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.

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.

Last friday we had the opportunity to serve Quattro University on one of our ropes course programs. Their team was composed of the leadership personnel of their 6-month old company. So not only was this the first time most of us got to meet and interact with them, it was the first time for most of them too, which always adds something fun to the equation. However, as they requested we challenged them in both the team and individual leadership dimensions.

I was surprised and excited at the beginning of the day as they shared their goals and challenges in life. What a committed and vulnerable group of people! In some ways this is the dream group for a facilitator, and in other ways this was still talk and we needed to see what would happen when they actually had to walk-the-talk. So we went through our range of low ropes activities and by lunch time there had been enough laughter, frustration, excitement, introspection and most importantly learning and growth to exceed all expectations of the transformations that would happen during one of our ropes course programs. There was an interesting energy while they ate as many of them had real, life changing experiences with each other while they still were looking for each other’s name badges.

Catwalk

The afternoon on the high ropes course provided them a chance to take their new learnings to another level, one that happened to be 40 feet off the ground. Again they had to transfer their committed mindsets to their shaking bodies as they faced their fears inlife. The cool thing was I got to watch the Catwalk and Heebie-Jeebie elements from the top of the tower. It was such a cool opportunity to meet them as they finished their climb and then get a bird’s eye view of their walk across the element.

Heebie Jeebie

The best part was watching the founders of the company become brother and sister again and to watch co-workers become co-supporters in life doing whatever it took to help their partner to succeed.

The final high ropes element of the day was the Power Pole. It seemed like with every climb, new fears were being conquered, new benchmarks were being set in life and everyone was opening up to all the possibilities this life has to offer them. I think it might be best to hear this straight from one of the participants mouths…

How do I sum up the day? Transformational! I continue to be deeply encouraged by the committment and enthusiasm surrounding Quattro University. I acknowledge the leaders for the direction and the insight they had to bring in these key leaders for their company and I acknowledge these leaders for understanding that in order to support the world, they first have to be able to be supported by each other.

Thanks for the awesome day!

Keith Boone(facilitator), son of Andi Burgis(owner of Challenge U)

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.