Brenda Boyd, Founder

Hi, I’m Brenda, founder of LEAD THE WAY EQUINE LEARNING.

I have always sought continual growth and learning, specifically in the area of organizational culture and how to lead effectively and decisively.

When I discovered how horses lead naturally, I was blown away. Even with having leadership education, I did not realize how much I did not know about leadership. Horses provided me a clear reality check. They mirrored back to me what I was doing, and it wasn’t pretty.

Horses have become my professors. They are teaching me more than I ever learned in school. They are so humble and gentle about it, too. I am rewarded by them when they know I have seen them and heard them.

LEAD THE WAY EQUINE LEARNING exists to help people experience a way to lead that has been used by horses for hundreds of years.

LEAD THE WAY EQUINE LEARNING teams up with horses to help leaders learn how they lead…naturally. Equine Assisted Learning (articles) is one of the leading, most effective models for developing 21st century leaders to confidently lead through complexity and uncertainty.

Leadership development with the horse as teacher and guide is growing in popularity and acceptance, as will as in research and news interest.

I became a certified facilitator for the TeachingHorse™ Diamond Model of Shared Leadership™ in 2023.

I hold a PhD in Leadership, a Master’s in Organizational Management, a Master’s in Health Professions Education, and a triple-Bachelor’s in Public Relations, Journalism, and Communication. I am currently pursuing a Master’s in Executive Coaching & Consulting.

I am certified as an equine assisted learning facilitator by EAL Academy, and I hold certificates in Family Counseling, Online Teaching & Learning, and Equine Assisted Services.

The executive coaching and leadership development model from TeachingHorse™ stands at the forefront, empowering 21st-century leaders to navigate complexity and uncertainty with confidence.

My Story

I owe the start of my journey to Breezy, an Irish Connemara Pony in Virginia. It all began in June of 2021 when I helped a friend complete her equine therapy certificate. I was the “patient” for two mini-sessions for my friend’s final assignment. I became an immediate convert to equine assisted coaching!

When I came home from Virginia, I looked for equine assisted leadership coaching for myself. I owe the dramatic shift in my leadership to a chestnut mustang in Temecula, CA, who I nick-named “Irish Filly”. She was a lead mare who was my teacher for four months during my own experience.

I experienced the transformative power of having horses coach me to be better with people, so I became open to having a horse of my own. I now have three. Princess Brayleigh, Adam, and Trinity entered my life between 2022-2023, and they are teaching me things that I would have never learned from another human being. They are showing me what love-based leadership is all about.

It gives me great meaning and satisfaction to share the magnificence of the human-horse connection with others through LEAD THE WAY EQUINE LEARNING.

Nothing could have convinced me of the dramatic changes that were possible, except that I experienced it myself. 

My passion for personal and spiritual growth, combined with a career in education and education in leadership, coaching, facilitation, and equine assisted learning, has led me to start LEAD THE WAY EQUINE LEARNING.

This isn’t “psychotherapy”. This isn’t “therapeutic riding”. It is experiential learning on the ground, with the horse as teacher and guide. No riding is involved. Horse experience is not necessary.

Partnering with a horse for executive coaching and leadership development changed my life in just the way I needed it to change. I’m pretty confident that it’s going to make a difference for you, too!