Leadership Outside the Box: Huggy Bear
I met Huggy Bear seven years ago while purchasing another pony for our programs.
Huggy is a small, round, completely adorable Halflinger pony. He could be the poster pony for the Gund stuffed animal company. One look at Huggy and I bought him on the spot.
In the six years I’ve owned Huggy, I’ve discovered that inside that cute, cuddly body is a tough, unyielding mind, seemingly suspicious of all humans. I have spent hours out in the field watching him gallop around and away from anyone trying to catch him. I have watched him drag countless people out the arena door. Huggy can run through a door backwards faster than most of my horses can go forwards. And yet I have also seen Huggy follow someone around the arena obviously seeking to make a connection.
This horse, with his unique issues and behaviours, has forced me to look at my leadership role in a much more creative way: For the first time I had an employee who couldn’t or didn’t want to be a team player. When we bring a horse home to our farm we consider it a life-long commitment. On the other hand we run a business and we prefer that our horses earn their keep. I believe strongly that animals, as well as people, need to be involved in productive work. I had to find a way to work with Huggy so that he could be part of our team in some capacity.