STEFAN VALENTIN
He was born in 1969 in Schmelz and has 4 brothers. He is married and has 5 children. He qualified as miner and mining machine operator and worked underground for 8 years. Afterwards, he retrained as tiler, a profession he still exercises today in the public sector.
He has been horse riding since his childhood and recognised his special connection to horses very early on. Because of his preference to work with complicated horses, he started to read more and more specialised literature. To continue learning, he met with authors and trainers, with whom he exchanged experiences and could developed training methods based on the horses’ natural and biological requirements.
In 2000 he visited the „horse whisperer“ Monty Roberts on his Flag is Up Farm in California to further his knowledge and skills.
In 2003 he successfully graduated as animal psychologist. In 2006 he visited the pioneer of free dressage Jean-Francois Pignon at his home in France. There Stefan got the opportunity to learn about Jean-Francois’ method. This was the start of a very humorous friendship between Stefan and Jean-Francois. Over the years, Stefan organised courses with Jean-Francois Pignon in Germany giving him the opportunity to witness the development of this special horse man, who had a major influence on Stefan´s own practice.
Stefan collected many experiences with managers, bosses and executives through his job as floor tiler. He had the feeling that some of them were put in their posts not necessarily onmerit. For others, he went through thick and thin because they gave him a “Fair Boss Feeling”.
His knowledge and experiences to impart leadership qualities are based on his long term therapeutic work with complicated horses. Within this work it is absolutely necessary to include the human in the horses life (owner, rider), to give them another perspective on the situation. In this way he has the opportunity to collect positive experiences which then helps to expand the horizon and maturity process. As a horse psychologist Stefan can recognise a current human’s emotional condition from the horse’s behaviour. The horse has the ability to function as a reflector because of its highly sensitive sensory perception.
Horses make it possible to reveal in detail and sensitively the instincts and intuitions that are necessary for leaders.
CAROLIN KAISER
Carolin Kaiser, born in 1980 in Saarland, already developed a great passion for animals in her childhood. Soon she got enthusiastic about how “differently” we can communicate with animals and how they understand (or misunderstand) us. Animals have always been her hobby and she started a classical riding training at 8 years of age.
At first she chose another profession. She completed training as management assistant in advertising and studied business studies with the focus marketing communication. For a couple of years she worked in many countries and in different areas spanning industry and services, where she got to know different types of leadership styles and business concepts.
At the same time she extended her knowledge about horses and worked with young and complicated horses in Australia for 2 years.
She dealt a lot with different approaches of “Horseman Ship” and recognised that the horse’s behaviour perceived as disobedience does not always have a psychological cause. Physical problems are often the reason for this behaviour. To get this awareness she had to acquire an intense knowledge about both the horse’s psychology and their anatomy and reasons for restriction of the range of motion.
In 2013 she achieved her degree both as animal physiotherapist and as horse psychologist at Steva Saar. Since then she works in her own veterinary practice animotion.
HEIKE STROBEL
Heike Strobel was born in Aachen in 1970. After School and education as a bank clerk and marketing professional her career led her to Luxembourg, where she worked as a private client advisor until parental leave.
After re-entry into employment she chose a career as a business coach.
Since 2012 she has worked as a freelance seminar trainer.
Executives and those who want to become executives can study topics such as communication, public speaking and conflict management in her seminars .
For over 30 years she has spend her free time with horses, through whom she met Stefan Valentin and Carolin Puhl.
Using horses in leadership training is an obvious combination of her professional experience in her personal passion for the sensitive animals.
