Horses Teach You to Lead with Love: A Campfire Conversation with Chris Lombard

I’d written about Chris Lombard earlier in the adventure after watching him work with Tally at the Common Ground Fair. That piece was about presence. This Campfire Conversation went deeper.

Chris is a Maine horseman who has spent decades learning to communicate with horses through breath, body, and attention instead of force. His approach to horse training is really an approach to relationship. He doesn’t control. He invites. He doesn’t demand attention. He earns it.

What emerged in our conversation was a model for masculine leadership that doesn’t rely on dominance. Chris talked about the difference between making a horse do something and inviting a horse to choose something. The first is control. The second is trust. And trust, as Chris put it, is the last one percent that matters more than the other ninety-nine.

He told stories about Rocky, his horse of twenty-one years. About the kind of partnership that only builds when you stop trying to be in charge and start trying to be in relationship. About riding blindfolded, sitting backwards, because that’s what full trust looks like.

We talked about how this connects to the way men are taught to lead. Most leadership models are built on control. Do this. Go there. Follow me. Chris’s model starts with listening. With slowing down. With asking instead of telling.

It’s not weakness. It’s a different kind of strength. The kind that comes from presence, not power. The kind that horses have been teaching humans for centuries, if we’re willing to pay attention.

Read the full piece on Substack

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org