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.