Why Horses?
The emotional fitness skills taught in workshops at MHR are the same skills that horses teach with remarkable speed during Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning. EFEL is widely practiced by organizations such as NAHRA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) and psychologists and psychiatrists as a form of alternative psychotherapy. You've probably heard of organizations that train dogs and bring them into hospitals to visit patients; these organizations are successful because humans, and particularly humans in pain or in transition, are more receptive and responsive to animals than they sometimes are to other humans. Animals encourage us to connect with how we're really feeling (our emotions) because we know instinctually that our pets don't judge us.
To horses, emotion is simply information. Because horses are preyed upon in the natural world, they maintain a highly developed ability to respond to subtle changes in stance, muscle tension, breathing, and general awareness level of other horses (as well as predators). Horses know when to move to safety (i.e. take appropriate action) and when to go back to grazing (i.e. relax). This is an ability they easily transfer to humans as they interact in a variety of settings.
In EFEL, one learns that emotion functions as a tangilble energetic force, like a sound or a smell that travels through the air, invisible yet powerful and full of information. Emotion emanates from every one of us and can be perceived by others in our general vicinity at a physical, sensory level, even when we ourselves are only subconsciously aware of the emotion we're emanating. Horses often mirror the precise emotion a human is subconsciously suppressing, and Epona-approved facilitators help humans acknowledge this emotion and decipher its significance.
Once a subconscious emotion is brought forward into conscious awareness, humans become congruent (or authentic), and the horse that mirrored the previously unacknowledged emotion will show visible signs of tension release or relaxation (such as sighing or licking his lips). It is this ability to mirror emotions that make horses such excellent teachers for their two-legged clients. Compared to most humans, horses are emotional prodigies.
Horses help humans develop emotional intelligence.
The Epona Way of the Horse approach to Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning (EFEL) focuses on developing emotional intelligence and the expansion of self-awareness. This approach was developed by Linda Kohanov, author of The Tao of Equus and Riding Between the Worlds, and as such only those individuals who have completed the Epona Apprenticeship Program can refer to themselves as "Epona-approved instructors" or "advanced facilitators" (read more about this certification on our FAQs page).
Emotions have the power to inform and protect.
Emotional intelligence provides you with the skills to be graceful under pressure, to meet life's unpredictable challenges with openness and goodwill, and to even transform the volatile moods of those around you with your calming presence. Emotional intelligence teaches you that all emotions, even the darkest ones, have the power to inform and protect you as you move through the life you've created. Acclaimed author Marianne Williamson wrote of this truth and was quoted by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. You were born to make great that which is born within each of us. It is not just in some of us, it is in all of us. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fears, our presence automatically liberates others."
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