Hunkapi Equine Experience

The Hunkapi Equine Program is a new, exciting, and innovative event.  Cowboys of the west have known for years that horses have the ability to mirror human’s actions and attitudes.  We have taken these innate abilities of the horse and incorporated them into a series of non-riding horse activities resulting in a powerful, introspective, and valuable experience.

After a horse safety overview, the group will begin a series of non-riding horse activities.  Success requires communication, creative problem solving, leadership skills, and teamwork.  During the activities, facilitators will observe group interaction between participants.  Both’ person-person’ and ‘person-horse’ interaction is noted along with how the horses respond to each individual in the arena.  These strong depictions of group dynamics are assessed then correlated to any dysfunctional or positive behaviors exhibited in everyday life.  Our debriefing is sure to leave you with the tools needed to make positive changes in your life.

Hunkapi Equine activities will show you how these questions are triggered by ineffective verbal and nonverbal communication.  Human relationships are complex and elaborate, therefore individuals must learn how body language, communication styles and work ethic influence their environment.  Horseplay activities contain an array of meaningful metaphors and analogies that actively help define our roles in our work and home environment. 

Each Hunkapi Equine session is designed to fit the needs of corporate teams and private groups.  Customizing the design begins with client consultation and thorough evaluation of participants and issues.  The entire session is then constructed based on client needs and goals.  Professional facilitators, psychologists and experienced horse handlers create arena exercises that reveal interpersonal dynamics.

During the debriefing we are able to analyze the nature of the group dynamic and offer clarity on distinctive individual qualities.  It is through this exposure that the group has a heightened awareness of one another and themselves.  Understanding how we are all “wired” lends itself to positive and effective communication.

Program Length: Average of 3 hours (duration varies depending on degree of debriefing desired)

Hunkapi Equine activities are designed to be fun and introspective. Common themes demonstrated between the horse activities and the workplace are; group roles, creative problem solving, benefits and strategies for working with people with different ideas and opinions, attitudes, work ethic and many more!  So often, the workplace is filled with negative attitudes between co-workers. The Hunkapi Equine Experience allows individuals to find their own place in a group, as well as feel like he or she is a valuable contributor to the group in a non-invasive, fun, and creative environment.

Facilitation: Terra Schaad, Director of the Hunkapi Programs, will be head facilitator at each event.  At events with more than one arena (over 24 participants) each additional arena will have an exclusive group facilitator, horse specialist, and assistant.  Each group of three will combine their expertise in group facilitation and horse knowledge to provide you with a safe, extraordinary, and life changing event.

Terra Schaad, B.S., Animal Science is certified in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Counseling at Arizona State University.  She has competed, judged, and trained horses for seventeen years.  Terra competed on the Texas A&M University Horse Judging Team and rode reining horses professionally. 

Barbara Kerr, Ph.D. is a Licensed Psychologist, Professor of Counseling Psychology at Arizona State University, and is the Associate Director of the Belen National Center for the Gifted and Talented.  She travels world wide to speak on her research and expertise involving gifted children, talent development, creativity, alternative therapies, and counseling women.  She has extensive research background involving gender and giftedness, spiritual intelligence, and creativity.  Barb has authored numerous books including, “Smart Girls: A New Psychology of Girls, Women, and Giftedness”, “Smart Boys: Talent, Manhood and the Search for Meaning”, and “Letters to the Medicine Man: The Shaping of Spiritual Intelligence”.  Her specialty is creativity, talent development, and career development.  Barbara has also been a horse owner for twenty-seven years, and has ridden dressage and trail.

Hunkapi Equine Exercise Descriptions

• Urban Round Up: Participants challenge their ability to halter a horse. Facilitators will give a brief overview of safety, then instruct participants to pick a horse to halter without detailed descriptions on “how” to halter. Activity will emphasize individual approaches to challenges, team cooperation, creativity, and unnecessary criticism within peer groups.
• Leap of Faith: Participants use teamwork, communication, creativity, and unseen resources to get a horse to go over a jump with out breaking 5 rules. Rules include: No talking, No touching, No bribing, No leading and No using anything outside of the arena. We highly recommend this inspiring, team building activity!
• Ground Tie: Try to convince a horse to stand still while you walk a circle around it. This emphasizes persuasion techniques, unnecessary communication, awareness of body language and creativity.
• Checkers: Two teams compete to play checkers with their own horse. Each team has a horse that acts as a checker. The teams must move their horse from one end of the arena to the other through a sequence of boxes. 5 Rules: No talking, No touching, No bribing, No leading the horse, if the horse moves out of turn you must go back to your last box. Emphasizes team leadership, cooperation, competitiveness, communication and individual roles within a team. 
• Billiards: Teammates must get 1 of 4 horses into a pocket in a 30 second time period. 5 Rules: No talking unless it is your turn, No touching the horse, No leading the horse, No bribing and No using anything outside of the arena. Emphasizes time management, teamwork, communication, “thinking outside the box” and individual roles.
• My World: This is a highly introspective activity recommended for small groups; specifically upper management.  ‘My world’ deals directly with finding balance within a person’s life (relationships, family, work, education, recreation, etc.).  Each activity will cater to the needs of the individuals and their own personal priorities.  The horses are used to demonstrate work related pressures that deteriorate and eventually eliminate one’s quality of life.