Melissa Duniam teaches people how to interact with horses, but her students are not there to ride them.
They are there to learn how to be better managers, leaders and communicators, all with the help of Ms Duniam's equine friends.
"They learn how to communicate with horses and therefore become better communicators with humans," she said.
Ms Duniam was today recognised for her work at Hobart's Parliament House as the 2023 Agrifutures Rural Women's Award winner for Tasmania.
"It's going to help me raise awareness and show teams and businesses this is available," she said.
"For me, it's going to help me to do be more confident in talking about myself and what this is."
Her business in Tasmania's north-west, Leading Rein, takes an unorthodox approach to professional development but it is one Ms Duniam believes makes a lot of sense.
"If you think about it, horses don't use voice to hold conversations, yet they manage to run an extremely tight team together," she said.
Working in groups, Ms Duniam works with people who have never been around horses before to learn about non-verbal communication.
"It's teaching how to actually lead and take a team without using verbal language," she said.
"We remove language and work out how to connect and communicate effectively to the horse and to the rest of the team, with a member of the team that doesn't use verbal language."
Ag jobs done differently
Farms are far from what Belle Binder would consider her natural habitat.
"I couldn't last a day out in the sun. I think I'd get sun stroke," she laughed.
Despite this, she has been honoured with the Agrifutures Encouragement Award for her work changing the culture between farmers and seasonal labour forces.
Ms Binder credited her fresh eyes as the reason she can do what many farm labour businesses struggle to achieve — connect seasonal workers with the right farms, and keep them there.
"One of the common themes that I noticed was probably a disconnect between the worker and the grower," she said.
"There wasn't a lot of mutual respect, a lot of the time.
"Workers were being treated like tractors, and the workers weren't really treating the growers with respect either."
Running her business, LeftField, from her hometown of Devonport, Ms Binder's Calm Your Farm workshops provide growers with tools and information to help them with employee retention, which, in turn, helps them retain workforce skills.
"Our growers know exactly what they need to do to work towards that kind of culture, which at the end of the day is going to give them that stability, productivity, and it's going to help their bottom dollar," she said.
Palawa woman Kitana Mansell was a finalist in the awards, nominated for her work managing Tasmania's first Indigenous catering company, Palawa Kipli.
Tamar Cordover was also shortlisted for her efforts helping rural women living with disability to find networks and earn an independent income.
