Ralf Helmut STAMMSEN

Doctor of zoology and ethology

Ralf Helmut STAMMSEN has a doctorate in zoology and ethology, a discipline for which his thesis professor was the famous Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz, known among other things for his work on geese. The first scientific equine ethologist in Europe in the 1980s to demonstrate that we can take care of horses differently, he is also one of the inspirations for the English writer Nicholas Evans for his novel "The Man Who Whispered in the Ear horses" who contacted him and met him in France. He was interested in his work alongside that of other American horsemen of the era such as Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman and Monty Roberts. This incredible ability to communicate with horses led him to whisper in the ear of Robert Redford. On the set of the feature film inspired by the book, he takes care of one of the eight stallions. Later, while working for several American associations, he broke more than 2000 mustangs alone to save them from the slaughterhouse. Throughout his career as a horseman, he took charge of some 5,000 difficult horses. He breaks a wild horse in 20 minutes by communicating with him without any violence, without harness, without rodeo. The secret: communication with the horse while respecting its nature and knowing its behavior. He completed his equestrian knowledge alongside Jean d'Orgeix, one of the greatest French riders. After the practical works “Be a horse” and “Ride a horse without ever falling”, he decided to tell the story of horse behavior in a more playful way in an original collection of children's adventure novels entitled “What horses have to tell us.”

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