Human Be Herd | Blog
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Spring In the Air

February might seem a little early for a first spring ride but the ice had melted off the road, the mud was soft.   I was just back from an Eponaquest Instructor update in Arizona. “The Power of the Herd; A Nonpredatory Approach to Social Intelligence, Leadership and Innovation” is the latest book by my mentor Linda Kohanov. Predatory Leadership is the old “shit rolls downhill” model; Non-Predatory Leadership ia the “support everybody dealing with their own shit so nobody has to eat it” model.   Linda outlines the guiding principles in the book and developed Equine Facilitated Wellness(EFW) exercises, so people can experience and practice their new skills and understandings with horses. Through my experience learning to facilitate the exercises, I noticed that...

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Wolf Attack

Shooting wolves out of helicopters makes me crazy and I don’t seem to be able to get it out of my head. Even when I do, the universe keeps placing wolves in my path of late. Even in the big city last week, the foot specialist(!) brought up wolves during our appointment. Then the coupe de grace, I was driving to town with my daughter and her friend from the coast and I saw my first wolf in 20 years. “Coyote”, I blurted as it initially appeared in front of us, “WHOA”, I exhaled in awe, as the “larger” understanding, arose. “Yeah, coyotes don’t come up to your hip”, said my daughter as she shared her observation. “We saw a...

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Panther Bows to My Vulnerability

I'm in Arizona having just completed my Power of the Herd Instructor update at Eponaquest with Linda Kohanov. I was excited to get to work with Panther again in the round pen. We were practicing an active round pen exercise called, Embodying the Goal.   In Embodying the Goal you practice visualizing the goal and gathering information from both your body and the horse about how to accomplish the goal together. It’s an exercise in intersubjectivity, practicing staying present with yourself, the horse and your goal and attending to the relationship or process you’re having over achieving the goal.   The interesting part happened when I was "processing" my experience outside the round pen. I was feeling particularly vulnerable and close to tears. The...

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Sunny Ski

Today I went out for a lovely ski with my dogs and camera. I'd like to add photos to my blogs, like from when the experience that inspired the blog happened. So I'll work on learning to add a gallery of images to this one. First off we ran across what I think was a coyote where she caught a mouse under the snow. So I took a picture of that. Then I took a photo of each of the dogs. At the top of the hill, literally and metaphorically, I tried a few "selfies".   I don't know whether its my mennonite ancestry or what, but the whole selfie thing is something I'm pretty damn judgy about.   I have this inner caustic...

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Thin Ice

Today I fell through the ice on the lake. Sounds worse than it was which is why I like saying it. I’ve been walking home along the shore of the narrows instead of down the road. We’ve recently had a cold snap and I walked along the shore of the narrows with my husband and a friend the other day but having been working my way further out onto the ice since, because the snow isn’t as deep so its easier walking.   I was within sight of the house and I did notice the dogs hugging the shoreline and had made it back to the weeds before my foot went through and I was suddenly gazing at the sky with a...

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Stellar Walk With The Herd

  Went for a walk this afternoon. For the first time since spring, I invited the herd along. I can take them onto the neighbours' wooded section through the gate at the top end of my hayfield. They can run free through there without having access to the road or getting into any trouble. I'd finally got this year’s crop of burdock cut and moved so they can't get full of burrs either. I haltered Blue(pictured above) as bait for the rest of them to follow. I led him away, up the field calling out to the others, "HORSES, Come On!" They didn’t come.     I carried on up the field, adding those clicking noises inherent to all horse people. It's amazing how...

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