Leading & Developing High Performance

When the Insights Discovery® colour energies and horses come together something magical happens …. especially under the expert guidance of Beth Duff

‘The Red Horse Speaks’ event on 12 May 11 was facilitated by equine assisted learning experts Beth Duff and Ann Romberg, along with Lucy Wilkins at a beautiful farm in deepest Somerset. We were encouraged to engage with our colour energies to get the best result from the horses – using a combination of precision, empathy, clarity of direction and purpose, with passion and enthusiasm. If you get it wrong, you have to deal with half a ton of horse which won’t budge! Engage the right energy for the situation and you’re away. If people in your life or business are stuck and won’t budge, maybe try a different tack!

I particularly liked what Ann said, that horses are our “mirrors and mentors and lead us to mastery”. They reflect back what we’re doing, teach us and then allow us to shine! How wonderful is that?

If you try to apply paint on a chestnut coloured horse, red paint shows up but green doesn’t. (we had to resort to white!) We realised how powerful a metaphor that was for what happens in real life with these two colour energies! In Insights colour energy terms, Fiery Red energy is competitive and demanding and likes to be seen and heard and Earth Green energy is more patient and relaxed, preferring to observe, reflect and remain in the background.

When asked to think of a goal or vision we would like to create and then paint it, we could just as easily have done it on brown paper but brown paper doesn’t give you feedback or grief! Our chestnut horse, Mabon, did, shaking its head and pawing the ground when we suggested ‘leadership’, then laughing and nodding (I’m serious!) when we moved onto ‘creative marketing’ and how we get more people engaging with this wonderful medium for learning about personality. (It was definitely easier for the other team with Bilbo Baggins and his colouring. He’d just been groomed and was looking gorgeous – and they didn’t have to contend with the local press taking photos!)

‘Coach Like a Horse’ on 13 May 11 took us deeper into team dynamics – or horse rituals – what we saw playing out before our eyes was what we have seen many times before in our client organisations, departments and teams … but with greater clarity and understanding, of egos, pecking orders, how much energy is expended by some and how little by others to achieve the same result.

Then encouraging a horse to walk with you without a leading rope and stand on a podium for you, because he wants to, helps you to understand and tap into ‘someone’s’ internal motivation to succeed. The metaphor is stark, if you can do this with a proud and beautiful horse, you can do this with a truculent employee.

The combination of Beth’s and Ann’s careful coaching, and Lilias’s wonderful horses and farm (with views over the whole of Somerset!) made this a stunning event. You can check them out here:

Beth Duff: The Red Horse Speaks

Lilias Ahmeira: Special Horses for Special Children

We run these courses fairly regularly so if you want to be kept informed please contact Ali Stewart & Co join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.