Team building, mindfulness & leadership skills with horses at Horse Haven Uk is aimed toward the Corporate Market.

Give your team a bonding experience and 2 days to remember.  Working with the horses here at Horse Haven Uk will involve stepping out of the logical head space and getting in touch with the kinaesthetic side of your nature. Time to move out of the “comfort zone”.


How can leading a horse help me in the workplace?

This is a common question and a valid one that I will attempt to answer.

Leading is leading whether it be horses or people.

How difficult can it be to lead a horse from A to B? Simple surely, it’s just a horse.

Well, actually horses being prey animals have highly tuned senses and the ability to read you very quickly. They have to in order to keep themselves safe.

Horses like a leader to be positive, congruent, respectful and trustworthy. They also need to feel that you know where you are going in order to follow your lead.

All attributes that make a good leader.

So, you have a horse on a lead rope and off you go.

What if the horse won’t go with you or what if he suddenly stops without being asked?

Hmmm what are we going to do? Maybe we could get more forceful or dominant. That might work but it certainly wouldn’t get respect and you wouldn’t have a willing team member following in trust, ready to be loyal to you.

One suggestion could be that some of the attributes for being a good leader in the moment are missing. Could be lack of congruence so what you were saying and doing didn’t match. The horse would pick up on this immediately and react accordingly.

Should you go the route of dominance and it worked that team member would likely go back to the team (herd in the case of the horse) and say something like “I wouldn’t trust that guy if I were you, doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing, bit of a bully really”.

Now, as a result of that you have lost respect of the whole team just because of 1 member and gossip quickly spreads.

Sure, there may have been a result but only out of fear of losing their position in the team.

Lots to think about and potential areas to address for increased efficiency and good relationships


As a team you might be asked to lead a horse without a rope through an obstacle course in order to reach a certain goal.

A herd works as a team with very definite roles.

The lead mare will go up front to show the way, some of the others will flank either side and the stallion will take up the rear.

This is teamwork at its best, they accept each others position in the group. They work together as one in order to safely and efficiently reach their destination. There is no room for ego.

So now as a group you have to decide who takes what role. That might be based on each persons position in the company or it could be that as a team each person has recognized certain abilities in other members.

Could be a challenge. 

This is a simple outline of how spending time with horses can enhance your efficiency and communication skills in the workplace. There is so much more to it.

Obviously, horses do not have verbal language so have to depend entirely on body language to communicate.

This can be fascinating to observe. They move each other around without aggression. It could be a simple swish of the tail, flick of the ear or even a gentle nip on the bum if necessary.

They are very clear in their intentions and you can determine what mood they are in just by observing their expressions.

What if we could do that with people, how many arguments could be avoided, how much frustration alleviated?

Well we can if we are willing to step out of the comfort zone, move out of our heads for a while and experience our other senses.

Most people are familiar with body language but what about personal energy levels? By recognizing our energy levels and learning to modify them we can create all manner of changes, both for ourselves and others around us.

Simple shifts in our energies can motivate others and ourselves. Another shift could calm a situation or diffuse an argument.

The possibilities are limitless.

It is well known that spending time outdoors and being present in the moment can have a marked effect on mood.

I saw an article recently where Doctors in Scotland are prescribing time out in nature for anxiety, stress and depression.

Taking time out from everyday life, spending time outdoors in nature. Being mindful of thoughts and feelings, your own and others can have a great impact on stress and anxiety.

Stepping out of the comfort zone can be challenging.

However, when you move from the busy, thinking head space into the more feeling, intuitive heart space. Watch the herd and create bonds with the horses something happens to enable you to communicate more clearly and discover ways of being more productive whilst enabling you to control personal stress levels.

Horses utilize these skills to perfection. They are very clear in their expressions and you cannot invade their personal boundaries.

How many times do Humans say something when they actually mean something else?

We can appear dismissive or rude as we may be speaking to someone but our thoughts are elsewhere.

That is incongruent and can make others feel uncomfortable or unimportant without them even knowing why.

Sometimes we allow people to invade our personal space (boundaries) which can be uncomfortable. Other times our boundaries can be so big that we seem unapproachable.

These are some of the skills that observing and being with horses can teach us.

These skills can be taken into the workplace. Into our everyday lives to enable us to become more efficient and form better, more co-operative relationships.

At Horse Haven Uk we offer bespoke 2 day events for Companies that wish to offer their Team an experience. To enable them to spend valuable bonding time together and discover skills that can enhance efficiency and foster good relationships within the workplace.

To learn more or arrange a very special bespoke event for your team contact Suzannah on 01458 860186/07545 139009 or email


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