Latest / Live Free Ride Free with Rupert Isaacson / Ep 8: Sofia Valenca - Valenca Equestrian Academy, Portugal

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Ep 8: Sofia Valenca - Valenca Equestrian Academy, Portugal · Live Free Ride Free with Rupert Isaacson

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  Rupert Isaacson: Welcome to Live Free Ride Free, where we talk to people who
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  have lived self-actualized lives on their own terms, and find out how they
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  got there, what they do, how we can get there, what we can learn from them.
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  How to live our best lives, find our own definition of success,
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  and most importantly, find joy.
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  I'm your host, Rupert Isaacson.
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  New York Times bestselling author of the Horse Boy.
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  Founder of New Trails Learning Systems and long ride home.com.
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  You can find details of all our programs and shows on Rupert isaacson.com.
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  Welcome back to Live Free, ride Free where we talk to people leading self-actualized
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  lives finding out how they got there.
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  What they do how they make it work.
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  What can we learn from them?
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  How can we take this into our daily lives?
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  And today I've got Sophia Valenza.
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  Now, if you are in the horse world, you may or may not know
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  who the Valenza family are.
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  They to some degree are a well kept secret.
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  If you are in the world of classical dressage you probably do know the name
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  and if you live in Europe and you've ever seen This amazing show that goes
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  around called Cavaluna, which is sort of like Cirque du Soleil with horses.
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  Well, you may or may not know that they are a large part of that.
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  If you ever were seeing some of the big equestrian shows like, Cavalia and so
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  on in the USA these really had their inspiration from a lot of this work.
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  That has been done by the Valencia family over many, many years,
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  but it's a greater story there.
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  And it's not limited to horses and horse stuff because they represent the, the,
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  the Valencia family really represent a culture within Europe, within Portugal
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  that is a hangover, a survivor, you could say really from the Baroque age and.
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  It's almost like a national treasure that exists there in Lisbon with
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  Sophia, her father and her sisters running this extraordinary,
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  extraordinary place, but where they're really a bit of a dream factory.
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  So whether you're into horses or not, if you've, if you've had a sort of
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  dream of a fairy tale forest and horses doing something in that, and you want
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  to go and look at that show or you want to be part of that, or you've,
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  that's sort of what they do and they've been doing it for decades and doing
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  it very, very well, but it's not easy.
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  It's the kind of thing many of us would love to do, run away with a
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  circus, but they are the circus.
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  So, Sophia.
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  Thank you for coming on live free ride free.
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  Tell us who you are.
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  Sofia Valenca: Well, thank you for your invitation it's really a pleasure
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  to be part of this and Who am I?
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  Oh, I'm just a lucky girl that was born in this family and I was lucky
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  enough to be able to grow up watching my father teaching and learning
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  from him And in a very natural way.
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  So he was never forcing us to be in this life was a life we chose and we
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  do it with a great, great passion.
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  It's really important to be in this life.
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  If you just, if you don't have the passion, it's could be a disaster
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  because it's usually we say, if you do what you love, you don't have
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  to work a single day in your life.
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  And this is what I do.
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  I don't work a single day in my life, and I live not on holidays because
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  it's, it's quite a hard work, but it's done with a lot of passion.
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  So, who am I?
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  I am just a girl that grew up around animals, and I was always moved by the
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  passion of being surrounded with animals.
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  Animals, not just horses, but dogs.
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  And I was always like, you know, I was the one always bringing dogs home.
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  I was the one only always having more connection with the horses,
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  not just being riding them, but, you know, creating good connections.
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  And yeah, I can, I'm able, I'm able, no, I'm fortunate to be able to have
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  them every single day of my life.
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  So, what we do and you were, it was really enjoyable to listen the way you describe
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  what we do because it's, it's true.
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  We live like in a fairy tale.
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  And when people come to us.
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  It's a little bit what we provide.
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  It's experiment, a dream, a dream that they can bring home and then
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  start to create with their own horses.
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  And this is a little bit what we try to do, not just with the shows, like
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  you said, and it's not just some people come and they say, it's not just a
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  circus, or if you come here, it's not, you will not just see the show.
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  You will see A real school and when I say a real school, it's
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  not just about learning or how we.
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  might teach you to deal with your horse or to understand or to develop
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  a language that will help you to understand better your horse.
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  It's also a school of life.
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  And today we were here with some clients, a lady from the United States, and she
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  was amazed the way we handle the horses, the way she feels how happily the horses
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  live and how happily they work every day.
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  That it's, it's really beautiful.
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  So it's, it's, it's a bless.
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  I think it's a bless to be able to do what we do daily.
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  Rupert Isaacson: So for those listeners who don't really know what we mean
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  by the word classical dressage.
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  Let me just enlighten you a bit.
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  The word classical means handed down from generation to generation.
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  Dressage comes from this word in, it's a Viking word actually,
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  dresir, which means to put together.
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  That's why you have salad dressing.
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  That's why you are dressed when you wear your clothes.
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  You dress a horse, you put it together.
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  And in this old manner of doing it, which arose On the steps where Europe meets Asia
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  5, 000 years ago, probably, but they have a very hot type of horse and the locals,
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  they went, well, I might be quite useful for, you know, making that an extension
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  of my thoughts on the battlefield.
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  I wonder how I do that.
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  And they figured out this system.
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  Which got passed down, ended up in Mesopotamia with the Persians and
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  the Babylonians and ended up going over to Greece as those guys went
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  to war with the Europeans and then of course the Europeans took it on.
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  As the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean, Greece and Rome mostly,
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  expanded west, they encountered these Ibero Celtic tribes down in the southern
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  end of what is now Spain and Portugal.
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  Where they found a particular kind of horse, which was even better in
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  the battlefield, even better for working the livestock, even better
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  for everything than the horses that originally were coming out of Persia.
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  And so, and through the Renaissance a number of great masters developed.
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  And if you've gone to an art gallery, you've seen pictures of monarchs.
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  of kings and queens of Europe sitting on these very beautiful
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  horses in the 17th and 18th century, and they all look the same.
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  They all have these big necks, they have these big flowy manes,
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  they're very, very beautiful and they look like they're dancing.
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  And that's the horse that was found in this part of the
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  Mediterranean and ended up being exported out to the rest of Europe.
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  And everyone ever since then has looked down to this area of
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  Europe for the expertise in this.
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  And This is the line that Sophia's family and Sophia's father have
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  promulgated and create, allowed to be a living culture even to this day.
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  So when you enter their riding hall, you basically feel like you're
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  going back to the 18th century.
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  It's really extraordinary.
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  It's like, oh my gosh, I'm in one of those paintings.
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  It's like, oh, that sort of exists.
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  That's real.
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  Oh, how wonderful.
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  How amazing.
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  So, Sophia, tell us about this Lusitano horse.
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  What is it?
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  that made the Greeks, the Romans, and everybody else and their dog
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  throughout the medieval period, throughout the renaissance, and
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  ever since go That is the horse.
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  That is the meta horse.
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  This is the horse.
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  Why?
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  Why is it the meta horse?
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  Sofia Valenca: Because, you know, we need to go back in time.
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  And the horse was created by the nature.
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  And the natural selection of this horse, which is still nowadays the same horse
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  that The same kind, the same type of horse that you were talking from those times.
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  That horse who create this horse was The living together with the bull,
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  the wild bull, the ones that we still have nowadays that were used on the,
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  that are used still on the bullfights.
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  And what what happened is that this bull created a Nali, a pact
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  living together with the horses.
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  And this bull is very aggressive.
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  They can live together, but they have a very fine line.
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  If you cross that territory, the bull will attack you to kill.
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  So this is where it starts.
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  The men, the natural selection of these horses, these Siberian horses that are
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  very fast, very flexible, very agile, very noble, very warriors, very brave, very.
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  There's so many positive aspects that when they, these warriors arrived and
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  saw the potential of these horses for the war, they started to, to really
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  work with those horses because in the battle one-to-one, those were the horses
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  that could save his ride is warrior.
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  When the war changed and the battle one to one didn't when the, the machine guns,
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  sorry, when the machine guns arrived, the type of horses needed in the battlefield
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  was another type of horses, was when you have the cavalry where they need
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  to run on a straight line because then they were charging with machine guns.
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  So in Portugal, we still had, we, we started to use those
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  horses for the bullfight.
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  So that's why they always kept the same lines.
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  Of this horse that is very fast, very agile, very playful, very brave.
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  And it's the same horse that is still now used in the bullfight.
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  What bring us to keep the classical dressage is that if you use a
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  modern dressage, training this horse in a modern way, you will.
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  Destroy this, this beauty of these horses because what we need to always keep
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  them updated, it's their flexibility.
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  And with the modern dressage, they kind of ruin the flexibility
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  the way the train is doing.
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  So we have always.
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  Respect the needs of these horses to always, always respect their
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  morphology, the way they should understand their own bodies, the way
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  they learn how to use their own bodies.
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  And in a very natural way, this is what we did.
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  So we have developed our method based on the training of those
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  horses to always respect their best qualities, which is the flexibility.
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  Rupert Isaacson: Well, you also mentioned playfulness.
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  This is really interesting to me.
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  Because one tends to think of dressage riders as control freaks.
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  You know, any of us that.
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  Watch the sport of dressage on, on TV for the Olympics.
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  For example, we can often appreciate it's it's looks beauty, beautiful.
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  Maybe it looks very controlled perhaps and disciplined, but it
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  doesn't look like a lot of fun.
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  In fact, one could say it looks a bit, should it be dressage
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  or should it be stressage?
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  You know, it looks a bit stressy and one has seen horses looking a bit robotic.
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  Yet you mentioned this playful nature and this, this necessity.
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  of respecting that sort of joyful side of the horse.
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  How do you bring that in?
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  How do you marry that with the need for the kind of control that you have to have
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  when you're doing these massive balletic shows that you send out all over Europe?
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  Because they can't go wrong, right?
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  Sofia Valenca: No, they can't go wrong, but also they should not be
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  taken as robots or like machines.
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  So what we need is that, and when we start a young horse, the first
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  thing we do, we start to analyze his personality, his character.
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  How does this horse reacts to certain things?
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  And another thing we do is that we will never destroy the
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  beauty of the nature of a horse.
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  A horse should always be able to be a horse and to express himself.
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  Like you said, we, we work for the shows, entertainment shows.
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  So we do need a horse to speak to the crowd.
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  That horse, when it goes into the arena, He needs to speak for himself.
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  He needs to, to be proud.
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  He goes into the scene and he goes like, I'm here and I'm performing to you.
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  And with the crowd needs to, to listen to that.
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  And, and I think this is one of the.
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  The biggest challenge is and beauty at the same time because I prefer to have a
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  partner that is enjoying and you know, we allowed him to express himself, then just,
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  you know, ride a bike and no emotions.
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  Not that they don't ride bikes and but I think mostly of you understand.
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  I prefer it's not machines.
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  Exactly.
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  Rupert Isaacson: When you have a horse though, that is so powerful playing and
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  being playful and expressing itself on a stage in close proximity with several
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  thousand people where you're asking for an almost sort of an explosion of energy.
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  How do you do that in a way allows the horse to express himself, but not so much.
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  that it could become dangerous.
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  How do you, how do you tread that line?
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  Sofia Valenca: But express himself, it's not a horse that is bucking
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  or a horse that is losing his mind.
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  Express himself is like, if I ask him, for example, to do, imagine
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  we do a transition to the counter.
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  That horse, he needs to bring emotion to the way he will bring himself
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  into that transition encounter.
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  It's not just, now I have this horse, and in A, I need to do this transition
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  to, it's, you know, they need, if a horse, Goes a little bit with his head
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  a little bit more, he can look around if he, if his ears look a little bit
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  to the audience and then he comes back to me, it's okay to do that.
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  It's just, they don't need to feel like a prisoner performing
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  and not feeling the crowd.
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  But when we want them to express themselves in a way that we will lose
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  their mind, because then that it's not expression then that is stress.
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  So a horse needs to be calm, it needs to be zen, it needs to be with you, and
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  once you have his soul, he will go to the end of the world with you, so they
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  can perform to, well, 10, 000 people.
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  And having lights, having the sounds and they are still enjoying and they
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  are still there with you performing for you, with you to, to, to the audience.
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  And honestly, I, I think the best world nowadays, if you combine this fusion of
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  the modern dressage with a classical way.
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  Honestly, I think you have the best.
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  way of being with a horse in the world.
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  And I can bring my, my, the name of my daughter in here.
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  She's, she's doing dressage.
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  She loves dressage competition, but she has a very nice background on the shows.
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  So when she performs in the dressage.
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  And imagine she's doing a free freestyle test.
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  It's like, it's like she's performing.
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  She's, she's enjoying the music and she's, it's, it's really beautiful to
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  see because it's the fusion of this classical world with modern dressage
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  where you respect the body of the horse.
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  The horse has to be understand how to bring all his beauty.
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  And for this, and I think that the secret lies on, if you want to allow the horse
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  to express himself, he needs to work with suppleness and using his body and
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  not just, you know, performing like with stiffness or forcing him to do something,
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  it's, you need to allow the horse to think on himself so that he can really bring the
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  Rupert Isaacson: Right, you say when you bring the horses in in
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  the beginning of their training, you analyze their personality.
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  Do you look for a certain showmanship?
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  Do you look for a certain horse that, that does have this kind of, hey, attitude?
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  Is that what you're looking for?
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  You say, okay, that's the horse.
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  Which we need to bring to the show or how are you select that
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  Sofia Valenca: way the way we the way we select them?
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  It's it's in a so every horse will be special on Something like every words
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  in the world was born for something and if you really understand in what he's
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  good at He will be amazing on it, but I cannot force a horse That was not
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  enough skills to be a Grand Prix horse And I cannot force him to be a Grand
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  Prix horse, but maybe this horse will be an amazing working equitation horse.
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  And then if you really find his own way, he will be amazing
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  doing what he was born for.
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  That's why sometimes, you know, in the show and you have seen our shows,
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  you see, we have the horses that perform the hairs above the ground.
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  Not everybody is able to do a capriole.
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  Only a few horses in the world are able to do a capriole.
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  So when you choose a horse, and this is a very specific exercise
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  I'm, I'm bringing here because I think it's easy to understand.
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  If a horse, well, how you see a horse is good to make, to perform a capriole.
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  So first, this first behavior has to be a little bit too spicy.
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  It has to really be very, very hot.
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  And a little bit naughty, a little bit naughty, and then.
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  You will use that and giving him the right tools.
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  You will be amazing doing a Capriol.
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  But what is important to understand is that this horse that can be a
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  little bit hot, can be a little bit naughty, can be a little bit spicy.
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  Once he has the basics, you will have the power.
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  Of telling this horse to control his own strength.
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  Otherwise it's just a crazy horse.
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  And unfortunately we see a lot of crazy horses out there just because people
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  don't know how to deal with this hotness and, and sometimes it's, it's hard.
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  And if you, you cannot just force them to do something they were not born to do.
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  And, and it's really important that we, we understand their nature and to
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  explore their nature in the way that they will understand how to, to become
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  the horse we want them to become.
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  So this is just an example.
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  We don't search for something special, but this horse will tell us.
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  is special on something and then we will drive the horse to his speciality.
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  That's why, you know, in the world you have doctors, you have mechanics, you
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  have engineers, you have architects.
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  In the end, they're all people, but they have to choose their own way.
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  And the ones that are really good in the things they have choose to be something
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  professionally, they become very good.
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  It's the same with the horses.
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  So again, we will not choose them to in a certain way.
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  They kind of tell us what they are good at, and then we try to.
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  Give them the way in the best, in the best lines that they
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  would, they can perform better.
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  Rupert Isaacson: For those listeners who don't know what a
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  capriole is let's just explain.
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  It's rather spectacular thing.
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  So I just want you to sort of shut your eyes for a moment and what you...
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  Imagine you may have seen pictures or films from maybe the Spanish
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  riding school of Vienna or something like that with the white stallions,
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  where you see a horse jumping into the air in a really controlled way.
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  And, but really high into the air and then kicking back violently, but
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  controlled in this sort of balletic, yes, sort of martial arts type movement,
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  kicking back with the back hooves.
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  The front hooves are tucked up, maybe has a rider on the back.
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  Maybe it's done with people on the ground and it's always.
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  Something that when the crowd sees it, and any of us who've ever seen
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  it, the explosion of power always brings an emotional reaction.
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  You cannot...
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  see an animal that beautiful doing something like that without having this
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  lift of the heart where whether you know anything about horses or not, it's it's
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  just flat out beautiful and The could that controlled explosion of power is a
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  very very difficult and somewhat dangerous thing to do tell us There must be a
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  system, there must be a method, in the these old books that were written by these
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  old masters down through the centuries.
