Interview with Herr Hempfling


[HFL]: Hello Klaus. This is Nadja King with Horses for Life. How are you doing?

[KFH]: Fine. Thank you.

[HFL]: I’m so happy that I finally get a chance to speak with you. I’ve been an admirer of your work for years. I very much enjoy the chance to be able to do this both for myself and for our subscribers to the magazine.

[KFH]: Good. Thanks. Sounds nice.

[HFL]: So I hear you’re going to England. When are you doing that?

[KFH]: I’m not completely sure, but I think it’s in the middle of October that I will be in England.

[Editor's Note: For many years Klaus has lived privately, following the simple principles of harmony with his family, rarely delivering seminars or doing demonstrations. Only recently has he begun offering people the opportunity to share his wisdom directly. He will be visiting the UK in October this year. On day one he will work with Borderline horses – those which are damaged or dangerous – and on day two he will host an interactive workshop called ‘Dancing with Horses’ where others can learn the fundamentals of his approach to horses, some exercises for promoting subtlety and suppleness both on the ground and in the saddle, and so others can begin to understand their communication to their horses with their body language. Further information can be found here http://www.hempfling.co.uk/.]

[HFL]: And what will you be doing there?

[KFH]: Well, the most important thing for me is the first encounter with the horse -- the first approach. This for me is of tremendous importance. Let’s say [in] the first minutes [or] seconds, they are deciding a tremendous amount about the future relationship. It’s a little bit like when we’re going to meet somebody. The science says that in the first milliseconds, you’re deciding within yourself if you do like the person or you don’t like the person. You’re creating unconsciously a picture of what kind of relationship you would like or not like to create with this person. So the first encounter for me with the horse is [of] tremendous importance. So this is on the one hand something which I’m developing in body language to create in the longer term a very special relationship between the horse and me or between the horse and the human being when I’m teaching.

On the other hand, in the beginning, [I like] to follow one specialty of myself which I like very much to meet, in these kinds of event, horses which are abandoned, given up; [horses] which are lost from their owners and trainers when they say “well, this horse is not a treat”. And this is exactly what we’re going to do in England. [We’re going] to find with the horse magazine’s [help], as complicated horses as possible. Normally I have one main horse and two others. So one day I’m going to meet three horses and demonstrate to the audience how important the first encounter is and how different horses react to different approaches. And finally, hopefully at the end of the day, people will say “it’s not the horse. It’s maybe me. It’s the stand point. It’s the way in which I’m dealing with the horse which is provoking whatever kind of reaction or behaviour which is inside of the horse.”

[HFL]: I’m sure you’ve done this kind of clinic before, about trying to show people about their body and body language about what they may or may not be saying. Do you find it easy or very difficult for people to try to change their body language?

[KFH]: One of the key words when I work with horse people and other people who are from different spheres who are interested in my work such as psychologists, doctors, and people who are working with children for example, so the main focus is that…… I started [working] with horses when I was 30 and I’m 51 now and I’m still a beginner on this thing. I came to horses very late. I was originally in communication. I was a teacher of communication and art and this kind of thing so my focus toward the horses is European-- the classical European idea. Wherever you are searching [within] the European culture, [such as] the Greek, Celtic, Viking,….wherever you are, they’re combining the horse with authenticity. It means if you’re controlling the horse, then you’re controlling the dark side or the instinct side of yourself. And to do this, it means you need to be aware of your own authenticity.

So coming back to your question, the point of body language, it’s not so much something that you have to learn. It is more something that you have to recognize, that you have to remember. Because it is inside of all of us, my experience with horses is that they wish to have something original in front of them, [i.e.] somebody who is aware of himself and is able to act and react in his own authentic believable way for the horse.

[HFL]: I really like they way you put that. Do you think that’s why children do so well with horses because they’re authentic?

[KFH]: Exactly. They are authentic and they are inside themselves. They are resting in their center point. So in this way, the horse can recognize this being. When people become adults, they are full of thoughts and full of distractions. The more they are distracted, the more they are in the future, the more they are in an artificial world, and the less they are being recognized by the horse. At the end of the day, the horse will run them over because they are not existing.

So what I try to do is to somehow get rid of the idea of [using] tricks. With tricks, you might achieve everything without question. Everything very quick. The question in the end is “are you happy?” Is the horse happy? [If you] look into the eyes of the horse, are they really dancing? Are they still wild? Are they still naïve and open and inside of themselves? And is the person the same way?

So the question is not for me to achieve with whatever kind of tricks in a very quick way which you can produce again which you can show and perform. This is not my idea. My idea is to say how it is possible to come in contact with the real nature of the horse, with this unbelievable mythic being and in the same moment come in contact with your own authenticity.

Therefore, once again, coming back to the undertaking in England, to the show there, the starting point is so important. When you get to the starting point, you are able to contact and connect yourself with the horses the first moment when the horses are really recognizing you and looking at you [in a way that goes] “wow, there is somebody that I can and would like to connect with.” [With this,] 95% of the work is done. [The rest] is like watching a tree grow. It will grow by itself. Put some water in and give it some light, but it will grow by itself.



[HFL]: So what you’re telling people is that they need to make that connection first between themselves and the horse.

[KFH]: Yes. When I started [working] with horses at 29 or 30, I approached horses in a philosophical way,