Katka a Pavel

Katarína Hlavová

Katarína Hlavová was born in Prague but lived in Netherlands from the age of 11. There was also the place where her mother bought Katka’s first horse to ward off the constant homesickness. His name was Paraf and they spent 20 beautiful years together.

Katka learned horse riding within a Dutch dressage school and with her stallion Paraf very successfully participated in dressage competitions at T level in Rotterdam and elsewhere in the NL. She was educated by local dressage trainers for many years. After termination of her studies on law faculty and return to the Czech Republic, Katka cooperated with the director of the National Stud Kladruby nad Labem Norbert Záliš. Furthermore, she continued improving her dressage education by practice and attendance on short internships at renowned trainers such as George Theodorescu. Love of horses affected Katka so much that the number of own horses grew constantly. Finally, she decided to dedicate her life to horses instead of a black gown and legal paragraphs. The beginnings were difficult, but there is nothing to regret. The bought mill is changing before our eyes, slowly fulfilling dream for a dream.

Katka works as a trainer. She teaches horse riding including preparation of both horse and rider for competitions. In 2008, she was licensed as a national judge for dressage and show jumping competitions. Furthermore, Katka translated three books about horses from Dutch author Josée Hermsen. She was in charge of horses and riders preparation during the filming of the movie A Knight's Tale and among her pupils belong or rather belonged also the actor Heath Ledger.

During her cooperation with agency FILMKA on Barrandov, Katka also met her partner Pavel Vokoun.

The horse, which walked up the stairs

Katka and Pavel met at a promotional event in the gardens of Prague Castle. Katka had to portray an angel who was sitting on Pegasus (winged horse), conquering stairs of Prague Castle gardens. Pavel, as the coordinator, had to ensure successful course of the action. And remained so … he kept coordinating with Katka till today. They have 2 children Karel and Pavel.

Since 2007, she closely cooperates with USKHA -United States Kladruber Horse Association and is the main consultant of the association in the country.

Pavel Vokoun

Pavel passed his riding beginnings in the club near his residence. 

He works as a horsemaster, coordinator, stuntman, actor and consultant since 1984 and trains and prepares horses for movie scenes, also teaches horseback riding. Pavel cooperated with the great number of well-known actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Sam Niel, Martin Shaw and many others.

However, first of all, Pavel is a film stuntman. You can catch a glimpse of him in dangerous situations in dozens of movies of Czech but especially of foreign production. He acted or doubled in more than 60 foreign films, such as for example Gladiator, Van Helsing, From Hell, Ivanhoe and King Arthur; from  Czech production we can mention for example Byl jednou jeden polda, Tankový prapor and Z pekla štěstí.

He also participated in 8 months long shooting of "Black Hawk Down” and “Kingdom of Heaven" in Morocco, "Indiana Jones Chronicles" in Kenya abd Turkey, "Saving Private Ryan" in England and "Titanic" in Mexico.

He worked as a coordinator and horsemaster to 13 part BBC series Outlaw. In 2007, during the filming of “Chronicles of Narnia — Prince Caspian”, Pavel was in charge of 40 horses, 9 of them from their own stable. The crew filmed in Ustí nad Labem, Barrandov in Prague and Slovenia.

Due to his experience, Pavel is able to assess the capabilities of a horse and prepare him to perform in different actions according to client requirements in a relatively short time.

Interesting links in Czech

Equichannel.cz: Tváře české drezury: Katarína Hlavová

http://www.equichannel.cz/tvare-ceske-drezury-katarina-hlavova

Slánské Listy: Kaskadér z Třebichovic hrál i v Titanicu

http://www.slanskelisty.cz/sl/rozhovory/15-08-kaskader.php

Equichannel.cz:  Táborská setkání měla co nabídnout i milovníkům koní

http://www.equichannel.cz/taborska-setkani-mela-co-nabidnout-i-milovnikum-koni

Blesk: Filmoví mazáci: Zaslouží si Oscary! - Mazák Sagar točí Narnii

http://www.blesk.cz/clanek/zpravy-udalosti-zajimavosti/67573/filmovi-mazaci-zaslouzi-si-oscary.html