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  I've looked at them, I've read actually quite a few of them.
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  They're unreadable.
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  Unfortunately, they were written by, you know, noblemen who were not particularly
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  worried about editing themselves.
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  They were certainly not trained as writers and they contradict
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  themselves every five pages.
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  And what they're trying to get across is if you already happen to know
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  an awful lot about it, it's like reading a book about math written by
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  mathematicians for mathematicians.
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  Because if you're outside of that closed priesthood, it's
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  very hard to To understand what on earth they're even on about.
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  One of the things which I found revelatory about coming into contact
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  with the Valencia family was that I had always thought that this dressage,
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  this classical dressage, these beautiful movements, this sort of,
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  was something a little bit reserved for a higher priesthood of writers.
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  Certainly that not somebody like me could achieve.
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  And when I walked through the door in Lisbon with you and your father,
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  Saphir, the first time, someone said, Oh, actually, no, I can explain it.
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  The concept is relatively simple.
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  Okay, doing it's going to be quite difficult because we're dealing with
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  a horse who has his own ideas and his own nervous system and his own
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  sense of humor and you're the joke.
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  But!
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  Nonetheless, the concept is relatively simple.
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  And when you guys explained it I realized, Oh my gosh, this is actually replicable.
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  Why isn't everyone else doing this?
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  So can you give us the one, two, three of what this old master system, which
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  you would now call Valencia method that you've inherited from these
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  many centuries of equine technology, if you like, how does it work?
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  What do you do?
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  How do you train these horses?
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  Sofia Valenca: But not specifically to achieve the Caprio, correct?
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  Rupert Isaacson: No, just in general.
• 24:34
  Just how do you lay the base for Where you would eventually end up there?
• 24:39
  Yeah,
• 24:39
  Sofia Valenca: because in, in a very simple way, I could explain you how we
• 24:42
  do teach at Caprio and if, if you put it in small fractions, it's quite easy.
• 24:48
  But to go there first, the horse needs to understand what its primary school.
• 24:54
  So what we do, and it's a little bit the same learning
• 24:59
  process as a, as a young kid.
• 25:02
  So we start to develop.
• 25:04
  primary school.
• 25:06
  And I always defend that a kid with six years old, you will spend the first four
• 25:11
  years on his life learning in school.
• 25:14
  So in Portugal, they start at six years old.
• 25:17
  I believe in Europe, it's a little bit the same, right?
• 25:20
  The kids go to primary school his first year around six years old.
• 25:25
  And those first four years are the most important years in the life of a student.
• 25:33
  If those four years they are weak giving their basics, they will have
• 25:40
  gaps and they go to college and some they will never finish high school.
• 25:44
  Some never be able to go to college because they don't understand
• 25:49
  because the basics are not good.
• 25:51
  So when we start, we always like to introduce the first level.
• 25:56
  of the Valencia Method as the primary school.
• 25:59
  It's where the horse starts to develop a language that will
• 26:03
  assess him to understand you.
• 26:06
  You want to develop a simple language.
• 26:09
  So that the horse starts clearly, understand, yes, no, the basics.
• 26:17
  Once you have that, then you can start to progress.
• 26:20
  And those basics that you will start on this first stage
• 26:23
  that we are talking about.
• 26:25
  So we usually start the horses with the age of three and a half years old.
• 26:30
  Between three and a half, four and a half, it's the best age to start.
• 26:34
  You can always start them later.
• 26:36
  But the more the horse lives in the freedom, the more difficult then it will
• 26:40
  be to start to introduce those basics.
• 26:43
  The same happens with a kid.
• 26:45
  If you, you leave the kids starting, imagine you put a kid with 10 years
• 26:51
  old to his first year of school, you're going to be a little bit more hard
• 26:56
  for him than a kid with six years old, just because they are more greenish.
• 27:01
  They know less about life and they are more open to.
• 27:06
  Learn in a more simple way, the kid with 10 years old is already more
• 27:11
  naughty because life have taught him a little bit more things.
• 27:16
  And then when you want to bring him to the basics on school, sometimes it's a
• 27:20
  little bit more hard, not impossible.
• 27:23
  just a little bit more hard.
• 27:25
  Before three and a half years old, we should not start because the horses,
• 27:28
  they are still growing and maturing.
• 27:32
  So the perfect age is between three and a half to four and a half.
• 27:37
  So when you start to work them, you really want the basics of the
• 27:43
  basics is the horse needs to learn that you are there as friend.
• 27:49
  And once you have this friendship, the horse starts to respect you
• 27:56
  and the real mean of respect you.
• 27:58
  Respect.
• 28:00
  If I want the horse to respect me, I need to respect him.
• 28:04
  Otherwise, it will never respect him.
• 28:07
  Based on these feelings, you start to, to gain the, the soul of this
• 28:14
  horse and he starts to be there for you because he respects you,
• 28:18
  because you have respect him.
• 28:19
  And and then it's easy.
• 28:21
  Then once you have his respect.
• 28:23
  And again, respect not in the mean that he has to be afraid of me.
• 28:27
  I mean the real mean of respect.
• 28:30
  I'm here for you.
• 28:31
  Let's do this.
• 28:32
  Let's start this journey.
• 28:33
  I trust you.
• 28:35
  I will go to the end of the world with you.
• 28:37
  Then, simply, you start to use your body language.
• 28:42
  You start to use your voice.
• 28:43
  You start to use a few tools, even before he knows the rider on top of them.
• 28:50
  When you have this, then you can start to progress.
• 28:54
  And the horse will start to have some tools that if for some reason he starts
• 28:58
  to be more stressful, he can rely on you.
• 29:01
  So somehow you can down the stress because a horse under stress, he will not learn.
• 29:07
  So it's really important that we have to create tools to control the amount
• 29:12
  of stress that the horse can have.
• 29:14
  Because either you want or not, when a horse is learning something,
• 29:18
  sometimes they get confused and the way they deal with confusion.
• 29:23
  It's with stress.
• 29:24
  So we need to be able to control those stress to calm them down
• 29:30
  and then he's able to learn.
• 29:31
  So a horse under stress will never learn.
• 29:33
  And this is really important.
• 29:35
  We develop tools to control those moments of stress.
• 29:40
  Rupert Isaacson: How do you minimize stress with a horse?
• 29:42
  What are your go to?
• 29:45
  Sofia Valenca: The first tool you will have to have, the most powerful tool,
• 29:50
  is that the horse accepts you as friend.
• 29:53
  Because, you know, in Portugal, the horses are born in the wild, in the nature.
• 29:58
  And for three, during the three years old, three years, The first
• 30:03
  three years of their life, they do not have much contact with the men.
• 30:07
  So when we start to train them, there's a lot of stress in them
• 30:11
  because they don't trust us.
• 30:13
  And a horse is a fleet animal.
• 30:16
  So as soon as he's afraid of something, his first reaction is to run away.
• 30:21
  That's why they are still alive in this world.
• 30:23
  Otherwise they would be dead.
• 30:25
  So they need to have this instinct to protect themselves.
• 30:29
  So if you don't have, if you don't gain his trust, a horse will
• 30:35
  live in, in stress all the time.
• 30:38
  So this is our first lesson.
• 30:42
  It's a horse coming into the arena.
• 30:44
  And learn that we are there to be friends.
• 30:48
  He needs to respect me.
• 30:50
  I don't want to be his best friend where he will sit on my lap.
• 30:53
  I want him to always be a horse.
• 30:55
  I want him to understand there's a line that will super me as a human being.
• 31:00
  I love you.
• 31:02
  I respect you, but you will not jump on me.
• 31:05
  This kind of respect.
• 31:06
  It's important that there's boundaries.
• 31:09
  And sometimes.
• 31:11
  It's very, very easy to let them cross this line, this boundary.
• 31:17
  And sometimes they want to be more friends than they are supposed to be.
• 31:22
  So it's also important that we are smart enough to always design this line of.
• 31:28
  In the end of the day, I'm your friend.
• 31:30
  I trust you.
• 31:31
  I love you.
• 31:32
  But I'm still the alpha.
• 31:34
  I need you to listen.
• 31:36
  And once you really start to have this feeling of being the
• 31:41
  alpha, then you are in control.
• 31:45
  In control in a way that the horse is not afraid of you.
• 31:49
  He respects you and he will be as soon as he takes you as your alpha.
• 31:54
  You will, you will want to follow you.
• 31:58
  Why?
• 31:59
  A horse will always need a half.
• 32:00
  That's why in, in a yard, you will erd, yard, erd, my English sometimes
• 32:05
  it's a little bit Portuguese but in, in the, how you say, erd?
• 32:11
  Rupert Isaacson: In the pack?
• 32:12
  Oh, in the herd.
• 32:13
  In the herd.
• 32:14
  Yes.
• 32:14
  In the herd.
• 32:15
  In a wild herd of horses.
• 32:16
  Yes.
• 32:17
  In nature.
• 32:17
  They, they,
• 32:18
  Sofia Valenca: they need, they need their leader.
• 32:20
  Right?
• 32:21
  And then they follow.
• 32:22
  And the leader also has to be, usually it's the smartest horse is
• 32:26
  the one that is more aware of dangers.
• 32:29
  So not everybody, not every horse was born to be a leader.
• 32:34
  And in nature, they will develop this leadership.
• 32:38
  When a horse comes into the arena.
• 32:40
  You need to show them you are their leader.
• 32:43
  Rupert Isaacson: How do you do that?
• 32:44
  How do you do that in a way that doesn't make the horse feel threatened?
• 32:47
  Because at the end of the day, we are a horse's predator, right?
• 32:50
  We spent two million years hunting them.
• 32:52
  Now suddenly we want to sit on their backs.
• 32:56
  How do we cross that line?
• 32:58
  Predators are predators.
• 32:59
  Sofia Valenca: Exactly.
• 33:00
  You need to really have a very good body language and and, but the same, that's
• 33:06
  why nowadays there's a lot of therapies that are used for leadership, you
• 33:11
  know, big companies that have problems, people that are bullied by others.
• 33:16
  So they use this kind of therapy and they use the animals so that people
• 33:20
  understand what leadership means.
• 33:22
  And leadership means that I, now you are afraid of me.
• 33:25
  You do what I do.
• 33:26
  Told you to do and now you have to do it.
• 33:28
  It's not by fear because a good leadership cannot transmit fear because they will
• 33:33
  never have a good team working for them.
• 33:36
  So leadership is that I'm here for you.
• 33:40
  I will help you.
• 33:41
  I will guide you.
• 33:42
  I need you to trust me and I need you to follow me.
• 33:46
  So there's a few exercises that in the first lessons they will learn,
• 33:51
  which are quite hard to explain them with just the voice, because
• 33:56
  I need you to picture some images.
• 33:58
  Rupert Isaacson: Well, well, we can do that.
• 33:59
  Have us shut our eyes and let's go into the arena with you.
• 34:03
  We, we we're going to the arena with you with this three and a half year
• 34:07
  old horse who's coming from the wild.
• 34:09
  As you say,
• 34:11
  Sofia Valenca: what's happening?
• 34:12
  There's this exercise that sometimes we don't give enough importance.
• 34:17
  It's, it's really, really, really important.
• 34:20
  That is, imagine you're launching a horse.
• 34:22
  And the horse, okay, he already goes, well, into the circle.
• 34:25
  He understands he has to do the circle.
• 34:28
  But then we stop them, and we do something that we call meeting point.
• 34:33
  And what is a meeting point?
• 34:34
  Is that you go...
• 34:35
  Into a certain point and the horse that is going on a circle, you will
• 34:39
  keep going until you will meet you on that meeting point and all the horses.
• 34:48
  that come from the field and they are afraid of the man because
• 34:52
  we are predators for them.
• 34:55
  They will stop a few meters and even if they don't want to run away
• 34:59
  because after a while they don't want to run away, but they are still not
• 35:05
  trusting you enough to go to you.
• 35:08
  And one thing that we always explain when we give our lessons and we start
• 35:13
  to explain how we develop the method, we always say, even if the horse The
• 35:18
  horse stops like one meter away from you, and you are happy with that, but you
• 35:23
  want the horse to move forward to you.
• 35:26
  But he's not going and you say, Oh, it's just a meter.
• 35:30
  No problem.
• 35:31
  I go to him and the horse accepts you going to him and you pat him and the
• 35:36
  horse is quite calm and did accept that you go into his world, but he was, he
• 35:42
  didn't accept, he was not trusting you enough to follow you to your own world.
• 35:47
  If you don't have this, if you to move this, that one meter
• 35:54
  to bring him to my world.
• 35:57
  I don't have the trust of this horse.
• 35:59
  So he was being the alpha.
• 36:00
  He said, I stop here.
• 36:02
  I don't trust you.
• 36:04
  You will come to me.
• 36:05
  And this is what mostly of the people do.
• 36:07
  They go to them and they pet him.
• 36:09
  And the horse says, I got you.
• 36:12
  I make you trust you to come to my world.
• 36:14
  I don't trust you enough to go to your world.
• 36:17
  And you see, this is just a little detail that people think, Oh, he stopped there.
• 36:21
  I just go to him and it will be something that.
• 36:27
  Later on time there's a gap there and
• 36:31
  Rupert Isaacson: you know, how do you make the horse take
• 36:33
  that meter step towards you?
• 36:34
  So
• 36:35
  Sofia Valenca: it's sometimes you just need to be patient You invite him like
• 36:40
  using your body energy, like, you know, like you, you want him to follow you.
• 36:45
  Like some, somehow, sometimes we do this with dogs, you call
• 36:50
  your dog, you want him to come.
• 36:52
  So you kind of inviting him because it's not the word that
• 36:55
  will make the dog come to you.
• 36:57
  It's the energy you put in the world.
• 37:00
  And, and this, this is.
• 37:02
  I can tell my dog, get away from here, get away from here,
• 37:06
  you will come to me, right?
• 37:07
  It's not the word.
• 37:08
  It's the energy you put in the word.
• 37:10
  And if that doesn't work, sometimes we need what we call a ghost help.
• 37:16
  What is a ghost help is that you ask someone to go into the arena
• 37:21
  and from the behind of the horse, like a little bit far away, but the
• 37:25
  person from the behind will send the horse to move forward a little bit.
• 37:30
  That little bit that make the horse come to you, trust you, because what he
• 37:35
  will receive when he goes to you, love.
• 37:38
  When he comes to you, what you give him, you pet him.
• 37:42
  The horse will feel your hand touching his body.
• 37:45
  And it's, it's nice.
• 37:46
  Who does not love to be pet?
• 37:48
  Right?
• 37:49
  The horses are the same.
• 37:50
  They love to be touched.
• 37:52
  They love to receive love.
• 37:54
  So they learn that when I go to her, I can trust her because she's kind.
• 38:00
  She will give me love.
• 38:02
  And, and, and I'm not giving him treats.
• 38:06
  I'm, I'm gaining his trust by the love I can give him and not just by a carrot.
• 38:13
  I don't want to buy his trust.
• 38:15
  I want him to feel what love is.
• 38:18
  And this is how we really, and you know, after a while, this ghost,
• 38:22
  why we say ghost, because the person is there and then he's not there.
• 38:27
  The horse is sending forward.
• 38:30
  by someone that behind just said a little bit just move or it does a sound or with
• 38:35
  a whip sends him a little bit forward and we need to do this two or three times and
• 38:40
  the horse learns that he can come to me he have trust that he can come to my world
• 38:48
  Rupert Isaacson: and that you are the safe you are the safe place to
• 38:51
  Sofia Valenca: come to i am the safe place but he needs to understand
• 38:54
  that we are the safe place
• 38:57
  Rupert Isaacson: Are you tapping in also to the horse's natural sense of curiosity?
• 39:00
  I mean, horses are intelligent animals.
• 39:03
  They're curious about life.
• 39:04
  And they need to be curious, presumably.
• 39:06
  Otherwise, they're not going to be able to explore their environments in nature.
• 39:13
  How do you...
• 39:14
  Are you tapping into the horse's natural sense of curiosity as well?
• 39:21
  Sofia Valenca: You have to.
• 39:22
  You have to.
• 39:24
  Remember when we started this conversation?
• 39:27
  When I, when we defend it, a horse needs to express himself.
• 39:31
  So when you analyze a little bit, the horse, you need to, to, to
• 39:36
  see his reactions to everything.
• 39:39
  If he comes to me and he wants to smell, we, we, we kind of, we let him smell.
• 39:48
  When he starts to smell, it starts to relax.
• 39:52
  You touch him and you feel how he reacts to the touch.
• 39:57
  And if a horse is a little bit stressed.
