Team Building Activities for Businesses in Calgary
Horse training - with no riding required!
Corporate Team Building Activities
Amp up your teams horse power!
Corporate burnout is a part of modern work life. Long hours at the office, tight deadlines, and flat-lined salaries have really taken a toll on the modern cubicle dweller. To circumvent burnout and improve team relationships many companies look for out-of-office exercises to refresh, re-energize, and re-establish relationships. Rather than laser tag, bowling, or some other indoor activity you should check out the benefits of equine activities. At Equine Connection, we have a wide range of corporate team building activities to get your teams back on track. Not only are you introducing your employees to a completely new type of team building activity, but also making an innovative and informed choice about the value of trust — because with horses, trust and teamwork is what it's all about.
Why Team Building
What is the role of staging corporate team building activities? Many times the lesson is lost amid the action and adventure, or the lessons and values are not reinforced in a way that leads to increased production and productivity. So often, people hold team building events and they seem to have little long term effect on the morale or leadership of your employees. The goal is to show how trust, cooperation, and connection can create results.
A Little Bit About Our Four-Legged Friends…
Horses are interesting creatures. They are prey animals, meaning they are the hunted not the hunter. One way to tell prey animals is where their eyes are located. Having eyes on the sides of their head allow them to see what's going on in every direction. Predators, aka "them what eats horses" have their eyes facing forward. Horse… eyes on the side. Man… eyes face forward. So you can see where there are some serious trust issues on their part when it comes to that human standing in front of them.
Horses are also herd animals. Horses have an "alpha" horse, a lot of "beta" horses, and an "omega" horse in the herd. Herd's are also run not by the strongest (the stallion) but the cleverest mare (the nag) who can lead the team —er, herd to safety. This is where your team comes in…
Trust, Teamwork, and Herds
As herd animals they will follow whomever they can trust to lead them to safety. If you don't abuse their trust you have a four-legged friend for life, a handsome critter who will jump blindly over fences because they trust you won't lead them astray, an animal that will drag you to safety (Lassie's not the only one who's done that), and carry your weight upon their back. Horse and rider become a "team".
You Don't Have to be a horse expert
You do not have to have experience with horses in order to partake of equine assisted learning and teambuilding for your business. The horses used in these programs have been specifically chosen as they are right for the program and we always discuss safety before we begin. Even people who have never been around horses will see the difference and the change after the experiential learning opportunity.
Equine team building retreats are one of the most focused types of team building that you can engage in. Horses have the ability to teach us where we are struggling and where we shine, in terms of leadership ability and teamwork. A horse will respond intuitively to the handler and they are keen at judging the character and strength of the rider.
How EAL Can Benefit Your Team
Working with horses and learning from horses teaches your employees how to be authentic in leadership positions and how to adapt to change while working towards a common goal. Communication skills are one of the most sought after skills and talents to have in the corporate world. Working with horses teaches us to be empathic and how to communicate effectively and with assertiveness. Over 80% of our communication is non-verbal and this is clearly illustrated when doing a team building session with horses. You can't get a 1200 pound animal to move just by screaming at it, just like you can't motivate your business to greater heights if you do not have the correct communication skills.
The biggest effect though is partaking in corporate team building activities with an equine retreat is the value of humanity and soul.
