Unbridled Leadership EAL

Unbridled Leadership EAL Welcome to Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), an experiential approach to leadership and team building.
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I missed it last year, and I felt it.Not just the learning, though I have a running list of questions I've been saving u...
06/03/2026

I missed it last year, and I felt it.

Not just the learning, though I have a running list of questions I've been saving up. I missed the feeling of being in a space where everyone around you gets EAL. Where you don't have to explain why a horse stopped moving or why that moment made someone cry. Where the shorthand is shared and the conversations go deep fast.
This year, I'm back! For my third Cartier Farms/Dreamwinds EAL symposium. First one back after a year away and a season of rebuilding in more ways than one.
The theme this year is "Upgrade in Progress," and I could not have picked three words that feel more personally true right now.
I'll be at Crowfield Farm in Everett, Ontario with some of the most generous, thoughtful educators I know. Jackie McCallum hosts, and the symposium team: Gayle, Daryl, Janice, Dominique, and Tracey, never miss. I get to be a student again.

What's the last thing you gave yourself full permission to learn?

Here is something nobody tells you about the person you love most.You know them. Really know them! Their coffee order, t...
06/03/2026

Here is something nobody tells you about the person you love most.
You know them. Really know them! Their coffee order, their childhood stories, the exact face they make when they're trying not to react. You have logged years of ordinary mornings and hard conversations and the particular way they laugh when something catches them off guard.

And that knowing? It's one of the most beautiful things there is.

And still, when a situation is brand new and neither of you has the answer, you might discover something about each other you've never seen before.
Not because you missed it. Because some things only show up when the ground shifts and you have to figure it out together in real time.

That's what Stable Date is for.
It's a couples evening at a small private farm in Stouffville, just the two of you, a horse, and ninety minutes of the most surprisingly warm and genuinely revealing date night you've ever had. Ground-based exercises, no riding, and no horse experience needed. You'll work together to communicate with and lead a horse through a series of tasks.
Here's the thing about horses: they respond to what is actually happening between you, not what you want to be happening. When both of you are trying to lead at the same time, the horse stops. Every single time.
I have watched couples laugh until they cry and then go very quiet as they realize exactly what they just learned about each other. Not something hard. Something true. The kind of truth that makes you reach for each other's hand on the drive home.
There's debrief, there's warmth, and there's something real to carry with you, a moment that belongs only to the two of you.

It's a date night that actually tells you something beautiful.
📅 June 19 · 7:00–8:30pm
📍 Stouffville
💛 $199 per couple · Four couples maximum
Tag the person you want to bring, or message me directly, and I'll hold you a spot.

You Had Me at Horse is an evening at a small private farm in Stouffville. A handful of women, a few horses, and ninety m...
06/01/2026

You Had Me at Horse is an evening at a small private farm in Stouffville. A handful of women, a few horses, and ninety minutes that will give you something real to take home.
No riding. No horse experience. No agenda to prepare for. Just ground-based exercises designed to put you in a genuine relationship with a horse and see what happens. What the horse reflects back to you about how you communicate, how you lead, and how you show up when something genuine is asked of you is more honest than anything a workshop has ever offered you. And then we talk about it together.
Women arrive curious and a little nervous and leave lighter than they came. I have watched it happen enough times that I say that without hesitation.
Our next evening is June 16. 7:00–8:30pm. $99 per person. Spots are capped at eight.
Reply to this post or email me at [email protected], and I will personally save you a spot. I want to know who is coming.

She told me at the gate she had never been near a horse in her life.Matter of fact. Maybe a little apologetic. As if it ...
05/30/2026

She told me at the gate she had never been near a horse in her life.

Matter of fact. Maybe a little apologetic. As if it were information I needed to decide whether she belonged there.

I told her it wasn't. She looked unconvinced.

For the first twenty minutes she held herself carefully. Watching. Polite distance.
The particular alertness of a woman who is very practiced at managing what she lets herself feel.

And then one of my mares, famously selective, an animal who will tell you clearly when she is done engaging, stepped past three other people, and stood beside this woman.

Just stood there. Close. Leaning in slightly. The way horses do when they have decided something about you.

The woman didn't move.

She looked at me with an expression I have seen before and will never stop being moved by.

She said: "She chose me."

Yes. She did.

That is the whole thing right there.

She had never been near a horse in her life.She told me that in the driveway. Matter of fact, maybe a little apologetic,...
05/30/2026

She had never been near a horse in her life.
She told me that in the driveway. Matter of fact, maybe a little apologetic, as if it were information I needed to assess whether she belonged there. I told her it wasn't. She looked unconvinced.
For the first twenty minutes she held herself carefully. Polite distance. Watching the other women. Watching the horse with a mix of genuine awe and the particular alertness of someone who is very good at managing what they let themselves feel.
And then, mid-debrief, something happened that nobody scripted.
One of my mares, an animal who is famously selective, who will tell you very clearly when she is done engaging, stepped past three other people and stood beside this woman. Just stood there. Close. Leaning in slightly, the way horses do when they have decided something about you.
The woman did not move. She just looked at me with an expression I have seen before and will never get tired of. The expression of someone who just received a message they didn't know they were waiting for.
She said, "She chose me."
Yes. She did. That is the whole thing right there.

