I AM HERD Team & Leadership Development Experiences
2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, signifying a time for bold action, transformation, innovation and ambition. I AM HERD can help your organization embrace this spirit of transformative change and forward progress with our equine assisted team and leadership development retreats.
I AM HERD is excited to offer customized retreats, supported by the wild horses and gentle goat herd of the Sanctuary, aimed at developing key leadership skills in a creative, engaging and safe environment.
Are you ready to enhance your team’s skills in a unique setting that gets your team out of the conference room and out of their comfort zone? The I Am Herd retreat experience develops teamwork and leadership skills that will allow your team to overcome challenges in a meaningful and effective way.
Retreat Offerings:
All retreats are fully customized to your team’s unique needs and goals. We offer single retreats, or you can combine multiple retreats to offer sessions at regular intervals throughout the year. All retreats include observations and ground exercises only (no riding, and no horse experience required).
🐎 Leadership Development Retreats: this full-day (or multi-day option) retreat focuses on comprehensive leadership development with our equine partners helping us demonstrate principles of effective leadership.
🐎 Teambuilding Retreats: customized teambuilding that incorporates observing and working with our equine partners to experience the importance of working collaboratively, thinking creatively and strategically, building trust, and challenging one another in a constructive, supportive manner.
🐎 Wellbeing Retreats: focus on supporting your team’s wellbeing through equine observation and interactions to recognize and respond to stress responses and burnout. We pair concepts of the neuroscience of stress and trauma informed care with traditional wellbeing activities like meditation, breathwork and reflection.
During The Leadership Development Retreat, Leaders Will Develop Skills To:
Build Trust and Communication: Animals are highly intuitive and respond to your energy and the energy of their environment. Participants will learn how their leadership presence, their team’s presence, and their environment intersect to create a place of trust and safety.
Enhance Emotional Intelligence and Deeper Self-Awareness: Interacting with animals teaches you to be more attuned to your own emotional state and the emotions of others. We will focus on skills to help leaders grow their emotional intelligence, adapt their emotional connection to their peers and the teams they lead, and develop techniques for staying grounded under pressure.
Develop Confidence: Leaders will gain confidence in leading with authenticity and empathy and expand their ability to remain calm through changes and challenges. This confidence will be put into action in the fun, engaging hands-on goat interactions and other activities.
Team Cohesion and Problem-Solving: Leaders will discover how to bring out the best in their team, fostering collaboration and mutual respect. Whether working together for the hands-on experience with the goat herd or sharing in reflective discussion circles after witnessing the wild horse demonstration, leaders will develop a collaborative mindset, open to vulnerability and creative problem-solving.
The first half of the Leadership Development Retreat is led by Mary and the wild horse she is supporting through a wild horse gentling process that centers around clear leadership, a safe space of trust, and mutual respect from both horse and human. This portion of the retreat focuses on observing and reflecting on the wild horse interactions. The second half of the retreat offers hands-on experiences which can be customized to include the I Am Herd goats or a gentle Sanctuary mustang horse. Participants will engage in fun games/obstacles to practice their leadership skills with one another. Discussion circles are woven throughout for participants to share observations and reflections and draw parallels to their own leadership challenges.
During The Teambuilding Retreat, Participants Will Develop Skills To:
- Improve communication and active listening
- Build trust and psychological safety
- Strengthen leadership presence and adaptability
- Increase self-awareness and emotional regulation
- Enhance collaboration and problem-solving and reveal and shift unproductive team dynamics
This retreat begins with Mary demonstrating key elements of partnership and teamwork with her wild mustang partner as we discuss the key principles of team dynamics. We will incorporate hands-on, guided interactions with a gentle horse and/or goats to strengthen teamwork, communication, and emotional intelligence through ground-based (non-riding) exercises. The horse partner provides real-time, honest feedback on how participants communicate, lead, collaborate, and work together to manage the unknown.
