There’s no better teacher of human potential than a horse. 

And no better time than the uncertainty of right now to look to nature for guidance.

Find ease in the effort

of leading, teaming, and solving through the wisdom of formerly wild mustangs and the grasslands on which they rely.

The Learning Tracks

Human and horse. A partnership that goes back 4,000 years. Why? They take us places we cannot journey to alone, at speeds we could never achieve without them.

Let them do the same for you and your team.

1. Leading through the Uncertain

Log out of HBR, lay down the latest hardcover, and learn leadership from a different kind of teacher: horses. As you engage with equines, we’ll help you uncover your leadership excellence and opportunities through five critical trust virtues: Noticing + Feeling, Communicating + Cooperating, Visioning + Adapting, and Modeling + Motivating. Polarities are used as a guiding framework for our time.

Pre-learning: Hogan Assessment & facilitated 1:1 discussion

The stops along the trail we’ll travel

  • Stop One: Gather courage in the unfamiliar 

  • Stop Two: Seek understanding for the unalike

  • Stop Three: Create connection with those you lead

  • Stop Four: Influence others into action 

  • Stop Five: Welcome feedback from setbacks & opportunity 

  • The Day’s Destination: The Watering Hole. You earned it. 

2. Teaming from the Unanswered

Reach beyond standard sports and military models to investigate the meaning of teamwork through the natural world. Alongside a herd of formerly wild mustangs guides you’ll unwind the complexities of teaming through challenge using the six pillars of high performing teams: diversity, communication, progress toward goals, recognition, productive feedback, and trust. Herd dynamics are used as a guiding framework for our time.

Pre-learning: Hogan Assessment & facilitated team discussion

The stops along the trail we’ll travel

  • Stop One: Gather courage in the unfamiliar 

  • Stop Two: Seek understanding for the unalike

  • Stop Three: Re-learn the meaning of teaming

  • Step Four: Find your leadership within the group

  • Stop Five: Create team norms that are fixed but freeing

  • The Day’s Destination: The Watering Hole. You earned it. 

3. Systems Solving within Complexity

Drop the models and methodologies and move toward solutions that deepen trust with your customers and employees. Through the wild mustang story you will learn to explore issues not as their outcome but their inputs – causal points of origin and intersection. Simplify and solve the complex like a horse: one step at time with eyes on the past, present, and future. Your intuition and proclivity toward curiosity are guiding ‘frameworks’ for our time.

Pre-learning: Hogan Assessment & facilitated 1:1 discussion

The stops along the trail we’ll travel

  • Stop One: Gather courage in the unfamiliar 

  • Stop Two: Seek understanding for the unalike

  • Stop Three: Create connection with those you lead

  • Stop Four: Influence others into action 

  • Stop Five: Find opportunity in failure and excitement in effort

  • The Day’s Destination: The Watering Hole. You earned it.

Custom Retreats & Learning Series

Often the issues and opportunities your teams and organization are experiencing require solutions that fit perfectly the problem or possibility.

We custom curate one, two, and three-day experiences in partnership with your insights, institutional knowledge, and our organizational behavior & development expertise to deliver precisely the experience that will shift thinking, feeling, and doing to uplift people, team, and organizational potential.

The mediums through which possibility is explored will vary based on the needs of the team. Your guided adventure can happen with horses, in the classroom, in the grasslands, and on the river.

Pre-learning: Hogan Assessment & facilitated team discussion

The stops along the trail we’ll travel aren’t yet known.

“The flow of the day was perfect. The setting, the tone of the presentation, the exercises were unique, thought provoking and extremely helpful for the team.”

Reggie Gordon, CEO of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation

Meet Your Trail Guides

Tomorrow

I’m an eleven-year-old mare from the dusty, rocky hills of a place they call Devil’s Garden, in Northern California.For ten years I ran wild and free, before I was rounded up. I’ve had many children, but only one who still lives at home. My favorite pastimes are eating and bounding about. I love gentle pets down my nose.

Seminal

I’m a three-year-old mare also from Devil’s Garden. (Tomorrow and I were in the same herd back home.) I was rounded up when I was only two years old – I’ve lived with humans nearly as long as I lived without them. I love affection. I’m curious about, well…everything. And when I’m not eating, I’m hanging with Becky.

Lacuna

I’m a yearling colt, born in a holding facility after my mom, Tomorrow, was rounded up from the wild West. I’m still new to the world, so I spend a lot of my time looking to Semi and Mom to tell me what to do. My favorite games are to pick up tack Becky leaves laying around with my mouth, or muck buckets after she’s filled them with manure.

“I don’t think I can put into words how meaningful Saturday was. What an incredible experience for all of us. I walked away not only feeling a sense of rooted healing, but surprisingly a profound connection to those magnificent creatures. I felt a sense of peace I haven’t felt in a very long time.”

Andrea Starr, Executive Director of the Forward Foundation

  • Joining Together

  • Seeking Understanding

  • Checking In

  • Establishing Safety

  • Inviting Connection

FAQs

  • Full-day program (7-8 hours)

    Hosted at our riverside ranch in historic Varina, Virginia

    Breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments provided, from a vegetarian-based menu

    Carpooling required if possible

    Mandatory safety waivers included in your introductory packet

  • Water

    Sunscreen

    Your authentic self

    Plenty of vulnerability

    Courageous curiosity

  • No! The entire experience happens on the ground with your horse and human guide.

  • Let’s talk! Custom workshops and offsite experiences are entirely possible. becky@thegivingwall.org

  • We welcome groups ranging from three to twenty.

  • We love this question! Email me at becky@thegivingwall.org and we’ll schedule an exploratory conversation, after which we’ll both decide if equine learning is the right adventure for you and your team.

“Our potential and purpose are promised when we live honestly two unavoidable truths:
We are of the Earth, and for each other.”
— Becky