WORKING WITH WOMEN TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES!
EmPower U Equine understands that each of us has a unique journey that our life takes us on. Through our 12 week Empowerment Series we help to guide women to self-discovery by providing life skills development that is essential for women moving their life forward with confidence. We work with organizations who are helping women rebuild their lives that have been affected by addiction, trauma, depression, abuse, divorce and homelessness. As well, we provide our Empowerment Series to women who are seeking a unique experience that will allow them to gain valuable life skills to move themselves forward in their lives and current situations.
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By engaging in this hand on experiential learning opportunity, women involved in our program will build upon a new life skill each week leading them to success and empowerment. Horses don’t care about our weight, clothes, political beliefs or spiritual beliefs, they care about making sure that we bring the best version of our self to them each and every time. The skills that are learned in the arena will be paralleled back to their everyday lives on how to make choices, learn to trust, be a true leader in their own lives, problem solve and communicate effectively.
"An amazing journey of listening, communication, trusting, and a lot of laughter. Loved being here and feeling the confidence to do more! Thank you for the opportunity!"
GWEN SCHNEIDER
WHY DO WE WORK WITH A PREY ANIMAL?
To understand how this process works we must first realize how horses learn and understand the laws of survival. In a horse’s world, the rules are clear, easy to understand and dealt with swiftly when challenged.
As a prey animal, they are sensitive to the stimulus of each participant. They react to the stimulus through body language and participants must adjust their feelings and behaviours to work successfully with the horses. As facilitators listen to a horse’s non-verbal communication, together, they have the ability to walk participants through to finding life-altering change. By understanding why and how horses are aware of our every movement – you will come to know how effective equine-assisted learning programs are to finding success.
HOW DOES THIS LEARNING PROCESS WORK?
Horses in this program are effective teaching tools; immediately responding to what participants do, trained facilitators look for "teachable moments" that horses identify. Quite simply, the horse does the teaching; facilitators are there to offer explanation and provide guidance as they work through the solution.
Horses can magnify an individual’s problem immediately and provide a skilled facilitator with an opportunity to identify an individual’s character and their communication style. Horses don’t overthink a participant’s motive but, horses do challenge their behaviour and leadership.
By including horses in these specially designed educational experiences, equine-assisted specialists have significantly multiplied the participant’s rate of success to self-discovery. Through their intuitive nature and innate sensitivity, horses can provide facilitators with a window into the participant’s learning style.
WHAT IS EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING?
To put it simply, Equine Assisted Learning is a learner based educational, experiential experience with horses. More specifically, Equine Assisted Learning is a horse course with an effective approach to human development that encourages individual and team growth. Participants engage in objectively driven exercises and find themselves learning valuable life skills in a fun and exciting atmosphere. Equine Assisted Learning has proven to be useful, powerful, positive, educational, and creative.
EmPower U Equine emphasizes it’s BuildingBlock™ Curriculum of facilitating life skills through positively reinforced interaction with horses. The horse's jobs are speaking to the clients through their bodies to help bring about the changes that the clients need to make. Exercises are developed to encourage self-confidence through validated, hands-on experiences. Equine Assisted Learning through EmPower U is NOT equine therapy. We do not require a clinical professional with us to do these exercises and programs given to you in your horse course. Equine Assisted Learning works, because the teachers are the horses!
A SERIES WHERE JUDGEMENT DOES NOT EXIST.
Women often feel judged, what better partner for success than the horse, who is incapable of judging! By joining forces with these magnificent animals, we will help women to become empowered to seek the answers they have inside themselves, by working with the horse in a series of objectively driven exercises. Horses demand a strong leader that can clearly communicate before they are able to trust and willing to partner with. Women involved in our program will be forced out of their comfort zone and required to be the true leaders of their lives that they know they can be. The horse will listen to the participant, and help to guide them through the challenges and obstacles they are facing to reach success and self-discovery.
LEARN TO TAKE EMPOWERED ACTION.
We don’t ride the teachers! All the work is done is from the ground. This provides the best opportunity for the horse to teach in their natural environment. Because everyone learns in their own unique way, our program has been designed to use the different styles of learning. Our programs incorporate both visual, auditory, verbal, physical, logical, and social means to develop skills for life, to help our clients find the best possible version of themselves!
WOMEN WHO BEGIN THIS JOURNEY TO EMPOWERMENT CAN EXPECT TO LEARN:
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What we say to ourselves on the inside needs to match out our outward actions.
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We cannot force something into movement.
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When we look back, we prevent movement forward.
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We are responsible for our actions.
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We are creative and innovative.
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We all have an inner leader.
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Patience is important. It’s not the end goal, but, how we get there that matters.
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How to work with others, and a 1200 pound partner.
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To be courageous.
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To listen.
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To problem solve.
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To be an effective communicator.
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To work in a team.
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To be accountable.
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To trust, not only themselves, but their partners.
"This day was way too awesome! I started my new journey on my path to bigger and better."
CHRIS KLEYSEN
LET'S EMPOWER OUR WOMEN ON THEIR
PERSONAL GROWTH & JOURNEY.
The key to our success in facilitating this series is through our fundamental principal of delivery. Each time the participant comes to EmPower U Equine they will be met by our staff and guided to our classroom. Here, we will explain the objective for the week and then take the learning outside to our arena, where the horses do the teaching. The facilitators are there to parallel the experiences back to real life, and to ensure that the participants are listening to what their teachers are saying to them. They are responsible for their own learning, and our job is to make sure they are engaged in the experience to reach success. When we are done in the arena we will head back into our classroom to talk about the experience, how they can take their experience back to real life to help them in their jobs, and personal lives and then journal to solidify what they learned.