Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) is an experiential approach to personal growth and development that uses horses. Through human-horse interactions, participants increase awareness of themselves and others while building leadership, collaboration, and communication skills.
Horses offer honest, in-the-moment feedback which allows clients to reevaluate their lives from different perspectives. This process can identify obstacles to success as well as opportunities for positive transformation and self-growth.
Self-awareness
EAL is a hands-on experiential learning approach that uses horses as facilitators of personal growth, leadership skills and communication abilities – encouraging participants to adopt healthier lifestyle habits while also serving to treat mental health disorders such as depression or anxiety.
Horses are intelligent animals who respond to human body language and emotions in an immediate, nonjudgmental manner, providing immediate feedback that enables participants to identify patterns of behavior which might be impeding progress. Their herd dynamics provide invaluable insights into leadership, trust-building and effective communication – three qualities which horses provide ample evidence of.
EAL sessions pair participants with a trained facilitator and an equine partner. Together, they are given tasks that may seem simple but require teamwork and problem-solving – such as inducing a horse to jump over an arena jump – which serve as a metaphor for any challenges that a person is currently facing. Evaluation of debriefing interview answers and test results showed significant gains among at-risk youth enrolled in EAL programs regarding knowledge, emotional safety and self-esteem.
Self-confidence
EAL (Experiential Animal Learning) is an experiential form of learning which promotes personal growth and development through interaction between horses and people, aiding individuals in discovering themselves while teaching interpersonal skills and emotional awareness. EAL therapy may be used to treat mental health conditions like anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is founded on the idea that horses have an intuitive understanding of human emotions and behavior, making them excellent teachers of nonverbal communication. Participants enrolled in EAL programs learn how to interact with horses using patience, attentiveness and trust building; all essential traits for healthy relationships and career success.
Horses offer an ideal platform for self-discovery, providing a relaxing yet stimulating way to explore one’s feelings and gain greater insight into who one truly is. As such, participants gain self-confidence while successfully meeting challenges; results of an EAL session remain long-lasting and can be applied across various aspects of life.
Relationships
EAL sessions differ significantly from Equine-assisted Therapy (EAT), in that they aim to address educational and personal growth objectives such as relationships, self-awareness and the ability to communicate effectively while teaching participants how to work within teams as part of a collective and overcome complex situations by problem-solving effectively.
Participants achieve greater conscious awareness through interaction with horses. They learn to read body language, witness “miracles”, as horses transform from distracted to focused behavior or from excited to calmness or defiance to willingness.
EAL can help individuals make positive changes in their life or businesses develop leadership capabilities through personalized group retreats and workshops tailored specifically to your needs. Through Healing Hooves’ expertise in EAL services, customized group retreats and workshops can also be customized for every participant to ensure everyone can benefit from participating and experiencing a unique experience. Get more information today by reaching out!
Communication
Horses respond uniquely to human body language, providing individuals with help for emotional, physical, and social problems. Equine-assisted learning (EAL) provides a hands-on experiential approach to learning that includes unmounted ground activities as well as mounted work; activities are usually designed with life skill goals in mind.
Through their interactions with horses, participants gain greater self-awareness and discover new approaches to communication and relationship-building. Furthermore, they gain insight into their own patterns of behavior while learning to improve quality of life through developing key life skills such as trustworthiness, respect, honesty and communication.
People working with horses consistently experience an amazing “ah-ha” moment when they realize what they don’t know about their body language and its effect on relationships with horses or others around them – an awakening which makes a far bigger impactful statement about who we really are than any self-help workshop, counseling session or therapy session with mental health professional could ever hope to achieve.