• 40:00
  When he starts to trust you and you pet him, you have the power of control
• 40:06
  stress just by the way you touch a horse.
• 40:09
  It's like, it's like you, you can transmit that energy to him when you touch his,
• 40:14
  his neck, when you touch his eyes.
• 40:17
  Another thing when a horse comes from the field, they come very
• 40:20
  suspicious about the touch in the head.
• 40:24
  Some of them because.
• 40:26
  They, they are in the field and, and, but the vets, they need to take
• 40:32
  care of them because they need to, to be treated because they need the
• 40:36
  vaccines because they need to, to, to, to take medicine to clean inside.
• 40:42
  And so their first contact with the men.
• 40:47
  It's not the most friendly contact because it will come this they will be
• 40:52
  in a place and then they call this this man that needs to give him an injection.
• 40:57
  And sometimes things are changing and people are learning, but sometimes they
• 41:03
  hold their ears, so they don't move.
• 41:06
  And that can be very traumatizing for a horse when we start them to,
• 41:10
  to be there to start their journey.
• 41:14
  So it is really important that the horse.
• 41:17
  starts to allow us to touch on those parts of the body that
• 41:22
  can be more reactive to them.
• 41:25
  The ears Touching their eyes.
• 41:28
  Well, their eyes not touching their eyes.
• 41:30
  Now the vision of you.
• 41:32
  We are not touching their eyes.
• 41:33
  But if we pack a horse, it will make them close their eyes.
• 41:38
  And somehow that can be very calm.
• 41:41
  The phrase some horses will not allowed to touch their mouth.
• 41:45
  They and especially if they are born and growing in fields with electrical fences.
• 41:53
  You see them a lot, right?
• 41:54
  To contain the paddocks.
• 41:58
  They, and all horses to learn, they need to touch that fence.
• 42:02
  And then they learn because they touch it and it's a little bit ouch.
• 42:05
  So they will not touch again.
• 42:07
  But we start to feel that they get very sensitive on their nose because
• 42:12
  they get very like, Oh, don't touch me here because when you touch me
• 42:15
  here, I, I'm afraid of the fence.
• 42:18
  So, you know, some horses, they don't even care.
• 42:23
  When we touch them, but some others, they're very, very sensitive and the head
• 42:29
  was really it's one of the most difficult parts to to conquer their their trust.
• 42:39
  We need to be able to pet the horse everywhere.
• 42:45
  Rupert Isaacson: So the horse must be able to accept the human touch pretty much
• 42:50
  all over the body before you can begin.
• 42:52
  All over.
• 42:52
  Yeah.
• 42:53
  Yes,
• 42:54
  Sofia Valenca: yes, yes.
• 42:55
  Rupert Isaacson: In a way that makes them feel this is a safe thing, this is...
• 42:58
  Sofia Valenca: Exactly.
• 42:59
  Because if a horse does not...
• 43:00
  He does make me sick.
• 43:01
  Imagine.
• 43:02
  If.
• 43:03
  Imagine, imagine now.
• 43:04
  Imagine that you are afraid that I will touch you because, you know, you had
• 43:09
  something that, you know, you don't trust and you are afraid if I, if I don't pass
• 43:15
  this barrier, how can I handle this horse?
• 43:19
  that not even being able to touch him, it does not trust me to touch him.
• 43:26
  How can I ride this, this horse?
• 43:28
  You understand?
• 43:29
  So it's really important that we go through that phase and,
• 43:33
  and that phase it's, it's really important that we don't rush phases.
• 43:37
  If a horse is taking more time to accept you, we need to give them that time.
• 43:44
  Some horses, the day they come from the field, You can launch them, you can touch
• 43:50
  them everywhere, and some horses, after a month, you are still trying to break
• 43:56
  barriers, and barriers, and barriers.
• 43:59
  So, we cannot rush, and we need to respect the time each horse
• 44:04
  is showing you that he needs.
• 44:06
  And, and this is really important.
• 44:09
  Rupert Isaacson: So here you are now creating these extraordinary equestrian
• 44:15
  shows which go all over the place and basically show a fairy tale on horseback.
• 44:22
  It's sort of Cirque du Soleil on horseback.
• 44:24
  And then, but you also have, you know, your daughter, as you say,
• 44:27
  who's in the competition world and you're the sort of excellence.
• 44:33
  And.
• 44:34
  You have this effectively living free and riding free family culture of every day
• 44:42
  you getting together with your your tribe with with your father with your sisters
• 44:48
  and Pretty and the rest of your family producing these extraordinary Animals and
• 44:53
  the teams that will go out and present them to the world, but it wasn't always
• 44:58
  so I believe I think It's always a it's always a bit easy to jump to conclusions
• 45:05
  and one would assume, Oh, well, you know, if Sophia Valencia is coming out
• 45:08
  of this family that produces these fancy dressage horses everywhere, then they
• 45:11
  must come from, you know, a lot of money.
• 45:13
  They must be aristocrats or they must have something like that.
• 45:15
  And I know that that's not true.
• 45:17
  In fact, I know that you were actually born into quite difficult times 1974.
• 45:21
  What was happening in in Portugal in 1974, that year that you were
• 45:26
  Sofia Valenca: born.
• 45:28
  So, in, in 74, there was this big revolution in Portugal, and
• 45:33
  we, we went from a dictator to, to, so you went for extremes.
• 45:41
  We had a dictator, and then we came with a communism
• 45:44
  So you came from, so suddenly from one day to the other the
• 45:49
  life change of a lot of people.
• 45:52
  And I was not born yet in April.
• 45:54
  This was in, in, in April that happened.
• 45:57
  I was born in December, but my father that was working with horses was found in he
• 46:04
  found himself in a very hard time because he was working horses from other clients.
• 46:11
  And some of those clients, they, they, they had the money, but suddenly from one
• 46:16
  day to the other, they lost everything because suddenly if you had horses,
• 46:21
  you were considered like a rich person.
• 46:25
  And you know, as a communism thing they, they would go after you.
• 46:31
  So a lot of people that had big farms that had horses.
• 46:35
  So suddenly they said, I need to finish all that or we are in trouble.
• 46:40
  So what happened with my father, he was not the rich person.
• 46:43
  He was just working horses because he always, I always say he had a rich life
• 46:49
  because he was able to follow his passion.
• 46:52
  So he was rich because he was doing what he loves.
• 46:56
  was being around horses and, you know, working the horses and, and
• 47:01
  follow, following this passion.
• 47:04
  So suddenly my, I'm the youngest of three of three sisters and
• 47:11
  my father and mother, my mother, she was not working at the time.
• 47:15
  Suddenly they had no.
• 47:17
  Job and my father had a few horses, so he decided to move to Spain.
• 47:23
  So there we went to Spain in 75.
• 47:27
  I was born in December 74 and in 75 they just wait that I had a few months.
• 47:33
  So that, you know, traveling with a born baby, it's, it's not easy.
• 47:38
  So maybe I was like four or five months when they moved to Spain and they had
• 47:43
  to start all over again, my father and mother, they had the three girls.
• 47:50
  They, we, the three of us, we were very tiny.
• 47:53
  And.
• 47:55
  But they are very strong, and I always, we always have them with a very nice example
• 48:01
  of of a couple that love each other, and and they, they believe they could just go
• 48:11
  to another country with three children, with a few horses, and, well, they did not
• 48:17
  have a dog at the time, but there we went.
• 48:20
  And two and a half year, we lived in Spain.
• 48:25
  My father always followed his dream working with the
• 48:29
  horses, so that's what he did.
• 48:32
  He, he...
• 48:33
  He works some horses in Spain.
• 48:35
  Then we moved to this.
• 48:37
  We started in Jerez de la Frontera.
• 48:40
  My father had good friends.
• 48:41
  Don Alvaro Domecq was a good friend of him that have helped him.
• 48:46
  He was having the horses where the Spanish Riding School is.
• 48:51
  in Jerez was actually beautiful because we have been there like two weeks ago.
• 48:56
  The, there was a show there with the four schools and we, it was nice to,
• 49:01
  for my parents to be back there and see old friends and, and it was really,
• 49:07
  really nice to, to be back there.
• 49:09
  Then after Jerez, we went to the Gran Canaria.
• 49:13
  So my father had this proposal for work there and this is where he start
• 49:18
  to gain experience with the shows.
• 49:21
  Gran Canaria, it's an island that always worked with a lot of tourists,
• 49:25
  so it was the proposal of work there was to, to build a show with
• 49:31
  horses to entertain the tourism.
• 49:35
  So for two years, they, they did this show.
• 49:38
  We were not part of the show yet because we were really small my sisters,
• 49:42
  they were already riding horses.
• 49:45
  But not part of the show.
• 49:47
  And then in 78, 78, the end of 78, I don't really remember the dates, they decided
• 49:58
  things were more calm in Portugal, and they decided to come back to Portugal.
• 50:03
  In 79, My father met this Spanish man in Portugal, and together they
• 50:11
  decided to do the project of the SELGE, so our writing center, the one
• 50:17
  you know, the one you have been here.
• 50:19
  And because of the experience he gained in Spain during the show,
• 50:24
  he, he could do something that was really unique in Portugal.
• 50:28
  So we were the ones starting to create a big...
• 50:33
  events.
• 50:34
  So it was like evenings where people came and have this gala
• 50:39
  dinner with the show included.
• 50:42
  And I have to say was we were pioneers doing this kind of project and it
• 50:48
  worked really, really, really well.
• 50:50
  So it was our golden days when we came back to Portugal and then they
• 50:55
  developed this these facilities.
• 50:58
  And Was really amazing.
• 51:01
  So bringing back for your question, we were never rich people in terms of money,
• 51:10
  because, you know, if you want to make a small fortune on horses, better to start
• 51:16
  with a big one, like everybody knows this.
• 51:19
  So we were always able to survive around horses in terms of financial, but.
• 51:26
  You know, money, it's not everything.
• 51:29
  Of course, everybody needs money and we need money because we have a lot
• 51:33
  of forces that depend on us, but our goal in life, it's not to be rich in
• 51:40
  terms of money, but it's to be rich in terms of the passion that we have
• 51:46
  and that we are able to say that.
• 51:50
  We wake up every morning, and we do what we love.
• 51:54
  I think this is the best it's the most rich way of being in life.
• 52:00
  So there you
• 52:00
  Rupert Isaacson: are, you're a girl, and you've, you've, you're
• 52:04
  back in you're back in Portugal.
• 52:06
  Your father and his partner are putting together this sort of pioneering show,
• 52:14
  sort of showcasing This old masters, this sort of Baroque way of, of presenting
• 52:19
  the horse as if it was like a royal court to the kings, but the kings are now the
• 52:23
  people, you know, sitting there having the dinner and paying for the show.
• 52:27
  And you at some point do start.
• 52:30
  working in and writing in these shows, presumably you must have
• 52:33
  sort of seen this as a little girl and go, Oh, my gosh, that's just,
• 52:36
  you know, fairytale come to life.
• 52:38
  And that's my dad.
• 52:39
  And I get to be part of it.
• 52:41
  How did you how did you yourself and your sisters flow into?
• 52:46
  Becoming part of these shows and, and, and what did you do in them?
• 52:50
  Sofia Valenca: You know, it just said it, how did we flow in?
• 52:55
  It was so natural that if, if I want to remind myself, when was the first
• 53:02
  time I was sitting on a horse, I cannot remember because I was so young.
• 53:08
  That was before where you develop memories that, you know, those
• 53:12
  memories that you remember when you're.
• 53:16
  So it was so natural that I think we all start to ride even before we were walking.
• 53:25
  So it's a, it was so like, it was just there, it's like breathing air.
• 53:36
  Do you know how you start to breathe?
• 53:38
  You have no idea.
• 53:39
  You just did it.
• 53:40
  So everything, it was so, so natural.
• 53:44
  And, and another thing that was so natural that nowadays I start to
• 53:50
  think that was really natural was the way we learn to do what we do.
• 53:58
  It's also natural that you don't even think what you are doing
• 54:03
  because it comes naturally because you have grown up doing it.
• 54:08
  For example, the, when you work the in hand work we, we started.
• 54:13
  To, to train people like you do train people to work the horses on the ground
• 54:19
  or to do a little bit what we do, and we start for with the groundwork.
• 54:24
  So this is a primary thing.
• 54:26
  If you want to learn the method, you need to learn how to work
• 54:29
  the horses from the ground and.
• 54:33
  So we teach all kinds of people, people with more experience, less
• 54:36
  experience, people, older people, younger people, and they all come.
• 54:41
  And once we start to put them on the ground with the horses and
• 54:44
  you know, it's like dancing with the horses, you just move around
• 54:47
  with the horses, cannot even walk.
• 54:52
  And you go like, but this is so easy.
• 54:54
  This is so natural.
• 54:55
  This is how can you not walk?
• 54:57
  So it's, you see, it was so natural that it just happened.
• 55:06
  So I, suddenly If I try, I'm trying to think when, when was my first show?
• 55:12
  I don't remember.
• 55:14
  I was really young.
• 55:15
  I do remember that we missed a lot school because we were already doing the shows.
• 55:21
  And in those times, you know, you were allowed to, to miss school.
• 55:25
  It's not nowadays.
• 55:26
  If you, if your sons or daughters don't go to school, then you're in trouble because
• 55:31
  school it's mandatory until a certain age.
• 55:33
  Right.
• 55:34
  So in my time, I remember my mother sometimes was Called into school, like
• 55:40
  saying, you know, your daughters, they, they, they miss a lot, a lot school.
• 55:44
  And my mother was like, I know, but you know, we do these shows and they
• 55:48
  do these shows and we travel the world.
• 55:49
  And this is also important.
• 55:51
  So it was a, was a really nice school of life that we were
• 55:56
  able to live and learn from it.
• 55:59
  I'm not ashamed saying I was not in college because, you
• 56:02
  know, I achieve what I achieved.
• 56:05
  Because I really had a very rich life in terms of, of seeing
• 56:09
  the world doing what we do.
• 56:12
  And and we, we, with all the cultures of, you know, when you perform for
• 56:16
  those shows, you were performing for different cultures because we, we
• 56:20
  work with a lot of tourist people.
• 56:22
  And that also bring us...
• 56:24
  To another world, I think, was a very rich way of learning what the world is.
• 56:32
  So again, I don't remember how I started.
• 56:37
  I don't know.
• 56:39
  Was there.
• 56:40
  Was always there.
• 56:42
  Every day.
• 56:42
  Here's
• 56:42
  Rupert Isaacson: a question.
• 56:43
  Here's a question about that.
• 56:44
  When, when you grow up with something naturally it can be quite hard to
• 56:49
  teach other people how to do it.
• 56:50
  Because if you, if you haven't had to.
• 56:52
  Break it down yourself.
• 56:54
  And then, as you say, there you are trying to show somebody how to walk
• 56:57
  with the horse for this in hand work.
• 57:00
  And for those listeners who don't know what in hand work is, in hand work is
• 57:04
  basically where you, you teach the horse to do the stuff that you're going to do
• 57:08
  when you ride him, before you ride him.
• 57:11
  So the horse effectively understands before you add the rider what these
• 57:15
  things are, and therefore there is less stress and there's a...
• 57:18
  a smoother learning curve and that is really the basis of this of this
• 57:22
  old master master system and what different makes it different from.
• 57:26
  just going for riding lessons and so on.
• 57:28
  It is a relatively complex thing to learn.
• 57:30
  I mean, to learn to dance with a human is complex enough and
• 57:34
  humans both speak monkey, right?
• 57:36
  So one monkey can to the other monkeys communicate in a way, even if they don't
• 57:41
  share an actual spoken language in a way that they can sort of work it out.
• 57:44
  But a horse doesn't speak monkey.
• 57:45
  And in fact, the horse regards the monkey, the upright ape with
• 57:48
  the eyes in front as a predator.
• 57:50
  And they're a bit skeptical of us with good reason.
• 57:53
  Because It's terrible, but, you know, if you got hungry enough,
• 57:56
  you'd eat every horse in your stable.
• 57:58
  You wouldn't, if your, if your kids were gonna starve, you wouldn't be
• 58:01
  happy about it, but you'd do it.
• 58:03
  So the horse is right to be a little bit skeptical.
• 58:05
  So, when you come to something like this, as you say so naturally, And
• 58:11
  to such a high standard where from, you know, very, very, very young,
• 58:16
  you are, as you say, traveling the world, showing what most people only
• 58:20
  dream of being able to do with horses.
• 58:21
  Now it's your job to go around the world and teach people how to do what you do.
• 58:27
  And I'm going to plug this at the end for the listeners.
• 58:30
  You should, if you ever want to do anything meaningful
• 58:35
  with horses, you should go and work with the Valenza family.
• 58:38
  Okay.
