Cindy Fraser-Johnson is looking for direction. The plucky entrepreneur and Madison native, now living in St. Paul, Minnesota, is at a crossroads in her life, trying to decide whether to leave the business she founded to open up a healing-touch practice.
This dilemma has brought her today to a rural Hudson pasture with two women, Lynn Baskfield and Ann Romberg. In the distance, horses graze, more interested in green shoots than in the three women.
"What sorts of questions have been coming to you?" Romberg asks Fraser-Johnson, with a glance at the horses, who still show no interest.
In her head, Fraser-Johnson thinks the question that brought her here today: "Am I doing the right thing?" Just then, Coal, a black gelding, lifts his head and takes a few steps toward the women.
"What were you thinking when Coal walked forward?" Romberg wants to know. Fraser-Johnson rubs her stomach. "I was thinking about some work leads I've been pursuing and how my stomach feels tight. Maybe some thoughts of feelings bubbling up. Gut feelings."
Suddenly, the big animal trots over, and, as if on cue, rests his nose against Fraser-Johnson's abdomen. "Looks like Coal's volunteering to work with you today," Baskfield says.
This is not your average personal-coaching experience. Dress comfortably, and wear the kind of shoes you put on to mow the lawn. You will have to trek through mud and navigate warm piles of manure. Use the time it takes to get to the pasture to open your mind to what is about to happen.
"You can be skeptical," says Baskfield, co-founder of Wisdom Horse Coaching. "The horses want you to be honest. But it helps if you're open to the experience and willing to see what happens."
The horses are geldings and mares, nine of them, Quarter horses with a few Paints thrown in. They live on the 40-acre Hawk's Ridge Ranch outside downtown Hudson, the site of Healing Arts Wellness Center, a naturopathic clinic offering everything from acupuncture to homeopathy to equine-guided education.
EGE embodies a relatively new practice in the leadership and personal development field. Put simply, Wisdom Horse is life and business coaching with horses. Baskfield and her business partner Romberg teach clients how to halter, saddle, groom and guide horses. Most Wisdom Horse clients - executives, coworkers, families, couples, professional organizations and artists - sign on for three months. Others opt for daylong sessions or two- to four-day retreats at the ranch guesthouse. The leadership and team-building exercises merely provide an infrastructure to the real work, which you can call horse-talk, self-talk, mirroring or mumbo jumbo, so long as you remember to keep an open mind.
"The horses don't actually talk to you," emphasizes Romberg, who came to coaching after 20 years in corporate America. "But they do mirror what you're thinking. So, when Lynn and I take you to the pasture and ask you to reflect on what issues are most important to you today, and you're not being authentic, the horses won't have anything to do with you."
There isn't anything to lose through participating. "You can't fail a horse exercise, because it's all about seeing how you show up in the world," Baskfield says. "There's the breakthrough."
For the full story, check out the 09' Sept/Oct. issue of Wisconsin Trails.