The NDSU Equine Science program partnered July 30 with High Note Coaching and the NDSU Department of Mechanical Engineering to offer equine experiential team building and leadership training to students enrolled in the Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative. This was the third year of the experiential training.

The collaborative, now in the fourth of a five-year program funded by a $4.8 million National Science Foundation grant, connects NDSU with four North Dakota tribal colleges to prepare and support Native American students who want to pursue an engineering career. The goal is to improve the diversity and education of engineering graduates in the state and to expand the resource on reservations.

This year, nine students and one tribal college instructor participated in the training as part of a 12-day summer session at NDSU. Equine-guided experiential learning is based on the premise that human interactions with horses are essentially pure from the horse’s perspective. Horses survive by reading the body language of other animals and, consequently, offer a very literal mirror of human intention and emotion.

After participating in specially designed exercises with the horses, participants process their actions and those of their team. Differences in leadership style, as well as concepts of leadership, team building and communication, are addressed through post-exercise discussions.

The horse handlers included Ligia Prezzoto, animal science doctoral student; Theresa Jeske, meat science research technician; Kaylin Scarberry, equine and animal science undergraduate student; and Brianne Zaeske, a 2013 equine science graduate.

For more information on equine experiential learning opportunities at NDSU, contact Erika Berg, assistant professor of equine studies, at erika.berg@ndsu.edu.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.