How Equine-Assisted Coaching Helps You Reconnect With Yourself – An Interview with Astrid Loriaux
Astrid is an equine-assisted coach and facilitator based in the Netherlands. She helps people reconnect with themselves through the wisdom, presence, and honesty of horses. Her approach focuses on direct experience rather than ‘logic’, allowing insight and transformation to emerge naturally. For Astrid, every encounter between human and animal holds the potential for deeper understanding and connection.
Astrid Loriaux, Equine Assisted Coach
What first drew you to equine-assisted coaching, and what made you realize this was the work you wanted to pursue?
Looking back, I can see that the path toward equine-assisted coaching began long before I knew such a profession existed.
Unlike many people in the horse world, I did not grow up with horses. I was already in my thirties when they entered my life. Not long after, I bought my horse, Tinky, who would become one of the greatest teachers I have ever known. What seemed like a simple decision at the time marked the beginning of a journey that would profoundly shape my life.
Some years later, equine-assisted coaching appeared through a series of remarkable coincidences. My riding instructor told me she was exploring training in this field, and during the same period, my manager told me his sister had just enrolled in an equine-assisted coaching program and gave me the brochure. The moment I started reading, I knew, this is for me! It brought together my love for horses, my fascination with personal growth, and my desire to help people reconnect with themselves.
Some may call it coincidence. I prefer to see it as divine guidance. Looking back, I can clearly see how each step gently led me to the work I do today.
What can a horse reveal in a coaching session that might remain hidden in a conversation between two people?
One of the greatest gifts horses offer is their ability to respond to what is happening beyond words.
In a conversation, we can explain, analyze, justify, or hide behind carefully crafted stories about ourselves. Horses are not interested in those stories. They respond to our energy, body language, emotions, intentions, and authenticity. They often reveal patterns that remain hidden in traditional coaching conversations. Someone may describe themselves as confident and open to new opportunities, yet the horse responds with hesitation, distance, or disinterest, not judging, but simply reflecting something that is present beneath the surface and creating awareness without criticism.
They invite people to discover their own truth through direct experience rather than analysis. When a person makes a small inner shift and sees the horse respond differently, the insight becomes deeply felt and memorable. It is not something the coach tells them, it is something they experience for themselves.
Horses help us move beyond what we think is true and connect with what is actually present. They meet us exactly where we are, without judgment, and that honest reflection can be profoundly transformative.
How do you distinguish between what the horse is communicating and what the client may be projecting onto the experience?
This is a fascinating question because it touches on how we create meaning in a coaching session.
Personally, I do not think it is relevant whether an experience belongs to the horse or to the client. What matters is what meaning the client attaches to it.
Horses respond authentically in the moment, while clients naturally interpret what they see and feel through the lens of their own lives, emotions, and questions. Rather than trying to separate these elements, I invite clients to become curious about what emerges in the interaction.
For example, if a client experiences a horse as distant, I am less interested in deciding whether the horse is actually being distant than in what the experience evokes within the client. What feelings arise? What does it remind them of? What insight does it offer regarding their situation? My role is not to tell clients what their experience means, but to help them explore it. Their own insights and discoveries are far more valuable than any interpretation I could impose.
Ultimately, whether we call something communication, reflection, projection, or awareness is less important than the transformation it creates. If an experience helps someone see themselves more clearly and opens new possibilities, it has served its purpose.
How do horses help people reconnect with themselves and their authentic feelings?
One of the greatest challenges in modern life is that we are often taught to think rather than feel. We analyze, interpret, and search for answers in our minds, sometimes losing touch with our emotions, intuition, and inner wisdom. Horses invite us back into that connection. They do not respond to our explanations, stories, or who we think we should be. Instead, they respond to what is genuinely present within us. They encourage a level of honesty that can be both confronting and deeply healing.
I recently facilitated a workshop called Coming Home to Yourself. Participants were invited to connect through presence, trust, and feeling rather than thought. What we witnessed was remarkable. Without being called or directed, horses chose to approach people, stay beside them, and follow them. Even horses that were not part of the session joined us of their own accord.
Moments like these remind me that authentic connection has a ripple effect. When we reconnect with ourselves and show up openly, something responds. Whether we call it the horse, nature, energy, or the universe, there is a sense that life meets us when we are truly present.
To me, that is one of the most profound lessons horses teach, genuine connection begins within ourselves.
Where do you see horse-assisted coaching fitting within the wider coaching industry as interest in embodied and intuitive approaches grows?
I believe equine-assisted coaching has a unique contribution to make because it naturally moves people beyond talking and into direct experience.
