Meet Us
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Angelica
Hesselius
Angelica is the founder of the Reward Based Riding School, a passionate teacher, and a lifelong student of the horse. She brings a wealth of experience from the classical dressage world is a Certified Riding Instructor. She has created a logical reward based riding system to work from the get go up to high level movements.
Angelica is a member of the Knighthood of Academic Art of Riding and has been teaching dressage since 2010 and the last decade reward based dressage.Her passion is guiding riders and their horses toward higher balance, connection, and collection with forward-thinking methods and genuine care for both horse and rider.
She's currently lives in the north of Sweden with her horses. A dedicated learner as well as a teacher, she continues to expand her knowledge by collaborations with other coaches and trainers and by working closely with her students around the world.
You can find more info at: www.rewardbasedridingschool.com
Hannah
Weston
Hannah has been teaching reward-based horse training for 20 years, helping horses and their humans build trust-based relationships through positive reinforcement. She has worked with a wide range of equines - including wild, rescued, aggressive, shut-down, and highly sensitive horses - using science-backed methods to create calm, co-operative partnerships.
Hannah specialises in gentle, consent-based training that brings clarity, confidence and joy to everyday handling, groundwork, and riding. She’s co-author of the bestselling book, Connection Training, and runs the CT Club, an online platform for learning her training methods.
You can find her at www.connectiontraining.com.
Do Groen
Do joined us as a co-founder of the R+ Horse Summit in 2025. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, she is unable to join us for the 2026 event.
Do is a Dutch reward-based horse trainer known for making learning engaging and accessible. Together with Angelica Hesselius, she co-founded the Reward Based Horse Academy.
You can find her at: www.horseswithchoices.com
Supporting charities
With the Summit we will support charities in two ways:
5 euro of every ticket will go to support an equine charity. With your help, we want to make any difference we can.
Our sponsor Via Nova Equine have generously offered to sponsor a limited number of discounted tickets to the Summit, going to riding schools or organisations teaching riding and training to their pupils using R+ techniques. Please contact us if you're interested in this.
Meet our Sponsor
At Via Nova, we make positive reinforcement into practical tools that support both the everyday rider and the competitive equestrian.
Our Priority to Positive® training approach is based on our five Core Principles:
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Understand Motivation
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Look For Your Yes
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Create Opportunity
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Shape Toward What You Want
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Set Up For Success—It’s not Cheating to Make it Easy!
Priority to Positive® is designed to help you think like a positive reinforcement trainer, so that you can successfully apply this powerful training method to the many different needs and goals of equestrians. Including our most important goal of all, the benefit of the horse!
Like all the participants at the R+ Summit, Via Nova is dedicated to providing equestrians with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools essential for success in using R+ training, both on the ground and undersaddle.
We’re focused on developing a larger contingent of professional trainers and coaches who understand positive reinforcement and how to apply it in undersaddle settings. Our goal is to see R+ taught as standard practice throughout the industry. Through our principles we teach the strategies and skills to put positive reinforcement into practice across the entire scope of equestrian activities from husbandry to competition.
Through our passion for horses and unwavering commitment to their well-being, we strive not only to improve performance in the ring but to deepen the bond and communication between horse and rider.
Website: https://www.vianovatraining.com/