What a powerful experience! Two days of working with people who have existing practices of equine learning and development and taking it to the next level of refinement! This is the next step in the field of Equine Facilitated Learning and Coaching.

At their winter barn in Wellington, Florida, Equine Alchemy hosted people from the UK, Canada and all over the US in a journey of going deeper into themselves and their way of offering the value of working with horses. There were new exercises, new perspectives on familiar ones, as well as entirely new approaches.

Kathleen, co-founder of the apprentice program of the Epona Approach, http://sacredplaceofpossibility brought her many years of experience as a psychotherapist and mentor to the group. This workshop also served as part of the Continuing Education component for Epona graduates. She has worked with people, along with their herds, from all over the world and gave us insight into the common challenges and misinterpretations of this powerful learning modality. She reminds us of the central role of relationship that often gets lost in the work for so many and of our responsibility to continue to develop this crucial component within ourselves, with our horses and our clients.

Lisa brought her expertise as an approved Advanced Epona instructor and an International Coach Federation (ICF, PCC) coach as a way for the participants to become better coaches of the equine work. She focused on using foundational techniques of coaching to become more fully present, focus on the client and allow what Kathleen calls the 'sacred space of possibility'. This isn't always easy as it requires what Lisa calls one of the 2 skills for leadership in the 21st century:

• Being able to act without a full set of information
  
• Being willing to not have the answer(s)
  

This approach gives room for the real masters, the horses, to do their work without it being interrupted by the 'facilitators' &mdash No matter what our good intentions are!

Johanna, a former manager at IBM and horse expert extraordinaire, brought a new dimension of refinement and elegance to working with horses. The Equine Alchemy herd is a result of her training and teaching and they are all magnificent horses that compete at high levels in dressage and jumping. Because Johanna was a leader in the corporate world, she knows how to work with people and horses. The refinement she brings to the horses as teachers requires us as facilitators and coaches to aspire to that level of refinement as well.

As the field and popularity of Equine Facilitated Learning continues to grow, it is becoming clear that discernment in the differences of how it is being practiced is needed. It is no longer 'just working with horses'. There are significant differences in approaches, methodologies and outcomes. That's what this workshop was all about, exploring, alignment and refinement and the work was met with great enthusiasm.

We feel this is just the beginning! In response to this need, Equine Alchemy and Kathleen Barry Ingram are developing a series of these workshops to help refine your equine learning practice. We look forward to bringing you news about the dates of 'Refining your Equine Facilitated Learning Practice' series soon!

We would appreciate hearing your comments and needs about your practice. It is an opportunity to develop the Equine Facilitated Learning community.

Kathleen Barry Ingram, Lisa Murrell, Sylvain Poirier and Helene Bernier

Ruth Le Cocq with Pinot Noir

I am asked so many times, "What is Equine Assisted Coaching"? The folks at the International Coach Federation (ICF) asked the same thing; and I answered. Here is a pod cast of the Special Interest Group call. Here is a description of the group. If you would like to know when these calls are so you can call in, just susbcribe to my blog and I will get you the info. Happy Listening!

Starting Feb. 3, The Equine Experiential Coaching (EEC) SIG fosters the development and acceptance of equine experiential coaching for personal and professional development of individuals and organizations. We provide a forum for the sharing of ideas, best practices and resources, and serve as an advocate for the interests of ICF equine experiential coaches. Our theme for 2009 is Facilitating the Horse/Human Coaching Partnership...

Leader(s): Rose Milbeck MBA

This program only gets better and better. It also is becoming more complex and more challenging. Rose Milbeck, an MCC from the International Coach Federation and leader of the Equine Facilitated Learning SIG, told me that Equine Alchemy's and MetaSystem Consulting Group's EAC is a huge undertaking. I agree. Learning how to be a masterful coach is a deep journey in itself. Learning how to facilitate the transformative work of the horses requires a separate skill, clarity and self evolution. Combining the two together creates potential for the ultimate transformational coaching.

With this as my context, the prospect of an Equine Assisted Coach Training program is daunting; at least when I see solely through the lens of the mind. Once I shift that perspective to include the integration of the intellect, the heart and the dantien, (the body's center of gravity, and storage center for qi, or life force, located just below and behind the navel), things begin to feel different...possible. I can feel the support of the horses and their wisdom, and I realize that I am not alone in this.

It is from this perspective of integration and support that I offered Week II of the EAC.

Although the official theme of the week was ICF's core competencies of Co-Creating the Relationship and Communicating Effectively, learning was the real foundation of the week. Here are some of the highlights.

• Integrated Learning&mdash Learning from a place of integration between the intellect, the heart, or emotion, and our dantien created the first challenge for us. We all have what I call a 'default' perspective that makes up the lens that we most often use to view the world. Through a systemic experiential exercise with the horses, students had the opportunity to learn more about their lens and its impact on how they interact with their environment. This created an opportunity for self-awareness that they carried throughout the week. Students also began to learn how to facilitate this work to support their coaching. By integrating the mind and the body, and using the body as an organ of perception, students realized that that they actually might have all that they need within themselves to go forward on their journey. For some, it was a frightening prospect.
  
• Consensual Learning vs. Teacher/Student&mdash This might be one of the most difficult challenges of learning for the group because it required such a shift. Most of us grew up in the learning paradigm of teacher and student. If you were the student, it was the teacher who had the information and their role was to give it to us. As students, it was our role to receive that information. We were more or less passengers in this learning experience. In the consensual learning paradigm, which coaching and the work with horses requires of us, we are each equally responsible for the outcome of the learning process. There is no duality of teacher/student or those that know//those that don't know. It is based upon the assumption that we each have value to offer and impact a situation; that we each have a responsibility to contribute to the process&mdash and the outcome will reflect this gestalt. The consensual learning paradigm, which requires active learning, is quite challenging for those who are waiting 'to be enlightened'! Being the expert in fixing the client is not coaching. Nor is trying to get a horse to do what you want without a connection working with horses. It is what I call 'rearranging the furniture'&mdash just another way of trying to be the expert.

I often wonder why letting go of so much responsibility is such a challenge? Wouldn't it be easier to know that you don't have to know everything? That you are not responsible for everyone else? That you are not alone? That all you need do is let go and connect?

The wisdom of the horses allows us to contemplate and feel this in our bodies. In order to do this, we must be part of the process. This is consensual learning at its most powerful.