Teachers ventured out of the classroom recently for their Teambuilding day and headed to Carlshead Farm, near Wetherby, where Learning to Listen is based. And what a day they had. The day started with an informative walk through the willow which is used as an environmentally friendly way of heating the farm. See more at this link Biomass 

Whilst wondering down the rolling hills they were met by the Alpacas and their youngsters before having well earned refreshments and heading off to see the Equine Facilitated demonstration. Black Jack, a pony, Learning To Listens star demonstrator, was a perfect example of how disengaged children can become in a static classroom environment. He looked out of the window, ignored his teacher when they entered the room and was generally disengaged with the lesson. This allowed Sarah Kreutzer, founded of Learning to Listen, to show how her concepts to engaging people really work and how the horses are a good mirror to how well we are using them. It wasn’t long before Black Jack was motivated, engaged and even a willing partner in the relationship.

‘The fascinating thing,’ says Sarah, ‘Is that you can’t train the horses to behave in a certain way with each person. They just do different things with different people, which points out where we can improve our communication skills, verbal and non-verbal.’ ‘It’s so accurate that it’s like someone is reading your mind!’

Phil Pemberton, the Bushcraft expert was on next with his fire lighting skills from just making embers. ‘Taking people right back to basics,’ Phil says, ‘Can unnerve people to start with, but by the time they leave they are walking ten feet tall, able to problem solve and deal more effectively with adversity’

The teachers were so impressed with what they had learnt from the day that they have already booked programmes for their students so they can all carry on learning together.

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