Many coaching approaches take place indoors, through conversation. Equine-assisted coaching offers a very different setting. Being outdoors and interacting with a horse takes clients out of their routines and into a more open and receptive state. What makes it particularly powerful is that no previous experience with horses is required. In fact, people with little or no horse experience often approach the interaction with fewer assumptions. Rather than focusing on the horse as an animal, they are more open to experiencing the horse as a responsive partner within the coaching process.
As interest in embodied and intuitive approaches continues to grow, I believe people are increasingly seeking experiences that engage the whole person, not just the analytical mind. Horses naturally draw attention to our emotions, body language, energy, and presence. They help transform something we understand intellectually into something we genuinely experience and feel.
For me, the value of equine-assisted coaching lies in its ability to create meaningful awareness through direct experience. The presence of the horse and the experiential nature of the work invite clients to discover perspectives and possibilities that may not emerge in a traditional coaching setting.
What usually helps a client move from thinking about a problem to actually sensing what needs to change?
In my experience, meaningful change rarely starts with finding the right answer. It begins with reconnecting to what we truly feel.
Many clients arrive with a good understanding of their situation. They have analyzed it from every angle and can explain in detail what is happening in their lives. Yet when I ask a simple question such as, “What are you feeling right now?” there is often a pause. Quite frequently, the answer begins with, “I think...”
That moment is very revealing. It shows how easily we can become disconnected from our emotions, intuition, and the signals of our own body. Rather than encouraging more analysis, I invite clients to turn their attention inward. I may ask, “Where do you feel that in your body?” This cannot be answered through reasoning. It requires presence and a willingness to experience what is happening in the moment.
Horses support this process beautifully. They respond not to our explanations or stories, but to what is genuinely present within us. As clients reconnect with themselves, the horse often reflects that shift immediately. What needs to change becomes less of a mental conclusion and more of an inner knowing.
I believe people already carry much of the wisdom they are searching for. The challenge is often creating enough stillness to hear it.
How do you create enough safety for clients to explore difficult emotions without directing them toward your own interpretation?
Creating safety is an important principle in my work. For me, it consists of two equally important elements, physical safety and emotional safety.
Physical safety is my responsibility as a coach. I remain attentive to both the client and the horse, observe the horse's body language, and intervene when necessary. Before every session, I explain it simply, the horse and the client are not allowed to hurt one another. A safe environment allows both to relax and engage more openly in the process.
Emotional safety is created differently. Here, my role is not to direct, explain, or provide answers. Instead, I focus on holding space with curiosity and presence, allowing clients the freedom to think, feel, and discover for themselves.
This is why I work primarily with questions rather than interpretations. Sometimes an entire coaching conversation begins with one simple question, “How was that for you?” From there, clients explore their own experience, and the most meaningful insights often emerge naturally. More input from me is quite often not needed.
I believe people feel safest when they do not have to defend themselves, meet expectations, or arrive at the “right” answer. My role is not to tell clients what their experience means, but to create a space in which they can safely discover what it means to them. For me, coaching is not about giving answers. It is about helping people remember what they already know.
What does the idea that “the answer is already within you” mean in the way you coach?
This belief is one of the foundations of my coaching approach.
This does not mean people always know the answer to their question or challenge. Many seek support because they feel stuck, confused, or disconnected from themselves. The answer may be hidden beneath layers of doubt, fear, expectations, old patterns, or simply the noise of everyday life.
My role is not to provide answers on behalf of my clients, but to help create the conditions in which they can reconnect with their own inner wisdom and discover what is already present within them.
This is one of the reasons I love working with horses. Horses do not offer advice or solutions. Instead, they invite people into a deeper relationship with themselves. Through direct experience, clients often access insights that cannot be reached through thinking alone.
I often find that people know far more than they realize. The challenge is not finding the answer, but creating enough awareness, trust, and space to hear it. For me, coaching is not about giving answers. It is about helping people remember what they already know.
What would you like people to understand about themselves after experiencing this kind of work with horses?
If there is one thing I hope people take away from this work, it is greater self-confidence and the courage to trust their intuition.
I do not see my role as telling people what they should do or what their answers ought to be. Instead, I help create the conditions in which their own insights can emerge. Horses are wonderful partners in this process because they invite honesty, presence, and self-awareness.
People often arrive with a specific goal or problem they want to solve. Sometimes they leave with the answer they were looking for. More often, however, they leave with an insight they did not expect but truly needed. In my experience, those discoveries create the most meaningful and lasting change.
I would love people to realize that they are far wiser, stronger, and more capable than they often believe. When they reconnect with themselves, trust what they feel, and follow that inner knowing, new possibilities begin to unfold naturally.
If clients leave feeling more confident, more connected to themselves, and better able to move forward in their lives, then the horses and I have done our job.
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