We do not need to understand how the horse knows what we want, we need to feel it. Dr. Allan Hamilton, MD, The Neuroscience of Relating to Horses.

Equine Coaching

Words only carry some of our meaning. Much of successful communication is in the felt form of authenticity and integrity. Staying centered and connected to what’s true for us, though, can be challenging. Sometimes we’re stuck emotionally or with a decision or choice we don’t know how to make.

This is where time spent with horses, in a structured facilitation, can be very valuable.

Horses give you feedback without filters that will:

  • give you insight into your strengths and barriers as a communicator
  • show you leadership issues where change is needed
  • teach you to hold strong boundaries and authority in a new, authentic way
  • connect you to your experience of your emotions (whether grief, anger, anxiety or any other emotion)
  • show you how you’re showing up as a leader, with your clients or in your relationships

You don’t have to be comfortable, knowledgeable or familiar with horses, in order to experience these benefits.

That’s the task of your human facilitators – to support you, work with you to increase your safety, and to contribute to the deepening in your experience of the session.

I work with a gifted and experienced facilitator, Cheri Davidson, and her herd at Horse Discovery in Millbrook, Ontario (about an hour east of Toronto, Ontario).

I’ve designed two programs – the first is Be Heard: Leadership Influence and Presence and Emotions as Messengers.

Two Equine Programs

I’ve designed two programs – the first is Be Heard: Leadership Influence and Presence and Emotions as Messengers.

Be Heard

Leadership Influence and Presence

Emotions as Messengers

Self discovery through the wisdom of the horse

Be Heard

Leadership Influence and Presence

Do you want to enroll people in truly supporting a new direction?

Do you want to remove barriers to people trusting your leadership?   

Do you want people to really hear you and respond?

Leadership influence is more governed by your stance, voice tone, intentionality and authenticity, and less by the words you use. These qualities are amplified when you are true to yourself so that other people sense your trustworthiness, credibility, and integrity.

Come and spend some time with us learning how to cultivate your presence, and when and how you can become more clear and more influential in your life and as a leader.

Offered as a three part series, designed to support you to acquire the skills you need to truly be heard!   Join Marion Langford, a leadership and communication skills coach, and Cheri Davidson, communications professional and equine facilitator, as they guide your time with the horses.

Exercises will be tailored to your goals. You may wish to explore how to:

  • Align your message with your body/voice tone
  • Influence others by being authentic
  • Engage people to trust you
  • Express feedback in empathetic, powerful ways
  • Resolve a conflicted relationship at work
  • Take an unpopular or unique stand without apologizing or becoming defensively aggressive

Fees: Three Sessions Package – $875 / One Session – $295

Want to know more?

Please Note: Each session is a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the horses.

Emotions as Messengers

Self discovery through the wisdom of the horse

We all experience strong emotions from time to time that cause discomfort to ourselves and others. We can often find ourselves stuck in a pattern of reacting to our emotions by trying to suppress them, or feeling helpless that they are running us, or perhaps, you’re just feeling numb, period. What’s happening? How can you change your relationship to your emotions?

This program has been designed to help you:

  • recognize and work with the messages in your emotions
  • shift any stuck patterns in relationship
  • learn how to channel emotions, and not feel as overwhelmed by them
  • understand the invitation to taking action on what your emotions are showing you

Meet the team to support your learning:

  • Marion Langford, M.Ed, a Dynamic Emotional Integration Consultant™
    (extensive study on the human experience of emotions and empathy)
  • Cheri Davidson, FEEL Facilitator (Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning)
    Horse Discovery
  • The herd at Horse Discovery – gentle equine teachers who will allow you to see yourself and your emotions in new ways. Horses are deeply sensitive beings that offer support without judgement. Often, profound learnings are realized with very few words.
What’s included:

  • You will receive a pre-workshop Emotions Inventory to complete. This helps to highlight patterns and pinpoint the areas you want to focus on.
  • An individual session (approx. 60 minutes) to review the Emotions Inventory, and an orientation to working with your emotions as messengers.
  • Two sessions at Horse Discovery about 2 to 3 weeks apart.
  • Gift set of Emotions Cards by Karla McLaren.
I’d made the decision to release the grief that I’d been holding. This experience with the horses was very healing. I felt so safe. I’m very grateful to have had this time with the herd.
Anne D.

Want to know more?

Cost: $485.00 for 4 plus hours of coaching

Stories of Working with Horses

I chose to step into the paddock with all five horses. Cheri and Marion lent me their verbal support and encouragement, their presence and their attention to safety as I stood amidst these big warm animals.

It’s not easy to put the experience into words- because there are no words used. …I felt warm and grounded and secure. … I was held in a gentle communion of these two horses, warm and silent, and completely safe. I felt still and accepted, protected in a newly discovered sense of animal community. And all I had to do was be open, and accept what was being given.

That’s an easy sentence to type- but as any only child will tell you, it’s not always easy to do. As any busy woman might tell you- letting go, and standing still: easier said than done. And as a divorcee finding new relationships in the world, feeling safe and accepted was new and immeasurably moving.

To be able to do this, and then make sense of it in words later, with Marion and Cheri as witnesses to the whole dance, was a gift I will never forget.

Bonnie Miller, MSW

Even though I’m an experienced equine coach, you introduced me to a way of working that was new for me. As the experience unfolded, I went deeply into old memories, stories, and emotions. I was able to process them in a way I could never have done by myself. With you and your gentle horse guiding the way, I unraveled old patterns and rewrote old stories about my father and my self I used to tell myself.

The change inside of me was immediate and profound and life-changing.

Bobbi McIntyre

40 Year Veteran of US Navy and Marine Corps

Over the last two years I’ve been untangling some deeply engrained emotional patterns.

After discussing what it was that I was looking to achieve, Marion and Cheri curated a session to allow me to experience deeper authenticity.

Partway through the session I experienced an intense pain in my throat that led me to ask for more support. Doing so was a huge break through for me. At the end when I decided to lay on my back in the middle of the pasture, Kola my equine partner, came over and gave me just the right amount of space and attention that validated what I was feeling in my body: safety, courage, peace, and satisfaction.

Since the session I’ve been able to find the courage to try things in the complete opposite way of what I have done in my life. I’m developing confidence that carries with it a horse like ease and grace.

Whatever it is you are looking to discover or work through, I cannot recommend this experience highly enough. Five Stars. Above and beyond what I expected. Marion’s experience with emotions and Cheri’s experience with horse facilitated learning, well, I don’t think there is anything more deeply and profoundly magical.

Andrea Watkins

VP , Culture and People