The Horse That Knows Your CEO Is Bluffing: Emma Jane Clarke, Martinstown Lodge

This may be the most unusual business ever featured on That Great Business Show with Conall O Morain. Emma Jane Clarke runs Martinstown Lodge in Co. Meath, where senior leaders, teams and business owners work with horses to become better leaders. No horse riding. No cowboy tricks. No beach-ball team-building nonsense. Just horses, humans, leadership, honesty and the occasional executive being quietly found out by a large animal with no interest in job titles. Emma Jane brings serious business credibility. She was a senior leader in a government agency, managed large teams and multimillion-euro portfolios, and earlier in her career was the only female harvesting foreman in the UK forestry sector. After a serious accident put her in a wheelchair, she decided to go after the dream: a farm, horses and a leadership development business with a difference. In this conversation, Emma Jane explains why horses are so powerful in leadership coaching, how they mirror behaviour, why they expose stress and uncertainty, and why leaders cannot make people follow them any more than they can drag a horse around an arena. She also discusses her business model, multinational clients, SME clients, one-to-one coaching, team development, expansion plans, international ambition and her brilliant Hire in a Heartbeat choices. Hire in a Heartbeat: Steve Bartlett, Jay Shetty and her 89-year-old mother Dorothy Clarke. Sponsored by De Facto Shaving Oil. The world’s best shaving oil. Not a beard oil. DeFactoShave.com CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to the strangest team-building day in Ireland 01:30 Meet Emma Jane Clarke of Martinstown Lodge 01:50 What does coaching through horses actually mean? 02:25 Is anyone else doing this in Ireland? 03:15 Emma Jane is not a flake 04:01 The only female harvesting foreman in the UK 05:09 The accident that changed everything 06:28 Getting people out of their own way 07:51 Discovering equine leadership coaching internationally 09:05 Evidence, multinationals and real behavioural change 10:49 Why horses are leadership mirrors 13:12 The CEO who kept checking in too much 15:19 What a coaching session actually looks like 17:17 Why high-performing teams use this 19:03 What happens when stressed CEOs meet stressed horses 20:03 The farm, the arena and the real work 21:21 Do people really change afterwards? 23:58 How many people and horses are involved? 25:30 Why there is absolutely no horse riding 27:04 Could this business scale beyond Meath? 28:31 Emma Jane’s big ambition 29:11 One of the most unusual businesses on the show 29:45 Hire in a Heartbeat 30:40 Why Emma Jane would hire her mother 31:39 Final thoughts and sponsor thanks That Great Business Show, Conall O Morain, Emma Jane Clarke, Martinstown Lodge, leadership coaching Ireland, executive coaching Ireland, team building Ireland, equine coaching, equine assisted learning, leadership development, CEO coaching, business podcast Ireland, Irish business podcast, Meath business, women entrepreneurs Ireland, ACORNS Ireland, horses and leadership, emotional intelligence, management training, corporate coaching, SME leadership, team development, De Facto Shaving Oil