I honestly can’t imagine my life without horses. They’ve always been the steady factor in my world. As soon as I was old enough, I started riding lessons and spent every summer at pony camp. When the time came, I went on to study equine management and sports.

I was lucky that many employers and internship supervisors gave me the freedom to do and learn things my own way with the horses on the yard. One of those horses turned out to be my best student and my greatest teacher. He’s the beautiful black horse with the wide blaze you’ll see all over my website.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to Deejay just before his 16th birthday due to a progressive, congenital illness. In the 14 years we were together, he taught me more than I could ever sum up in a few lines. There isn’t a day that goes by without missing him or feeling him shape what I do now. Deejay – smart, stubborn and sensitive – was the one who pushed me to look at horses in a different way. His resistance to traditional methods led me from classic riding and competitions, through natural horsemanship and straightness training, to the R+ approach I’m now so passionate about.

Outside of horses, I love my cat Noortje and my sweet foster Shetland mare Foxy, my wonderful partner Mike, sending far-too-long voice notes to friends, government agencies that actually respect human rights, admiring dinosaur bones in museums, skating in nature (at least as far as the smooth asphalt goes), bragging about my grandad the Polish war veteran, and holding my breath every time I have to navigate traffic in cities with light rail systems.

Emotional well-being

Before a horse can learn mentally or find physical balance, it needs to feel safe and understood. Sometimes you can keep working on behaviour while the emotions catch up step by step, but sometimes you need to hit pause and go back a bit. In those moments, we don’t focus on the exercise itself; we work on trust, calmness and willingness, both yours and your horse’s.

Emotions can’t be trained directly, but they’re always there. That’s why they’re part of every plan. Together, we look at your horse’s calming signals, explore their stress thresholds and build trust carefully over time. This makes it possible to handle the tricky moments too, for both of you.

Mental well-being

It’s amazing to see how horses solve puzzles and really join in with their training. That’s why I prefer to work at liberty, giving space for autonomy, curiosity and teamwork.
A horse that learns to anticipate is completely different from a horse that just learns to tolerate. We don’t just want your horse to do something.. we want your horse to actually want to do it.

To get to that mental balance, the basics have to be right: access to forage, fresh water, a stable herd, freedom to move and safe shelter. Only then it’s fair to expect the horse to learn, play and grow.