Reflections on Two Years at Shore Hall

Photo by Lucy J Toms

Two years ago I made a rather radical decision to step away from a life that had been totally urban to take ownership of Shore Hall Manor House and Gardens, a 22-acre estate with a 500 year-old manor house, stables, gardens, orchards, and woods. Starting out my life on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, then living for 25 years in New York City followed by a five-year stint in London, I was ready to forego pavement for soil and skyscrapers for ancient timbers and historic clocktowers.

I now move between country and city life, scratching a nomadic itch and relishing the benefits of both. And the benefits have been huge.

Over the years that I have been running Tide Risers and coaching individuals and teams, I have dreamed of the perfect environment within which to do my work. So often I have felt the constraints of conference rooms, offices, and a range of workspaces that seem to stifle creativity, innovation, and collaboration. In these antiseptic spaces, often devoid of fresh air, energy gets trapped. Too often, this is negative energy.  

Toni Morrison, one of my favorite authors, and inspiration for the Morrison Suite in the Writer’s Cottage at Shore Hall, weaves the concept of ‘rememories’ into her stories. This is the idea that when something happens in a space, it keeps happening in that space. I think about that a lot, and it informs my work with high-performance professionals and teams. Work spaces – whether they are offices, stages, or playing fields, can be chock-full of some of the more negative interactions that have happened within them over time. From poorly communicated performance evaluations to painful losses, these spaces often capture bad energy and hold it there, ready to be re-experienced time and again.  

When you ask a team to enter these spaces for innovation, collaboration, or communication, things often go wrong. The creative juices don’t get flowing as well as they should. Communication breaks down, ideas get lost, and focus dissolves. Too often people leave these spaces with an even more entrenched feeling that things will never change. And very often, they never will.

Facilitating strategy sessions at Shore Hall. Photo by Insight Creative

Taking on Shore Hall gave me the opportunity to create exactly the environment I thought would be most conducive to true team building and individual growth and development. With orchards, meadows, and woods to walk aimlessly in, vistas that open your visual triggers to greater perspectives, and fresh fragrance of our gardens, Shore Hall lifts my clients out of mental stagnation, fuels their creative core, and super-charges their ability to perform.

Shore Hall also gave me the opportunity to build out my Third Place Retreat and Horse Powered Insight® practices, which have been central to the work I have been doing with my clients. Some people mistakenly say I’m a horse whisperer. What I really am is a people whisperer, and horses help me to do that.  

Horse Powered Insight® Session. Photo by Insight Creative

Horses have an innate ability to reflect human energy and emotion, giving me immediate insight into my client’s motivations and innermost perspectives. Working with a horse to monitor my clients’ reactions, I am able to effectively and efficiently help my clients problem-solve, create plans of action, and navigate long-standing barriers to their success.  

That’s because the horse gives me a true and honest read as to whether or not my client believes in a plan of action or their own ability to pursue the plan. The horse lets me know if there are unresolved issues that haven’t been verbalized but need to be addressed. The horse gives me insight into when and how my client needs support. This all comes about through a gentle and calm process in the beautiful natural environment of Shore Hall, and has led to extraordinary breakthroughs and personal and professional performance improvements for so many people.

The Horse Powered Insight work I have been doing with teams and leadership is no less transformative. Because horses naturally want to follow confident, purposeful leaders, I am able to partner with our horses to observe, interpret, and diagnose dynamics that are holding teams back and suppressing individuals’ abilities to thrive. The horses help reveal styles of leadership, giving us textured information as to how each person can play a stronger leadership role while supporting other leaders on the team. This gives me the opportunity to facilitate conversations about troubling dynamics in a safe and supportive environment, far from the stifling confines of the meeting rooms that have trapped negative energy over time.  

Horse Powered Insight® Team Session. Photo by Claire Naylor

Horses have none of the biases that we humans have been socialized to buy into. So the largest, most dominant, type-A personality in the group won’t necessarily provide the leadership horses look for. They want leadership that is consistent, calm, and confident. But more than anything, they want leaders who believe in themselves. I am able to see through the horse’s lens whether or not someone believes in themselves, and if they don’t, I can help address that issue. And It’s really important to get this right because like horses, people are instinctively attracted to leaders who believe in themselves.

Lara Holliday and Shore Hall Manor House and Gardens. Photo by Lucy J Toms

We have just celebrated our two-year anniversary of owning Shore Hall, and what a ride it has been. They say do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life, and I can tell you for sure that’s the truth. I’ve probably never worked so hard, and never has work felt more like play. 

But the hard work has been paying off. In addition to my US-based clients and members of Tide Risers flying over to Shore Hall to continue our long-standing work together, I have fabulous new clients making the much quicker trip from London and other points in the UK and Europe. Many of them are now working with me at Shore Hall on a recurring basis, and it’s some of the most transformative, exciting work I’ve ever done. 

Others are starting to take notice. We were recently credentialed with B Corporation certification, reflecting our high standards for social and environmental impact. I’m proud to be counted among the businesses leading a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

I am so grateful to those of you who have taken this wild journey with me, from my family and friends who have given their own blood sweat and tears to bring this dream into being, to my clients who have trusted me with their aspirations, their fears, and their passions. And to my neighbours and colleagues in and around Shore Hall, all I can say is thank you for welcoming me in, for supporting my business, and for helping me establish our most cherished 18:17 Cocktail Hour tradition. I am so grateful.

Lara and Joey. Photo by Lara’s daughter