I had an interesting experience over the weekend in Redding, CA. I drove up on Friday to pick up our last Arabian mare to come home. While I was there Friday I went to a TSC store to pick up grain. We had shopped in that store the first weekend there and purchased a few supplies for the trip home with the new “girls”. The staff in that store had been very friendly and helpful and their prices were better than what we could find here at home, so we thought why not buy our grain while we’re there!

I pulled up in the truck and trailer and ran through the rain to make my purchase and here’s where things got interesting. The store manager, TSC Bill, asked what I was doing in Redding. I recited the above information except for the Arabian part. He continued to be friendly and asked what kind of horses they were that we’d purchased. I shared ”Arabians” and the look on his face, his body language and tone changed as he said simply “Oh” and turned and walked away…. Quite clearly he was not impressed!

How many times do we do this to our customers and clients? He was very clearly offended or just not impressed that we would drive 11 hours to purchase Arabians. Maybe he’s had a bad experience with an Arabian, maybe one hurt him, he saw one behave in a dangerous way or simply has heard people talk badly of the breed… I actually don’t know and quite frankly it doesn’t matter. The reality is that that one interaction changed my experience and impression of his store! Will I go back to that store? That’s a good question since I don’t live in that community, however, I can’t say that I won’t be back through there and I don’t know that I would stop. I expect I would seek out a different solution to my needs at this point.

You see, TSC is a company that serves farm, livestock and horse owners. It’s not only an American Quarter Horse store; it’s for ALL horse owners. So my point is that his personal prejudice affected his company and the customer’s experience! How often does this happen? I suspect many of us have had an experience like this. We may have let it slide or not returned to do business with the store, either way; we probably shared the story and had an impact on that business.

So what if the shoe was on the other foot? What if it were OUR business that was affected? What if TSC Bill worked for us and un-intentionally ran off a customer who’d just spent several hundred dollars in purchases? How do we create an accepting and understanding culture from top to bottom with our staff?

It’s all about communication and that doesn’t just mean the words that come out of our mouths. Actually, that’s the least of it. Remember- 55% is body language, 38% tone and 7% is words. That’s huge! So when we set ourselves and our employees up to be the best they can be, remember this story and the value of WHOLE BODY communication and how it really works!

May all your client interactions be as positive for them as they are for you!

Cathy Huddleston

Home for the new Arabian mares! The challenge-U retreat site!

I had the privilege of meeting a very special person last weekend. A woman who has bred, raised and shown Arabians the last 30 or so years. We went to look at her horses to purchase some mares to join our herd and in the process discovered an amazing woman with an amazing husband and fascinating story.

We discovered that life is about perspectives. This matriarch has Parkinson’s disease and it has slowed her down, physically NOT mentally. I don’t know that I’ve ever met such a pistol! Her husband has health related issues too and quite frankly, that’s what led to parting with these family members. After two days we discovered how much this woman had touched the lives of many horses and many people; we even met a client that happens to help look after the horses and quite clearly was there the first day to make sure WE weren’t there to take advantage of this wonderful couple.

This experience got me to thinking… about Legacy. What is a legacy? When we pulled out of their driveway with 3 mares and one more to go back for, I realized what the meaning is…

We all create, grow, build, teach, develop and/or bring to fruition many things in our lives. When the time comes that we transition on and leave this body behind the only thing we leave behind is our legacy. It can be a legacy of sorrow, abuse, neglect or laughter, knowledge, love just to name a very few. This woman’s legacy is her passion and creativity with her horses. She will leave a stamp on history with the specific horses that she has bred for; kind, flashy, smart, athletic, loving and powerful horses. They are a part of her legacy and the really cool thing about legacies is that they can be carried on by more than just family. WE have the privilege and honor to be carrying on this legacy and adding our touch to it.

I wish for each of us the opportunity to leave a powerful and positive legacy behind! I know that through conscious effort we can transform our legacy in to anything we would like. 100 years from now I hope my legacy speaks to the impact that I have had on people’s lives in a powerfully positive way! (I wouldn’t mind if they remembered my horses too.)

May your Legacy become conscious and clear and NOT be an afterthought in this lifetime!

Cathy Huddleston

Meet Glory-Day VR, Melancholy and Gypsy Rose VR. 3 of our new mares and soon to be teaching horses.

As we sat outside of the round pen this weekend an interesting question was asked of me… Is this stallion really proud?

I’d like to share what I heard myself say-

“No, He’s simply confident in who HE is. He is comfortable in his masculinity, his purpose and his role in life. He is here to be a teacher, a partner with me his “human” and to procreate his genetic line. There is no driving force in his world that asks him to be MORE feminine, MORE in touch with anything or WEAR different MASKS in different environments. He is asked quite simply and respectfully to BE himself. “

The response I heard from the other human present was quite interesting… wouldn’t life be EASIER and BETTER if WE could do the same. Our relationships: work, personal and family, would certainly benefit as would our WORLD.

So thank you to the Universe and the horses for such profound learning…

Cathy

Meet our Horse of a Different Color…

Tarrens Amigo a 12 year old registered Paint Stallion and Teaching Horse.

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.

I just returned from a 4 day Leadership workshop using horses to support people in understanding the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace and how horses can support in teaching us how to be consensual leaders. The program I attended was at The Epona Center in Tucson, under the expert guidance of Linda Kohanov, founder of the Epona Center.

Linda says:

“The true pioneers of the 21st Century are those who figure out how to tap the vast resources of all three brains—those interconnected sensory/ intelligence centers in the head, the heart and the gut. In this respect, horses provide the ultimate shortcut– as they always have. For thousands of years these sensitive yet powerful beings carried our bodies around the world, allowing us to explore terrain we would have struggled to traverse on foot. But there was something more profound happening in these interspecies associations. Learning to form effective, working partnerships with those horses provided the most elusive yet important education a human leader could acquire—- that “other 90 percent” exercised at a wholly non verbal level”

As I practiced the nonverbal skills of leadership with the horses, I tapped into a whole new way of being that would have me be a much better leader. This cutting edge format will be the way of developing leaders in the future as I see it.