During The Wellbeing Retreat, Participants Will Develop Skills To:
- Support emotional balance and burnout recovery
- Reduce and respond in healthy ways to stress
- Experience greater self-awareness and enhance mindfulness
- Encourage authentic self-expression and create a sense of belonging and shared support
This restorative retreat creates space for participants to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and cultivate resilience in a calm setting with guided, ground-based animal interactions. We will discuss the neuroscience behind nervous system and stress regulation, drawing from elements of stress first aid and trauma informed care. We will guide reflective conversations that help participants integrate positive wellbeing experiences into daily life. The retreat can be customized to your team’s needs to include breathwork, meditation, and other wellbeing activities.
Why Wild Horses?
I Am Herd specializes in helping wild horses learn that they can trust the human as their leader. The wild horse is a 1,000 pound animal, much larger, and much stronger than any human. Therefore, the human must use essential interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills to create meaningful communication with the wild horse. The human must first be self-aware and present in their own body. Simultaneously, they must be able to read the wild horse’s emotions and offer the unique support the wild horse needs to develop trust in human leadership.
Leadership, teamwork and wellbeing in the workplace parallels. Effective leadership isn’t just about decision-making or authority; it’s about communication, emotional intelligence, adaptability and building trust. There is nothing quite like witnessing a majestic wild horse beginning to trust in the leadership of a human to help one remember the importance of these skills in their own leadership style. Horses are deeply intuitive, present-moment animals that respond authentically to human emotion, energy, and intention. Their sensitivity helps individuals become more aware of internal states such as stress, tension, confidence, and emotional wellbeing. This natural feedback fosters mindfulness, regulation, and positive adapatabilty in a unique and transformative way.
Why Partner with I AM HERD?
Partnering with I AM HERD offers the unique opportunity for a retreat fully customized to what your team needs. The retreat investment includes an intake session with the facilitators to share your team’s current challenges and what you hope to achieve from the retreat(s). Following this meeting, we will develop a customized retreat plan unique for your team.
Who Should Attend?
This retreat is ideal for teams and people leaders who want to enhance their teamwork, leadership presence, and communication skills. No horse experience is required. We recognize that some individuals may be fearful of interacting with horses; while we work to make all participants comfortable and at ease, all retreats offer full participation options without having to directly interact with our equine partners if preferred.
Location:
We have two partner locations with covered arena space outside of Raleigh, NC and Wilmington, NC. If these are not convenient locations, we will partner with a farm/arena located near your organization. I Am Herd facilitators will coordinate all event location needs.
Leadership Retreat Investment:
Each retreat is designed to be an all-day experience for 6 to 15 participants. Pricing of $3500 includes pre -session meetings with both facilitators and a fully customized retreat agenda focused on your team’s unique needs. Pricing is all-inclusive, including rental fee of selected facility, lunch for participants, and all materials used at the event. If you have a smaller or larger group, please let us know and we can discuss possible opportunities.
Meet Your Facilitators:
Mary Miller-Jordan is the founder and current Executive Director of the I AM HERD Mustang Sanctuary. Mary experienced the healing qualities of the wild Mustang horses firsthand in her personal life and it was so transformational that she created I AM HERD so that the wild Mustang horses could help other individuals, as they have helped her.
Mary is a nationally acclaimed wild Mustang gentler and trainer, having won multiple titles with her Mustang horses before founding non-profit, I AM HERD. In addition to the I Am Herd leadership retreats, Mary offers several herd-assisted programs including goat yoga, school visits, hospital visits for teammate engagement and support, assisted living visits, teambuilding retreats for public schools and Universities, and relationship immersions for people and their personal horse partners.
Catherine Bullock, MBA, PHR, has nearly 20 years of experience as an HR leader with a passion for growing and developing people; particularly working with leaders in the non-profit and healthcare industry. Catherine has experience working with frontline leaders to senior executives and understands the importance of helping leaders develop skills to succeed. She is excited to combine her passion for leadership development with learnings from her own equine partners.