I received a very polite email from a complete stranger: A
German woman that had seen the photo of Saumur and JP in the German riding magazine
“Cavallo”. She wrote that she was so touched by what she saw in Saumur’s gaze she felt compelled to contact the magazine and ask for my email address. Her specialty is management consulting, and she also teaches management and communication skills with the aid
of horses. So, she very kindly asked if she could use the photo in her training
sessions. Now I was touched. For
this complete stranger to notice the
unspoken communication between Saumur and JP is really remarkable.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Mathieu Boimare |
The more I thought about how horses teach us non-verbal
communication skills the more I realized how much the boys (aided by some excellent cowboy
advice) have taught me. One of the first lessons I learned was “make yourself as
tall as possible” – when Saumur was trying to run me over. You have to command
presence, and really it’s the same with people. If you shy away and make
yourself small you will not command respect. There are plenty more examples
like that, and I completely believe that what I learned by dealing with horses
has helped me in the ‘non-horsey’ aspect of my life. Instantly, leadership and also
mentoring come to mind. OTOH, some things I try to refrain from transferring: Being emotional for one (well, I said TRYING!)
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