Why My Online Coaching Sessions Take 90 Minutes While Horse-Assisted Coaching Usually Takes 60

I usually schedule 90 minutes for an online coaching session, while horse-assisted coaching typically takes around 60 minutes.

Why is that?

Both formats support personal growth and development, but the paths they take are very different. In this article, I want to explain why coaching with horses can often create change more quickly and what makes this approach so powerful.

Why Online Coaching Takes More Time

Online coaching relies heavily on conversation, reflection, and cognitive processing. We often use open questions, coaching methods, and visualizations to help clients connect with their emotions. This takes time because trust and emotional openness do not happen instantly.

• Building trust

Especially at the beginning of an online coaching session, it is important that clients feel comfortable and safe enough to open up. Creating this kind of trusting atmosphere requires time and genuine connection.

• Cognitive processing

Many topics are initially explored through thoughts. We analyze, reflect, and try to understand what is happening. Giving these processes enough space allows deeper insights to emerge.

• Creating an emotional connection

Even when coaching takes place online, it is important that emotions become tangible and accessible. Targeted questions and exercises can help with this, but they often require several steps.

Overall, online coaching is a process that unfolds gradually. The 90 minutes give us the time we need to explore a topic in depth and initiate sustainable change.

Why Coaching with Horses Can Create Change More Quickly

Horse-assisted coaching takes place outdoors and outside the client's usual environment. This change of setting alone can have a calming effect and create space for new experiences.

• Horses can open the door to emotions

Being around horses can have a calming and regulating effect on the nervous system, which can make emotional openness easier. There is even evidence that human and horse breathing and heart rates can become synchronized during interaction.

• Immediate feedback from the horse

Horses respond directly to our body language, energy, and emotional state. As herd and prey animals, they are highly sensitive to changes in their environment and react to them immediately. I can observe these reactions and use them within the coaching process. For example, when a horse exhales deeply or licks and chews, this can indicate a change in its state of arousal. Such moments can provide valuable opportunities to explore whether something has also shifted for the client. Did they just have an insight? Did a new emotion suddenly emerge? Did they notice something in their body? These subtle reactions can become powerful starting points for reflection.

• Faster transfer and stronger connections in your brain

The immediate experience with the horse creates a strong connection between emotion and cognition. This can make insights more tangible and help integrate the experience more deeply into the change process.

Horse-Assisted Exercises Allow for Very Specific Questions

An exercise with a horse can quickly reveal what is happening internally for a person. Horses communicate nonverbally and can mirror things we ourselves may not yet consciously recognize.

After an exercise, I can directly explore the client's emotions and intuition with questions such as:

• How was that experience for you?

• What did you feel?

• Where did you feel it in your body?

• What was happening for you when the horse reacted that way?

  
  

These questions help clients process the experience and bring their observations and emotions into conscious awareness.

The horse's reaction can often become a doorway to feelings, thoughts, or patterns that might otherwise have remained hidden.

Horse-Assisted Coaching Can Be Faster – But It Isn't Always Possible

My online coaching sessions take 90 minutes because building trust and allowing cognitive and emotional processes to unfold takes time.

Coaching with horses can often create change more quickly because horses respond directly to our emotional and physical state, while the natural environment creates additional space for relaxation, openness, and new experiences.

Of course, horse-assisted coaching is not always possible. Geographic distance or other circumstances may make an online session the better option. Online coaching can still be highly effective and can also be a valuable complement to horse-assisted coaching.

If you're curious about how coaching with horses could support your personal or professional development, get in touch with us. Together, we can find the approach that fits you best.

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