Giulia discovered horses through her mother’s passion and began riding seriously at the age of six. At twelve, she got her first horse, a moment of joy that soon turned into challenge. Within a month, the horse fractured his navicular bone and, confined to a stall during recovery and mishandled by unqualified instructors, became increasingly unmanageable. The situation quickly exceeded Giulia’s experience.

Rather than resorting to sedation or coercive methods, her mother sought a more ethical, insightful path, someone who could go beyond controlling behaviour to truly understand it. That search led them to Angelika Schneider, who had just founded the Centro Equestre Alterreno in Legoli, Tuscany.

What hurt the most was seeing her first horse, so deeply wished for, suffering from a serious injury just one month after he came into my life. The uncertainty of his recovery was overwhelming. Many advised her to let him go but Giulia never even considered it. That moment, though painful, marked the beginning of a different path, one that led her to a world of deeper connection, awareness and transformation.

The meeting with Angelika changed everything.

Born in Florence in 1998, Giulia grew up with horses as a passion passed from mother to daughter. From age fourteen, she spent summers at Alterreno, training with Angelika, learning an approach based on understanding, sensitivity and partnership rather than force. Giulia was ambitious. She wanted to compete, to prove herself in showjumping. So she left to train with Italy's elite: five years with Luca Moneta, four years with Giulia Martinengo. She competed across Europe at Sunshine Tour, Oliva Nova, Vilamoura, Salzburg, Samorin and throughout Italy on the Toscana Tour circuit.

Yet something essential no longer felt right. The competitive world, with its high-stakes atmosphere and constant drive for results, became emotionally exhausting. Though Giulia maintained respectful relationships with her instructors, the prevailing philosophy no longer resonated with her. The relentless pressure, the emphasis on performance over partnership, the environment that placed winning above harmony, all of it clashed with her deepest values.

What she longed for was connection. In that system, the horse was often reduced to a means to an end and the relationship was sidelined or ignored altogether. Eventually, the dissonance became so strong that Giulia felt the urge to walk away from competitions, from riding, from horses entirely.

She brought her horses back to the one place that felt like home: Alterreno. To Angelika.

Angelika, with characteristic wisdom, didn't push Giulia to keep competing. Instead, she invited her on an adventure: a journey on horseback from Tuscany to Austria. Together, with Giulia's mother following in a camper van, they rode across Italy into Austria. It was transformative. "We experienced adventures together that were truly incredible," Giulia remembers. "That journey made everything clear. My bond with Tuscany had always been there but from that moment, Alterreno felt like home, more than Brescia, more than anywhere else."

During that journey, Angelika asked: "Would you come work with me at Alterreno?"

Giulia's life was in Brescia: boyfriend, family, horses, everything. The pull of working with Angelika and rediscovering her love for horses in a healthier, deeper way proved irresistible. "At a certain point I let go of everything, took my horses and decided to go to her," Giulia explains. "It was an incredible moment because I truly felt at home as if, in some way, I had been reborn."

Since 2023, Giulia has been First Rider, Instructor and Junior Project Manager at Alterreno. She teaches riders of all levels, trains young horses using natural methods, manages daily care and training, organizes events and conducts horse-coaching sessions using horses as partners in emotional and psychological growth work. She continues her education, studying with Angelika daily whilst seeking out the world's leading classical and natural horsemen: Anja Beran, Vera Munderloh, Juan Diego Trevijano, Linda Parelli.

Most significantly, Giulia is pursuing ICF (International Coaching Federation) certification, combining her psychology degree with her equestrian expertise to pioneer new paths in equine-assisted learning and personal development.

For Giulia, the future is about carrying forward what Angelika has created at Alterreno, about becoming a great horsewoman through depth, sensitivity and commitment to the psychological and emotional wellbeing of both horses and humans.