• 58:39
  So how do you then, as a.
• 58:42
  Natural, teach someone who is not a natural.
• 58:46
  How do you bridge that gap?
• 58:47
  How do you break
• 58:48
  Sofia Valenca: it down?
• 58:49
  You know, it's, life is made of opportunities and we have a very
• 58:56
  dear friend, a very good friend, that one time he said to us, you
• 59:02
  know what, you have a method here.
• 59:05
  And what is a method?
• 59:07
  Is that when you do something in the same way, you will achieve a purpose.
• 59:12
  So if you break this method through into little pieces, you are able
• 59:18
  to teach even a monkey to do this.
• 59:22
  And this dear friend that is actually now talking to me, Rupert Isaacson, was
• 59:31
  the person that really bring out the name of method to the Valesa method.
• 59:41
  So, How many years were you here?
• 59:45
  How many years ago?
• 59:46
  Ooh,
• 59:46
  Rupert Isaacson: that, I think we first came out to you in fifteen, was it?
• 59:52
  I seem to, because Ileana was pregnant, with little man.
• 59:56
  No, no,
• 59:58
  Sofia Valenca: no, no, no.
• 59:58
  No, much before that, much before that.
• 1:00:02
  Gosh.
• 1:00:02
  Yeah, much before that.
• 1:00:03
  Twelve?
• 1:00:03
  Was it twelve?
• 1:00:04
  It was a while ago.
• 1:00:05
  Well, it was in another life, right?
• 1:00:07
  Back
• 1:00:07
  Rupert Isaacson: in the Pleistocene, yes.
• 1:00:09
  When mammoth bellowed to mammoth across the primeval swamp,
• 1:00:12
  Sofia Valenca: yeah.
• 1:00:12
  Anyway, so we were doing this because we all were always doing this.
• 1:00:18
  And when we want to teach someone to do something that you are...
• 1:00:23
  Doing so naturally, not always is easy, but if you start to
• 1:00:30
  break it down into little pieces, it's more easy to pass the word.
• 1:00:35
  So this is what we start to develop.
• 1:00:40
  We start to break into small fractions, what we want people to understand so
• 1:00:47
  that they can be able to pass the same.
• 1:00:50
  language to the horses.
• 1:00:52
  So if that's why everybody that comes here and even if they have experience
• 1:00:58
  on the groundwork, if they have not go through the Valencia method, if
• 1:01:03
  I want to speak the same language as this person that wants to learn the
• 1:01:08
  method, we need to go from the basics and we start to introduce you from the
• 1:01:14
  beginning because it's in the beginning.
• 1:01:17
  It's this basic word work that will give you the pillars.
• 1:01:21
  For the future work, if you really speak the same language I'm speaking to the
• 1:01:28
  horse later on, we have a lesson and I can bring you to that world because
• 1:01:33
  we speak that same language and we are not, you know, this one is not speaking
• 1:01:38
  Chinese and I'm speaking Portuguese and we go like, Oh, can't you understand why?
• 1:01:42
  And then he speaks in Chinese and I don't understand why you don't
• 1:01:45
  understand if I'm speaking to you.
• 1:01:47
  So it's exactly the same that happens with the horses.
• 1:01:51
  So.
• 1:01:51
  If the horse will not speak the language I want him to understand,
• 1:01:56
  it's more difficult to go somewhere.
• 1:01:59
  So, this is what the biggest change we did over the years was to become, we need to
• 1:02:09
  put ourselves in the place of the student.
• 1:02:13
  And, okay, this is natural for me.
• 1:02:16
  But it's not for them and if he's not able to walk, it's not because they are stupid.
• 1:02:21
  They are not able to walk because they are frozen and they are
• 1:02:25
  not understanding what we want.
• 1:02:27
  So we need to stop and, you know, go into little pieces and then everything, Sorry,
• 1:02:34
  everything starts to make sense for them.
• 1:02:36
  Rupert Isaacson: I have a question.
• 1:02:37
  I have a question for you.
• 1:02:38
  So, you said that what people need to learn how to do is
• 1:02:41
  how to walk with a horse.
• 1:02:43
  This is intriguing, in a way that is like a dance.
• 1:02:47
  What is the, what is this walk?
• 1:02:51
  This isn't just a walk from A to B to the supermarket.
• 1:02:55
  to buy a bottle of milk.
• 1:02:57
  It's a different kind of walk.
• 1:02:59
  What are the steps of this dance that somebody needs
• 1:03:02
  Sofia Valenca: to know?
• 1:03:03
  It's exactly if you are learning how to dance.
• 1:03:08
  So when you learn how to dance, first you need to know the steps.
• 1:03:13
  It's because they're so different kind of dances, right?
• 1:03:16
  So we will explain where you need to move and then you need to understand that
• 1:03:23
  when you move you will have a partner.
• 1:03:26
  And that partner, so when you start to dance If you're a man and you start to
• 1:03:31
  dance and you know that when you use your steps of dancing it's to move forward, you
• 1:03:37
  know your partner needs to move backwards.
• 1:03:40
  Simple, right?
• 1:03:42
  So now let's imagine we do our partner will be the horse and we always have
• 1:03:47
  to bear in mind that our partner is the one that needs to move forward.
• 1:03:52
  Therefore, we always need to think of moving backwards.
• 1:03:57
  And this is the first step of learning.
• 1:04:01
  It's to move backwards and inviting the horse to follow you.
• 1:04:06
  And then, of course, there's more things.
• 1:04:07
  The horse needs to be familiar.
• 1:04:09
  With the touches of the whip, because the whip will invite
• 1:04:12
  also the horse to move to you.
• 1:04:14
  But then also, remember on the first lessons, you were helping your
• 1:04:19
  horse to trust you, to follow you.
• 1:04:22
  So you need, that wall was already broken, right?
• 1:04:27
  The horse is following you.
• 1:04:28
  So he's no longer afraid to follow you.
• 1:04:31
  So all those little steps have to happen.
• 1:04:34
  One after the other after the other and if you block in one
• 1:04:38
  step, you cannot move forward.
• 1:04:40
  We need to find a way to pass that step so that we can move forward.
• 1:04:47
  So when we do the groundwork, it's really like a dance.
• 1:04:53
  And in the beginning, you feel like you are Looking into your steps,
• 1:04:57
  seeing where you are putting your feet, and then suddenly it just comes out
• 1:05:02
  naturally and it's like just music.
• 1:05:04
  You will, you will start to dance with a, with a horse and, and it's beautiful.
• 1:05:09
  It's really beautiful.
• 1:05:10
  Rupert Isaacson: That's quite intriguing, the idea that you have to basically
• 1:05:13
  take the male part of the dance in a partner dance where you're the leader,
• 1:05:18
  but instead of moving your partner backwards in the traditional way.
• 1:05:23
  you have to induce your partner to follow you.
• 1:05:26
  That is, so I would imagine that even people that understand partner dancing
• 1:05:31
  quite well, if you're the person in the partner dance who's walking backwards,
• 1:05:35
  you're being directed, you're being led, yet you're moving backwards now
• 1:05:42
  in a way that is the leader, which that's an intriguing psychology.
• 1:05:45
  Sofia Valenca: It, it depends on the dance you're dancing.
• 1:05:49
  I don't remember which one it is now.
• 1:05:52
  If it's a Brazilian dance or like a tango, there is one that the woman moves forward.
• 1:06:00
  So you know, it's just a mindset.
• 1:06:03
  You can still be the leader and you say, you follow me.
• 1:06:06
  I need you to, you will still be leading just you are leading on a movement
• 1:06:12
  more backwards because remember, you always need to remind yourself
• 1:06:16
  that your partner has four legs.
• 1:06:18
  He needs to control four legs.
• 1:06:20
  You only need two legs to control.
• 1:06:22
  So it will be easier for you to move backwards, right?
• 1:06:25
  But you know, it's, it's, it's just difficult until it becomes
• 1:06:30
  easier and then it's easy.
• 1:06:33
  Rupert Isaacson: So, okay.
• 1:06:33
  Let's take a listener.
• 1:06:35
  We'll take listener.
• 1:06:36
  That one over there.
• 1:06:37
  I'm going to pick him up and I'm putting him in your living room.
• 1:06:40
  What are the first steps that you're going to teach this person how to do?
• 1:06:44
  It's got to start.
• 1:06:45
  Every, every dance, you go for a salsa lesson, they tell you how to
• 1:06:48
  put this foot forward, this foot back.
• 1:06:50
  There is a step.
• 1:06:51
  What is the first step of Valencia method?
• 1:06:54
  The actual physical step with the foot that someone is doing, that you show them.
• 1:06:58
  It's,
• 1:06:59
  Sofia Valenca: it's moving backward.
• 1:07:00
  How?
• 1:07:02
  just go backwards.
• 1:07:04
  Okay.
• 1:07:04
  And, and
• 1:07:05
  Rupert Isaacson: what speed am I running backwards?
• 1:07:07
  Am I, am I going backwards on my bottom?
• 1:07:10
  Am I going backwards on a pair of roller skates?
• 1:07:12
  You just,
• 1:07:13
  Sofia Valenca: you just, you just, you just close your eyes
• 1:07:16
  and just give one step back.
• 1:07:18
  Imagine someone is pushing you and you just go back.
• 1:07:22
  And then when this is backwards, then you start to want to draw a circle.
• 1:07:28
  And go a little bit backwards and stepping on a circle line.
• 1:07:31
  This is quite hard for me to explain without visualizing it.
• 1:07:38
  But...
• 1:07:39
  You need to, to be able just to be coming backwards.
• 1:07:44
  And when you do this without the horse, you just close your eyes
• 1:07:47
  and you imagine the horse with you and you just, you want to invite
• 1:07:51
  him to come backwards and what is
• 1:07:53
  Rupert Isaacson: the tempo and what is the rhythm?
• 1:07:55
  What, what, what you counting in your
• 1:07:57
  Sofia Valenca: head, the tempo, the tempo and the rhythm will, will be
• 1:08:02
  because all horses are different.
• 1:08:04
  And imagine if you have a little horse or you have a big horse, you
• 1:08:07
  have a laser horse, you have a very.
• 1:08:09
  Sensitive horse, it, the horse will give you the tempo, but just, you
• 1:08:16
  know, just to start, you just, you just move backwards on the same
• 1:08:21
  speed as if you were going forward.
• 1:08:24
  And imagine yourself on a shopping mall, watching the shops, you're
• 1:08:31
  not running, you're just observing.
• 1:08:34
  I like this.
• 1:08:36
  Pair of shoes.
• 1:08:37
  Oh, but I like that watch and I like this t shirt and you go from
• 1:08:41
  one shop to the other and On a pace that will allowed you to see the
• 1:08:47
  clothes that shop has in the outside
• 1:08:51
  Rupert Isaacson: So you're not rushing you're going at a negative pace
• 1:08:54
  Sofia Valenca: You just go on a pace that you you need you can
• 1:09:00
  go on a pace of a collect walk.
• 1:09:06
  Imagine collect walk.
• 1:09:08
  Rupert Isaacson: So a collected walk would be, and what is a walk?
• 1:09:11
  Is it a four beat?
• 1:09:12
  Is it a two beat?
• 1:09:13
  Is it, what is it?
• 1:09:15
  A walk
• 1:09:15
  Sofia Valenca: is a four beat.
• 1:09:17
  So a walk, the walk, the horse has four legs.
• 1:09:21
  The horse has four legs, you'll need the horse has to, the
• 1:09:25
  walk is always four beats.
• 1:09:26
  It's one leg after the other, after the other, after the other, one after the
• 1:09:30
  other, after the other, after the other.
• 1:09:31
  This is one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
• 1:09:38
  A walk always needs to have the four beats.
• 1:09:45
  Otherwise, if you have two beats on a walk, you'll have
• 1:09:48
  how you call on blood on blood.
• 1:09:50
  That's not a good walk.
• 1:09:52
  I don't know the name in English when they go like, like the natural steps.
• 1:09:56
  Indeed.
• 1:09:57
  I'm black.
• 1:09:58
  I don't know
• 1:09:58
  Rupert Isaacson: the name.
• 1:09:59
  Like it's
• 1:10:00
  Sofia Valenca: a good.
• 1:10:00
  It's a bad.
• 1:10:01
  It's a bad walk.
• 1:10:02
  We don't want the bad
• 1:10:04
  Rupert Isaacson: walk You want to actually you want an even for
• 1:10:06
  beer of one, two, three, three
• 1:10:09
  Sofia Valenca: four
• 1:10:12
  Rupert Isaacson: Four
• 1:10:12
  Sofia Valenca: moving a little bit if it's one two, three four one
• 1:10:14
  two, three four, it's not good.
• 1:10:15
  Yes Yeah, so really need that the pace you want to go backwards will be the same
• 1:10:22
  pace You want to move forward and then you know, you just not go backwards Sometimes
• 1:10:29
  you need also to move forward, but when you move forward, you turn yourself and
• 1:10:35
  you still move forward with the horse.
• 1:10:38
  And, and this is where it's more complex.
• 1:10:41
  It's that you need to move backwards or forward, always thinking that
• 1:10:48
  the horse always needs to move.
• 1:10:51
  in that direction.
• 1:10:53
  So for example, if I say, okay, now you move backwards and the
• 1:10:56
  horse will follow you, but now I need you to turn and move forward.
• 1:11:01
  The direction that the horse is moving will always be forward.
• 1:11:06
  Just you have to be the ability of sometimes you turn facing
• 1:11:11
  the horse and you go backwards.
• 1:11:13
  Sometimes you turn yourself and you give the back to the horse and you move.
• 1:11:17
  Backwards forward.
• 1:11:19
  Sorry.
• 1:11:20
  Bear in mind, the horse will always be moving forward unless later on you want
• 1:11:26
  to work on more collections and you start to teach the horse to rain back.
• 1:11:30
  That's the different thing.
• 1:11:31
  That's the only moment the horse will move backwards.
• 1:11:35
  later on, right?
• 1:11:36
  So when we start to introduce the steps of the groundwork, this is what you need
• 1:11:42
  to be able to move backward, forward, or sideways without interfering on the
• 1:11:49
  pace that the horse needs to perform.
• 1:11:53
  Rupert Isaacson: To guide and allow rather than pull or hustle.
• 1:12:00
  Never pull
• 1:12:01
  Sofia Valenca: and have a
• 1:12:01
  Rupert Isaacson: hustle and this I imagine can be quite difficult for people if
• 1:12:05
  they're feeling The natural stress that comes, you know, it's something new with
• 1:12:10
  a very powerful animal standing at the end of your hand It is how do you stop
• 1:12:16
  rushing the most calm down not stress
• 1:12:19
  Sofia Valenca: because we use trained horses So this is where the difficult
• 1:12:24
  the difference comes is that if you come to us, you will be learning how to dance
• 1:12:32
  with a partner that knows how to dance.
• 1:12:35
  So you are not teaching, you are not learning at the same time
• 1:12:38
  you are teaching your horse.
• 1:12:40
  So
• 1:12:40
  Rupert Isaacson: you're learning from a dancing master that has four legs.
• 1:12:43
  Sofia Valenca: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
• 1:12:46
  It is really difficult to teach at the same time you are
• 1:12:51
  teaching your horse to do so.
• 1:12:53
  So what we want when people come to us is that we recreate feelings, experiences,
• 1:13:00
  that people gain memory muscle, so that when they go back home, at least they
• 1:13:06
  can be fair enough for their own horses, and ask them what they want them to ask.
• 1:13:12
  Because sometimes, You know, sometimes you just want to do a shouldering, but
• 1:13:17
  you have never rode a shouldering before.
• 1:13:20
  How do you know what your body needs to feel when you perform a shouldering?
• 1:13:25
  Correct.
• 1:13:27
  Rupert Isaacson: Just for the listeners who do not know what a
• 1:13:28
  shoulder in is, let's just clarify.
• 1:13:31
  A shoulder in is when a horse is being asked to put its inside hind
• 1:13:38
  leg under its point of gravity, which is one of the first...
• 1:13:42
  Exercises that will help the horse to contain his energy in a
• 1:13:47
  way that we would call collected and learn therefore how to dance.
• 1:13:51
  Later there'll have to be another one for the, for the outside hind leg to come
• 1:13:54
  under, but it's one of the foundation exercises that you see in the horse
• 1:13:59
  training world and it's not easy.
• 1:14:02
  So back to you.
• 1:14:03
  Okay.
• 1:14:04
  So someone is trying to learn a shoulder in, but they've Never felt it.
• 1:14:08
  Never seen it.
• 1:14:09
  Never done it.
• 1:14:10
  Yeah.
• 1:14:10
  How, how can they learn it?
• 1:14:11
  Yeah.
