PARTNER WITH HORSES - TRANSFORM YOUR LEADERSHIP
EMBODIMENT EDITION
SESSION 2 OF 4
What is emerging through you at this time - in your leadership and in your personal and professional initiatives?
How is it to engage what is present and emergent from a place of empowered, embodied leadership?
Leadership that is deeply attuned to the subtle rhythms of your desires, your body, your initiative, and all the dynamics you are co-creating with.
Join equine learning facilitator Bridgit Wald of EquusLibere on a 5 week exploration and practice of cultivating the embodied leadership necessary for skillful development of these emergent themes and initiatives.
Please note that on colder days and days with snow/rain we will be in a heated indoor arena at 40-50 F for the majority of the experience, so we will be warm and dry regardless of outdoor weather and temperature.
This series merges equine learning with Theory U, which is a process for the development of personal and organizational initiatives developed by Otto Scharmer of MIT. Theory U offers a specific process for sensing into what is emergent within our personal and professional initiatives, crystallizing and clarifying what is ready to take shape, and bringing these initiatives to life.
Equine facilitated learning involves groundwork exercises that unite horse and human in a co-learning process that reveals the way participants relate to themselves and others and offers a practice ground for embodied growth. Through partnering with the horses, participants explore self-inquiry, deep listening, boundaries, self-mastery, collaborative leadership, non-predatory uses of power, and more. Immediate and actionable feedback from the horses facilitates the integration of new leadership styles and behaviors in real-time.
Each session will involve meditative, hands-off introductory exercises interwoven with hands-on relational exercises, which in Theory U terms we we call sensing, deepening levels of listening in relationship, and presencing. As we move through the series and clarify the shape and direction our initiatives are taking, we will engage more hands-on performative exercises that reveal blind spots and habitual, unconscious patterns in the actions we are taking. In the Theory U framework, this stage of working with our initiative is called crystallizing, prototyping, and performing.
Whether you are up-leveling professionally, seeking to engage a committed practice of presence in your day to day life, wanting to be a more nurturing mother… we all have areas of our lives that we are further developing and deepening into at this time. This is a powerful opportunity to engage with the possibilities and challenges that are present at this time.
What are the unique, powerful aspects of your personal leadership that enable your success? And how do voices of fear, judgement, or cynicism present obstacles to what you are called to be and create?
As we move through the series, we will explore the ways in which what you’re ready to bring to life can move through in its most potent forms.
Details and Logistics:
There are 6 spaces available!
Dates and times:
April 5 - 10:30 AM-1 PM
April 12 - 1:30-4 PM
April 26 - 1:30-4 PM
May 3 - 1:30-4 PM
For participants who register for the series, the total cost is $220 ($55/session).
*Noting that registrants for the series have priority due to the power of consistent practice and group cohesion
Space allowing, drop-ins are welcome and are $60/session.
Sessions take place at a beautiful 45-acre ranch dedicated to natural horse care and training. Driving and parking instructions, waivers, the intake questionnaire, and other logistics will be sent upon registration.
All participants will be sent a questionnaire in advance surrounding their horse experience along with pre-session reflection questions centered around what is emergent at this time in their personal and professional leadership.
Please contact us to register. Payment information will be sent with the questionnaires.
Please reach out if you have any questions to bridgit@equuslibere.com or give us a call at 508 939 1065
What clients are saying...
Bridgit has a gift that is hard to put into words. She is gentle, kind, warm, patient, articulate and aware. She's not only aware of each individual she's working with, but aware of the group and what it needs in order to have an incredible experience with the horses.
Witnessing Bridgit's connection and relationship with the horses we worked with was an education in and of itself. She was able to transfer her knowledge and wisdom of the horses to our group. We each had experiences in working with the horses that exposed the art of leading, following, surrendering, partnering and ultimately connecting. It was incredible to witness this work with a horse and then relate it back to my everyday life.As someone that is not always comfortable around animals, she also made me feel safe, supported and interested in the work we did.
-Stacey Lambatos, Founder of CAYA Studios
"Bridgit and the horses uniquely show us sides of our behaviors that are often hidden from our own view. Little, if anything, is hidden from the horse and Bridgit is a great intermediary, putting into language possibilities to shift (e.g. unease, being inauthentic, fear) and other behaviors and emotional states that in other contexts limit our freedom and fulfillment. Go for it, especially if you have any sense at all that this adventurous form of learning will serve you in your life."
