Equine-Assisted Learning Experiences at Nobodaddy Farm with Team Horse Sense


Horse sense is shorthand for ordinary common sense because horses respond honestly and directly to how they are approached. Horses do not offer conflicting verbal messages, nor carry agendas. Come into their space with unclear or questionable intentions, and they'll let you know where you stand - immediately and clearly. Planning, creative thinking, respect, trust, and clear communication are necessary for building relationships with horses. This is the same skill set required to develop successful and productive relationships with people.


What is Learning with Horses Like?

In the emerging field known as equine-assisted learning, the participant engages in challenges and exercises involving horses and ponies either as an individual or in a team setting. The addition of equines into a team-building exercise requires an intact group to apply a wide set of skills - non-verbal communication, assertiveness, problem solving, leadership and coordinated action.

What happens when you add a healthy dose of horse sense to your team's interactions in an action-learning session? You'll find it will improve your team's individual effectiveness, team coordination, leadership abilities and overall impact!


Bottom Line: Your team members will walk away with the satisfaction of concrete accomplishments, with a deeper appreciation of themselves and others, and with knowledge and insights that have immediate applications.


Here's what you can expect:

  • Programs Tailored to Your Needs. Our programs are designed to surface the dynamics currently at play and then focus on your growth areas. A prep meeting prior to the session helps in designing a learning experience tailored to meet the needs of the individual or team. Our guided and experiential learning activities with these majestic animals offer you multiple opportunities to learn about yourself and others.
  • On-the-Spot Coaching for Changes. As you experience firsthand the impact of the assumptions you carry, the instant feedback shows the ways your present behavior and thinking creates obstacles. As we provide observations and introduce different options, you apply what you're learning, modify your actions and successfully complete the activity.
  • Breakthroughs in Learning. Through this process, past participants say they've learned three key things:
    • how much body language plays an important role in communications and influences the outcomes,
    • how failure can lead to new ideas or strategies and the emergence of new leadership,
    • how thinking outside the box can produce breakthroughs.

How Our Programs Create Memorable Breakthroughs

You will set aside your usual ways of working as you bear witness to the ways you are operating outside your element, in a new situation requiring new ways of thinking and acting.

  • You'll have the first hand experience, both as individuals and as a team, of what it's like to generate and manage energy appropriate to a given situation.
  • You'll expand your capacity to recognize and respond effectively to an immediate situation with new and innovative non-verbal communications.
  • You'll receive instant feedback on unproductive behaviors and tendencies coupled with the opportunity to practice alternative actions - and experience positive results.


What to Bring

A willingness to have fun, participate fully at your chosen level, and be open to learning is all that's needed. The design of each of our activities is flexible, and you're encouraged to join in based on what may be a varying level of comfort with the horses or a given exercise. You don't have to ride horses, touch them, or even like horses to learn from them. Please be assured that your safety is of the utmost importance at all times. We'll give you a detailed briefing on how to work safely with the horses before any activities take place. For your safety and comfort in our outdoor setting, please wear jeans or other slacks of sturdy fabric, hard shoes or boots (not sneakers) and outerwear appropriate to the season's temperatures.


Flexible Fees and Pricing

Our programs are customized and tailored to meet you or your company's specific needs. A session is generally conducted in five hour blocks. As teams grow and mature, they often return to the Farm setting to engage in additional training opportunities.