• 1:14:12
  Sofia Valenca: How, how can you tell your horse to perform something
• 1:14:17
  that you have never felt before?
• 1:14:19
  And this is just a small example, so it's not impossible, it's just it'll bring
• 1:14:25
  your journey a lot more difficult because sometimes, and sometimes it'll bring you
• 1:14:32
  to a way of, Okay, my horse is doing the shoulder in, and then we arrive there
• 1:14:40
  to give a lesson, and we go like, this is not a shoulder in, this is a head in.
• 1:14:46
  So what happens?
• 1:14:46
  The horse is turning his head, he's not bringing the shoulders in.
• 1:14:51
  You know what I'm saying, because you, you understand dressage.
• 1:14:55
  So for those who don't understand dressage, maybe you
• 1:14:57
  should bring another example.
• 1:14:58
  But just so that.
• 1:15:01
  We need to be fair teaching our horses.
• 1:15:06
  We need at least to have felt them at least once in our lifetime.
• 1:15:13
  So that at.
• 1:15:15
  You will become much more fair when asking to the horse the feeling
• 1:15:20
  you are searching for him to give
• 1:15:22
  Rupert Isaacson: you.
• 1:15:23
  Absolutely.
• 1:15:23
  Now I went through this learning curve myself.
• 1:15:26
  When I first, obviously I grew up with horses, but I didn't
• 1:15:28
  grow up with horses in that way.
• 1:15:30
  And then when I realized that I needed to learn.
• 1:15:33
  Something about dressage, as you know, Sophia, it happened in a very strange
• 1:15:39
  way because it was tied up with my son's autism and my son had started
• 1:15:43
  speaking in the saddle in front of me when he wouldn't speak anywhere else.
• 1:15:48
  And I noticed that when the rhythm of the horse was dance, like what
• 1:15:53
  people call collected, he spoke more.
• 1:15:56
  And then I noticed that this happened with other kids as well.
• 1:15:59
  And then I thought, okay, why is this happening?
• 1:16:01
  So I went to.
• 1:16:03
  Neuroscientists and they said, Oh, it's because when the hips rock in this way,
• 1:16:07
  in this soft way, the child is getting filled with a communication hormone and
• 1:16:11
  a feel good hormone called oxytocin.
• 1:16:13
  I go, Oh, Oh, well, okay.
• 1:16:15
  Well then I need to learn more about this.
• 1:16:17
  So then I began this research journey.
• 1:16:18
  And as you say, I started learning.
• 1:16:21
  And even with my background in horses, I found that people's
• 1:16:26
  explanations were incredibly unclear.
• 1:16:29
  And what happened was they would sit you on your horse.
• 1:16:33
  who also didn't know it.
• 1:16:35
  And then they would try to tell you and the horse at the same time, how to
• 1:16:39
  do something that neither of you knew.
• 1:16:42
  And I could see immediately just on a practical level, well, that that's
• 1:16:45
  just not going to work very well.
• 1:16:46
  What do I do?
• 1:16:47
  And so I started asking people.
• 1:16:50
  Okay, if you're in my position and you need to learn this thing that
• 1:16:53
  everyone says is impossible to learn in under 500 years in a bit
• 1:16:56
  of a hurry, where would you go?
• 1:16:58
  What would you do?
• 1:16:59
  And then everybody said that was a professional in the field that I asked,
• 1:17:03
  they said, Oh, you should go to Portugal.
• 1:17:05
  I said, but why?
• 1:17:06
  And as you pointed out, they said, ah, because of the Portuguese bullfight,
• 1:17:10
  they still train the riders there from the get go on educated horses, and then
• 1:17:16
  gradually bring the rider up to that level where they can educate a horse.
• 1:17:20
  And they do a lot of the work from the ground.
• 1:17:22
  I thought, Oh, that makes sense.
• 1:17:23
  And then of course, I went down to Portugal, found it was true.
• 1:17:25
  And then this name kept coming up Valenza, Valenza, and.
• 1:17:30
  People saying, well, if you really want to learn, like if you really, really, really
• 1:17:33
  like really want to learn, not just like a bit learn, but like actually learn,
• 1:17:37
  you got to go to this family because they're doing it in the purest form.
• 1:17:40
  And I said to them, well, why is that then?
• 1:17:43
  Why are they so good?
• 1:17:45
  And it was pointed out to me that your dad and you guys had
• 1:17:51
  to not just train these horses.
• 1:17:53
  To work in a normal context like a riding school or or a competition had
• 1:17:59
  to go out For three to six months of the year two thousand kilometers away
• 1:18:05
  up in Germany and do this show that went around Seven months seven months.
• 1:18:11
  Okay do this show in front of the most critical audience in the
• 1:18:15
  world the Germans where you're not allowed, you're not allowed to suck.
• 1:18:19
  You can't, you can't have a bad day, you know, they'll,
• 1:18:22
  they'll, they'll eat you alive.
• 1:18:23
  And they're, they're an educated audience when it comes to horse stuff.
• 1:18:26
  It's an, you know, it's a horse culture and you cannot suck.
• 1:18:30
  You, you've got to, you've got, your dad has to sleep at night, knowing
• 1:18:35
  that that show is going to work and he's not going to lose the contract.
• 1:18:39
  Because if he loses the contract, he can't feed his family.
• 1:18:41
  And he's got to, if a rider falls sick, he's got to replace that rider.
• 1:18:46
  If a horse has a problem, he's got to be able to replace that horse.
• 1:18:49
  And I thought that's the person, those are the people I need to learn
• 1:18:53
  from because what they're doing is they're creating a universal horse.
• 1:18:57
  They're not just creating a horse that an expert can ride.
• 1:19:00
  They're creating a horse that.
• 1:19:02
  Can go out and do something like this.
• 1:19:04
  That means there must be some secret to the training.
• 1:19:07
  Of course, I went and found it was true.
• 1:19:09
  You guys are geniuses.
• 1:19:11
  Where I want to bring people into your world a little bit.
• 1:19:17
  Whether they're horse people or not, let's say they've dropped now into
• 1:19:21
  your riding arena and you've taught them these first steps of the dance
• 1:19:24
  in this Vivaldi type adagio, you know, moving backwards, one, two, three,
• 1:19:30
  four, inviting us moving forwards, one, two, three, four, inviting the horse
• 1:19:35
  moving to the side, one, two, three, four, inviting and directing the horse.
• 1:19:40
  Once they've learned to do some of this at the walk, what comes next?
• 1:19:46
  What's the next thing you teach them
• 1:19:48
  Sofia Valenca: on the ground?
• 1:19:50
  On the ground then we move on more to the reading work.
• 1:19:54
  We develop more the chat and the canter on the reading work.
• 1:19:57
  Later on, we will come back to the ground.
• 1:20:00
  to work and start to introduce more collected work like
• 1:20:04
  the payoff Spanish walk.
• 1:20:07
  Some people, and I, you'd have to do it, you do develop the horses
• 1:20:11
  and trot and canter on the ground because you have a purpose for it.
• 1:20:16
  You need the horses to work from the ground because you need to prepare them
• 1:20:21
  and then to to more collected work, but still with assistance from the ground when
• 1:20:26
  you work with the kids on the program.
• 1:20:28
  So that's, that's a very good tool for you.
• 1:20:31
  When we don't like too much to teach trot and canta from the ground,
• 1:20:39
  just because you will start to, to give, it will be a more difficult
• 1:20:45
  journey to do it by yourself.
• 1:20:49
  When you go to trot on the ground, you start to go away
• 1:20:54
  from the rhythm of the horse.
• 1:20:55
  Some horses have big trots, some have less big trots, but the horse to work
• 1:21:01
  in a good tempo in trot to develop well his rhythm, that one, two,
• 1:21:06
  one, two, it's a bigger pace, right?
• 1:21:09
  More difficult to follow him from the ground.
• 1:21:13
  So when we start, so in very, very easy, I tell you in a very easy
• 1:21:18
  way how we develop a young horse.
• 1:21:20
  So the first month It will be 70 80 percent groundwork and then the
• 1:21:27
  30 or 20 percent that we do the written work is just so that he gets
• 1:21:33
  used to have a rider on top of him.
• 1:21:35
  We are not develop the horse with the rider is not developing
• 1:21:40
  the horse with the written work.
• 1:21:42
  So we do launch work.
• 1:21:44
  Groundwork the groundwork is a little bit that kind of a dance that will
• 1:21:48
  work his flexibility and then the rider sit on him, but the horse is still
• 1:21:54
  controlled by the person on the ground.
• 1:21:57
  The horse can, is ready to move on, so he says, like, I'm okay with you being on top
• 1:22:03
  of me, I don't care that you are there, I accept you, I'm not tense, I, it's cool,
• 1:22:10
  I can do what a srot hunter, and I don't feel that, what are you doing there, what
• 1:22:17
  are you doing there, so he accepts me.
• 1:22:19
  The horse can start to be loosened from the launch work.
• 1:22:24
  That means that the person that is launching the horse on the ground
• 1:22:28
  starts to become the ghost help.
• 1:22:32
  What does that mean?
• 1:22:33
  He's still there, but he's not there.
• 1:22:36
  So he's still giving his presence from the ground, but the horse is being more
• 1:22:43
  controlled now by the rider on top of him.
• 1:22:47
  Now
• 1:22:47
  Rupert Isaacson: explain to us what lunging is.
• 1:22:50
  Not everybody knows what lunging is.
• 1:22:51
  What is lunging and why is it?
• 1:22:53
  Sofia Valenca: Lunging is the horse is learning what a circle means.
• 1:22:57
  Well a circle, I think everybody knows what a circle means.
• 1:23:00
  A circle is not a square.
• 1:23:02
  The circle
• 1:23:03
  Rupert Isaacson: is not a potato.
• 1:23:03
  Why does a horse need to learn what a circle is?
• 1:23:07
  Why not a square?
• 1:23:08
  Why not a triangle?
• 1:23:10
  Sofia Valenca: Because a circle, it's once the horse goes into the
• 1:23:14
  dynamic of the circle, it will start to develop his balance.
• 1:23:20
  It will start to go into a dynamic of going by its own.
• 1:23:24
  It will start to have this kinetic movement.
• 1:23:27
  He no longer needs someone to be pushing him because he went into
• 1:23:32
  this, this rhythm, this balance.
• 1:23:34
  And you really be starts to be aware of his own body.
• 1:23:39
  So, and when we launch the horse, we create circles.
• 1:23:43
  Sometimes we add some straight lines, but then we come back to the circle.
• 1:23:47
  So that's what lunging means.
• 1:23:50
  Lunging means that the person there's a person in a center of the circle.
• 1:23:54
  There's a lunge that will connect the person to the head of the horse and
• 1:24:00
  the horse that imagine a compass, you know, that things to draw a compass.
• 1:24:06
  There's, there's one leg of the compass, which is the rider
• 1:24:08
  on the center of the circle.
• 1:24:10
  And the other leg of the, of the compass, it's the horse.
• 1:24:14
  And by going on a circle, we'll, we'll perform that perfect line
• 1:24:17
  that a compass can draw on a paper.
• 1:24:20
  It's exactly what we want when we launch a horse to create a perfect circle.
• 1:24:26
  So, later on, the horse starts to be.
• 1:24:31
  more controlled by the rider on top of him.
• 1:24:35
  How that happens?
• 1:24:36
  Because we start to develop contact.
• 1:24:39
  The contact is developed through a snaffle that he will use on his
• 1:24:43
  mouth, connected with the reins that will hold then on the rider's hand.
• 1:24:49
  And so before the horse knows what the reins means, he is
• 1:24:54
  Connected with the person on the, on the ground with the lunge.
• 1:24:59
  And then when he starts to be aware that there's a contact, there's the
• 1:25:03
  right train, there's a left train, this person on the ground starts to
• 1:25:07
  have a less presence in the work.
• 1:25:12
  This is when we start to call this presence ghost.
• 1:25:16
  Is there?
• 1:25:17
  Is not there.
• 1:25:18
  Is there?
• 1:25:19
  Is not there.
• 1:25:20
  And progressively, there's a passage of the learning aids that the horse has.
• 1:25:27
  learn from the groundwork to the rhythm work.
• 1:25:31
  And each horse we have will have his own time.
• 1:25:34
  Some horses, they start to be less dependent from the person
• 1:25:38
  on the ground easily than others.
• 1:25:41
  So again, we always need to respect those timings.
• 1:25:44
  And if a horse is still very dependent from the groundwork, it's because it
• 1:25:49
  still needs to be more more confirmed.
• 1:25:54
  On what he's learning so that we can give him always good basics.
• 1:25:58
  If we rush steps, we will create gaps and those gaps later on, we will fill them.
• 1:26:04
  It's like if you learn math, you know, two plus two is four.
• 1:26:09
  But when you start to put the things more complex, if you keep going
• 1:26:14
  and putting things more complex, more complex, the person that is
• 1:26:19
  following the math, it will collapse.
• 1:26:21
  So sometimes we need to go back a few steps so that we can move.
• 1:26:25
  more, more, more steps.
• 1:26:28
  And, and again, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's hard to explain it.
• 1:26:32
  Such a long process of learning curve in, in, you know, in,
• 1:26:38
  in a few, in a few hours.
• 1:26:40
  It's, it's not easy.
• 1:26:42
  Rupert Isaacson: Sure.
• 1:26:43
  And obviously we understand that this unfolds over five plus years
• 1:26:48
  or so in an education which.
• 1:26:52
  I guess, you know, really is, is similar to education in any field, right?
• 1:26:57
  Five to ten years is normal to learn any skill, you know.
• 1:27:00
  But here you've got two, two things trying to learn a skill.
• 1:27:03
  A monkey and a zebra at the same time.
• 1:27:05
  With the zebra being vaguely worried that the monkey might eat him.
• 1:27:09
  And the monkey being vaguely worried that the zebra might chuck him onto the ground.
• 1:27:13
  Back him out.
• 1:27:14
  Do something else, yeah.
• 1:27:14
  One of the things which stands out when you say you talk about the importance
• 1:27:18
  of the circle is a couple of things and earlier you said that your school in
• 1:27:25
  Portugal that it's not just a school of horsemanship, it's a school of life.
• 1:27:32
  One of the curious things about the literature of the old masters is
• 1:27:41
  that this correlation is parallel.
• 1:27:44
  Between the dressage of the horse and emotional regulation in the human
• 1:27:51
  seems to have been noticed from the get go in there is, there was a Greek
• 1:27:55
  writer who wrote the first manual of horsemanship that we know of in Europe.
• 1:28:00
  Of course, it's not a European tradition.
• 1:28:02
  It goes back before.
• 1:28:04
  I found out that the first exercises that you were describing actually
• 1:28:08
  were written down as the first ones that we've ever found were
• 1:28:11
  found written in cuneiform script.
• 1:28:13
  In on clay tablets in Nineveh in Babylon from 1375 BC, describing exactly what
• 1:28:21
  you described, Sophia, and we even know the name of the man who wrote them.
• 1:28:25
  His name was Kikuli because he signed these clay tablets and he was
• 1:28:30
  managing the stables of the Royal Hittite Kings in Babylon at the time.
• 1:28:35
  So clearly we're dealing with.
• 1:28:38
  Something that's been functioning for a while, you know, millennia, not
• 1:28:41
  just centuries, but when it came to Europe after the wars of the Greeks and
• 1:28:45
  the Persians, there was a man called Xenophon who wrote what we know as the
• 1:28:49
  first manual in a European language.
• 1:28:53
  And what's interesting about Xenophon is he wasn't just a horseman.
• 1:28:58
  He was a philosopher and he was a friend of a man called Socrates and
• 1:29:01
  he was a friend of another man called Plato and a lot of philosophers know
• 1:29:05
  Xenophon not for his writing work at all.
• 1:29:08
  But for his philosophy, which is very similar to platonic, but what they don't
• 1:29:12
  know is that he was actually a mercenary.
• 1:29:13
  And that he worked for the Persians who were actually the enemy.
• 1:29:17
  So like working for Wagner or something, because they were
• 1:29:19
  the ones who had these skills.
• 1:29:21
  And then he brought them back after he finished.
• 1:29:24
  Working for the Persians and what fought for the Athenians again and opened
• 1:29:28
  a writing school and wrote a book.
• 1:29:30
  And he actually said, I'm not the best at this.
• 1:29:32
  The best is a guy called Simon who has a writing school down the road,
• 1:29:35
  but he doesn't want to write a book.
• 1:29:36
  So I'm going to write the book.
• 1:29:37
  So, Hey, and he writes this book describing many of the same
• 1:29:40
  things that you've described.
