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From Across the Seas

In September we had received an email from South Korea asking us if we would be interested in being a reference for their government initiated study for program development through horse and healing programs. How exciting is this?! A group coming all the way from the other side of the world conducting a research piece on this powerful EAL program! So of course, without any doubt in our mind, we said yes! The team that came down were composed of university professors, doctors and horse specialists.

They came, researched, asked questions, ran through a couple programs, and studied our unique educational approach! However, this blog isn’t necessarily about their research. It’s about how AMAZING having a language barrier was. They had spoke some English - but not all of them. And yet, we all understood each other through the power of body language. The night before they came out to our facility, they had asked us if we would like to go to dinner, so yet again, OF COURSE! We had met up at a nice little restaurant in Strathmore not sure of how the night would go. Would we understand each other? What if we couldn’t talk to each other? Well the night went the exact opposite! We had a flipping blast! We told jokes, had conversation, and we didn’t even necessarily completely understand one another verbally all the time, but we talked through body language. Incredible, isn’t it? That us as humans don’t have to talk to be able to have a conversation with someone. And so very gratefully, we left dinner excited for what the next day would bring.

Our new friends from South Korea came over to conduct their study, and so we ran through the EAL programs in the arena. Now back to not having to talk to have a conversation - the incredible horses didn’t need to say a word either. And of course we knew this going into the program, but it really hit us. Body language is a universal language, and horses are the masters of this. You don’t need to speak for them to understand what is going on, it is purely based off of the stimulus that we are giving off that they react to us. And the way they speak in their herd is based purely off of body language.

This experience really helped us understand that there is one universal language! We met some great people, had an incredibly fun time, and look forward to seeing them again in the future!


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