At EQuify, you’ll learn emotional intelligence skills from the masters of EQ: horses. These majestic creatures possess the power to teach us the critical well-being skills we need to not just survive but thrive. We can learn from their highly-honed emotional intelligence skills that allow them to live as a herd in a cohesive state of present-moment awareness. Horses are able to read non-verbal communication and respond to fear or stress quickly and efficiently — and then shift back to their normal emotionally regulated state of calm, balanced grazing. A well-being skill all humans need to cope with the accelerated pace of change, stress, mental health challenges and disconnection that are on the rise.

How do horses do this?

When humans are in the presence of horses, we naturally shift from our highly-cognitive thinking and analytical state to a more embodied state of presence. This happens out of sheer survival — it is unsafe to not be fully present around 1100 pound powerful animals. And when combined with coaching, this automatic shift into presence quiets the chatter of our brains, allowing us to be more open to receiving new information and see the biases and stories that hold us back. Through this reflection, we can discover new options for leading more conscious lives at home and work.

Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) combines nature immersion or spending time outdoors (one of four coping strategies that show the highest increases in well-being according to the 2022 Annual Global Wellbeing Report by lululemon), cardiac coherence (a study by HeartMath Institute showed that a human’s heart will sync or entrain to the heart rhythm of a horse’s heart – just by being near the horse) and coaching.

The world is evolving at an accelerated pace of change; stress, mental health issues and disconnection are all on the rise. EQ is the foundation to thriving in this new paradigm through connection based, authentic communication.