-Jeremy Nash, Leadership Development Consultant at Social Craftsmanship LLC
“I have been with our time together all day- resonating with tracking where I have arrived and opening to the feel of new possibilities; speaking with a friend today about my own experience and hearing the chills it brought to her being. I want to thank each of you for showing up; I feel such hope as I listened to each of you speak your desires and also where you get caught up. The gift the horses bring to me is that immediate feedback of where I am - when I am deeply connected and when I am not connected. I am so grateful for the work! Bridgit, I was reflecting on the way home what an amazing space you hold- not only do you tend the space for us humans, you also tend space for what is going on with the horses and when we meld, the whole. Wow!”
-Elizabeth Rohr, Facilitator at She is Rising
Common Questions:
Why work with horses?
55 million years of wisdom are present in the survival, resilience, and thriving of horses, whose social order and leadership structures, keen, embodied sensory capacities, and versatility has made them one of the most successful mammals on the planet. When we work with horses, we are students of this wisdom, absorbing and integrating the information in their bodies, actions, and feedback as we partner with them in relational practices.
The electromagnetic space taken up by their hearts and nervous systems is 4-5 larger than those of humans and literally positively overwhelms our bodies. A host of studies have been released that map correlations between proximity with horses and increased Heart Rate Variability, a strong indicator of regulation, improved immune function, and a host of other powerful physiological markers. As people experience increased regulation, they feel safety, ease, and deeper states of presence and awareness of themselves and their bodies.
As our bodies change and we are able to connect with and engage horses from greater awareness and regulation, we can engage with what is present and emergent within us from a far deeper place of listening. From this place of awareness, can receive the rich, truth-telling feedback they offer about our internal states and how it is we move through the world. They are continuously offering an enormous amount of data that, when read and translated, can help us to become more conscious and self-aware agents across all areas of our lives. We engage this information as we work with the horses individually and as a group, integrating the insights that arise in real-time.
Explore how partnering with horses in the context of a group of individuals committed to the practice can support what you are being called to be and create in your leadership, your initiatives, and your life.
Do I need horse experience?
No horse experience is necessary (in fact, often less is better!) and all activities take place on the ground. We work with a wonderful herd of horses that are well handled, good-natured, and specifically chosen for their suitability for these kinds of activities. We go through a thorough safety lesson and ensure all participants feel safe throughout the program.
How does this series compare to the immersive workshop?
Both this series and the workshop explore similar questions and offer unique, equine-partnered individual and group processes around embodied leadership development. The main differences between the five week course and the immersive afternoon surround exploring and deepening into similar themes over an afternoon versus over a 5 week span. The choice of which option is most appropriate depends on your availability, commitment desire at this time, and discerning whether short versus longer term group continuity and collaborative work is the best fit. Both options offer a powerful equine-guided platform to work with emergent themes in your life and to explore the ways you are ready to bring them into the world through the vehicle of empowered, embodied leadership.
When we work with the horses, what do we practice?
When we partner with horses on the ground, we work through a variety of relational exercises with and without lead lines that reveal how we are showing up in our individual and collaborative leadership. Individual horses and the herd offer real-time feedback that can be integrated and embodied in real time.
As we work with the horses, the following are key development areas:
*Embodying authentic, powerful modes of relational leadership
*Powerful presence and understanding unique energetic impact *Development and mastery of non-verbal skills
*Cultivation of resilience in the face of obstacles
*Producing internal and external trust and safety
*Cultivation of flexible leadership that can pivot with ease
*Developing versatility in adapting to different lead-follow styles
*Deepening the capacity to self-regulate
*Clarity of intention
*Establishing and taking coherent strategic direction
*Integrating linear and nonlinear decision making processes
*Accessing intuition and wisdom
*Mindfulness tools that enhance presence and listening capacities
..& more
About the facilitator:
Bridgit Wald is the founder and lead facilitator of EquusLibere. She offers coaching, leadership development, and facilitation for individuals, groups, and organizations domestically and internationally through EquusLibere as well as through her work with corporations as an organizational development consultant. EquusLibere programs are informed by her lifelong studies in various horsemanship disciplines alongside mentorship in a variety equine facilitated learning methodologies including EQUUS facilitated learning, EAGALA, and E3A. She is a certified coach, experiential facilitator, and has trained in a variety of human systems disciplines, including Theory U, Design Thinking, and regenerative systems frameworks.