Every year, our company’s annual retreat serves as a time to reconnect, reflect, and grow as a team. This year, we took that experience to a whole new level at Natural Lifemanship in Texas, a horse therapy farm unlike any other. But this wasn’t a place where horses received therapy—it was a place where people did.
We spent the week with Tim Jobe and his team, who use horses—some of them previously wild mustangs—to create powerful, real-world experiences in relationship-building. Many teams engage in role-play or structured team-building exercises to develop these skills, but these methods often fall short. The reason? Both parties know it’s a simulation. The stakes aren’t real, and the emotions don’t fully connect.
At Natural Lifemanship, there was no role-play. The interactions were not scripted exercises but genuine moments of relationship development. And in those moments, we learned more about leadership, trust, and connection than any classroom session could ever teach.
A Relationship, Not a Game
Horses respond to humans based on instinct, reading our energy, intentions, and presence with incredible sensitivity. Unlike in a role-playing exercise, the horse wasn’t “practicing”—this was its reality. The way we approached, engaged, and communicated with the horse had direct, immediate consequences.
Tim shared a profound insight with us: Horses connect with people for one of three reasons:
If you imagine these three as points along a spectrum, the first two represent opposite edges of a mountain ridge—either you dominate, or you are dominated. But at the peak, there is a delicate balance: true relationship.
The challenge? Stay on that peak without sliding into control one way or the other.