LEADERSHIP FOR TEAMS NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY, CHANGE AND CRISIS
HERD DYNAMICS:
Leading Through Uncertainty with GRACE
A Different Kind of Leadership & Team Development
Grounded in 20+ years working with thousands of horses, our trainings translates the natural wisdom of horses into practical tools for humans. This approach honours the nervous system's role in leadership - recognizing that how we embody leadership matters as much as what we know intellectually.
Horses create psychological safety instinctively, communicate with clarity under threat, de-escalate tension without force, and build trust without words. These aren't metaphors - they're learnable, embodied leadership skills.
This isn't theory. It's experiential, grounded, and unlike anything else you've experienced.
Who This Is For
Teams facing burnout, retention challenges, and operational stress
Leaders managing change in unpredictable, high-stakes environments
Organizations prioritizing psychological safety, trust, and team resilience
Teams operating under pressure who need practical tools with powerful impacts
What You'll Learn
Participants will explore the GRACE framework - a practical approach to healthy and balanced leadership developed over two decades of working with thousands of horses, and hundreds of individuals, teams and organizations. This framework supports all the training options below.
Training Options:
LEADERSHIP REDEFINED
A Revolutionary Model for Socially Intelligent Leadership
A horse and nature inspired approach to understanding the 5 key roles of leadership that we all need to learn.
Change how we perceive behaviour through a unique lens
Shift our stuck patterns with new ways to approach relationships with self and others
Understand which roles to focus on strengthening to create the balance we need
Add to a trauma-informed toolkit that will help to create a greater sense of clarity, connection and courage
CLEAR GROUND
Developing Relational Clarity
From understanding healthy and harmful dynamics, to communicating with compassionate grounded strength.
The vocabulary to name what we’ve been experiencing — clearly and without self-blame
An understanding of our own patterns: where they come from and how to shift them
The ability to recognize the full spectrum of harmful dynamics — from subtle to overt
Skills to communicate with grounded strength rather than from survival mode
A practical toolkit we can use for the rest of their lives
RESTORING BALANCE
Embodied Co-Regulation & De-Escalation
Learn how our nervous system affects others and how to intentionally shift the energy in a room.
Learn how to stay regulated when someone else is dysregulated
Use intentional movement and proximity to influence outcomes
Match and lead someone from activation to calm
Maintain our own nervous system health in chronically stressful environments
Through these trainings, your team will:
Learn to lead with presence and clarity when the stakes are highest
Build trust and psychological safety in unpredictable environments
De-escalate tension using nervous system awareness and embodied communication
Make decisions under pressure without burning out
Read your team the way a herd reads its environment - with instinct, awareness, and responsiveness
Apply the GRACE framework to real challenges your organization is facing
This isn't about adding more to your plate. It's about leading with less effort and more impact.
“This was one of the most impactful workshops I’ve experienced. The learning offered a rare level of clarity and honesty around relationships, especially in understanding patterns of relational harm, communication, and repair. The content was grounded in somatic, psychological, and equine-informed frameworks, which made the material feel both accessible and deeply meaningful to me.”
All Trainings
Can be delivered on-site at your location (no horses required for standard workshops)
Are customizable to your organization's specific challenges and culture
Include follow-up resources and integration support
Can be structured as standalone sessions or multi-part programs
Multi-session programs and payment plans available.
Pricing is customized based on group size, location, and specific organizational needs.
Contact us to discuss options that work for your budget.
Pricing is plus applicable taxes.
Training Format
HALF-DAY WORKSHOP (3-4 hours)
Impactful and unique frameworks with practical application to your team's specific challenges. Participants leave with concrete tools they can use immediately.
Starting at $2,500
FULL-DAY INTENSIVE (6-7 hours)
Take our core frameworks and deep dive into team dynamics, with integration planning. Includes time for individual reflection, group practice, and customized application to your organization's context.
Starting at $4,500
TWO-DAY LEADERSHIP IMMERSION
2-day experiences allow us to truly build skills together, not just introduce concepts. We will explore your natural strengths, challenges, and how to leverage the full spectrum in your leadership. Participants gain sophisticated awareness of their leadership patterns and learn to adapt their approach based on what each situation requires.
Ideal for: Leadership teams, supervisors, and organizations committed to sustained culture change.
