THE PREMISE
No assessment tool delivers what a horse does in the first five minutes.
Horses are extraordinarily sensitive to non-verbal signals. They react to the posture, breathing and muscular tension of the person in front of them: immediately, impartially, and without any reason to be polite.
You cannot perform it, and you cannot reason your way through it. It only shifts when you are fully present.
WHY WORK WITH ME
I spent twenty years in senior roles — chair of the board, then CFO, in different organisations. Later I qualified as an ICF coach. The two have more in common than they look: in both, the work is noticing what a person does, and what it costs them.
My hearing is not perfect. It faded gradually, so quietly that for a long time I did not notice. Once I did, I had to watch rather than only listen — posture, timing, the small movements people make while they are choosing their words.. So I read what does not come through sound. It tends to be the more honest information anyway.
The horses taught me the rest. Around my own horses I noticed they responded to my daily form — not to what I intended, but to my mood, my state that morning, whatever I actually brought into the field. So I tried it with other people. The reactions are usually minimal, easy to miss. But they changed depending on who was standing there. And a group has its own weather: every group a different atmosphere, and the horse reads it before anyone has said a word. It was fascinating to watch, and it turned out to be useful.
So when the horse reacts, I am not guessing. I can tell you what it responded to, and what that means for the way you lead — in your language, not in horse-language. No mysticism. No talk of energy. Just a large animal with excellent instincts and no interest in your job title.
Here is the problem the horse solves. At your level, honest feedback quietly runs out. Colleagues stay polite. Reports are carefully worded. The 360 is filtered through what people believe they are supposed to say. None of it is dishonest, exactly. It is managed — and managed feedback is the easiest kind to manage your way through.
The horse has no agenda and no manners. It reacts to what you are actually doing, in the moment, whether or not you meant to. You cannot perform your way past it, and you cannot talk it round. I have watched senior people try both. The horse waits.
And if you have already done the assessments, the 360s, the years of coaching, and felt them reach a ceiling — that ceiling is usually the verbal level. Words can be rehearsed. Posture, rhythm, the half-second before you speak: those cannot. This works underneath the words, where the real signals are.
That is the whole proposition. Half a day. One horse that will not flatter you. And someone beside you who has read both balance sheets and boardrooms, telling you what just happened.
Why the Horse?
I spent twenty years in rooms where everyone chose their words carefully, myself included. Horses never got the memo. That turned out to be useful.
Nothing mystical: a horse reads bodies to survive, yours included. A horse is not interested in your title, your strategy deck, or the version of yourself you practised in the lift. Reading bodies is its job: for a few million years its survival depended on noticing who in the field was tense and meant it. Yours is just another body to read. The reaction is instant and has no manners, which is exactly the point: it shows the distance between what you meant to convey and what you actually sent.
No riding. No horse knowledge required. Everything happens outside, on the ground, at a sensible distance from anything that bites. The horse's wellbeing and your own psychological and physical safety are conditions, not footnotes.
How it works
1. First contact. Fifteen minutes, no charge. You talk, I listen, then I tell you whether it is worth your time. Sometimes it is not.
2. Half a day with a horse. One person or a team. No riding, no experience, nothing special beyond shoes you do not mind getting dirty. Everything happens outside.
3. The debrief. What the horse reacted to, what that has to do with how you lead, and what you might do about it. This is the part that stays.
Who it's for
Card A · For leaders - You suspect there is a gap between how you think you come across and how you actually do. There usually is. One person, one horse, half a day, and an honest read on what you radiate before you have said a word.
Card B · For teams and organisations - HR, L&D, boards, professional associations. You want your people to see what a 360 will not say politely: how trust, roles and connection actually behave when nobody is performing. Half a day, built with you.
It helps to be curious and willing to look. No riding, no horse experience, nothing esoteric, no incense.
After a session
"You can't convince a horse you're calm when you're not. You can't strategize your way into connection." - M.C., certified coach
"This wasn't about riding. It was about presence. In a world of overthinking and over-talking, it brought me back to something essential." - T.R., executive coach