Linda Kohanov
Her first book, The Tao of Equus, was selected as one of the top books of 2001 by Amazon.com and received appreciative reviews in publications as diverse as IONS Noetic Sciences Review, Spirituality and Health, Horse and Rider, Natural Horse, and Strides. All five of her books have been translated into multiple languages and are used as texts at universities.
She is considered one of the founders in the field of Equine-Facilitated Learning, which teaches people how to excel in life by practicing innovative leadership, relationship, nonverbal communication, and emotional and social intelligence skills through safe, non-riding activities with horses. She has also collaborated with several psychologists in the field of Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy, including nationally recognized trauma specialist Dr. Rebecca Bailey, with whom Linda created the Connection Focused Therapy® modality in 2013.
Over the last two decades, Linda has spoken at numerous conferences, universities and retreat centers, including the Organization Development Conference, the Omega Institute in New York, Naropa University in Boulder, CO, the University of Arizona, Prescott College, the International Transpersonal Conference, Hollyhock British Columbia, and the 2008 Equine Guided Education Conference, among many other venues. She has been a leadership trainer for major players in the aerospace industry since 2007 and has also led trainings for executive teams at Nike, Raytheon, Chubb Insurance, Kaiser Insurance Group, Best Friends Animal Society, Highland Rivers Behavioral Health in Atlanta, and the Bensman Group of financial advisors, among other companies.
Linda teaches emotional intelligence skills to fourth-year medical students at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine in Tucson, AZ. She has also led several master classes in Paris, France, at the Executive MBA Program “Leading Innovation in a Digital World” de l’Institut Mines-Telecom. Didier Tranchier, head of this international program, wrote that her presentation on the Five Roles of a Master Herder “changed my life and the life of everyone in the conference room. Explaining the differences between a dominant and a leader and the usefulness of predatory power when balanced with nonpredatory power were real insights to understand how companies are working and how we can improve our efficiency. With very simple words and great examples coming from the world of horses and traditional herding cultures, Linda explained the power of groups and how to build relationships that can enable any individual to steer and leverage large and powerful organizations.”
Linda’s seminars attract business leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, scientists, mental health professionals, artists, clergy, and social activists worldwide. The demand for seminars became so great that starting in 2002 she began training instructors capable of leading their own programs in the Eponaquest Approach and the Master Herder model. Over 300 Eponaquest Instructors from six continents have graduated from this highly successful, in-depth apprenticeship program.
Linda’s books and indoor seminars have been praised for taking horse-inspired insights and practical skills into the home, the workplace, schools, and other human environments. Her book Way of the Horse: Equine Archetypes for Self Discovery includes an engaging deck of horse wisdom cards. Linda’s online course covering how to employ the deck for personal and professional reflection is available here.
In 2013, Linda’s fourth book, The Power of the Herd: A Nonpredatory Approach to Social Intelligence, Leadership and Innovation, explored what horses have to teach us about leadership and social intelligence, with extensive historical and scientific research showing why the world’s most innovative and effective leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Buddha to George Washington and Winston Churchill, were exceptional horsemen who honed the nonverbal skills associated with leadership presence on horseback. The book translates the practical skills people learn from working with horses for use at work, school, home, and in religious, political, and social activism contexts, and is the basis for many of the principles taught in Connections 101 and 102.
Linda’s fifth book, The Five Roles of a Master Herder, was published in June 2016 and is used by leadership trainers worldwide. Larry Freed of NuView Coaching regularly teaches this model to his international business clients.
“In my professional work as an executive coach for some of the largest organizations in the world, I have found no other leadership framework or language that is as easy for people to understand and put to use to improve their leadership capabilities and performance as this one,” he says. “The five roles, and Linda’s clear, down-to-earth explanation of them, is not yet another contrived model of leadership based on mass-marketed buzz-words.
“When people learn these five roles and how they play out in their mature and immature forms, they can easily grasp exactly what she is talking about and how these roles affect our personal and professional lives. Linda has discovered the heart of how we connect with each other and how we can work together in productive and empowering ways to achieve our individual and organizational visions and goals and collectively move our culture and society forward. This model provides the blueprint, language, and specific mindsets and behaviors for us ALL to become masterful leaders capable of creating the lives and livelihoods we dream of and cherish. That is the promise of Linda’s work. She delivers on this promise.”
For more information on Linda’s equine-facilitated workshops and a list of the instructors she has trained worldwide: www.eponaquest.com and www.masterherder.com.
