt because she is sensitive, so she asks you to find the refinement of being in both energies at once, this is easier said than done and that is what she develops in people. This is her teaching.

So we can be present with our mistakes and our clients while moving through this activity and then focus on the learning. 

My recovery with this activity is the next day I did it again, honoring Kali’s request and also this was an opportunity for me to face my own fears and step into the pen with her and my edges.

I took her into the arena instead of the front field so we could have some space from the other horse and the chaos it created.

I let her be at liberty instead of on the long line, part of the learning was adjusting and exploring a space to be with this exercise that would support her and myself and we found our dance again.

This time it was different, it was softer, more supportive, and connected, the learning was to be open to adjustment, acknowledge fears, forgive myself and also let my horse be my teacher and be open to the teaching instead of resisting it.

I am sharing some videos of that session for you to see.

I wanted to share the reflection of the experience from my lens and also how I would hold it for a client, and integrate the space around listening to my wise mare Kali and her invitation to teach.

My encouragement finds the spaces that perhaps affirmed how you want to hold it, maybe there was personal learning for you in here or it supports how to hold this activity with clients.

For a deeper invitation, I created a virtual training series that offers a deeper space of instruction around how we can hold our activities are facilitators and also support our practice if you are looking for some empowerment around how you hold and facilitate your activities with clients, follow here to explore if this might be supportive for you. 

Otherwise, let us know where this landed for you today or if it was helpful! 

Love your mentor and guide,
Hillary