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Bucking Tradition: Business leaders learn work skills from horses

Christa Batton struggled for 20 minutes.She and her three teammates wanted to coax a 1,000-pound horse through an obstacle course. But they couldn't touch her, bribe her or use a rope. Such were the rules of employment.

Shawnee, a gray mix of a Shetland pony and an Arabian, would not budge for anything. "We're having some issues here with the horses cooperating." The self-appointed top manager offered a few tips. "You don't have to touch someone to pressure them," said Mary Malek. She stood in the face of one of Batton's teammates. "See? I'm pressuring you, but I'm not touching you," she said. It was worth a try. The teammate stood next to Shawnee and waved his hands in front of her - No go. Time to try something else.

Batton's gaze shifted to a pair of miniature donkeys who had moseyed onto the obstacle course. One of them, Tyrone, chomped into an orange cone and playfully nodded his head. "When corporate said a horse, did they mean we could only use a horse?" Batton asked. "I think any beast will do," Malek said.

Batton approached Tyrone and his pal, Kenny. But the once playful donkeys wanted nothing to do with the group. Donkeys don't like to be pressured. Tyrone and Kenny kicked their hind feet, snorted and made a run for it in the L-shaped pasture.

Self-discovery

Sue Thomas stood with her hands in her pockets and smiled. The labors of Batton and Malek in the pasture of Edge of Freedom Farms in Portage County had a purpose. Thomas believed their struggles would eventually lead them to face their leadership weaknesses and come to know their strengths.

Batton, 41, and Malek, 38, had spent the previous day searching their souls and challenging themselves during the workshop, "'Unharnessing your Leader Self." By the end of this day, the workshop's last, they'd have a plan to become better leaders. Their bosses had such high hopes for the program they paid $995 for the training.

Horses are used in psychotherapy, but using the animals for business workshops is unusual. It's an "innovative way to add an experiential piece to leadership development besides normal classroom learning," said Thomas, founder of Leadership Equine Assisted Development.

Thomas developed the workshops, which combine her vocation as a human resources consultant and her love of horses. This was her first leadership workshop using the animals. She has run several team-building workshops at her friend's farm.

Horses are the perfect teachers because they provide a mirror of what is happening inside a person, she explained. "They have to be aware of everything around them," Thomas said. "If that person is feeling angry and frustrated, but is not showing it on the outside, the horse will know it and will tell us as the facilitator what's going on."

Thomas sees the parallels between the laws of the pasture and the workplace. Horses "have personalities just like your employees," she said. "They're large, and they can be intimidating. They can be stubborn," Thomas said. How the horses respond depends upon how much the person interacts with them, just like in the workplace, she said.

Overcoming challenges

Batton, a corporate coordinator for human resources and benefits at AmeriChem in Cuyahoga Falls, has feared horses since she was 8 and one stepped on her foot. But she jumped at the chance to spend a Thursday and Friday at the isolated farm.

She wanted to conquer her fear. She also wanted to learn how to be more verbal as a leader and to feel comfortable speaking in front of people.

Even after one full day of working with horses, Batton said she felt some progress. "Yesterday, I was nervous and apprehensive. This morning, I was invigorated. I'm continuing to push myself," she said. "I think I've learned a healthy respect rather than fear."

Thomas said participants always say their fear of horses or lack of experience with the animal is a disadvantage. "When you're thrown into a new project, there's always fear," she said. "In reality, (employees) never have what they think they need to complete their project."

Malek is the opposite of Batton, both in her experience with horses and in her leadership skills. She works with horses every day as the clinical psychologist at Edge of Freedom Farms, which holds workshops for leaders, women, young people and special needs children. "I have a dominant personality. I want to learn how to guide (employees) instead of telling them what to do. "I want to be more inspirational."

Creative allowance

Participants spent their second morning broken into two groups of four. The groups took turns as employees and managers. Thomas and her facilitators called the shots as corporate ownership. Malek's group of employees also was told to get a horse through an obstacle course without touching or bribing. But their directions included a twist from the earlier assignment: they needed to stress creativity and could use anything in the 1-acre pasture.While the managers discussed the instructions they'd offer, Malek wanted to get an edge. She turned to her group near the barn to quickly teach them some techniques.

The group chose Clyde, a towering red-and-white speckled Clydesdale. A horse's height is measured at neck level by a hand, which is 4 inches. Shawnee is 14 hands or 4 feet 8 inches; Clyde is 16.5 hands, or 5 feet 6 inches. Even though Clyde looked intimidating, Malek knew from experience that she could get him to move. Clyde would be gentle with her fearful teammates. An added bonus: As a Clydesdale, Clyde had a pretty gait. That would help with the creativity points. The team scrambled before moving their course closer to the barn, where the animals were hiding. Clyde was to come out of the gate, jump a short hurdle, walk around a hula hoop with a person standing inside, and then jump three more hurdles along the fence.

Malek didn't like the time pressure: 10 minutes to design the obstacle course and 20 minutes to get the horse through it. "OK guys, I'm freaking out on this time thing," she said. The group needed to get Clyde out of the barn, but Shawnee was blocking the door. Malek knew that as lead mare, Shawnee dominated the herd. There was no moving Clyde until Shawnee budged. Malek needed big action. She started doing jumping jacks and whistled. Shawnee trotted out of the barn. Clyde barreled out after. Malek and others made smooching sounds to attract Clyde. He moved, but not in the right direction. Would it be good enough?

"We're just going to change the order and get what we'll get," Malek said. She was risking a lot. Already, Malek had been "fired" three times from her management job for her insubordination. She had also been taken away by "security" after she picketed the corporate offices. Clyde retreated to the corner of the pasture. Time was running out. Someone mentioned a halter. But it was not in the pasture. That was selling out, Malek thought. But in the end, the team haltered the horse. If they were fired, so be it.

Malek gripped the rope. She leaned against Clyde's pull and began to guide the 1,500-pound animal. Clyde reluctantly obeyed. Happily, nobody was fired, although Thomas thought some cheating had taken place.

Epilogue

After reflecting on the workshop for a couple days, Batton and Malek both said they had changed for the better. "I came in re-energized today," Batton said. She learned she needs to be confident in her decisions and portray them accordingly. The experience with Shawnee and the donkeys helped Batton see matters from an employee's view. Her group felt that their "managers" didn't give them adequate training with the horses and didn't give them enough support by standing up to the corporate bosses. It proved a point, she said. Managers may think their employees have all that they need to succeed, but the employees don't feel the same way. "You need to stop and listen and watch," she said.

Malek said she had a few of what Thomas called "a-ha" moments. The first was after she got "fired" when she was a manager and was itching to leave the corporate meeting to help her employees. Malek realized she didn't value the process and her skills enough to stick with the challenge. "If I had appreciated and valued my strengths, and what I had to contribute, I would have done what I had to do to stay employed," she said. The second realization occurred in her closing exercise, when she had to explain to participants how to coax a horse to move rather than doing it herself. "It's not so much about me. It's about them. You can't force people to get out of something what you think they should or could."