The Reluctant Leader

The Reluctant Leader

The Reluctant Leader

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a business coach who stated quite emphatically that anyone can learn to be a leader. I would like to bring him over to the farm so he can spend some time with John.

John is my big draft-cross gelding. People observing our horses often see John as the herd leader as he is dominant in a very flamboyant and physical manner out in the paddock. I know better.

Several years ago I was contracted to run an equine education program for another facility using my own horses. I took three of my new geldings, Bucky, Huggy and John. I thought that since John seemed to be number two horse in my herd he could step up to the plate and take charge of Bucky and Huggy who were much lower in the hierarchy.

It became quickly obvious that things were not going according to (my) plan. I would find Huggy and Bucky huddled across the field as far away as the could get from John, For the most part he ignored them but occasionally he would come charging across the field at them for no reason that I could discern. When I took them in to the arena to work in the program all three of them were very edgy and unsettled. I could only hope that the situation would resolve itself and everyone would accept their new roles.

At about that time my own programs at our farm became very busy and I decided that I needed John to come home on weekends to work for us. That Friday I brought my trailer over to the other arena, loaded John and took him home for two days. He seemed very relieved to be back with Nubee, our herd leader, and spent most of the two days by his side. I am sure Huggy and Bucky spent the two John-less days dancing in their paddock.

The following Friday, when John saw my trailer parked outside the arena to take him home he immediately started to whinny and dance. The minute the classes were finished he dragged me out the door, trotted across the parking lot and literally threw himself onto the trailer. (I must tell you non-horse people reading this that horses very rarely are happy about getting into horse trailers)

Monday morning however was a different story. After spending considerable time catching an elusive John out in my field I had to drag him through the gate and over to the trailer. Getting him on to the trailer took considerable energy and some very creative strategies on my part.

I would like to tell you that John slowly grew into the role of solid, dependable herd leader but it never happened. Every Friday I loaded up a happy John and every Monday I brought back a miserable John

John , Bucky and Huggy are permanently home now in our herd and everyone is happy in their roles. Nubee is still the undisputed leader of our herd although he is getting older. John still struts around as though he owns the field, but I know that when Nubee goes the leadership position will go to Bob my young horse. Bob has already shown he has what it takes to do the job and is quite willing to take on that role. Not every horse in the herd or every human in the organization was born to be a leader.

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