ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022 - 56

Career ❙ Report
By Florian Lefèvre
On the saddle of coaching
Arnaud Camus' equicoaching academy is an ESCP partner. They teach soft skills and " another form
of management " through the emotional intelligence of horses. Knauf Insulation managing director
Yann DITSCH (EMS 08) says this experience was as amazing as rewarding.
About fifteen training camps in France
and Switzerland
Yann DITSCH (EMS 08)
executive Director of Knauf Insulation
I
sabelle* is with her " dream team " ; this
is how the managing director of an
important advertising sales agency
based in Paris calls the members of her executive
committee. They are in the Normandy
countryside, before November break; it is
Indian summer. The Haras National du Pin
is based in Argentan (Orne); this 2,400-acre
stud farm surrounds a wonderful castle built
under Louis XV. They are here for two days
of equicoaching. " I want to share my passion
for horse riding, " says Isabelle vigorously. " We
work well together, but we can go further. I've
been thinking about how horse riding can reveal
or fix some counterproductive emotions. " That
is what they are here for.
Around the table, the members of the
" dream team " wonder how one can improve
through contact with horses. Some are sceptical,
some are curious. Patrick nervously
plays with his pen. A few minutes earlier,
as he was waiting for his colleagues outside,
in front of a red brick annexe, Patrick saw a
muzzle in a stable. " I can't tell a horse or a
donkey apart. " He suffers from equinophobia. "
They scare me to the bone, " he says just
before starting these two days of training at
the equicoaching academy.
56 ❙
ESCP Alumni Magazine Special issue ❙ 2022
Arnaud Camus is a managerial support
specialist for the Marque et Valeurs agency.
He founded this ground-breaking coaching
training institution in 2009. Before that,
there had been shows of equicoaching - a
word invented in the Netherlands - indeed,
but there was no dedicated organisation.
His academy, with about fifteen training
camps in France and Switzerland, has been
recognised by the government and is now
available in the French personal training
programme. " We are unique; our high-level
coaches complement each other and work with
competitive horses in iconic places. "
Today, there are also psychologist and
ex-3M's head of HR Laurence Flichy, and
former international rider Jean-Luc Force.
After competing in the 2000 Olympics in
Sydney, he became the national technical
director for equestrian sports, and then
went on to coach Karim Laghouag, who
won the gold medal in the Rio Olympics
team eventing. " Horses can bring so much to
humans and businesses. I have spent my life
with horses, and I had never noticed how big
their impact could be on human lives, " says
Jean-Luc Force. Since he joined the academy
three years ago, he has seen several
experienced managers cry out of emotion
during the debriefs. " I have even seen people
who could not get close to a horse when they
arrived asking if they could bring a horse home
at the end of the day! "
After meeting the coaches, the executive
committee members meet Désirée,
Gaia, Diamond and Bamako, the sometimes-unruly
horses they are going to team
up with. In the school, the group is split in
two. The " mirror " exercise consists in spending
four minutes alone with the horse,
the aim being to interact with the animal -
direct it, make it trot, etc. - without touching
it. Straight afterwards, the coaches describe
the psychological profile of each member
in front of the group. An hour later, they all
agree: " The accuracy of the description they
have made in just a few minutes is impressive, "
says Alexandre.
He had just got close to the horse; Arnaud
Camus and Laurence Flichy immediately
wrote " soothing " in their notebook. How
is it possible? By observing both the subject's
and the horse's posture. " When a horse

ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022