• 1:29:41
  But he draws this parallel as well between the circle as a sort of
• 1:29:48
  sacred geometry of transformation, almost like a sacred mathematics.
• 1:29:54
  through which the horse and the rider learn to balance themselves and
• 1:29:58
  not fall over and find their rhythm and learn how to carry themselves
• 1:30:05
  to the point where they could go into battle and become one mind.
• 1:30:08
  And this business of schooling the mind then comes up again in the, in
• 1:30:18
  the 17th century, there was a very famous French horseman called Pluvinel.
• 1:30:24
  Who established the whole thing in France, and he went to the French king and said,
• 1:30:31
  our, our nobility are out of control.
• 1:30:34
  We've had 150 years of civil war, all our, all the aristocratic youth, they
• 1:30:40
  just fight duels with each other.
• 1:30:41
  They kill each other.
• 1:30:42
  And then the estates never have stability.
• 1:30:46
  And then they go fight private wars with each other.
• 1:30:48
  And if we keep going like this, we will never be able to push Spain.
• 1:30:52
  off the top of the pyramid where it's sitting right now.
• 1:30:56
  For this, we need to get control of our young men, of our nobility.
• 1:31:00
  I propose four riding academies in France, in which they're also taught
• 1:31:05
  mathematics and fencing and dance and astronomy and, but, but music,
• 1:31:09
  but specifically horsemanship because of the need for emotional control.
• 1:31:15
  What do you have to say about that?
• 1:31:16
  You, you talked about the school of life there.
• 1:31:20
  at your, at SELGE, your, which is the name of your, the
• 1:31:24
  acronym for your riding school.
• 1:31:25
  Tell us about this emotional regulation.
• 1:31:27
  Tell us about this school of life.
• 1:31:31
  Sofia Valenca: You know, I can, I can just say it in a very simple way.
• 1:31:34
  If, if you want, if you want to gain the respect of a horse, you
• 1:31:41
  need to learn how to respect him.
• 1:31:43
  And in life, it's the same.
• 1:31:44
  If you want to be, if you want to sleep at night, you need to be a good person.
• 1:31:50
  And our family, family, as an example, we are three, three sisters.
• 1:31:57
  And Honestly, I think my parents, they really did an amazing work,
• 1:32:03
  an amazing job, the way they always have taught us the values of life.
• 1:32:10
  And Rupert, you have been here, you know how much we respect each other.
• 1:32:16
  In this world, there's a lot of, especially in this dressage
• 1:32:19
  world, there's a lot of egos, like I'm better than you are.
• 1:32:24
  And the people go to the competition tests and it's always about I'm better than you.
• 1:32:30
  And it's not about themselves, but it's like proving to the
• 1:32:33
  others that I'm better than you.
• 1:32:35
  And this is something you will not feel at our home.
• 1:32:41
  It's like, there's a respect for the work of each other that This is what I think
• 1:32:48
  it's really what will bring a good team.
• 1:32:52
  If I'm, if I'm doing something and I need help, I will be the first one
• 1:32:57
  to ask either my sisters, either my colleague that it's next there, or
• 1:33:02
  my father, of course, and we go very in a very humble way saying, you
• 1:33:06
  know, I'm dealing with this problem.
• 1:33:07
  What do you think?
• 1:33:08
  What are you seeing that I'm not seeing?
• 1:33:10
  How can I be better?
• 1:33:14
  And, you know, my sister, she jumps and she goes like, show me, show
• 1:33:18
  me what you're doing, show me.
• 1:33:20
  And then, ah, maybe it's this, or maybe it's that, or maybe it's that.
• 1:33:23
  And this formula, it's what will bring you to success, success, success,
• 1:33:29
  success and it's not just about the horses, it's just, you know, we.
• 1:33:40
  I'm 40, almost 49 years old.
• 1:33:42
  My sister, she's 40, 52.
• 1:33:45
  My other sister, she's 50.
• 1:33:48
  We still, every day, sit at the table with my parents.
• 1:33:54
  Every day, every day from at one o'clock, we go home, we sit, we have lunch and we
• 1:34:03
  talk about, well, always about horses, of course, but you know, just because
• 1:34:08
  we are paranoid about horses, but it's everything like in a very nice way.
• 1:34:16
  Always to become better every day.
• 1:34:18
  We want to be better than the day before.
• 1:34:21
  And every day we want to teach the people that work with us.
• 1:34:26
  To be better than we are, you know, it's it's the biggest proud we we have
• 1:34:32
  is to see riders that have started my father riders that have start with us,
• 1:34:40
  either myself or my sisters, and that nowadays they are teaching and they
• 1:34:44
  are immediately you see the lines, the way they work, the way they teach.
• 1:34:51
  It's like you see yourselves and And this is, I think it's the most
• 1:34:57
  beautiful homage people can give us, is that if I teach someone and he
• 1:35:03
  becomes better than I am, then was a good, was a good way of being in life.
• 1:35:10
  It's always about trying to, we, we, we, what we do, it's not a secret.
• 1:35:17
  What we do, it's on the benefit of each horse.
• 1:35:21
  In the world.
• 1:35:22
  So if we are helping people to understand better their horses,
• 1:35:26
  so why not give them the tools?
• 1:35:29
  that it's not a secret.
• 1:35:30
  We don't want to bring that to, to the, to the, to our coffin.
• 1:35:36
  We don't want to put it in a book that only when we die,
• 1:35:40
  everybody will see about it.
• 1:35:42
  We want it to pass in life.
• 1:35:45
  And every day the horses will teach you new things because, you know,
• 1:35:49
  it's a, it's a learning curve.
• 1:35:51
  You, you learn every day you are learning something new.
• 1:35:54
  And and if we are really helping people to understand better their
• 1:35:58
  horses, then, you know, I think it's a good, it's, there's no egos here.
• 1:36:05
  There's not this thing, I'm better than you are.
• 1:36:09
  There's this thing, you know, let's do this together because we will
• 1:36:12
  become stronger if we go together on the same, on the same way.
• 1:36:18
  Rupert Isaacson: It's definitely one of the things which I think anyone who's
• 1:36:21
  come into contact with the Valencia school comes away with is this sense of.
• 1:36:27
  Of a wider family and tribe that, as you say, you guys set the example
• 1:36:32
  by operating as both a close knit family and an extended family,
• 1:36:37
  but you're very, very welcoming.
• 1:36:39
  So it's like coming to an African village or a Mongolian
• 1:36:43
  gare and you're welcomed in.
• 1:36:44
  I had this experience with you guys, you know, you won't say,
• 1:36:46
  well, we're off for lunch right now.
• 1:36:48
  We'll see you, you know, back in the afternoon you, it was like, no, no,
• 1:36:52
  come to lunch, come to lunch with us and engage in the conversations.
• 1:36:56
  That we are engaging in and share with us this family, this tribal, this clan life.
• 1:37:04
  And if one traces back the whole lineage with horses, one sees, Oh yes.
• 1:37:09
  Well, it came from tribes.
• 1:37:10
  It was a tribal thing.
• 1:37:11
  It was granddad and grandma transmitting the knowledge.
• 1:37:15
  To the next generation, to the next generation and the young people up on
• 1:37:20
  the young horses, because it didn't matter if they got thrown off because
• 1:37:22
  they're made of rubber and the older people who don't bounce anymore, you
• 1:37:26
  know, with the knowledge directing and the knowledge being passed on in
• 1:37:30
  this familial really friendly way.
• 1:37:34
  Not an authoritarian way.
• 1:37:36
  And then of course, in the modern world, so many places where one goes to
• 1:37:43
  try and acquire knowledge, whether it doesn't have to be writing, it could be.
• 1:37:48
  It could be a musical college, it could be any university,
• 1:37:51
  it could be business school.
• 1:37:53
  So often the transmission of the knowledge is done in this top down hierarchical way.
• 1:38:01
  Which of course is never as good and I remember one of the first lessons I ever
• 1:38:05
  had from your father When I at the end of the lesson, I said, oh, thank you for the
• 1:38:08
  lesson He said I know Rupert that wasn't a lesson that was simply a conversation
• 1:38:13
  about a particular aspect aspect of equestrianism and that's let's continue
• 1:38:17
  talking about this over lunch and it blew my mind because everywhere else I had been
• 1:38:22
  the the the transmission had been much more militarized because of course You
• 1:38:27
  know, so much of riding particularly has come down through the military tradition.
• 1:38:32
  This thing of, and then, and then, as, as one meets the other people who've
• 1:38:36
  kind of gone through contact with the Valencia school, a lot of them
• 1:38:40
  support each other and remain in touch.
• 1:38:43
  And then those of us that now run riding schools of our own, we always
• 1:38:47
  end up sending our people down to you.
• 1:38:49
  You know, it's that logical thing where we say, well, you know, at a certain point,
• 1:38:53
  really, you shouldn't be learning from me, you should be learning from my teacher.
• 1:38:56
  And that there's this very easy flow to the whole thing, which really
• 1:39:00
  comes down to family and tribe.
• 1:39:02
  And it seems to me that family and tribe, it's one of the great lost
• 1:39:07
  ethics, really, of our modern age.
• 1:39:10
  Do you feel that in Portugal that is just simply stronger?
• 1:39:14
  Or do you think that your family and what you do, it's even within Portugal,
• 1:39:18
  it's something a bit exceptional?
• 1:39:19
  You know?
• 1:39:21
  Well,
• 1:39:22
  Sofia Valenca: I think it's a little bit exce exceptional.
• 1:39:26
  I think, I'm not saying that other families will not do this, but I
• 1:39:32
  think my parents were really able to transmit the, the good values.
• 1:39:40
  of us to be able to work together and keep working together with the respect
• 1:39:46
  of always supporting each other.
• 1:39:49
  Because sometimes, especially in families, you always have a little bit,
• 1:39:53
  this kind of jealousy or now I need to be better than you because I want
• 1:39:59
  to, you know, I'm the youngest sister.
• 1:40:01
  I need to be a little bit more smart because, you know,
• 1:40:03
  I'm, I'm the smallest one.
• 1:40:05
  And.
• 1:40:06
  And this, because this is a little bit the nature of the human being, it's a little
• 1:40:09
  bit like unfortunately, it's a little bit part of the nature of human animals.
• 1:40:15
  They don't have this kind of feelings, right?
• 1:40:18
  There's, there's a dog is not, it's not it does not want to be better than him.
• 1:40:24
  It's just, maybe he wants to be the, the leader, but not always
• 1:40:29
  he is able to be the leader, but it's, you understand what I mean?
• 1:40:34
  They don't have this.
• 1:40:36
  This, this kind of feelings that is only part of the human being, and that's why
• 1:40:41
  I think they really were very smart.
• 1:40:44
  And again, don't ask me how they did it because it was so natural.
• 1:40:50
  I don't even know.
• 1:40:51
  It's just, it's just there, but you know, my father, a lot of you that
• 1:40:56
  have listened my father's name.
• 1:40:58
  It's like, for example, today, and it, it, it just happened today, he
• 1:41:03
  was on the phone with this Spanish man and because he was just asking, he
• 1:41:06
  saw a horse in, in in a public thing.
• 1:41:11
  And so he was calling this man saying, Oh, I see this horse and you know,
• 1:41:15
  I'm looking for the horse with this aspect and this, and and the man was
• 1:41:20
  asking him, yes, but where do you live?
• 1:41:22
  This, all this in Spanish.
• 1:41:24
  And then my father said, I live in Portugal.
• 1:41:27
  Him in a very humble way.
• 1:41:29
  I live in Portugal.
• 1:41:30
  I have a writing center.
• 1:41:32
  Yes.
• 1:41:32
  What's your name?
• 1:41:33
  I, my name is Felice Valenza.
• 1:41:35
  And the man goes like, what?
• 1:41:37
  You're not Felice Valenza.
• 1:41:39
  You are Don Luis Valenza.
• 1:41:41
  So the man knew him and he was being so humble because, you know, he was
• 1:41:47
  not, you know, I'm Luis Valenza.
• 1:41:49
  Like he was like, no, I'm just, I'm just me.
• 1:41:54
  And it was really funny because sometimes.
• 1:41:57
  People think he's in a pedestal and he's not reachable, and then you arrive in our
• 1:42:02
  facility, and maybe he's doing the garden, or, you know, or putting water in the
• 1:42:09
  arena, or painting a wall because it was dirty, or, You know, it's the most humbled
• 1:42:16
  man that I have ever met and, and I, it's, I think this is beautiful because, and
• 1:42:24
  if you go to him and you say, you are the greatest master, it just shrinks himself.
• 1:42:29
  And he says, no, I'm just a person that every day tries
• 1:42:33
  to be better than yesterday.
• 1:42:36
  And every day I, and you know, my father is now 77 years old.
• 1:42:42
  And nowadays, if there's a horse that arrives, and he goes, you know, a
• 1:42:47
  little bit more complicated because he needs to be, you know, the basics are
• 1:42:51
  not there, and the horse is a little bit more complex because the horse is
• 1:42:55
  lost, that night, he will not sleep.
• 1:43:00
  Or if he sleeps, He will dream about what he will do the day after.
• 1:43:05
  How can I help this horse?
• 1:43:07
  How can I help this horse to become better?
• 1:43:10
  How can I help this horse to understand what I want?
• 1:43:13
  So it, and he's 77 years old.
• 1:43:15
  And this is what real still drives him every day.
• 1:43:21
  To jump out from bed.
• 1:43:23
  And he's the first one to arrive at the facility is not the last one to
• 1:43:27
  leave because it's like the chickens when the sun goes down, he likes to
• 1:43:30
  go to his home, but it's amazing.
• 1:43:34
  It's amazing that the passion every day he has to be there with the
• 1:43:40
  horses, and I think this is, this is very, this is very nice and unique
• 1:43:48
  and and every day it gives us.
• 1:43:51
  Lessons of life and and I just hope to be as wise as he is passing all these values
• 1:44:02
  to my, to my son, my daughters and well, if, if I, if I was able to be half of what
• 1:44:11
  he is, I was already very proud of myself.
• 1:44:16
  Rupert Isaacson: Do you think that whatever sphere in life,
• 1:44:20
  it's not just about passion, it's, it's about the tribe, the family?
• 1:44:27
  And is it, do you feel that it's as important in life to find
• 1:44:33
  that tribe, to find that family?
• 1:44:37
  You know, because not everybody comes from a functional family, obviously.
• 1:44:41
  And how do we, how would we, you know, how do we go about
• 1:44:47
  finding such a functional tribe?
• 1:44:50
  Because I don't believe that humans can thrive otherwise.
• 1:44:54
  It's our
• 1:44:55
  Sofia Valenca: nature.
• 1:44:55
  It's hard.
• 1:44:56
  It's hard.
• 1:44:57
  It's hard and and you know, because it's not, my father was also lucky
• 1:45:04
  because it was not just his wisdom.
• 1:45:07
  He was also lucky he had three girls and the three of us in a very natural way.
• 1:45:13
  And with the same passion, we wanted to do what we do.
• 1:45:18
  I give you an example.
• 1:45:19
  Nowadays, my father has seven grandchildren.
• 1:45:22
  And only one is following this, this passion which is Ines, my daughter.
• 1:45:30
  She, she's crazy.
• 1:45:31
  She, she was bitten by the bug and she's like horse crazy, like as crazy as we are.
• 1:45:39
  But then I have Beatrice.
• 1:45:42
  She's a biologist.
• 1:45:44
  And then I have Francisco.
• 1:45:46
  That is still a 12 years old kid that has no idea what he wants
• 1:45:49
  to go to be when he grow up.
• 1:45:52
  But as a tribe, as you mentioned, a tribe will work with, with a direction
• 1:46:01
  of bringing a project all together.
• 1:46:04
  A tribe thinks in a simple way, effective way.
• 1:46:10
  But with the same purpose.
• 1:46:12
  So for example, I give you the example of my side of my family,
• 1:46:16
  the one that I have built.
• 1:46:18
  I choose for a man that I have married, a man that has nothing to do with horses.
• 1:46:25
  I do not regret it.
• 1:46:27
  And just because.
• 1:46:30
  He accepts who I am because he has the same passion for what he does.
• 1:46:36
  So he does understand there's, there's this craziness about something that
• 1:46:42
  make us work every day, every single day, without stopping and without,
• 1:46:48
  you know, there's no weekends, but he has the same passion for what he
• 1:46:52
  does has nothing to do with horses, but he, he, he, he understands.
• 1:46:59
  But then I was lucky.
• 1:47:03
  Because he also has this passion for something else.
• 1:47:05
  So he understands, because if I had a person in my life that would not
• 1:47:10
  accept what I do, then the function of, of bringing a tribe was not possible.
• 1:47:17
  So it's not just what we do or what my parents have created.