Let me clear something up before it stops you.You do not need horse experience. You do not need to have ridden as a chil...
05/21/2026

Let me clear something up before it stops you.
You do not need horse experience. You do not need to have ridden as a child, or ridden at all, or have any idea what you are doing around a large animal. You do not need to be outdoorsy, athletic, fearless, or any particular kind of person.
You need one thing: a willingness to show up honestly.
That is the only requirement. And honestly, for most of the women I work with, it is the most challenging part. Not the horse. Not the farm. Not the exercises. The showing up honestly. The arriving without the performance. The being in a situation where your title and your track record and your very polished sense of how you come across carry exactly zero weight.
The horse is not interested in what you have achieved. It is interested in what you are carrying. And whether you are ready to set some of it down.
No riding. No experience. No perfect version of yourself required.
Just you. Exactly as you are right now. That is already enough to begin.

05/18/2026

A horse does not care about your title.
It does not care about your track record, your confidence costume, or your very convincing impression of someone who has it all together. It cannot be charmed, impressed, or managed. It does not respond to the version of you that performs.
It responds to what is true.
I have watched a CEO, someone genuinely comfortable in every room he had ever walked into, come to a complete stop in front of a horse that simply would not move. Not because the horse was difficult. Because the ask wasn't real yet. Because he was performing leadership instead of practicing it. And the horse, patient and honest, just waited.
I have watched a quiet teenager, the one nobody noticed in the group, lead that same horse through an obstacle course with such soft, clear authority that the adults in the arena went still.
The horse flattened the hierarchy in about four minutes. No whiteboard required.
This is what I do. Not teach people about leadership. I give them a mirror that cannot lie. 💙🐴

I grew up on the outside of the horse world.Not the kid with the lessons, the show circuit, and the expensive horse. No,...
05/15/2026

I grew up on the outside of the horse world.

Not the kid with the lessons, the show circuit, and the expensive horse. No, I was the kid with the horse pictures on her bedroom walls instead of celebrities, asking for time at friends' farms and country fairs because lessons weren't in the budget. Watching the world I wanted from the other side of the fence.
Horses found me anyway. An appaloosa mare named Telstar was my first horse.

Over the years, through teaching, through raising two daughters, and through every chapter that pulled me in a different direction, I kept finding my way back. My second horse, Magic, came into my life when my girls were young. We shared her. She was wonderful. Life got busy the way life does, and eventually I let her go, carrying that particular ache that only a horsewoman understands.
But horses do not let you go for long. Years later, my daughters grown, I came back, this time to western riding, to a deeply supportive coach, and to a community that welcomed me in a way the formal horse world never had. I have been competing on my friend’s palomino gelding Kit for a couple of years now. Horses are not a hobby I returned to. They are the thread that has run through every version of my life. 🐴
And then four years ago, during March break, I saw an ad for an Equine Assisted Learning certification. One question: Do you have a passion for people and horses?
Five days later, everything clicked.

All those years of teaching. All that sport coaching. Personal training. All that love of people and horses, not in spite of each other but because of each other. The door the horse world once shut on me was never the door I was meant to walk through. I found something better. And the old story of you're not good enough for this world had been wrong the whole time.
I am Frances. I run Unbridled Leadership EAL, and I cannot believe I get to do this.

You are very good at this.Good at keeping it moving. Good at knowing what everyone needs before they ask. Good at being ...
05/14/2026

You are very good at this.
Good at keeping it moving. Good at knowing what everyone needs before they ask. Good at being the person the room quietly orients toward when something goes sideways.
You have been doing it so long it stopped feeling like a choice and started feeling like just who you are.
And you are not complaining. You just lie awake sometimes not worrying exactly, more like carrying. The weight of being the one who holds it together. The particular exhaustion of a woman who has been showing up so fully, for so long, that she genuinely cannot remember the last time someone asked what she needed.
Somewhere along the way the things that used to fill you up stopped quite doing it. The weekends away that evaporate by Tuesday. The self-care that feels like another thing on the list. The version of you that the world keeps applauding: capable, together, and reliable, that is real. But you have a feeling it is not the whole of you.
You are not broken. You do not need to be fixed. You just need to be met.
I think about you more than you know.

Hello March. 🌱After taking some time away to care for my parents and saying goodbye to my dad three weeks ago. I'm slowl...
03/01/2026

Hello March. 🌱

After taking some time away to care for my parents and saying goodbye to my dad three weeks ago. I'm slowly returning to the farm and the work that means so much to me. I’ll always carry his smile and laughter with me.

March feels like a season of renewal, and I’m grateful to step back into helping others reconnect, reflect, and grow through Equine Assisted Learning.

Spring sessions are now open for individuals, teams, and groups ready for a different kind of learning experience—outdoors, experiential, and deeply meaningful. 🐴

If you’ve been thinking about booking a session, this is a beautiful time to begin. 🌷

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