"The Power of the Herd" by Linda Hokanov

My boss said I should work on my soft skills by learning about Emotional Intelligence.  So, when I went to my local library and searched for "Emotional Intelligence", this is one of the books that popped up.  Being an animal lover, the image of the horses made me pick this read over other drab business management books.  But I digress.  This book is really interesting in that it compares horse behavior to human behavior.  The author talks about the quiet strength of horses, which are prey animals that eat only vegetation.  She explains that if this gentle beast of 1000+ lbs can impact change in a herd and deal with carnivorous beasts, so can people impact change in their communities and deal with difficult people.  A large emphasis is placed upon nonverbal communication, energy states, emotions, blood pressure, breathing, and so on.  Kohanov argues that, just like with horses, emotions are contagious with humans.  My personal favorite was an emotions chart that took various emotions and broke them down to fundamental questions to ask oneself.  Kohanov says that readers should not ignore or repress their emotions but rather ask what those emotions are telling us.  For instance, instead of ignoring and pushing down anger, use that anger inside of you to ask yourself, "what boundaries have been violated and how can I better hold my boundaries in the future?".  I particularly liked the idea of "returning to grazing".  When horses get in altercations or face danger, once it is done, they don't ruminate on it - they simply go back to grazing.  I could go on and on but I encourage readers to learn about equine wisdom for themselves by reading this book.