• 1:47:24
  They were lucky because the three of us, we wanted to do this.
• 1:47:29
  So building this tribe, you know, all the ingredients were there.
• 1:47:35
  So will I be enough bringing the tribe and having the tribe together like
• 1:47:43
  my parents were able to do with us?
• 1:47:46
  I don't know, because, you know, Beatrice, one day she will want to
• 1:47:51
  maybe go abroad and be a biologist, a biologic, or a scientist, I
• 1:47:57
  don't know, in German, or in China.
• 1:47:58
  I don't know.
• 1:47:59
  She will no longer be here, closer to us.
• 1:48:03
  My son, I have no idea.
• 1:48:04
  I know Ines, she will, she will keep doing what we do, but I think the,
• 1:48:11
  the ingredients to the success of, of what we did was because we always, we
• 1:48:19
  were all crazy about the same thing.
• 1:48:22
  And so you understand
• 1:48:24
  Rupert Isaacson: what I mean?
• 1:48:24
  I do, I do, but it begs another question though.
• 1:48:28
  So for example, you say, so we all know that horse people can be very insular.
• 1:48:33
  We, we, we are a little bit autistic in our way.
• 1:48:35
  We, we are very, very, very focused on one thing and we can send an entire dinner
• 1:48:40
  table to sleep, you know, talking about the shoulder in and then be mystified that
• 1:48:44
  they were not as interested as we were.
• 1:48:46
  But you said, for example, that your husband does not share the passion
• 1:48:50
  for horses, but he has a passion.
• 1:48:51
  What's his passion?
• 1:48:54
  Sofia Valenca: His passion is a water sports.
• 1:48:57
  So he's my husband is an athlete, okay, he's an, is an athlete and he is a high,
• 1:49:03
  how you say high level competition?
• 1:49:05
  High level.
• 1:49:06
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:49:07
  Yeah.
• 1:49:07
  So to, to achieve
• 1:49:10
  Rupert Isaacson: what he has, what's he,
• 1:49:12
  Sofia Valenca: what's he doing?
• 1:49:14
  He does kayak.
• 1:49:15
  So he was running on marathons in kayak and he won a lot of things.
• 1:49:22
  And nowadays is the national coach.
• 1:49:25
  Of Portuguese team of kayak in marathon underwater in the open ocean.
• 1:49:33
  So when someone has dedicated, you know, as an athlete, if you want to be a top
• 1:49:41
  athlete, you need to train every day and you need to be focused in what you're
• 1:49:48
  doing if you want to be on top, right?
• 1:49:52
  So he understands this passion.
• 1:49:55
  on his own world because, you know, he's crazy about training.
• 1:49:59
  He's crazy about, he needs to train every day.
• 1:50:01
  He needs to be doing something related with sports.
• 1:50:05
  He don't know the difference between a donkey and the horse, even if
• 1:50:10
  we are together for 28 years old years, but is, is he always have
• 1:50:17
  accept and respect and he share.
• 1:50:22
  He is happy that I have this passion because he also, he understands because
• 1:50:28
  he also have a passion for another world.
• 1:50:30
  So he understands because some people, they don't understand why
• 1:50:33
  we are so crazy about what we do.
• 1:50:38
  Rupert Isaacson: I mean, this is it.
• 1:50:39
  So, so it's what I'm feeling, groping for here, I think is, is the, what, what makes
• 1:50:45
  a tribe, what makes a tribe functional?
• 1:50:47
  Because it, as you say, your, your parents are quite lucky that the three daughters.
• 1:50:52
  All wanted to do it.
• 1:50:53
  But now there are these grandkids, seven of them, only one, that's your
• 1:50:56
  daughter, is going that direction.
• 1:50:59
  Yet, your family's very tight, and you all live in effectively a tribal compound.
• 1:51:04
  You know, you, you, your houses are, you know, very close to each
• 1:51:07
  other, same bit of land on that hillside, overlooking the river.
• 1:51:11
  All very lovely.
• 1:51:12
  You're, you're still meeting for lunch every day.
• 1:51:14
  Even the ones who are, you know, your husband's coming up from the water,
• 1:51:17
  you're coming up from the riding arena.
• 1:51:19
  and you're exchanging.
• 1:51:22
  So is the, and then you say, as you know, Beatrice, she's
• 1:51:25
  not, doesn't care from horses.
• 1:51:27
  But she's loves the animal world, but she's going to go a different direction.
• 1:51:32
  But two words kept coming up in, in, in, in, in this podcast.
• 1:51:36
  One is respect.
• 1:51:38
  The other one is passion.
• 1:51:40
  So is the, is the way to find your tribe.
• 1:51:43
  So for example, you and your husband have found your own tribe
• 1:51:46
  within the tribe, which one of you has this thing with the horse.
• 1:51:50
  One of you has this thing with.
• 1:51:51
  with the water, but both of you give each other the space to
• 1:51:56
  perform that, because ultimately you respect the each other value.
• 1:52:02
  Well, also you see the value in, in, in, in this passion and this endeavor
• 1:52:06
  for its own sake, no matter what it is.
• 1:52:09
  Is that the key?
• 1:52:10
  Is that the key to the functioning tribe, going back to this idea of, you
• 1:52:14
  know, horses and the humanities and these riding schools in the Renaissance
• 1:52:18
  where people were engaging with it as much for emotional regulation, to train
• 1:52:22
  people to be courtiers and diplomats, not just warriors, et cetera, et cetera.
• 1:52:28
  Is this what it boils down to?
• 1:52:30
  Is it passion and then respect for other people's passions?
• 1:52:34
  Sofia Valenca: I think so.
• 1:52:36
  Now that, putting it like that I think, I think that's, that's what it resumes.
• 1:52:43
  It's like, if you respect and you have a passion, I think it's the ingredients
• 1:52:51
  that every family should have.
• 1:52:54
  Respect and passion because respect because you need to respect the other
• 1:52:59
  if you want the other to respect you.
• 1:53:01
  So it's, it's a mutual feeling and passion because every morning you need to have
• 1:53:09
  something that make you jump out of bed.
• 1:53:13
  And if you don't have a passion in life, what makes you wake up in the morning?
• 1:53:21
  Rupert Isaacson: Yeah.
• 1:53:22
  It's, it's, it's.
• 1:53:24
  It, it makes me think of the shows that you guys do.
• 1:53:27
  So we've talked a lot about the training, but we haven't talked
• 1:53:29
  as much about the Appassionata.
• 1:53:31
  Now it's called Cavaluna, the show.
• 1:53:34
  But when people see this show that goes out, as you say, for seven months
• 1:53:38
  all over Germany and has inspired other similar types of show, which
• 1:53:43
  you guys have helped to put together as well in other parts of the world.
• 1:53:48
  What that seems to come down to me is dream.
• 1:53:53
  People have a dream.
• 1:53:55
  Maybe this dream is a little girl's dream about riding a horse.
• 1:53:58
  Maybe it's, somebody else's dream about putting on a show or dance.
• 1:54:02
  Maybe it's somebody else's dream about being a biologist
• 1:54:04
  or, or being a a kayaker.
• 1:54:10
  But at some point before the passion, there has to be a dream, doesn't there?
• 1:54:16
  Sofia Valenca: Well, how, I think so.
• 1:54:19
  I think that everybody, if you love horses, even before you have been
• 1:54:25
  a dresser rider, I'm pretty sure that you have dream about horses.
• 1:54:31
  Right.
• 1:54:32
  So, and sometimes you dream about something that you have no idea why
• 1:54:37
  you dream about and then you discover later on it will be a passion.
• 1:54:40
  It's what is life without dreams?
• 1:54:45
  What is life without passion?
• 1:54:47
  It's everything is related, right?
• 1:54:49
  So we need to dream like my father.
• 1:54:52
  Sometimes he dreams about the horse is going to train the next day because
• 1:54:56
  it makes it's because it's a passion.
• 1:54:58
  It's it's, we are, we are quite crazy about it.
• 1:55:01
  Right?
• 1:55:02
  So you need to dream.
• 1:55:04
  And if you don't dream, you will not be motivated.
• 1:55:10
  We need to dream.
• 1:55:11
  I need to dream to be, to what do I want in the future?
• 1:55:14
  You need to dream.
• 1:55:16
  When you think about the future, you are dreaming somehow
• 1:55:19
  because you are not yet there.
• 1:55:21
  But you are already imagined, what if I was there?
• 1:55:24
  So you are dreaming.
• 1:55:25
  So every, everybody dreams about something.
• 1:55:27
  Everybody dreams about the future.
• 1:55:33
  It's all related with passion.
• 1:55:34
  Everything is connected.
• 1:55:37
  Everything is connected.
• 1:55:39
  Rupert Isaacson: So is, is, is the functional tribe, is the secret to that
• 1:55:46
  encouraging the dreams of your children so that the tribe can continue to find
• 1:55:52
  passions and develop whether it's.
• 1:55:57
  horses or whether the passion changes, but the dreams of the children has to be
• 1:56:03
  Sofia Valenca: always there, you know, and that you need to encourage
• 1:56:07
  your children to follow their dreams.
• 1:56:11
  Even if you are afraid that their dreams will bring them into a future
• 1:56:16
  that you know, maybe they will, they will have more difficulties because,
• 1:56:21
  you know, for example, Inej, she wants to follow this as a, as a professional.
• 1:56:29
  And that's her dream.
• 1:56:31
  I know it's hard because, you know, I know in the end of the month, I really
• 1:56:35
  need to be careful because, you know, the horses, you can make money, but
• 1:56:39
  they eat more than what they create.
• 1:56:42
  So.
• 1:56:43
  But, you know, one day my father gave an example to someone, a
• 1:56:49
  father of some children, that they wanted to follow their dreams.
• 1:56:53
  And nowadays they are very important riders in the world.
• 1:56:57
  And this parent, he was very concerned because the kids, and
• 1:57:01
  we are talking like 40 years ago.
• 1:57:04
  So those kids, they wanted to follow their passion, which was working with horses.
• 1:57:10
  And this parent, he was very concerned with the future of these kids.
• 1:57:13
  And my father said to this, to this father, you know, better if
• 1:57:18
  they eat soup, but they are happy.
• 1:57:21
  Then they eat lobster, but they are unhappy.
• 1:57:24
  And this sentence always stayed inside of my mind.
• 1:57:29
  Because, you know, we only live once.
• 1:57:34
  And we really should do what make us happy.
• 1:57:38
  And if we are able to survive doing what make us happy, then life was enough.
• 1:57:45
  Rupert Isaacson: Even better if we can show other people
• 1:57:48
  how to share in that happiness.
• 1:57:51
  Sofia Valenca: And I think that's a little bit of what I have dreamed about my life.
• 1:57:57
  And I'm following my dream.
• 1:58:00
  Rupert Isaacson: It's a sort of inner child thing, isn't it?
• 1:58:02
  The following, never losing sight of that little girl or that little boy that
• 1:58:08
  was inside you, dreaming that dream.
• 1:58:13
  Where I think you were lucky, where I was lucky too, was
• 1:58:17
  that your parents, my parents.
• 1:58:20
  Again, this word respect had an innate respect for the power of
• 1:58:24
  dream and the necessity of dream.
• 1:58:28
  And as you said, the necessity of passion, what makes you get up out
• 1:58:31
  of bed in the morning, even though my parents were not horsey at all.
• 1:58:35
  But they did respect the time and effort and passion that I put into it.
• 1:58:42
  And although it mystified them, they.
• 1:58:44
  They encouraged the show that you guys put on.
• 1:58:49
  The current one, Cavaluna, the last time I saw it what I realized was that, yeah,
• 1:58:54
  of course the audiences and there's, you know, hundreds of thousands of
• 1:58:58
  people that come and see this show.
• 1:58:59
  It's, it's an amazing show.
• 1:59:01
  It is like Cirque du Soleil with horses.
• 1:59:04
  What initially makes them want to come is that they're going
• 1:59:07
  to see amazing horsemanship.
• 1:59:08
  They're going to see amazing stuff.
• 1:59:09
  They're going to have, there's going to be a wow factor, but of course, every
• 1:59:13
  show that you guys put on has a story.
• 1:59:16
  As a narrative that goes through, that carries each act, each number, you know,
• 1:59:22
  through so there's a logical progression.
• 1:59:23
  A story is told with a beginning, middle and end with characters on some sort
• 1:59:27
  of fairy tale, on some sort of quest.
• 1:59:30
  Facing dilemmas, finding resolution.
• 1:59:32
  There happen to be horses involved, but there's also dancers, there's
• 1:59:35
  also musicians, and it's a story that would hold up just as well
• 1:59:39
  if there were no horses involved.
• 1:59:40
  It just happens to, that the acting is done with actors with four
• 1:59:45
  legs as well as actors with two.
• 1:59:48
  You guys are really a dream factory, aren't you?
• 1:59:51
  You, you, you, you hatch these dreams.
• 1:59:55
  You put these dreams on for the wider world, but yet if people want to come
• 1:59:58
  and participate, In the nuts and bolts, as you've been describing, Valencia
• 2:00:03
  Method, how you put these horses together to tell the stories of these dreams.
• 2:00:07
  Well, they can come and do that too.
• 2:00:09
  They can come and engage at every level in the dream.
• 2:00:15
  Sofia Valenca: Yes, maybe that's what we do.
• 2:00:20
  Rupert Isaacson: And that's, that's, that's magical because I think
• 2:00:23
  what, what is the power of story?
• 2:00:25
  It takes one outside of time and space.
• 2:00:28
  It, it takes one into another dimension, another reality.
• 2:00:33
  That's outside of it.
• 2:00:36
  It's like a trance state.
• 2:00:37
  It's, you know, it's like a shamanic state.
• 2:00:40
  We are after all the storytelling, right?
• 2:00:43
  Sofia Valenca: You know, when, when you live in a dream, the dream loses
• 2:00:48
  the power of being in the dream.
• 2:00:50
  So for us, it's, it's what we do.
• 2:00:53
  It's just.
• 2:00:55
  normal, but with, with the people that come and visit us and and we are
• 2:01:01
  lucky enough because we have amazing people that come and, and visit us.
• 2:01:06
  So to learn with us and they all have this, this open
• 2:01:10
  mind and really open heart.
• 2:01:13
  And yeah, somehow every week, because you know, people come for a week and
• 2:01:20
  then they go and then other people come.
• 2:01:21
  So like every week, we somehow they remind us.
• 2:01:27
  how cool we are doing what we do.
• 2:01:32
  So I think, yes, I think we, that's what we do.
• 2:01:36
  We, we make dreams come true.
• 2:01:39
  I think it's really, especially our horses, we are just the
• 2:01:42
  interpreter of the horses.
• 2:01:44
  You know, our school masters are the ones that really make dreams
• 2:01:48
  Rupert Isaacson: come true.
• 2:01:49
  One of the things which, you know, there's a, there's a, there's an increasing
• 2:01:55
  conversation now in the animal world.
• 2:02:00
  this business of consent, you know, do I have the right to ride a horse?
• 2:02:05
  Do we have the right to own dogs?
• 2:02:07
  Do we have the right to et cetera, et cetera?
• 2:02:09
  It seems that in this in this day and age, we're increasingly having a
• 2:02:12
  conversation now, hearing a conversation where stuff that was not said 20 years
• 2:02:17
  ago, should we even be riding horses?
• 2:02:20
  Does the horse have consent in this?
• 2:02:21
  Should we even own animals at all?
• 2:02:23
  Should we own a dog?
• 2:02:24
  You know, for people of my generation, this is a bit of a new thing.
• 2:02:29
  You're talking about dreams and setting people free.
• 2:02:31
  I believe that this happens for the horse as well.
• 2:02:33
  So for example, your work has helped me work with special needs.
• 2:02:37
  Children and people with the horse moving underneath them in a way that
• 2:02:41
  transmits well being and helps with communication But because in my world
• 2:02:47
  a lot of the horses that come to the centers that we help to create For the
• 2:02:51
  work with autism and other special needs.
• 2:02:53
  These are horses that are donated These are often horses that are
• 2:02:56
  not bought and of course they're donated for a reason because they're
• 2:03:00
  usually a bit broken because People don't give away their best horses.
• 2:03:03
  They, you know, give away horses that they've messed up and One of the things
• 2:03:08
  which I have discovered But I think you're well aware of but I don't think
• 2:03:12
  it comes up so much in the conversations That people come to you with is the
• 2:03:16
  rehabilitation of horses I would say that your method the Valencia method I use it
• 2:03:24
  Daily to help bring horses to well being and a lot of those horses that come to
• 2:03:30
  me come broken they come broken in the body they come broken in the mind and By
• 2:03:35
  working through the patterns that you guys have shown me I've seen I've lost count
• 2:03:40
  now of the number of horses that have come to this well being which one would always
• 2:03:47
  hope for, but it's, it's such a radical transformation in the horse, mentally
• 2:03:54
  and emotionally, as well as physically.
