DIALOGUE
The equine-assisted industry has always attracted a cast of characters who create “certifications” and trainings. These range from organizations with memberships to individual practitioners who brand their style and way of facilitating into a package that is sold to hungry equine-loving people.
My client, Nicole from Detroit Horse Power (DHP) and I decided to attend the annual conference of one of these organizations. We’ll call it Hooves and Humans Association (H&HA). It was a perfect opportunity for Nicole and I to spend a couple hours in a car together getting to and from the event, as well as her first immersion into the culture of one of the many equine-assisted training organizations. During the three-hour ride, we easily bonded over our shared commitment to DHP, its’ mission, and horses in general. Throwing in a little interesting family member stories cemented our friendship!
I’d been helping DHP’s founder, David Silver, from his beginning over a decade ago. He attended a customized training for equine facilitators at my farm before he started leading his first summer camps. For the last few years, I’d been consulting with Nicole and David to support them in creating an equine-assisted leadership program. We’re targeting individuals and organizations living and working in the Detroit area who are seeking professional development and personal growth opportunities. Once the 10-million-dollar equestrian center is built in the heart of the city and the youth programs are running smoothly, plans are to launch these leadership offerings.
The vision is to have a “stable” (bad pun intended) of facilitators available. For example, when a potential client is interested in DHP’s leadership program we will match them with a provider that can deliver the outcomes they seek. This could range from solving ineffective communication, or healthy conflict, to developing high-performance teams.
The work we are doing now is to build the infrastructure or framework. This means we are mining the industry for best practices, while seeking solutions that happily marry with the DHP youth programs. The more educated Nicole can get about the equine-assisted industry, the better she can guide our process of introducing potential equine-assisted learning partners; encouraging them to become co-creators of our offerings.
Nicole and I arrived at the conference hotel, grabbed our luggage out of the back seat of her Jeep and headed toward the hotel registration desk. After checking into our rooms, we agreed to meet back in the lobby in 15 minutes, to check into registration together.
At the agreed time, we be-lined toward the conference registration tables. Two smiling ladies in cowboy hats and matching turquoise t-shirts featuring a horse logo greeted us. They checked our names off their computer list and handed us a flyer with a QR code of the conference schedule. They instructed us to pick up our nametag on the table next them, then decorate it with a variety of ribbons indicating our interests. They invited us to grab a pop, coffee, and snacks that were at the far end of the room near the exit door. They completed their introductory spiel by letting us know that the opening plenary session would begin after lunch in the Spartan Conference room just across from the registration tables. The morning sessions were labeled with signs outside each breakout room.
Nicole and I thanked them and took our name tags over to the table covered in brightly colored ribbons. Checking out some of the other attendees, we noticed people with long “tails” of many ribbons layered, stuck together one after and another.
The light blue ribbon said “Facilitator”. The pink, blue, and rainbow ones indicated different gender preferences. There was a yellow one with the letters “DEI Stakeholder” and an orange one with the words “Mental Health” on it. There were several that we were confused about and didn’t recognize their meaning. We determined that those ribbons must be for members of H&HA. Since we were new to the organization, we felt left out and excluded. Which, ironically, is the core value of this organization – that EVERYONE belongs.
Lastly, the turquoise one had the letters “EFL” for equine-facilitated learning. EFL is an interesting choice, since seven industry leaders worked for two years on a terminology paper. They concluded that for all things equine learning related, aka nontherapy, the services should be labeled equine-assisted learning in education, EAL in organizations, and EAL in Professional Development.
This white paper was intended for the industry to come together, eliminating the multitude, I mean hundreds, of confusing acronyms. The hope was that by creating and agreeing to a universal language, research would be more recognized, with potential funding sources realizing that equine-assisted and equine-facilitated could actually be one in the same.
Nicole and I tried to figure out what ribbons we related too. I selected EFL (since there was no EAL) and DEI Stakeholder. Nicole felt she could only represent DEI Stakeholder. We commented to each other how we felt like we weren’t part of the in-crowd because of our lack of ribbons. We also noted that for an organization that prides itself on inclusivity, our first introduction was just the opposite.
We each attended different sessions throughout the rest of the morning, meeting up at lunch to compare notes. Each of experienced a “sit and git” type session with the presenter in the front of the room sharing a power point. Death by power point is one of my main complaints about conferences, especially in a field where we practice experiential learning.
My frustration for it is followed closely by “the sage on the stage”. I shared my perspectives with Nicole, who appreciates my intolerance, though neither bothers her nearly as much as it does me. If we’re such experts at creating engaging learning environments, then why oh why don’t these horse people learn to do better and be better. It’s one thing for “regular” people to not be familiar with connection before content. It’s another for an industry that literally embraces somatic practices each time they invite a client to their space. “How can these people be so ignorant or tolerant?” I ranted to Nicole.
After lunch we sat next to each other in a large hall filled with about 250 attendees. The presentation took place in the front of the room (of course!) with two presenters zooming in because they had conflicts in their schedules and couldn’t join us live. The third monitor featuring a presenter was because she had tested positive for Covid just prior to leaving for the event.
An additional two women sat in chairs on the stage with microphones in hand. The session was to share the story about the aforementioned terminology white paper. Each of the presenters, the three zooming in and the one on the stage sat on the two-year committee determined to come to a consensus regarding language. Our host, Margaret, the Executive Director of Hooves and Humans Association was the monitor for the session.
At some point Margaret referred to her work as EFL. My head quickly swiveled to turn wide-eyed to Nicole, mouthing the gesture of biting my tongue. Not one person on the panel questioned Margaret’s reference! Nobody in the room questioned her as to why she had not adopted the new terminology. This was the opposite of a dialogue. It was an outrage to me, lacking so much integrity, it took everything in me to stay in my seat.
After the session, Nicole and I stood in the open conference area, reliving what we just witnessed. I shared with her that I was disappointed that none of the women who devoted so much time and energy to creating a universal language even inquired as to why Margaret preferred EFL. Sadly, I shared, this is another example of the lack of investment, or healthy risk taking, which was undermining the potential power the industry could collectively deliver.
I further explained to her that through dialogue we’re able to allow for difference, seeking understanding. I mused aloud that if they’d have had that conversation in a horse pasture, the horses would have called BS, relocating as far away from these inauthentic people as possible. As with the equine work, we both left the conference with new unexpected insights by staying open to what emerged right in front of us.
Recall a time when you’ve wanted to challenge someone on a statement they’ve made. If you did, what were the circumstances that allowed you to move into that space? If you didn’t, what were the barriers that stopped you?
Have you been challenged by someone on a statement you’ve made? How did that make you feel? What did you do about it?
When entering into future conversations, what can you do to invite inquiry and dialogue? How will you know you’re successful?