If you are looking for something new, fun, and for the whole family, then look no further than Gully's Learning Ranch's Family Workshops. These workshops are designed to help develop communication skills, family teamwork, trust, boundaries, problem solving, and so much more! Working as a team, your family will work with a horse as your teacher and make your way through various objectively-driven exercises. These lessons are paralleled back to everyday life to ensure that your family is getting the best results.  

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Workshops are run in Single (one objectively-driven, unique equine assisted learning program) or Double (two EAL programs + optional lunch) Workshops. Each workshop can be run privately (one family) or semi-privately (two families). We run programs with a maximum of 6 people. Due to the nature of our program, we have an age requirement of 8+ years. 

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Herds as Family Units

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Horses naturally live in herds. Wild herds comprise of a stallion and a lead mare, along with other mares and youngsters. Each herd member has a job to ensure the herd's safety. Herds are family units - all of the younger horses in the herd are the stallion's offspring from the mares in his herd. The stallion is the fair leader and is the one who turns to fight when a predator threatens his herd. The lead mare's responsibility during a predator attack is to lead the other mares and youngsters to safety. On an every day basis, the stallion protects the herd's territory and his status as alpha of the herd. The lead mare's daily duties includes leading the herd to lush grazing areas and fresh water. The herd in its entirety use their incredibly astute sense and instincts to sense when their is danger and to alert the rest of the herd through silent communication (body language). They are constantly aware of their surroundings and quick to react to ensure the safety of their fellow herd mates. 

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Horses are very social beings with highly developed interpersonal instincts. Our program develops life skills. At their basic level, life skills are interpersonal communication skills - such as articulation, active listening, body language, intention, appropriate assertiveness, and more - something nature has given to the horse for survival. By focusing on building on your family's relationships, our program is able to give irrefutable results for both individual and team skills development. By paralleling the lessons that the participants have learned in the arena to real life situations, the learning becomes memorable and useful in their every day lives. 

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Herds to Horses are like Teams to Humans 

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A horse herd works as a solid unit to ensure that they meet their common goal - safety. Every herd member has a job to do to ensure the safety of the herd. Just as in human teams, we all work together towards a common goal. Herds and teams alike, require leadership. However, leadership is NOT by dominance, and this has been researched in both human and herd life. Leadership is about being fair and allowing each team member to do their job to the best of their capability. Horses seek fair leadership and when they do not receive it, they will take the leader role. But they are looking for a leader within yourself. You don't have to be a CEO of a company or the principle of the school - being a true leader is being able to answer the questions "where do I want to go?" and "how am I going to get here?" When true leadership is given to a horse it is appreciated and admired. Teamwork in a herd is respected and it's expected! By interacting with horses, we learn so much about co-operatively working together.