Acton, MA - January 20, 2007 - An Oklahoma bank vice president discovered through a horse that his management style was much like that of a bear.

The realization came through an exercise at the E.A.G.L.E.S. (Equine Assisted Goals For Leadership Enhancement) Leadership Seminar, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At Tim Manson's program of equine experiential education called Innovative Horizons, the executive was asked to halter a black mare in the pasture and bring her to the group.

The V.P. got within four feet of her, and she walked away. Five times this occurred, and by then everyone in the group had completed the exercise and had their horses. This was the guy in charge - and had come with a self-imposed notion that he should know why it wasn’t working. He walked faster. She walked away faster. Frustrated, he threw up his hands and ran towards her. She ran away. He shifted and haltered a sorrel horse that was easily captured.

Manson knew that black mare was hard to catch. An accomplished horseman he found what worked for the individual horse: after repeated attempts that she would not run from him if he crouched and made himself smaller.

"What do you think that guy looked like to a horse in the wild?" Manson asked the group. "A bear," came a voice.

"Boss, are you a bear in the office?" Manson surveyed the team after he asked, and everyone was nodding.

"Yes, I am, and that's something I need to change." Everyone's mouth dropped.

Manson spoke months later with an employee from the group; he heard the boss had toned down his approach.

Horses respond in an unfiltered way to aspects of people's behavior. Says Manson: "Horses have been acclimated to people, responding to them like a 'herd' in domestication. If the business team is not successfully working together, the horse, as team member, illustrates through his response. Manson says the method tends to stick better in people's minds because it's so different.

Though leadership seminars have been around for some time, the horse is bringing group awareness together in a novel way that large companies, including: Pfizer, Proctor and Gamble, Wells Fargo, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed-Martin, and the U.S. Army have found it works better.

Equine experiential education is a relatively new method of teaching. The process is effective because the horse provides a unique form of undisguised feedback to what is going on emotionally with a person. And the horse does that in a relatively psychologically safe way, one that fosters trust for processing information and self awareness. "The way we act, interact and react with the horses is the same way we interact with the work environment. This is how horses can show us what we need to change about our workplace approaches," he says.

Manson's clients include the U.S. Army, Lockheed Martin and the Bank of Oklahoma. He brings up the analogy of the horse's group again, to illustrate another dynamic of the business team: "We are like a herd. There are leaders and followers." Clients learn about the difference between a dominant or passive form leadership style. 'Passive' means leading without dominant force. The approach works best with horses, and people learn how it works to create trust in the human herd. The dominant horse may get the food and water first, by kicking and biting. The dominant human, he explains, may get the person to do what it wants, but not in a satisfying way.

In a program, Manson asked two groups of military and civilian defense contractors to design an obstacle course (left) of back up poles, turns and cavaletti and lead the horse through. The final exercise was to be done without physically touching the horse, but both teams were allowed to practice with a lead rope by leading the horse over the jump to show the horse what they were asking. One group, led by an Army Lieutenant Colonel, and comprised largely of senior management, set up a complicated course and tried a more 'dominant' approach of having the horse go through. The group pushed at the horse's rump, and waved at him. There was constant pressure without cessation - in the horse's view no reward for cooperating.

An administrative assistant in the team tried a 'passive' approach - she jumped the jump five times. Then she stood behind the shoulder of the horse, which is where a herd leader would stand, explained Manson. Though she had no horse experience, she led the horse gently through and dropped the pressure as soon as he moved - the effective concept of training. He 'followed' the leader over the jump.

On the other team, headed by a non-commissioned officer, they had tried the same approach - to push a paint horse through a course, one that turned out to be simpler. Eventually they tried the passive approach and were successful. "The horse recognizes what is the right kind of pressure," says Manson.

Jose Segarra, head real-estate broker of Exit HomeVets Realty in Killeen, Texas, who attended a two day team-building program with his staff at Manson's, observed: "Sometimes we take it for granted that others really may not have an understanding of what we are trying to do or accomplish. With the horse, once they understood what you were trying to do, then they did it, but it took us several attempts to figure out what it was that motivated the horse to get them to cooperate."

At Strozzi Ranch in Valley Ford, California, Ariana Strozzi, a pioneer in the field of equine experiential education, formed Equine Guided Education (EGE). Her work with horses has spanned thirty-seven years, including eventing and western reining. She has taught Leadership and Horses seminars around the country for over sixteen years, primarily from the 180-acre ranch . She says she sees a shift from the nineties... that an awakening in the sense of spirit is happening. And the horse, as a being with an unconditional view of external matters, fosters the spirit.

Strozzi illustrates: One exercise involves lunging the horse on a long line. A dialogue begins about pertinent work situations - what does the person want to create in their life? The business company's group contributes to the discussion in working out a resolution to the stated objective the team wants to work on. "The horse becomes a member of the team who mirrors each person's personal leadership style," she explains. A presenter knowledgeable in reading horse behavior can understand and interpret the metaphor. In seminars, the horse's straightforward response to emotional ambivalence helps draw a parallel to the specific goal of the participant.

A successful dot.com executive participating in one of Strozzi's seminars prepared to lunge a horse. The horse, though well trained in lunging, wouldn't move. A discussion started, to discover if there was an internal block... was there a connection with the horse's refusal to move? The client had been thinking he should start another dot.com business in order to make more money. The discussion continued about whether this was fulfilling for him, or it was just about the money.

"What's in your heart?" Strozzi asked.

Another participant pressed him: "Dude, what toots your horn?"

"Photography," he said. "But I don't see how I can make a living.

Strozzi sought to open the channel: "But that's the judgment."

A participant responded in the brainstorming: "What if you marry technology with photography?"

Strozzi says the leadership style shows up in a variety of equine activities. The horse is a good training partner because he has to have a leader. "For example," says Strozzi, "when a person gets out in front of the horse, he is literally cutting off the horse's ability to perform for him, which usually is confirmed by his human team members who report that he gives them projects to do and then takes over and doesn't let them take any initiative. They get stopped the way the horse does. Or the person who is too focused on analyzing details can't get the horse to take action, rather than the horse stands quietly by their side demonstrating the lack of action in relying on intellectual prowess alone."

"Horses pick up on the energy a person brings to them," explains Lynn Baskfield, who with Ann Romberg own Wisdom Horse Coaching in Minneapolis. Their clients include senior management teams from Medtronics, the oil refinery corporation Flint Hills Resources, and the hospital consortium Catholic Health Initiatives. Baskfield and Romberg design the initial stage of their custom leadership seminars to quiet the body and the mind. It's about stopping the business mentality that says "reflection doesn't count in work - we have too much to do," says Baskfield. "To achieve a goal , whether it be building trust, improving communication, leading more effectively, developing a team, or building confidence, physical and psychological presence are key," explains Romberg.

Whether there be, in the branches of equine experiential education, distinctions of application by the name of equine guided education, equine experiential learning or equine assisted learning, the horse is not a means to an end. He is, says Manson, a "cofacilitator, a partner."