From Problem Horse to Professional Practice: What Trauma Teaches Us About Training | Petra Vlasblom of 2Moons.nl, Netherlands | EAW 51

Petra Vlasblom is a Dutch horse behavior specialist based in the Netherlands, founder of 2Moons, and one of Europe's most sought-after trainers for problem horses — particularly in the high-stakes world of elite sport horses. She came to the profession not through a traditional equestrian route, but as a former graphic designer from the city who fell in love with an "unrideable" horse that nobody else could manage, and whose path to becoming a professional was shaped as much by personal crisis as by equine knowledge.

What makes Petra's story and her work unusual is the degree to which her own life has mirrored the horses she works with. Her first horse, Two Moons — still alive today — broke her arm, dislocated her hip, and ultimately catalyzed years of deep personal work. A later riding accident broke her neck and forced a four-month recovery period that fundamentally changed how she listens: not with her head, not with her heart, but with her gut. That shift is now at the core of everything she teaches.

In this conversation, Rupert and Petra cover the full arc of her journey — from a childhood with no horses and a career in graphic design, to buying an impossible horse on a whim in Belgium, to running a professional school for horse behavior in France, to the neck injury that changed everything. They go deep on her methods for trailer loading, her framework for reading horse body language at the moment of decision, her "software install" philosophy for training both horse and owner, and what she believes all therapeutic equine programs need to address around herd dynamics and horse wellbeing. The conversation closes with a shared invitation: Petra and Rupert will be running a joint workshop in the Netherlands in June 2026 — details at https://longridehome.com/events.

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🔍 What You'll Learn in This Episode

•  How a horse that no professional trainer could ride became the catalyst for Petra's entire career — and what that says about the horses that come to therapeutic programs as "donations"
• Why Petra distinguishes between listening to the heart versus listening to the gut — and why the gut is the more reliable guide for both horse and human practitioners
• How to read the precise moment a horse is making a mental decision during trailer loading: what to look for in the eyes, ears and head carriage, and why forcing that moment produces a dangerous animal in transit
• Why Petra's trailer loading method involves letting the horse exit freely after going in voluntarily — and how this counterintuitive step produces lasting compliance versus temporary compliance
• How the "software install" metaphor helps owners understand why training the horse without training the owner always fails — and how Petra uses this framing to set up her client education evenings
• What the rehab of a problem horse offers as its own form of therapy — for people returning from military service, abuse, or chronic anxiety — and why Rupert's programs use prospective therapy horse rehabilitation as a standalone treatment modality
• Why the chronic use of stabled horses in therapeutic settings creates specific stress and behavioral problems, and what practical solutions — including "crazy time" and companion animals — can address these without large financial outlay
• How Petra's approach differs from classical natural horsemanship in one key respect: the horse is not asked to make the wrong thing harder, but to make a genuine, uncoerced choice
• What a broken neck, a dislocated hip, and a broken arm taught Petra about the difference between professional obligation and gut instinct — and how running on exhaustion impairs even experienced practitioners' ability to read horses accurately
• Why Petra now requires all horse owners to attend a three-hour education evening before she will train their horse — and what changed in her success rate when she introduced that condition
• How self-disconnection — particularly through overwork and screen-based living — undermines a handler's ability to connect with a horse, and what both Rupert and Petra suggest as entry-level solutions for practitioners facing this

🎤 Memorable Moments from the Episode

[00:01:00] Rupert introduces Petra — the Dutch problem-horse specialist he first saw in action with a nervous horse at one of his retreats
[00:06:10] Petra describes the moment she saw Two Moons in Belgium: eight years old, "very dangerous, very untrainable" — and fell in love immediately
[00:11:00] "I thought with my love, everything will be okay" — Petra on what happened next, and why she spent a lot of time in hospitals
[00:15:06] The big accident: Petra describes breaking her neck after seven weeks of back-to-back teaching, arriving exhausted, and ignoring her gut
[00:38:03] The shift after the neck break: from running on obligation to listening to intuition — the lesson she took from four months in a harness
[00:56:34] Rupert describes watching Petra work with "Eddie" — a horse hard to catch — and the 12-minute process in which the horse chose to be haltered
[01:00:23] Petra explains her trailer loading philosophy: "When I'm finished, the horse only wants to get into the trailer. He doesn't want the trailer out anymore."
[01:41:25] The "software install" metaphor — Petra explains why she trains the owner as well as the horse, and why she refuses jobs when owners won't attend her education evening
[01:55:01] The disconnection problem: Petra on why people who can't connect with themselves can't connect with their horses — and the modern crisis of screen-based living
[02:00:36] Closing: Petra and Rupert announce their joint June 2026 workshop in the Netherlands — details at longridehome.com/events

📚 Contact, Projects, and Resources Mentioned
Petra Vlasblom – Horse Behaviour Specialist, 2Moons https://www.2moons.nl
New Trails Learning Systems – Horse Boy Method, Movement Method & Takhin Equine Integration https://ntls.co
Rupert Isaacson / Long Ride Home https://rupertisaacson.com
Patreon Support https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome
Joint Workshop — Petra Vlasblom & Rupert Isaacson, Netherlands, June 2026 Details: https://longridehome.com/events

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