Crisis Leadership

Poor crisis leadership almost resulted in the death of two of our horses. We were descending a tight mountain trail, so steep we were afraid our horses might fall on top of us.  I came up with the brilliant idea of instead of leading them, we just allowing them to follow each other down the mountain.  You can hear how proud I am with my “lead from the rear” solution in the video taken right before the near accident. Unfortunately, as the trail got steeper, they started to spread apart, and two horses began to wander toward a sharp cliff.  We yelled at them to stop, but they would not.  Luckily one of my sons was able to grab their lead ropes just before they fell.

Later I debriefed the incident with my uncle.  He explained that when horses panic, they stop following and start looking for their own way down.  He described once watching in horror as a young filly fell to her death pursuing her own path.  Keeping the horses united and in close contact with the leader who is out in front searching for the trail and pitfalls to avoid is critical.  In times of crisis or change, leaders must be out front showing the way, but they must not focus so much on finding their way through it that they forget to constantly look over their shoulder to make sure their team is still with them.  If not, the results could be disastrous.