When the red horse spoke
bringing learning with horses from dream to reality
by
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We had seated our guests in the viewing gallery and Sue and I stood down in the arena with the horses. As I started to speak,
At first we left the two children in the viewing gallery so that they would be safe but we couldn’t help but hear some of their comments about what the adults were up to. At one point, the adults were finding it difficult to get the horses to move. It was so obvious to the children and so we invited them to come and show us. These two small boys simply marched up to the horses with such determination that the horses immediately moved exactly as requested! Thereafter the children joined in for several of the activities. As we had hoped, there was laughter and also deep learning. Sue had brought her horsebox and the living area served as our ‘reception suite’ where, over a glass of wine, we and our guinea pigs talked over the events of the evening. The feedback was excellent, the health and safety man was happy, the horses had loved it and we only had a few wrinkles to sort out before doing the same again a couple of evenings later for another practice session.
As we had hoped, these sessions were not just great practice for Sue and me but also gave Lynn, Kenneth and Liz a really good grasp of what we were doing.
The summer passed quickly as we gradually made sure everything was in place. August 24th 2004 was our 30th wedding anniversary but any plans for a special celebration were put aside as we worked our way through lists of people attending, outstanding tasks and practicing our responses to possible questions from guests and the media.
The day of the launch was definitely one of best days of my life. To our delight, over 60 people had accepted our invitation – many more than we’d expected. They were a good mix of existing and prospective clients, members of our various networking groups and supportive friends. Liz had done a wonderful job getting press interest and so we hoped a few reporters might turn up for our press conference at 2.00pm.
The thinking behind having the press conference at 2.00 pm was to give us plenty of time to get ourselves and the horses brushed up and looking smart beforehand and then there would be time afterwards to give the horses a break before our demo started at 6.30pm. Feeling in no need to hurry, we were sitting at home having a leisurely cup of tea before going to pack the car... then the phone rang at 9.45am with a call from Liz to say that we had a request for a photo call at noon and, by the way, a journalist from the Scotsman would be calling in 10 minutes! All of a sudden, the tempo had increased. I quickly called Sue and told her we were needed at noon.
I spoke with the man from the Scotsman who was very interested in what we were doing and then gathered my things together to go to Loanhead to meet the photographer. As I was driving along the road, a delightful journalist from our local paper, the Aberdeen Press and Journal, called on my mobile phone and so I stopped in a lay bye to talk to her. That went well too and the midday photographer was fine. It turned out that he was from a press agency and so needed to have the story early in order to sell it on to other newspapers. We managed to have ourselves and the horses looking neat and tidy for him. Fortunately
Now for the press conference. We walked down to the indoor school a little before 2.00pm just to see if anyone was there... We were amazed. We felt like royalty with a veritable battery of cameras set up and waiting for us, including a team from Grampian TV who wanted to shoot an item for their news programme that evening.
My first thought was how the horses would cope. They had both been to small shows but hadn’t experienced anything like this. I needn’t have worried. They were true professionals and never put a hoof wrong. Susie was so relaxed she even had a roll, rising up from the arena floor covered in sand and dust which made everyone laugh (even Sue, who had spent ages brushing her beforehand!). We were blessed to have a small group of volunteers come along to demonstrate some activities for the press. They did a great job and were all very articulate in their responses, especially for the TV crew. I was very glad that I had spent time practicing my own responses to possible questions and thus could give a calm, confident performance in front
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About the Book
As more and more people discover that learning with horses is a powerful way of putting leadership theory into practice, this book is full of ideas and information for all those who are, or would like to be, doing this work.
‘When the red horse spoke’ is the very personal story of how Beth Duff took learning with horses into the corporate environment. It describes her early experiences with Chelsea, the red horse who spoke and inspired the dream and then goes on to explain how she made that dream into a business with the launch of the red horse speaks in 2004, the first learning with horses programme in Scotland and now internationally recognised as a leader in this field.
There is plenty of practical advice on topics such as business planning, sales and marketing for those who want to set up a similar business or indeed launch and gain credibility for any innovative product or service. There is also some specific advice on the care and welfare of horses involved in this work.
The book contains the results of the research that Beth has done so far including some of the first measurements of the impact that horses can have on humans and describes some of the challenges involved in finding a suitable establishment for doing leading edge research.
And, of course, there are inspiring stories too about the magic of learning with horses and the profound effect these magnificent animals can have on people of all ages and abilities.
About the Author
Since setting up her own company in 1990, Beth has worked world wide delivering leadership programmes and consultancy to support the growth of people and organisations. When she bought These days she works alongside horses worldwide to teach leadership and personal development to clients of all ages and abilities, finding it to be the perfect complement to the classroom learning she has always offered. As a result of all the positive feedback the red horse speaks programme has received from participants, Beth is currently working to measure the impact of horses on human learning for a PhD. She is co-founder of the Equine Guided Coaches Circle and is a member of the Association for Coaching, NARHA and EFMHA on whose membership committee she serves. Due to the success of Beth’s work and innovative research, the red horse speaks is internationally recognised as a leader in the field of learning with horses and Beth is frequently asked to speak at conferences as well as being sought after as a teacher by others who want to work this field. Having made her dream into a business, Beth enjoys helping other entrepreneurs who want to market and gain credibility for innovative products. She lives on a small farm in