Horses as Teachers: A Transformative Experience for Coaches
Discover how equine-facilitated learning can unlock blindspots, deeper self-awareness and conscious leadership skills for you and your clients.
Words alone can only take clients so far.
At Kenshō Stables, we invite professional coaches to experience a powerful modality that brings emotional intelligence and embodied leadership to life — Equine-Facilitated Learning (EFL).
In this immersive half-day experience, horses serve as profound mirrors, reflecting human behavior, energy, and emotion with extraordinary accuracy. You’ll see how this work helps clients move beyond insight into integration — accessing clarity, confidence, and calm in real time.
Led by Gretchen Fox Palmer, an executive coach and master facilitator with 15+ years in emotional intelligence and leadership development, each session unfolds on our peaceful 25-acre ranch just outside Austin — a natural environment for meaningful transformation.
What You’ll Experience
A guided equine-facilitated learning session with Gretchen and the horses
Firsthand understanding of how horses reveal patterns in leadership, presence, and energy
Time for personal reflection and observation of the modality in action
Integration conversation and connection with like-minded professionals
Who It’s For
Established coaches with active clients
Coaches who host VIP days, retreats, or group experiences
Practitioners seeking to add somatic or experiential elements to their work
Leaders ready to offer new experiences to their clients and offerings
Why Experiential Learning Matters:
Adaptability can’t be taught in a slide deck — it has to be experienced.
To develop it, leaders must practice staying grounded and flexible when things don’t go as planned, reading subtle feedback, and adjusting in the moment.
That’s why experiential learning is so powerful: it moves concepts from the head into the body. Leaders don’t just understand adaptability — they embody it. And that’s exactly what happens when they work with horses.
Why Horses?
Horses are masters of adaptability.
Their survival depends on sensing change, regulating stress, and recalibrating instantly. When leaders engage with horses, they experience these same dynamics — not in theory, but in real time.
Horses respond only to authentic presence and congruent energy. They reflect exactly what we bring — confidence, tension, clarity, or confusion — offering immediate, honest feedback that no classroom can replicate.
This creates a powerful environment for leaders to practice the essential elements of adaptability:
Self-awareness — noticing internal states and how they impact others
Emotional regulation — calming the nervous system to stay effective under pressure
Cognitive flexibility — experimenting, adjusting, and trying new approaches
Authentic connection — leading through trust, not control
Master Group Facilitator
Gretchen Fox Palmer is a Culture Change Strategist, high-stakes communications expert and published author who helps leaders and teams deliver transformational change. With two decades guiding Fortune 10 companies, Silicon Valley startups, and global brands, she combines deep EQ expertise, crisis navigation, and experiential learning — including equine-facilitated coaching.
Proven Results
Gretchen Fox Palmer’s EQ programs deliver measurable impact:
87.5% of participants cite EQ @Work as critical to cultural shifts
85% report improvements in personal well-being
94% gain confidence in managing tough conversations
76% feel greater company support post-program
Casual Environment
Participants are able to learn individually while connecting with their peers in a casual, tranquil, nature-based setting.
You can’t learn adaptability from a book. You have to feel it, practice it, and live it.
Working with horses develops leaders who stay steady through change, communicate with clarity, and create psychological safety in any environment.
Adaptability isn’t learned in theory — it’s lived on the ground.
Powerful, profound breakthroughs in one day.
Date: Week Day & Weekend Options
Each session includes:
Introduction to EFL
Three Transformational Workshop experiences
Debrief and discussion on integrating EFL into your coaching
Time to enjoy the grounds
Apply for Your Complimentary ½-Day Experience
We’re opening four exclusive sessions for qualified Austin-area coaches to experience Equine-Facilitated Learning firsthand.
This opportunity is complimentary and by application only.
Once accepted, you’ll select from four available day/time options.
FAQ’s
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The purpose of equine facilitated learning (EFL) is to expand our personal awareness through a series of equine guided experiences.
These experiences allow us to enhance our abilities to notice and learn from our emotions and feelings as well as those of other sentient beings (animals and humans).
The EFL exercises are designed as building blocks to open new neural pathways in our mind and our body by stretching our ability to feel the presence and intention of others through using our entire bodies as a sensory device.
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Yes! Equine facilitated learning exercises are done on the ground guided by a trained coach and horse professional. Horses are always in controlled environments (behind a fence or in a halter with a lead rope). These are non-riding experiences.
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All horses will be under control in a fenced paddock or on a lead rope in every horse experience. In addition, you may refrain from being around a horse as much as you choose. We encourage everyone to explore fears like fear of horses, safely with professional guidance.
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Absolutely not, you may choose to do whichever sessions you want; however, sessions build upon each other and so it is advantageous to complete them all.
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Our workshops are intimate experience with group size capped at a maximum of 8 participants.
Still not sure if our workshops are right for you?
We want to ensure a positive and vibrant group experience for each participant at each event. You can schedule a 1:1 call with Master Facilitator Gretchen Fox Palmer to see if this event is a good fit for you.
