Medicine & Horsemanship: An Outdoor, Equine Assisted Learning Course for Doctor-Patient Relationship

Medicine and Horsemanship is a unique outdoor experience working with horses to develop interpersonal skills, leadership qualities, and self-care techniques. A challenge throughout a clinical career is to conduct relationships with patients and colleagues in a manner that is professional, perceptive, confident, and authentic. Horses mirror and magnify our intentions and behaviors. Working with horses requires sensitivity to nonverbal cues, discrimination in the quality and amount of physical contact, and an awareness of one's emotional state, all important skills for relating to patients. Horses give non-judgmental feedback about our personal communication styles and our ability to operate from a place of empathy and kindness. The course also teaches how to recognize subjectivity in judgment and how to overcome fear and immobility in the face of uncertainty. No riding is required and no previous horse experience is assumed. Limit 14 students.