Joss Janssens
I help leaders reclaim their inner horse power — for more work joy, clearer direction, and less stress.
Core values in my training and coaching work:
Authenticity – Leadership starts with yourself. Inner clarity about what you feel, think, and need is the foundation for effective and credible action on the outside.
Impact – Sustainable impact — felt and seen by yourself and others — doesn’t come from pushing harder. Real power lies in conscious presence.
Empowerment – Stepping in your power means taking ownership of your choices and direction, and claiming the space you need to achieve your goals — consciously, independently, and with natural authority.
And yes, this requires stretching the boundaries of your comfort zone at times. It certainly has in my own case. But in working with horses, you’ll find the keys to facing that challenge in a way that fits you.
My approach is based on
Who is Joss?
With a background in journalism and years of experience as an international team and process leader at Greenpeace, I know what it’s like to operate in complex, high-pressure environments. I understand the weight of responsibility and deadlines, the tension between conviction and results, the thin line between productive collaboration and conflict — and the exhaustion that comes when work and rest are out of balance.
Since 2011, I’ve worked as a trainer and coach for leaders and teams who take themselves fully seriously — not just in their strengths, but also in their stress, blind spots, conflict dynamics, and growth potential.
It was through working with horses that I personally found the key to sustainable change. Not through quick fixes or models, but through the unprejudiced mirror of their natural reactions — and through the emotional and social intelligence embedded in their herd behavior.
In the natural dynamics of the horse herd, we see how leadership works without force — and with clarity and self-awareness. Being effective with horses requires the same thing as being effective with people: learning to lead your own system first — physically, emotionally, and relationally.
I integrate these natural leadership principles with systemic insights and practical tools from Deep Democracy and win-win negotiation. The result is an approach that’s both deep and highly applicable — especially in organizations where pressure and change are part of everyday life.
I work with international professionals in business, government, and the non-profit sector — both independently and in collaboration with Dutch and Belgian training partners. I also lead the Dutch branch of the Eponaquest certification training for therapists, coaches and equine professionals. And in my own development as a trainer, coach, and educator with horses, of course I have to walk my own talk — every single day.
Partners
As independent professionals, we work together on larger training projects and we strengthen each other in serving our areas of expertise.
In offering our trainings we collaborate with equine centers in the Netherlands (near Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ede, Apeldoorn, Grave and Almkerk), Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the US and the UK.
Marina Parris
Lives in Switzerland. She has a background in corporate and corporate change management and has worked in the US, Switzerland and France in the field of quality, training and purchasing. In 2011 she became a certified Eponaquest coach, with over 17 years of experience in equine and leadership development. Marina has wild horses in their natural habitat and continues to study with Linda Kohanov. She is also a published author and writes about leadership and Horse-human relations in various publications.
Jan de Vries
With a background in business administration and psychology, he combines
Jan's lifelong passion for horses with his expertise in leadership, teamwork and organizational development. In 2011 he obtained his certification in systemic equine-assisted coaching, later extended to trauma therapy. He provides experiential training programs and helps individuals and teams to sustainable growth.
Babs Jasper
Expertise: Leadership in healthcare, and ptsd guidance
Master in Biology and Policy and Organization, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Prince 2
project manager, Trainer-coach Equine Facilitated Learning. Babs has been working for years
experience as a consultant and manager. She offers leadership training to professional
teams and brings experiential horse work into therapy programs for military
veterans to help them overcome PTSD. She is also a co-facilitator in the
Dutch Eponaquest certification training.
Esther van Oorspronk
Master in Human Movement Sciences and Business Administration,
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. After working as a business consultant for several years, Esther started her own company as a trainer-coach equine facilitated learning. They focuses on helping clients to harness the power of their analytical skills by using the social and emotional intelligence of horses with the Master Herder model.
Irene Robben
Master in International Law and Global Governance, specializing in Human Rights.
In addition to her job as a policy advisor for local government, Irene started a few years ago she started her own company in horse-assisted learning. She coaches individuals and groups to set healthy boundaries and thus find balance between private and business relationships.
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Rixta de Bode
Bachelor in Education, Human Behavior and Management.
Rixta has 25 years of professional work experience in education, including as director of a school, and is trained in Natural Horsemanship. It offers experiential learning with horses to (school) leaders and their teams to teach them in dealing with the challenges of their profession by supporting their social and improve emotional intelligence.
The horsepower behind EQMPower!
These three horses have been my long time personal "team mates". In addition to them, I work with several great coach horses at different locations - such as Queenie, the pony in the photo on top, at Campus Almkerk, NL.
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Billie (pocket sized top coach)
NEVER underestimate Shetland ponies like Billy. In the wild, they survive in places where larger horses can't. They can pull up to three times their body weight of 150–200 kg. Thanks to their small size and incredible stamina, they were indispensable in mining for centuries. The "speed gene" found in English Thoroughbreds can be traced back to a Shetland pony that lived 300 years ago.So the question isn’t whether the Billies of this world make good coaches... It’s whether you can keep up!
'Alfayiz' (='winner') Krystl Gucci
Gucci is a 24-year-old European Arabian studbook champion with a closet full of trophies. He is too temperamental to serve as coaching horse in my trainings. All the same, he is an important member of my team, because he is MY most important leadership trainer. His dressage experience lifts my equestrian skills to a higher level. His uncompromising "stallion humor" requires equal doses of unwavering firmness and attuned subtlety from me as his handler.
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Raya (+2025 - inspiring 'medicine horse')
Raya was my mare and my most important teacher in this work. The name Raya means different things in various languages: it is a Hebrew word for "Friend", it means "Figurehead" in Arabic, "Royal" in Indonesian, "Grand" in Russian and "Sunbeam" in Spanish. For the past 15 years in my practice - right up until it was her time to join the "Great Horse Herd in the Sky" - Raya was all this, for me and the many clients who have worked with her.
More information
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