North County businesses looking for a different kind of team retreat have a new option close to home. TERI, the San Marcos nonprofit best known for its work with people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, has launched an Equine Experience program built specifically for corporate teams.
The program unfolds at TERI Campus of Life in the Twin Oaks Valley area of San Marcos, where the organization has run lifespan programs and a string of social enterprises — including a café, a theater, event rental spaces, and a microgreens operation — for more than four decades. The newest addition puts companies face to face with horses in sessions built around communication, trust, collaboration, and leadership.
Nothing about it requires riding experience or time in the saddle. Every exercise is ground-based and led by certified equine facilitators, who draw from a playbook of more than 30 activities and tailor the day to a team’s specific goals, whether that’s sharpening collaboration, building adaptability, or practicing mindfulness under pressure. Groups can book half-day or full-day sessions, and some are pairing the experience with a retreat or meeting at one of TERI’s ten private event spaces through its venue rental arm.
The appeal, according to Natalie Birchfield, TERI’s Director of Equestrian, is that horses don’t pretend. They respond to a person’s energy and emotions in real time, which gives participants a kind of feedback that’s hard to fake and, ideally, something they can carry back to the office. A team that spends a morning trying to lead a half-ton animal through an obstacle course tends to learn a few things about communication style that don’t always surface in a conference room.
It’s also a program with a purpose beyond the team-building exercise itself. Proceeds from corporate sessions help fund horse care, equestrian resources, and TERI’s long-running therapeutic riding program for people with disabilities, so companies that book a session are effectively underwriting services for the community TERI has served since 1980.
For San Diego-area businesses weighing their next offsite, a short drive to San Marcos offers something most downtown venues can’t: a genuinely different team-building challenge, a scenic North County backdrop, and a direct line to a local nonprofit’s mission. Bookings and details are available through TERI’s Campus of Life website.
Source: North County Daily Star
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