Balanced Horsemanship:
The Language of Leadership
August 20 - 24, 2024
Ranch-based Experience
Leadership is hard! Whether leading our family, team, or ourselves, we strive to balance kindness with resolve, compassion with assertiveness, openness with boundaries, encouragement with accountability, and freedom with clear expectations.
We believe that investing time to improve our horsemanship strengthens our leadership in all aspects of life. For those who want to gain a better understanding of their leadership style and develop new capabilities that will transfer to their life, join us as we explore balance in horsemanship and its connection to leadership.
Elements of this retreat:
Guided mindfulness practices including meditation, grounding exercises, and solo reflection time.
Mindful connection with horses, including bodywork and groundwork with horses.
Time in nature with horses - daily rides into the Wind River Range to connect with your horse and the mountains.
Group connection with horses, exploring herd dynamics, and how our connection with horses relates to our connection with others, and with ourselves.
Community connection - shared meals and evenings with music around the fire.
Why join us?
In this clinic, you'll get:
Support to develop a presence that's felt by horses and humans
Increased confidence to show up more fully in your relationships
The opportunity to claim space and hold boundaries
Practice communicating clearly and kindly
The ability to experience horse and human actions with neutrality rather than taking them personally
Horsemanship exercises that you can use with any horse
Simple time outside with curious peers and trail rides in the mountains
Who is this for?
Anyone who wants to dive into exploration of yourself, horses, and seeking balanced leadership.
People who are curious to continue learning about themselves and their leadership by practicing horsemanship.
Anyone excited to share a learning experience with a group in a special mountain environment.
Anyone who’s curious to learn more about living a grounded, present life.
The Details:
This trip will be based from the mountain ranch, staying in log cabins, glamping tents, or sheepherder’s wagons each night and eating nutritious meals in the lodge or on trail. Meditation and reflection time will be offered every morning at sunrise, followed by breakfast in the lodge before meeting as a group to ‘play’ with our horses. We will also incorporate opportunities for half-day and full-day rides in the beautiful Wind River Mountains, or you can take personal time to relax, meditate, journal, etc. Each evening, we will eat dinner and go on a short digestion hike offered at sunset. Depending on group excitement, we’ll end the day with a campfire.
TRAVEL: Arrive to the ranch at 4:00pm on August 20th. Depart on August 24th by 10:00 am. Closest airport is Riverton, WY - you can shuttle or rent a vehicle - or fly into Jackson Hole, Rock Springs, Casper, Denver, or Salt Lake City and rent a vehicle.
PLANNING: Please read our Terms & Policies to learn more about our ranch facilities, riding policies, etc. and visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.
QUESTIONS: Please contact Lindsay Priefert with questions about this trip (lindsay.priefert@gmail.com).
COST: $2900 + gratuity (suggested 10-20%)
HOW TO SIGN UP: Please follow this three-step process to get signed up.
Fill out this RESERVATION FORM
Sign this DIGITAL WAIVER
Pay the 25% DEPOSIT of $725
After completing those three steps, you are signed up! We will then follow up with helpful trip planning information, and Lindsay will be personally contacting you to help you plan details for the trip. We will be excited to meet you in the Wind Rivers!
Meet your leaders:
Jim Culver
The intersection of horsemanship and communication/leadership is where Jim finds his passion for both learning and teaching. Jim has spent the last thirty-plus years working as an educator and guide, including stints with the Nature Conservancy and NOLS. He began his horse journey when he was 7, and has since gained experience in many different aspects of horsemanship - Western and English riding, horse shoeing, colt starting, horse packing, driving teams, and equine bodywork. He feels fortunate to have learned from renowned horse people such as Martin Black, Jim Masterson, Buck Brannaman, Jim Hicks, and Micaela Love. In 2018, Jim was invited to give a TedX talk on what he had learned from horses about communication. You can watch the TedX Talk here. He has also assisted in facilitating leadership and communication seminars with teams from NASA, the US Naval Academy, GOOGLE, and the Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Program. Jim was born in Charlottesville, VA, but fell in love with the West at an early age ‘from watching too many John Wayne movies and Gunsmoke episodes.’
Lindsay Priefert
“Each of you is perfect the way you are ... and you can use a little improvement.”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen monk and teacher
The paradox of this quote lays the foundation for Lindsay’s skill in this world: an ability to see unique gifts in everyone she encounters, and a passion for helping people develop new capabilities they long to embody. Lindsay has been a coach and mentor her whole career, supporting college students searching for their unique path, Naval Academy Midshipmen learning about leadership and followership, and adolescents working to escape crisis. Many of her mentorship hours accrued in the wilderness, working as a NOLS instructor to support people building self-awareness and finding their unique leadership style in challenging and uncertain environments.
Stepping into the realm of human change and resistance, Lindsay relies on presence, embodied listening, connection, and humor - not surprisingly, these are the strengths she relies on in her work with horses as well. To Lindsay, horses invite the presence and attention required to fully engage in this life. Mindfulness practice lays the foundation for her work with horses and people, and she’s eager to share her practices with you.
Lindsay is currently a faculty mentor at NOLS and an Integral Associate Coach in training. Lindsay leads 30-day backpacking and horsepacking expeditions for NOLS, and is co-owner to a young Mustang named Sammy.
Lindsay is a Mindfulness Practitioner and a graduate of The Foundations of Mindfulness—Mindful Living course through the Mindful Life Program. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration, where she focused on leadership development and organizational culture.
Kelsey Wicks
Kelsey Wicks grew up in Virginia, and started riding at a young age. Since then, she has spent much of her life riding, teaching others about horses, and exploring the connection between people and horses. She finds partnerships with horses offer rich, positive spaces for wellness and self-growth, and loves getting to share that with others. While in college, she found her way to Wyoming, and discovered the magic of riding horses through western vistas. Since then, Kelsey has been living in and traveling through the west, much of that on the back of a horse. After moving to Wyoming, she worked for NOLS, teaching outdoor education and facilitating leadership trainings, and during that time, worked with a range of clients, including the Wharton Business School, the California Wildland Fire Academy, and various leadership development groups. She currently teaches riding lessons and horsemanship in Lander, WY.
