Canada Equine ...On-Line News: Teaming Up with Equine Wise

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Teaming Up with Equine Wise

November 9, 2005

People who just a few minutes before had been total strangers, were now required to work together as two teams. The task was to somehow get Babs across a hurdle set up in the middle of the arena. Photo Credit: Susan Borland ©Pondside Web Productions

Strathcona County, Alberta --- Exclusive to Alberta Equine …On-Line --- A mild November morning in Strathcona County was the perfect setting for a fun event at Equine Wise Services, operating out of Jenovation Farm, 40 minutes southeast of Edmonton. Equine Wise Services is Angie Jensen, a horse specialist residing outside of Tofield, and her business partner Terry Wilton, a chartered psychologist from Camrose. They invited a group of business, professional and media people to take part in a team-building exercise. Jensen and Wilton's business uses an innovative approach and offers professional development programs for companies and professionals who ‘want to increase their effectiveness through a generous dose of horse sense’.

Jensen and Wilton are members of EAGALA, the Equine Assisted Growth & Learning Association. EAGALA was created in 1999 in the United States, and began with a man named Greg Kersten, and a social worker, Lynn Thomas, who worked together at a youth treatment facility called Aspen Ranch. The pair started developing a series of techniques to bring horses together with the people who need their help. EAGALA was born soon after, and today, there are certified EAGALA therapists in Canada and the U.S., social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals whom have all taken the training pioneered by Greg and Lynn. This unique blend of human and animal interaction ‘helps human herds become more effective’ as Equine Wise Services tells us.

So how do these exercises unfold? Shorty, Lollipop and Babs, (two mules and a twenty-five year old Arabian mare), were waiting in the arena to help the folks with the day’s particular exercise, but first the participants had to decide what kind of equine personality best suited them. Picking from lists hanging on the wall in the cozy cabin where they were briefed, the group of about fifteen people matched themselves with traits attributed to Arabians, mules, draft horses, thoroughbreds or quarter horses. Then with equine personalities on display along with their nametags, the group was guided into the nearby arena.

Here Wilton outlined the rules; people who just a few minutes before had been total strangers were now required to work together as two teams. The task was to somehow get Shorty, Babs or Lollipop across a hurdle set up in the middle of the arena. “You need to accomplish tasks without talking to one another”, Wilton told the groups, “no touching or talking to the animals.” Further, the groups had to think of a consequence should they break the rules – bowing to the animals and a group hug were the consequences chosen – and the groups were allowed to use only items that were in the arena.

With these simple instructions, teamwork began. There was a great deal of laughter and running about the arena as the first group attempted to complete their task; Babs, clearly the leader of her small equine group, eyed the people trailing her, and took off with her faithful mules following behind her, while the human team did their best to complete the task before Wilton called for the other team to try their luck. After several attempts, both teams succeeded, and horse and mules retired to one corner of the arena, with a well deserved round of applause following them. Meanwhile Wilton and Jensen explained how the recently completed team task could translate to just about any challenge we might face during our daily lives.

Back in the cabin, the groups were able to discuss how they worked together as teams, how the various stresses of the task – unfamiliarity with the arena, the animals, the materials provided and the people involved – could be overcome with humour and support from one another, and sheer inspired brain power. For example, a very bright lady, Brenda, checked out the hurdle and simply lowered the bar! As Wilton comments, “What would it mean to lower the bar in your business, in your life? It might mean less stress!” This commonsense, simple approach to problem solving is a key factor to success, not only for getting a mule or a horse over a hurdle, but for all of life’s hurdles.

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