Simon is a 16-year-old chestnut thoroughbred horse that spent two of his years on the track and now is Lisa Murrell's "master coach." Murrell is in the coaching business with a farm in Wellington and Stone Ridge, N.Y. She calls her business Equine Alchemy.

Alchemy was medieval chemists' attempts to turn base metals into gold. Simon does the same but the riches derived from his contact are spiritual. In the case of bedraggled, emotionally over-vexed business executives and stressed-out human shipwrecks, the emotional enrichment and lessons learned about self can be much more valuable than gold.

Murrell was a fashion model from ages 19 to 35. She lived all over the world, chose Paris and met Alain Cardon.

"One of the premier coaches in development. He was my partner for many years and still owns a share of this business," she said.

Major firms like J.P. Morgan Chase, Pfizer, World Economic Forum and Revolution Resorts among others send their executives and employees to Murrell's Metasystem Consulting Group, Inc.

Equine-assisted coaching, like other traditional forms of business and executive coaching, derives from the dynamic between the coach and the participant. "Coaching is a discovery journey about creating what a person wants to happen. Through equine-assisted coaching we find ways to help unblock ourselves. The work assumes that each person has the answer. The horse does not have the answer. They help us find our own answers," Murrell said.

She then described what others have called an "aura." This is the electromagnetic field of the heart and brain. She explained it using an example of a rescued mustang called Merlin. People couldn't get close to the horse. One of Murrell's mentors, Linda Kohanoz, discovered that Merlin responded when she flicked a fly off her arm despite the fact that they were separated by distance.

"The horse responded as though touched with hands on. Merlin was 'feeling the touch' from several feet away. Linda discovered that the horse did not have to be touched with hands on. People are busting through our electromagnetic field without knowing it," Murrell said. Rick Alfandre, an architect with a business in New Paltz, N.Y., came to an equine-coaching session with Murrell with a list. It proclaimed his expectations for the session in her office. Normally a coaching session lasts about an hour and a half. The first 20 minutes or so are spent in the office setting goals then a walk to the barn to meet up with one of the equine coaches.

"Business has been a challenge in these economic times. I feel happy yet I feel stressed too. That leads to physical pain. I have sinus headaches, neck pain, back pain. I've spent a lot of time meditating on what I want. The economy and business last year has been hard. While we have work, we don't have enough work to keep the business from going in debt. I've been trying to reduce expenses and keep the team together," Alfandre said. After a safety briefing from the round pen with Simon, she discussed boundaries, Alfandre's issue. Alfandre voiced concerns about a former employee that wanted to come back to work with him and the boundary issues involved before that person left and now. He entered the round pen with Simon. The horse paid very little attention to him except when Alfandre fed him some pears picked up on the way to the barn under a tree. When the pears were gone Simon lost interest, poked his snoot outside bottom bars of the round pen fence gate and pulled at grass.

"I'm feeling I'm not having much fun at work," Alfandre said. He stood next to Simon for several minutes. He tried to touch the horse but the contact was abrupt and unwelcome at first.

"He's patient," Alfandre said.

Murrell stood at the fence, watched and listened. "It's really a discipline to change any kind of behavior. The process takes courage"Through creating a different perspective with immediate feedback from the equine coach, we then look at metaphors or parallels to the client's situation." It seems that equine-assisted coaching works. "I don't think I would have gotten there without it," Alfandre said.