Board Room to Dude Ranch – CEO Learns Priceless Lesson from a Horse

Marie thought she could do it all, and why not? Doing it all had resulted in a successful business that she and her husband had built over the years while raising a family. With a solid income, they had multiple homes, nice cars, had horses, traveled, and lived generously. Now that she was the CEO, however, she struggled to find any downtime. And that lack of personal time increased her stress which began to show up through physical ailments. It seemed that the business, employees, or family demands were always staring her in the face. If she wasn’t tending to one of them, her attention was focused on weekend entertaining that she planned in great detail, and assumed most of the responsibility for. A dude ranch horse rocks her world.

Marie had come to the Dude Ranch as part of an Equine Facilitated Learning program. When it was time for her session, she found herself in a round pen with Roxie, the resident draft horse, gold in color with a blond mane and tail. They’d only been together a few minutes when Roxie intuitively seemed to know that Marie lacked boundaries. Yet, it took her another 20 minutes of Roxie’s constant prodding and an increasing amount of pushing boundaries before Marie would come to the realization herself. Marie's breakthrough came in the form of one simple action by Roxie; one that couldn’t have been communicated any clearer than if the words had come directly out of the horse’s mouth.

After spending the majority of their time together in one section of the round pen, Marie slowly made her way to the center and turned to face Roxie. They stared at one another with 30' in between them. A moment later, Roxie left the side of the pen and came to stand quietly across from Marie with only a stick-like tool, known as a carrot stick, lying on the ground in between them. Workshop participants were instructed to use the carrot stick for establishing boundaries with the horses. Yet, Marie had ignored it despite the coach’s gentle reminders that it was there for her use. As horse and human looked into one another’s eyes as if to see who was going to make the next move, Roxie slowly lowered her head, picked the carrot stick up in her mouth, and then raised her head again, looking at Marie as if waiting for her to take it and put it to use. At that point, Marie exclaimed with her southern intonation, ‘Okay, I get it. I have boundary issues’.

Through awareness comes change In a span of less than half an hour, a gentle giant gave Marie a gift - a new sense of awareness that positioned her stronger in life thereafter, both at home and in business. Rather than assuming the only way to get things done was to do it herself, she relinquished some of her responsibilities. She started expecting her staff to do more, and Marie also began asking for help in other areas of her life. In just a short period after her encounter with Roxie, this CEO freed up more personal time, became less stressed and felt more energized and empowered. She began enjoying life in different ways, including slowly moving into a new career and a more fulfilling future. Her physical health also improved as a result.

In her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg said, “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but to change”. The awareness that Marie received that day from a dude ranch horse was unexpected, but priceless as it opened the gate to positive changes and a new way of living life.

Janis Cooper specializes in strengthening leadership skills and team development to achieve optimum personal and professional success. Her dynamic HorsePowering Success ? programs partner with people with horses in an experiential model that increases self-awareness, choice, thought, and action. Through unique and powerful equine encounters, she challenges assumptions, changes beliefs, and incorporates mindfulness – ultimately empowering people to live and work with purpose, connection, clarity and IMPACT. Visit www.janiscooper.com