What a Foal Taught Me About My Leadership Presence

Back in the Spring, I said an enthusiastic "yes" to Lisa Burchartz's invitation to join her at one of the Equine Leadership Retreats she was co-facilitating with Suzanne Coleman of Horse & Hands in June. (See Equine Learning Experience: Leading with Presence.) [Update - there are retreats being offered in August as well. :) ].

One reason I said "yes": because the last time I attended an equine retreat at Lisa's invitation, I learned a powerful lesson about my leadership presence. I was in awe. It felt transformational, magical even. And this spring, I was so ready for another experience like that! Maybe you are too?

Saying “yes” got me thinking about that magic - I got curious.

I realized that I wanted to circle back to that retreat and learn from more from it now, as I prepare for the next one. I wanted to savour it all over again. I also realized that I'd love to share some of what I learned in a post, with the idea of amplifying Lisa's powerful work and supporting other women's leadership - maybe you'll be inspired to join one of the retreats and experience a powerful transformation of your own. That would make me deeply glad as I’m committed to supporting women to rise into their leadership in the world.

So, here I go...

What the Foal taught me

My main takeaway from the retreat was a teaching from the beautiful foal lying on the ground at my feet in the photo above.

Her teaching to me: when I open up to connection, I am very, very trustworthy.

My latest learning, having reflecting on the retreat recently: since I have the capacity to be so trustworthy, I can trust myself even more than I already have so far. I can grow into greater self-trust as I continue to grow into my leadership. (Not surprisingly, my clients also learn to trust themselves at much deeper levels through our work together. We coaches often coach on what we also need to learn. ;))

More explanation of the trust teaching

The morning of the retreat, I went out onto the field with the horses, as instructed. I remember consciously opening my heart to the horses, to let them see and feel me, and in the hopes of seeing and feeling them, much as I do when I relate to my dog Raska. And much as I do with other people I want to connect with.

I noticed right away that opening up to connect with the horses was really different. More vast. More powerful - and Lisa would be able to explain the science behind this. To me, at a basic level it was because the horses are so darn large! I felt a bit intimidated and even fearful, even though I've always loved riding and generally feel comfortable around horses. As I opened myself up to relating to the horses in this new, really intentional, open-hearted way, just being in the field, not  about to jump on a horse's back, my discomfort was soon followed by feelings of awe...

A few minutes into being on the field, I started petting the foal's sister, the Bay (the brown horse standing) when the foal literally came in between me and her sister, and lay at my feet. The photo above captured my awe in the moment. I knew this was a significant happening but I didn't fully understand what it meant.

(A few minutes later, the resident dog, a beautiful white retriever, came and joined us, putting her paw on my knee as I crouched down to pet the foal. Wow!)

With help over the course of the day, I understood that the message I could take from this experience was that the foal found me deeply trustworthy. In the horse world, humans are predators and horses are prey. So for a baby prey animal to voluntarily come and lie at the feet of a predator, she needs to feel very very safe.

About Awe

As I wrote in my journal a few minutes after the experience, I felt AWE that day.

"Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something

vast that transcends your current understanding of the world."

- in Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

by Dacher Keltner

It was a transformational experience - I understood that there were teachers and messages that I could receive in ways I'd never really imagined or experienced before. From the horses. In embodiment. So fast, so powerful. So lasting. So enjoyable!!!

It was hard to take in at the time, it felt so big. So AWE-filled. Revisiting and savouring that day is teaching me so much more. Often, I will have an experience, even a positive one that feels so big in the moment, with so much goodness that I can’t really take it in fully… I’m learning today that it’s so powerful to circle back to these experiences and harvest even more learning and nourishment from them in reflection, with hindsight. I can feel my capacity expanding even as I write this post. I know that this increased capacity will allow me to have more expansive and compassionate leadership presence, which is something I deeply desire to cultivate in myself and in others willing to do the work with me.

An aspect of my difficulty in taking all this goodness in is that I have an old story running that all of this “work” has to be hard and a grind. (You too?) When something feels joyful and even easeful (after the initial discomfort!), even after all these years of being in the coaching world, I can still feel disbelief that it could feel so good. This is where being in connection with other people who can remind me when I start to disbelieve is so critical.

Anyway, I think you’ve probably gathered by now that the retreat was a very positive, lasting transformational experience for me. I could go on and on but for now, I’m wondering about you.

What’s next for you?

What has this post inspired in you?

What’s next for you?

Maybe an equine retreat for you too? If you're willing to invest a day being taught by some incredible equine teachers, I'm sure that you'll learn some powerful lessons about human leadership and power dynamics, just as I did.

.Come and join in on the learning! Maybe you’ll also experience some AWEsome moments along the way!