Can Horses Help Overcome Pandemic-Related Social Anxiety?

Life coach and leadership expert Stacey Warner uses horses to help teach people about themselves and how they interact with others. With COVID-19 restrictions lifting in many parts of the country, Warner sees her classes as even more relatable as people come out of isolation and are learning how to interact with the world once again.

Warner's classes are dubbed “Horse Powered Leadership” and they focus on encouraging team harmony in a corporate setting. The classes are designed to teach attendees something about themselves, how they work with others and how teams work together, the Courier Journal reports.

A California transplant, Warner says classes utilizing horses in this teaching capacity are very common in California and Arizona. Horses offer clear feedback to class attendees in a way not often seen in a work-related setting. Understanding social cues is a skill that has gone mostly unneeded as many people have worked remotely for over a year.

Warner teaches several different types of classes, but the end goal of each is the same: to let the horse expose the attendee's strengths and weaknesses, then to use that knowledge to become more productive.