Starting at $8,000 (can be delivered consecutively or spaced over weeks/months)
WELLNESS PROGRAMS
Our programs can be geared toward personal wellbeing and nervous system regulation. The focus is on leading ourselves to sustainable wellness - addressing burnout, trauma exposure, and operational stress.
Available in 1-day or 2-day formats. The 2-day program allows us to collaboratively explore your patterns, strengths, and how to sustain yourself in high-stress work.
Ideal for: Teams experiencing burnout, trauma exposure, compassion fatigue, operational stress, and chronic high-pressure environments.
1-Day starting at $4,500 | 2-Day starting at $8,000
EQUINE FACILITATED WORKSHOPS AT HORSE SENSE NORTH
For small teams ready to go deeper (maximum 5 participants), we offer immersive workshops at our farm in Almaguin (also known as Muskoka North - see our Land Acknowledgement here). Working directly with horses provides immediate, embodied feedback that accelerates learning and transformation.
These range from intensive 1-day sessions to transformational 5-day programs, combining our frameworks with hands-on equine experiences - no riding, all learning.
1-day to 5-day programs | Pricing customized based on duration and group needs
Perfect for leadership teams, trauma recovery work, and organizations seeking profound, lasting transformation.
About Carmen Theobald
Carmen has spent two decades translating the wisdom of horses into practical tools for human leadership and healing. As Founder and Director of Horse Sense North, she specialize in helping leaders and teams navigate high-pressure environments with clarity, connection and courage.
Creator and co-facilitator of Above & Beyond, a clinically supervised equine therapy and trauma recovery program for public safety personnel, Carmen has worked with first responder and military organizations in Canada and the US. She has a background working with SA and IPV survivors, addiction recovery, and the 2S-LGBTQIA+ community. She also has a growing passion for working upstream, helping leaders and organizations grow their “courage muscles” to lean into new perspectives that lead to systemic change, growth and healing.
Her approach is grounded in working with thousands of horses, her own Post Traumatic Growth, and a commitment to making a difference in this fractured world.
Located between Burk’s Falls and Magnetawan, Ontario (see our Land Acknowledgement here), Carmen delivers training both with horses (equine facilitated learning) and without, bringing the principles of herd dynamics directly to organizations across the province and beyond.
What People Are Saying
“Our Service is currently collaborating closely with Horse Sense North, integrating elements of
their programming into our Leadership Development and Peer Support Training initiatives
through the Organizational Wellness Unit. Additionally, we have facilitated group participation
in one-day workshops at Horse Sense North to further support the well-being and resilience of
our members.”
“What a delight to have Carmen come train our staff team on the 5 Roles of Leadership. If you’re feeling a bit stale and need to develop new neural pathways, this is for you! I could see the recognition and connections registering on people’s faces as she presented a very tangible way of considering leadership, how we need all 5 roles and the challenges of each. It was fun, it was interactive, it was truly thought provoking. I would highly recommend Carmen Theobald’s facilitation skills, fresh style, and content to any organization, corporate or non-profit interested in leadership development.””
“When first entering the workshop, I was a little skeptical since I did not see an obvious link between horses and team dynamics. I was very happy to discover very practical and evidence based solutions to common everyday problems we were facing. The facilitator was down to earth, approachable, knowledgeable and caring. Everyone who participated left with some new tools in their tool belt and a new sense of understanding that could translate well on a professional and personal level. I would recommend this workshop to everyone working with other people.”
“Carmen and her work at Horse Sense North with the beautiful horse healers, has been incredibly impactful for our team at Mamaway Wiidokdaadwin.
As an Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Health Care Team, we want to ensure that we are working in cultural alignment for ourselves as well as those we serve while also providing high level medical care.
The Leadership training was a breath of fresh air; it was beautiful to see our team come together and learn ways of working as one for “the good of the herd” and honouring the ancestral relationship between Indigenous peoples and the horse kin.
I know it has been life changing for some and is informing the way we work together for the betterment of the community. It’s been amazing how this work has created a foundation that will continue to expand by encouraging us to approach our work with some “horse sense”. We look forward to furthering our relationship with Horse Sense North.””
Ready to Bring This Training to Your Team?
Let's start with a conversation.
Book a complimentary 20-minute discovery call to discuss your team's needs and whether this training is the right fit.