Fürstenau/Osnabrück, August 2024

In equine-assisted coaching, horses give us the chance to experience and perceive ourselves in a completely new way. Horses, which react very sensitively to human emotions and body language, reflect individual patterns of thought, feeling and behavior and make them visible to the outside world. They
give us non-judgemental and authentic feedback, which can be experienced with the help of guided self-reflection.

In an increasingly demanding and media-driven world, it is more important than ever to develop tolerance and mutual respect for people and animals.
As part of the Days of Tolerance, some pupils were encouraged to discover and reflect on individual strengths and experience what is important in a team through horse-supported coaching.

"I thought it was great that we rode as a team and talked about our strengths after riding. It was really nice." (Magdalena, Year 7)

Pupils in years 8-10 first completed an individual exercise with the horse in hand. By means of guided self-reflection and feedback from the group of pupils, each individual became aware of the horse's reactions and thus experienced their own strengths. The students then noted down their perceived strengths on so-called encouragement cards, which they had selected at the start of the exercise.

In subsequent tasks for the whole group, the pupils found solutions together with the horses. By working together, it quickly became clear that each individual contributes to success, that a lot is said non-verbally and that it is important to wait for the reactions of others.

In another "workshop", the pupils in years 6 and 7 took part in an obstacle course as a team. At the beginning of the course, the pupils also chose an encouraging card that particularly appeals to them and can support them in everyday situations.
The teams then rode through a guided course, alternating between leading and riding. When completing the task together, it became clear that the pupils were highly concentrated and very attentive to each other. This experience of individual strengths could be transferred to everyday life in the subsequent discussion, as it quickly became clear that this often does not work in school learning. The experience of being able to do it when the goal is in sight and one's own strengths are taken into account was a key experience for some pupils.

"I was able to take a lot out of the horse-supported coaching, on the one hand my strengths, which I was able to find out very well by assessing others, and on the other hand I really liked working in the group because I learned that you can work together without communication, but that you only need enough forbearance towards others. This will help me in the future so that I can think about my strengths at stressful times and act accordingly."
(Svenja, Year 10)