Leadership lessons with horses
Lee Murphy meets a CLA member who is embarking on a unique diversification that is combining her passion for horses with her skills of delivering leadership training
Eileen Harte and her husband Keith moved from Ireland to the UK 20 years ago and spent 15 years renting stables and land in Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire for their horse racing stud business. Keen to find a home of their own the couple bought Mill Farm in north Essex in 2019, conveniently located within an hour of Newmarket.
Alongside the running of the stud farm with her husband, Eileen has spent 10 years developing a coaching and therapy business for those who work within the equine industry. She is soon to be a qualified psychotherapist and her latest venture combines her passion for horses with her knowledge of mentoring and supporting others.
Eileen has teamed up with long-time friend Gaurav Rampal – a specialist in horse assisted education – to launch The Horseman Way in the UK. The initiative is a leadership and development training programme for senior leaders that uses horses as the mechanism for learning.
The sessions take place in the centre of a manège and participants sit in the arena for the duration of the workshop. Across the day there are various interactions with horses designed to help participants hone their communication and negotiation skills, their understanding of others and their own strengths and weaknesses.
“As an employer and bringing young people into the equine industry I started mentoring and I found it so enjoyable and rewarding that I decided to do some leadership training,” says Eileen.
“The idea of using the farm as a base for my work was always in my mind – and then we decided that we’ve got these beautiful equines here and that we should incorporate them into the learning and leadership development.
“You learn so much about yourself first and foremost when you enter an arena with horses. That awareness is really going to help you to know what kind of a leader you are and what kind of a team player you are.”
Eileen adds: “We can see characteristics in the horses that we may have in our human teams and it is fascinating to see how a group interacts in this environment.”
Gaurav Rampal, the training facilitator, set up a Horseman Way programme in India and has found groups undertaking similar training in the United States and in Europe.
Gaurav explains where this unique concept has come from. “I used to teach in business schools in India and it was when those learning sessions would happen that I found I was repeatedly saying to myself that you could learn this better with horses. So that is how I started developing the idea.”
Gaurav added: “Every interaction with horses, is a lesson in negotiation and leadership. The training is about enhancing your emotional intelligence, your critical thinking and your people management skills. It is a full day for senior leaders where they will develop some important life skills.”
The training is designed to appeal to those who work in a corporate setting in London and other cities but equally for local businesses who are looking to develop the skills of their senior leaders.
Empathy driven training
Within the training there is a significant focus on greater empathy within teams and how this can have a positive impact on cultures and organisations.
“As humans we might be the most evolved race but look at what is happening in the world around us,” says Gaurav. “Lack of meaningful connection adversely impacts trust, purpose and growth. It is frustrating when a team is not aligned for optimum performance.”
Animal intelligence
Based on biomimicry, which is the idea that nature has already solved some of the problems facing the human race, the training uses horse psychology and kinesthetics (sensory perception of movements) to help participants to develop their emotional intelligence. Gaurav says this is a key part of the training. “We harness the natural instinct and natural abilities of the horses and in doing so enhance human interactions.”
One participant who took part in a session at the launch of the Horseman Way in Essex said: “Over several hours we got to go through different exercises with the horses and the session asked you to open up and was a bit more confronting. It encouraged you to reflect more on your behaviours in the workplace. I’ve done quite a lot of these corporate training sessions and this was certainly a unique approach.”
Another participant on the day said: “I thought it was a very powerful approach. Having four thoroughbred horses roaming around the group instantly makes it very real. All of the exercises we do with them [the horses] strips back inter-human pretence that we put on when we interact with each other. You get to the learnings, the lessons and realisations quite quickly.”
Eileen and Keith joined the CLA having seen a presentation from a senior adviser at the Glamping Show about rural planning. They signed up to membership knowing they would need advice on a range of landownership matters when they buying their farm.
They have used the free CLA advisory service, which forms part of the membership, on everything from planning, tree planting and rewilding to septic tanks and broadband issues.
"I hadn’t heard of the CLA before the Glamping Show, and I was so impressed with all the services it offered,” says Eileen. “We had so many questions for the CLA team and they were able to help us with as we progressed with the purchase of the farm."