The 21 Wisdoms of EQUUS – the theories, disciplines, frameworks and sub-frameworks that inform our work

When you work with EQUUS, you are not engaging just any leadership and personal development organization. You are engaging with a movement, informed by decades of research and experience, regarding creating conditions for breakthrough learning. Founder and CEO Kelly Wendorf is a world citizen, writer and visionary who embarked on a powerful journey towards awakening and freedom in her early twenties, and emerged decades later with initiations, teachings, alliances, and a profoundly unconventional education. At EQUUS you receive the benefit of those years spent inside numerous disciplines and circumstances. Kelly, and those who work at EQUUS – be they Faculty or Staff, hold a space of uncommon depth and presence that support a client’s process from beginning to end.

Woven into every EQUUS offering, be it coaching, online courses, retreats, workshops or equine assisted programs, are the disciplines, theories, frameworks and sub-frameworks that distinguishes EQUUS as a leader in truly transformational change. Below is the list of 21 Wisdoms that inform all that we do:

1. Indigenous Wisdom (Kanyini) – we honor the ancestral influences and Traditional carers of this land on which our Discovery and Learning Campus – Buffalo Spirit Ranch – resides. We strive to be good neighbors to our nearby Pueblo residents. We are informed by the Indigenous teachers world-wide who have taught us about life, leadership and our connection to all things. Kanyini is an Aboriginal Australian term that means unconditional love with responsibility. We strive to work within the ethos of Kanyini as taught to Kelly by Elder “Uncle” Bob Randall of Uluru, Australia.

2. Attachment Theory – we recognize that relational styles and emotional bonds are formed in infancy and childhood, and that those early childhood imprints show up in adulthood in the boardroom, the C-suite and every other dimension of adulthood.

3. Biology – a natural science discipline that studies living things. We study biology within the dimension of how nature informs us, teaches, and interacts with us, specifically with regards to the nature surrounding Buffalo Spirit Ranch.

4. Theory U – an awareness-based method for innovative decisions and thinking. Using this method, we drop into presence to perceive innovative ideas and sense into what is emerging in the moment.

5. Trauma Informed Approaches – we recognize that each one of us has trauma to varying degrees; we recognize that trauma can show up at any moment, in any circumstance, and as such provide safety, choice, collaboration, empowerment and skilled approaches to meeting that trauma.

6. Biomimicry – nature represents 3.8 billion years of evolutionary intelligence…in other words, all of nature has figured out how to live on earth! Biomimicry looks to this intelligence of the  natural world to inform human living, leadership, structures, production, processes and systems. Working with the horses is one form of biomimicry. Listening to the land is another. We are in constant conversation with our wisdom-companion: Nature.

7. Anthropology – As we work with humans, we keep in mind the social, geological, familial, historical, and cultural contexts that surround each person.

8. Neuroscience – the study of how the nervous system develops, its structure, and what it does. Neural science informs our Faculty’s embodied and somatic approach in helping our clients to learn and grow.

9. Nature-Based Learning – partnering with nature as a sentient, wise and embodied co-collaborator to our personal development and evolution. We provide experiential processes that partner people with nature to support people’s learning.

10. Regenerative Theory – at Buffalo Spirit Ranch, we work with the land, and work with the larger natural systems to help the land to thrive. Regenerative practices include soil regeneration, water harvesting, and indigenous plant and tree cultivation. Working with the land in this way is a mindset and a way of life, and just like our partnership with horses,  informs everything else we do at EQUUS.

11. Equine Behavioral Sciences – the evidence based discipline that studies horses’ and donkeys’ communication, patterns, habits, emotional needs, actions, culture and relationships. We are students of our equine herd and remain observant of their ways of being to inform our equine-assisted learning approach.

12. Adult Development Theory – just as babies develop into young adults with specific stages, adults also have developmental stages (from young adulthood to death) that result in changes in perspectives, their place in society, and their sense of self. We recognize these stages and through that can better support our clients to evolve.

13. Spirituality & Mindfulness – we recognize our connection to a larger whole, and our true essence as consciousness itself, and assist clients to connect to their own path of meaningful disciplines and practices that keep them attuned to what they might call soul, spirit, awareness, presence, or God.

14. Ontology – put really simply, ontology is about being curious about how things are, and how things work. Contrast this to inner-awareness or self-reflection, ontology explores those things external to us and how they work, and how that impacts us.

15. Conscious Business Practices – a combination of frameworks, theories, and sub-frameworks such as mindsets, presence, systems theory, and self-awareness that support mature, skillful, and evolved professional cultures and norms.

16. Kincentrism – recognizes we are connected to and in relationship with all life, including plants, animals, insects, fish, rocks, trees, rivers, sand, clouds and oceans.

17. Equine Guided Learning – partnering with horses and donkeys to learn and develop. We recognize horses and donkeys to be wise and intelligent teaching companions.

18. Systems Theory – we understand that all things are interrelated and interdependent and as such influence and impact one another in various ways.

19. Anti-Oppressive Practice – a combination of theories and sub-frameworks such as queer theory, disability justice, decolonization theory, feminist theory that pose that the individual cannot be understood outside of larger systems that keep privileged people privileged and oppressed people oppressed. As such we are informed by, allies to, and serve the LGTBQ+ and BIPOC communities and we continue to learn and grow in these dimensions of society.

20. Coaching & Facilitation – our faculty are classically trained and certified by the International Coach Federation which upholds the standards and ethics underneath the field of inquiry, skill development, and cultivation of self-awareness.

21. You – of the 21 Wisdoms, you and all that you bring––your history, experience, orientations, context, circumstances and your knowledge is primary to leading how EQUUS serves you. All 20 Wisdoms mentioned previously are positioned to support the wisdom you already carry, and in turn, your wisdom will continue to inform all that is EQUUS.