Hello Everyone! This is Baylee writing again, this time with an update on the latest activities at the Challenge U property.

Last week we held the first Equine Experiential Learning workshop at the new Challenge U property! Being the first event held at the new property, a lot of preparation went into making the day run as smoothly as possible. We were all very excited to see the end result come out so successfully. We had a great turnout, with participants coming for both the purposes of professional and personal development.

The workshop, called Horse Wisdom in Leadership: Communication - The Other 90%,  was a leadership focused format. While it’s commonly recognized that only 10% of communication is verbal, in our culture, we’ve virtually become mesmerized by words as our social and educational systems teach us to dissociate from the body, the environment, and the subtle nuances of nonverbal communication. This one day introductory workshop included skills for accessing that “other 90%” with the help of the horses, exercising the non-verbal communication, assertiveness, emotional fitness, and relationship skills essential to leadership - as managers, innovators, entrepreneurs, educators, parents and mentors of the next generation.

Sampson teaching participants the skills involved in clear communication.

Below is a testimonial from one of the workshop attendees:

“IT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE LESSONS I EVER HAVE GOTTEN ON MISS-COMMUNICATIONS. Trust your gut and do this training! It may save your marriage or save a client or save you from having to fire an employee. I strongly strongly strongly recommend this workshop if you are a manager or if you depend on your communication skills to make a living.”

We are excited to announce that we have added more dates to the calendar and are runnig specials now! The next Horse Wisdom in Leadership workshop is coming up this Thursday, June 25th, 2009. For more information or to register, please visit http://challenge-u.com/events.html.

Last month, Challenge U held several equine experiential workshops in Southern California. We are so excited to begin this next chapter of transformational work that we can offer our clients. We are also in the final stages of securing an amazing property of our own in Fallbrook, CA to use horses for team and leadership development. If you are wondering what we mean by using horses or “the Way of the Horse” then let us explain…

Horses responding to their surroundings

Our last equine event started with a deeper understanding of what the messages are behind the emotions we experience and how to access those messages. Instead of assigning good-bad-right-wrong to emotions, we can simply look to them for the information they are providing.

To horses, emotion is simply information. It it just an important for them to know when another herd member is feeling afraid or angry as it is for them to know when that same horse is feeling content or playful. Because they are preyed upon in nature, these sensitive, mindful creatures have maintained a highly developed ability to respond to subtle changes in stance, muscle tension, breathing and hence the general arousal level of other horses as well as predators, an ability they easily transfer to human beings.

An interesting fact is that creatures with a keen emotional sense cannot easily be manipulated or lied to; they are only comfortable when authentic feelings and motivations are being acknowledged. The physical behavior of horses provides a dramatic illustration of this point. As we watch horses, we noticed that they pick up on everything going on around them, but typically only react strongly when they feel threatened. They don’t suppress their emotions, while at the same time they don’t just react wildly to everything they experience.

One of the greatest tool we taught the participants at our last event was how to develop Emotional Agility. This refers to the ability to get the message behind the emotion, to adjust behavior, relationship or environment accordingly, and then let that emotion go and return to grazing. This ability helps us humans not panic or overreact when faced with strong emotions, while also not suppressing uncomfortable emotions that could lead to whirlwinds of uncontrollable expressions later.

As you probably have already recognized, developing Emotional Agility will dramatically alter how you receive and respond to the world around you. Here is a testimonial of how it is already changing the participants of the workshop…

“This experience has helped me make connection to things I have pushed aisde because I didn’t know how to deal with them. Now I feel pretty comfortable addressing those issues and staying true to me and defining my boundaries.”

The most exciting part about this learning is it’s only the beginning of what horses can teach us and what we want to share with you. We encourage you to check out all the workshops we are offering involving Equine Expereintial Learning at our Upcoming Events page.