• 2:03:56
  Has this become a greater and greater part of the conversation around your work?
• 2:04:02
  Sofia Valenca: The, the well being of the horse, well, what people and today,
• 2:04:08
  just today, it's funny that we, we, we are bringing this, this topic to, to
• 2:04:14
  the conversation, because today I was talking with one of our clients, she
• 2:04:18
  comes, she comes from the United States.
• 2:04:20
  And and she was just amazed how all the horses are so happy.
• 2:04:27
  It's like, you know, there's not a single horse that it will not.
• 2:04:31
  The horses are happy and and that bring that says a lot on the way they
• 2:04:38
  are, you know, a horse will not lie.
• 2:04:40
  If the horse is not feeling well, you will not lie.
• 2:04:44
  You will not be like performing, Oh, it's a client.
• 2:04:47
  I need to make her happy.
• 2:04:48
  Let's just pretend I'm happy.
• 2:04:50
  You don't have this.
• 2:04:51
  The horse is happy because it's feeling good.
• 2:04:55
  And we have, I think also because the same way you have you know, sometimes
• 2:05:01
  we find horses that are It's like giving them a chance of another life.
• 2:05:07
  And a lot of horses that we, we use as co masters are horses that had a life
• 2:05:13
  before and not always that life was good.
• 2:05:16
  So a lot of horses have arrived to us, you know, you know,
• 2:05:20
  what is a horse with no soul?
• 2:05:23
  It's like this, you look into his eye and it's empty.
• 2:05:27
  It's an empty eye and, you know, after a month or two, you start to feel
• 2:05:34
  that that horse finally has a soul.
• 2:05:37
  It was just deep inside of him and, and I think the horses, they feel
• 2:05:42
  really, it's like they feel appreciated.
• 2:05:45
  They, they feel the gratitude of having that a second life.
• 2:05:50
  There's, I think, a horse that had a previous life.
• 2:05:55
  That was not the best life.
• 2:05:57
  Once he experiments the good life, that horse is, it's like, it's
• 2:06:04
  a, how you say, it's appreciated.
• 2:06:06
  It's a, no, it's grateful.
• 2:06:07
  It's grateful.
• 2:06:08
  Grateful.
• 2:06:08
  Well, that,
• 2:06:09
  Rupert Isaacson: that, that, that's the, that's the final
• 2:06:14
  part of the secret, isn't it?
• 2:06:16
  It's the secret to happiness, gratitude, whether you have two legs or four.
• 2:06:25
  Sofia Valenca: And, and and it's in a very simple way you, you know,
• 2:06:29
  this, because when you work with animals, they, they are, they don't
• 2:06:33
  lie and being able to transform a horse in something makes him happy.
• 2:06:43
  I think it's.
• 2:06:44
  It's really nice.
• 2:06:45
  And, and you don't do this expecting them to do something in exchange.
• 2:06:52
  You do this because it makes you feel good, right?
• 2:06:55
  It's like, it's like, Like charity, when you help someone, you help
• 2:07:01
  because it, it makes you feel good.
• 2:07:04
  And, and it's also part of what, what we do.
• 2:07:09
  And yeah, it's, it's a good life to say.
• 2:07:15
  But remember when you said a lot of people say, should we be
• 2:07:20
  riding a horse or should we do?
• 2:07:22
  Having a dog, I could, I cannot imagine my life without an animal and I have 12
• 2:07:28
  dogs as yes, you know, I have a lot of animals that I need to be surrounded and,
• 2:07:34
  and remember when I said when we start to work a horse, we start to study him in
• 2:07:43
  what he will be good at a horse is much happier if you have a purpose in life.
• 2:07:53
  And then a horse that lives a lifetime in a paddock with no goals in life, a horse
• 2:08:03
  that lives in a paddock, just eating.
• 2:08:07
  It's a more unhappy horse than a horse that attention.
• 2:08:12
  We need to provide him a good life.
• 2:08:14
  It's not not just forcing a horse to do what he's not meant to do.
• 2:08:19
  But if that horse.
• 2:08:22
  That you are trying to train, that you are respecting, that you are
• 2:08:26
  trying to reach in what he's good at.
• 2:08:31
  If his life is good at doing trail rides, he will be the most
• 2:08:34
  happier horse doing trail rides.
• 2:08:36
  If he's good in the ring doing dressage, he will be the best horse doing dressage.
• 2:08:43
  If he's good doing...
• 2:08:46
  I don't know.
• 2:08:47
  Working accreditation, he will be happy because he has a job.
• 2:08:50
  He has, he has, he's not depressed.
• 2:08:55
  I have seen a lot of horses that, you know, they're just there and
• 2:09:00
  they feel like they're not as happy.
• 2:09:05
  It's the same with people.
• 2:09:07
  You know, if we don't have a purpose, we become more depressive.
• 2:09:12
  We need to have a purpose in life.
• 2:09:16
  Rupert Isaacson: It's true.
• 2:09:16
  At the end of the day, we're all mammals.
• 2:09:18
  We all, we all have this.
• 2:09:20
  And I, I, we need this.
• 2:09:22
  I suppose people might say, well, in the wild, the horse doesn't
• 2:09:24
  have, but, but he does because
• 2:09:27
  Sofia Valenca: he does, because it's survival.
• 2:09:28
  This, the, this.
• 2:09:28
  Exactly.
• 2:09:29
  He's very active.
• 2:09:30
  Yeah, but they need to be in the wild.
• 2:09:33
  Yeah.
• 2:09:33
  Not in a paddock where you go and put the foot to him where, you
• 2:09:37
  know, just the flies annoying them.
• 2:09:39
  That's a very boring life.
• 2:09:41
  Yeah.
• 2:09:41
  It's really boring.
• 2:09:43
  They, they need, they need to be, to be challenged.
• 2:09:48
  The same with dogs, you know.
• 2:09:51
  And of course, each breed has its own skills, but they need, they need to
• 2:09:58
  feel that they have a purpose in life, even if it's just to make you happy.
• 2:10:05
  That's the purpose.
• 2:10:06
  To make
• 2:10:06
  Rupert Isaacson: us happy.
• 2:10:07
  The exchange of happiness, what is it they say, the greatest wisdom you'll ever learn
• 2:10:12
  is how to love and be loved in return.
• 2:10:17
  And I remember the first time I, I remember hearing that the
• 2:10:21
  first time as a sort of young man thinking, Oh, what are you?
• 2:10:23
  What do they mean?
• 2:10:24
  What do they mean?
• 2:10:24
  And then as I grew older and older thinking, not as easy as it sounds.
• 2:10:31
  Yeah.
• 2:10:34
  Sofia Valenca: But we, we, it's not as easy as it sounds because also we
• 2:10:38
  like to make things more complicated.
• 2:10:42
  In the end of the day, we just need to think that sometimes we make things
• 2:10:47
  more complicated than what they are.
• 2:10:50
  Rupert Isaacson: That is true.
• 2:10:51
  Especially we monkeys.
• 2:10:53
  Sofia Valenca: Yes.
• 2:10:53
  Yes.
• 2:10:54
  The monkeys are the worst.
• 2:10:57
  Rupert Isaacson: Maybe we need a horse and a dog to cool us out.
• 2:10:59
  I, I, I, I'm a great believer that when I see the horses transmitting well being.
• 2:11:07
  I guess you could say it's biological.
• 2:11:08
  It's the mammalian caregiving system.
• 2:11:11
  Dogs giving us love, horses giving us love, we returning it.
• 2:11:14
  But nonetheless that's, that's, that's the organism, right?
• 2:11:19
  That, that's, that's who we all are.
• 2:11:21
  We're not reptiles.
• 2:11:23
  We, we exchange on an emotional level.
• 2:11:26
  And if this is missing from our lives, human or animal, as
• 2:11:30
  you say we become depressed.
• 2:11:32
  And I think your point about purposes is very, very true purpose and service.
• 2:11:37
  Not servitude, not being a servant, but service, which, which is the
• 2:11:42
  choice, the choosing because I've watched you working with your horses.
• 2:11:46
  I've a horse that they're not forced to do anything.
• 2:11:50
  They, they do it and, and, and the, the overall impression.
• 2:11:57
  One comes away with on a heart level, not just an intellectual
• 2:12:00
  level, but on a heart level is joy.
• 2:12:03
  I don't think I, to the listeners.
• 2:12:07
  If you're not horsey, it doesn't matter.
• 2:12:11
  Go to the living museum.
• 2:12:14
  That is the Valencia's riding stables in, in, uh, Lisbon.
• 2:12:21
  You don't need to be an artist or an art historian to appreciate a
• 2:12:26
  trip around the National Gallery.
• 2:12:28
  And you don't need to be an architect to appreciate a beautiful building.
• 2:12:32
  And the history behind it, and you don't need to be a chef to
• 2:12:37
  know good food when you eat it.
• 2:12:40
  You don't need to be a vintner to appreciate good wine.
• 2:12:44
  Beauty in art, when you see it, always stands out.
• 2:12:48
  And this living equestrian art, which still exists and has come
• 2:12:53
  down to us through the centuries and the millennia, and is still being
• 2:12:57
  practiced and presented in this way.
• 2:12:59
  It's worth seeing just for itself.
• 2:13:02
  When you go into the Valencia's riding arena, it's It's Baroque, the
• 2:13:08
  pictures on the wall, the art, the feel, but also there's a tribune.
• 2:13:12
  There's a place where you can sit just to watch just in the same way.
• 2:13:18
  If you go to the Spanish riding school in Vienna, you can just sit in the
• 2:13:20
  balcony and watch as they work with the horses and practice their art, practice
• 2:13:24
  their living art in front of you.
• 2:13:27
  Do yourself a favor when you go down to Lisbon next time, include that
• 2:13:33
  as part of your cultural experience.
• 2:13:38
  And I think you're going to find that you come away with a feeling of joy
• 2:13:43
  and participation in that tribe, not just the cultural interest of the
• 2:13:47
  whole thing that will surprise you.
• 2:13:50
  So if people want to do this Sophia, how do they get in contact with you?
• 2:13:54
  How do they, how can they find their way to this temple of the horse that is
• 2:14:01
  Sofia Valenca: your place?
• 2:14:01
  You can visit our website, ValenciaQuestionAcademy.
• 2:14:06
  com.
• 2:14:09
  You will find all the contacts there and what we do and it will be a nice
• 2:14:14
  introduction for What you do what we do
• 2:14:19
  Rupert Isaacson: Valencia Equestrian
• 2:14:22
  Sofia Valenca: Academy
• 2:14:23
  Rupert Isaacson: dot com and please spell Valencia for us
• 2:14:28
  Sofia Valenca: V A L E N C A
• 2:14:31
  Rupert Isaacson: Right.
• 2:14:32
  So for for those with An ear that a lot of people add an eye to it and say,
• 2:14:37
  oh, Valencia, like the town in Spain.
• 2:14:39
  No, Valen Valen
• 2:14:41
  Sofia Valenca: Valen equestrian
• 2:14:43
  Rupert Isaacson: academy.
• 2:14:44
  Valencia equestrian academy.com.
• 2:14:47
  And they can find an email link to you there.
• 2:14:50
  Exactly.
• 2:14:53
  Sofia Valenca: Well, the email, yes, the email you want me to say the email it
• 2:14:57
  Rupert Isaacson: would be helpful.
• 2:14:58
  I think that's, yeah,
• 2:15:01
  , Sofia Valenca: the, the email is info.
• 2:15:04
  At Valencia equestrian academy.com,
• 2:15:08
  Rupert Isaacson: info@valenciaequestrianacademy.com.
• 2:15:11
  And people can also come and learn with you.
• 2:15:13
  They can come and do courses with you.
• 2:15:15
  They can come and Yes.
• 2:15:16
  Learn this horsemanship.
• 2:15:18
  Sofia Valenca: Exactly.
• 2:15:19
  So we do have some programs that include the lessons and some others
• 2:15:23
  that includes also some sighting which is, you know, since you're in
• 2:15:27
  Portugal this is a beautiful country.
• 2:15:29
  So you can have the both of the best worlds.
• 2:15:33
  Like a little bit sightseeing or adolescence as well.
• 2:15:36
  And can people,
• 2:15:37
  Rupert Isaacson: if they can't get to, they're so busy in their
• 2:15:40
  riding arenas at home, if they want Valences to come to them?
• 2:15:46
  Is that possible?
• 2:15:47
  Do you guys travel and teach as
• 2:15:48
  Sofia Valenca: well?
• 2:15:49
  We do.
• 2:15:50
  We do also clinics worldwide.
• 2:15:52
  We, we do nowadays we go to United States, Australia, New Zealand within
• 2:16:00
  in Europe, we go to Italy, France, Belgium, German, Spain England.
• 2:16:08
  And yeah, that's, those that You will find us and and if one of those
• 2:16:16
  countries is not in the list, we can always add a new country if you want
• 2:16:22
  one of us to go and travel to, to you.
• 2:16:25
  So the clinics, it's usually it works like two days or three days clinics
• 2:16:30
  and where we will set a place and people travel with their horses there
• 2:16:37
  and then we just do a clinic there.
• 2:16:41
  Rupert Isaacson: So if somebody wants to learn the steps of this
• 2:16:43
  dance that you were discussing with their own horse, It is possible.
• 2:16:49
  They can bring you to them, and you guys, your team, will help them.
• 2:16:55
  Sofia Valenca: Yes, we can.
• 2:16:57
  Yes.
• 2:16:58
  Rupert Isaacson: Fantastic.
• 2:17:01
  Well, all I can say is having participated in that dream myself and having
• 2:17:09
  found what a beautiful dream it is.
• 2:17:11
  and how it's set me and the horses I work with and the people that I work with
• 2:17:17
  my horses with, how it set us all free.
• 2:17:20
  Truly, I would strongly encourage listeners to participate in this dream.
• 2:17:28
  It's a very good dream.
• 2:17:31
  Sophia, thank you so much for coming on.
• 2:17:33
  Thank
• 2:17:33
  Sofia Valenca: you.
• 2:17:34
  Thank you.
• 2:17:34
  It's my pleasure.
• 2:17:35
  And you are always welcome.
• 2:17:38
  For those who want to visit us, it will be our pleasure to receive you
• 2:17:42
  in Portugal in Villa Franca de Gira.
• 2:17:45
  It's just 20 minutes north of Lisbon.
• 2:17:49
  So very, very easy, very close to, to the airport as well.
• 2:17:54
  And and if you feel Afraid of traveling to another country that
• 2:18:02
  you don't know we provide everything We'll pick you up at the airport.
• 2:18:07
  We'll bring you to our facility we will take care of you and you will not feel
• 2:18:12
  lonely and You will be part of the family.
• 2:18:17
  Rupert Isaacson: Okay, and listeners.
• 2:18:20
  It's true Because it happened
• 2:18:22
  Sofia Valenca: to me.
• 2:18:22
  It did.
• 2:18:25
  Thank
• 2:18:25
  Rupert Isaacson: you so much.
• 2:18:26
  Oh, thank you, Sophia.
• 2:18:28
  Now, some listeners will have questions.
• 2:18:31
  Can we have you back on to answer those questions as they
• 2:18:35
  come in for a second round?
• 2:18:39
  Sure.
• 2:18:39
  Sofia Valenca: My pleasure.
• 2:18:40
  That would be
• 2:18:41
  Rupert Isaacson: fantastic.
• 2:18:41
  Sofia Valenca: I can't wait.
• 2:18:42
  That will be, that will be amazing.
• 2:18:45
  Rupert Isaacson: So if you've got questions that you want to
• 2:18:47
  ask her, what is a shoulder in?
• 2:18:48
  What is this dance?
• 2:18:50
  How does it work?
• 2:18:50
  For example, write them down, send them to us and we will
• 2:18:55
  have her back to answer them.
• 2:18:57
  Okay.
• 2:18:59
  Sofia Valenca: My pleasure.
• 2:19:00
  I'll be waiting for it.
• 2:19:02
  Thank you.
• 2:19:02
  Bye.
• 2:19:03
  Rupert Isaacson: Bye.
• 2:19:04
  Bye.
• 2:19:04
  Bye.
• 2:19:06
  Sofia Valenca: Bye.
• 2:19:06
  Rupert Isaacson: Thank you for joining us.
• 2:19:08
  We hope you enjoyed today's podcast.
• 2:19:10
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• 2:19:15
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• 2:19:21
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• 2:19:25
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• 2:19:28
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• 2:19:41
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• 2:19:46
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• 2:19:48
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