read the original article in dutch
Photo: Interview with Yvonne van Bergen, organizer of Indoor Friesland
After Indoor Friesland, Dinette left for Peru for two weeks and then on to Argentina, to her boyfriend: 'I got to know him at Marleen Melchior’s, but things didn't really start until April last year. He is a groom of show jumpers at an equestrian club in Buenos Aires. In the country, you have smaller stables there, but in the city you only have a few clubs. In 2004, he was a groom of the Argentinian team for the Olympic Games in Athens, then he did visit the Netherlands, but he found it a bit rainy and cold. I'm going to Wellington for a few months first to ride hunters in the morning, so that I can do my writing in the afternoon. He can't come because he doesn't have a visa for that. He doesn't like that, no. I don't want to stay here in Argentina because there is little to do in terms of equestrian sports, while I do want to stay involved. I think it will soon be Spain, that is easier for him to enter and work in the Schengen area. Well, I can work anywhere with a WiFi connection and a laptop. A super fun life, I think!'
Photo: Pushing cows in Wyoming
Indoor Friesland
Back to the past, that was also the atmosphere of the renewed Indoor Friesland where Dinette Neuteboom was press officer: 'In Wellington, through a mutual friend I sat next to Yvonne van Bergen during a dinner: if I ever get to lead an event, I'd like you to be press officer, she said. And then Indoor Friesland came along. We have succeeded in bringing back the old-fashioned atmosphere, cosiness and an enthusiastic audience. Many visitors and riders longed for it, everyone was so happy that the show was back. Yvonne deserves a lot of credit for that. Plus that the right mentality and passion came together in the board. Not an unkind word was spoken, we stood up for and backed each other. Sponsors, exhibitors, riders, volunteers: it's also about how you approach them. We were sold out for four evenings, a few thousand people per evening, great. While we just had to wait and see what was to come. I really hope that Indoor Friesland will take place again next year and that we can then add grandstand seats.’
Photo: But this is also part of the United States: in the nature of Wyoming
Changes in Training
The changes in equestrian training in the Netherlands over the past 15 or 20 years have not been very positive. I thought the 'old-fashioned' ORUN Instructors education was a super good training course in which you learned to ridea and teach correctly according to the Skala der Ausbildung, the classical way of riding and producing a young horse. Unfortunately, the set-up of the ORUN has changed enormously in the past fifteen years. Not positively in my opinion. I hope that the efforts of people like Marion Schreuder will bring back that old-fashioned correct riding. For example, I am not a top rider at all and far from talented, but because during the ORUN, I was told over and over again that you have to ride a horse in balance, from behind over the back to the hand and straight, I have learned to ride decently. So decently that there are people willing to pay me for it. Not because I jump around a course so fantastically, but because I can give the horses correct basic work and thus make them better or easier to ride for their owners. I hear from Americans that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find well ridden and produced horses. And when I now go to competitions in the Netherlands, I also find that the way of riding in general is not getting better.’
Photo: This is what Dinette experiences in her vibrant life: at a competition in Donald Trump's backyard
Due to her international experience, Dinette has a broad view on horse life. And on people: 'Yes, by traveling a lot, you will understand much better why people are the way they are, why they say what they say. They are different worlds. In America in the amateurs, a rider has a whole team around him or her: get on your horse and enterthe ring. In Europe you generally have a lot more knowledge. I do see that riding styles are getting closer and closer together. And I see that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find well ridden horses in the Netherlands. It's not easy to find good trainers, people who produce young horses well.’
Photo: On horseback in Mongolia
Writing in Dutch but also in English: 'Now I also write for an American company that makes custom-made products for riders and competitions. A plan, so that they are better protected in case something happens. Suppose you fall off in Wellington and you have to get taken to the hospital by helicopter, the plan will cover the part that is not covered by the insurance. For example, I have interviews with people who have benefited from it. People in America are really excited about it, I do think they're going to roll this out worldwide. People in America also quickly organise a Go Fund Me campaign if necessary. If someone falls off a horse and has a very bad injury, there are few insurance policies that will cover such a person for long, say you need to make adjustments to your home or you need to hire other people. Jumping rider Kevin Babington had a terrible accident and got helped that way.’
Photo: That's how it goes at horse shows in Argentina
In Wyoming, she worked as a "wrangler": "With horses into the Wild West, 20 guests a week, with a few gals like me as coworkers, riding around the herds of mustangs that roamed there, into the mountains, pushing herds of 300, 400 ,or 500 cows, we 'helped' the cowboys with the guests 'pushing' the cows to a new piece of land as they call it there. Then you experience a completely different way of horsemanship, completely different from English riding. I did it for about five months last summer. I've always thought: before I go back, I want to see the Wild West.'
As a Journalist in the World
Dinette started writing early on in addition to her horse riding: 'I was with the Marleruitersin Hattem, an equestrian club, which is now Hippisch Hattem, and there I wrote for the magazine of the club. Cor van Dalen wrote for the regional newspaper, the Zwolse Courant, later the Stentor, who then asked if I wanted to write about horses for the regional newspaper, so I started doing that. I have continued to do that alongside the horses, for the Dutch horse magazine De Paardenkrant, sometimes for the KWPN Magazine, and Hoefslag, and now for the SLF Auction and Dutch Horse Trading. I have always earned money with my horse jobs, also spent a lot on traveling, by the way. But certainly in America they pay well, much better than in Europe, where you have professional teams around a stable.'
Photo: In Zangersheide gear at a horse show in Argentina
Dinette got the travel bug ánd the horse bug and traveled from one country to another. She ended up in China via Wim de Jonghe: 'I knew Wim and I also wanted to experience China, very interesting to experience that culture. I worked there for over a year, riding offspring of the stallions Thunderbolt and Cassini Boy for Li Zhen Qiang, who had also ridden Jumpy des Fontaines with Axel Verlooy and Harrie Smolders.' Then she ended up in New Zealand: 'But I didn't like it there. In Argentina, I had been in contact with Americans who where there to buy horses, they were looking for a groom in Wellington.'
As a Groom in Argentina
I started doing that, no problem at all, I just love horses. That was not a punishment for me, not at all. Completely different than in Argentina, where they were all cleaned and tacked up for for me. And now, I had to clean them, prepare horses for other people. Among other places, I worked in Wellington, FL ,and Nashville, TN, super fun. In America it is different than here. At 4 o'clock I we were done, then I was in New York City a little later. Went to a classical concert or something, inherited from my upbringing. Then I couldn't find very many people who wanted to come along, haha, but luckily I am totally happy on my own. And if you don't have a family or relationship, you can come and go and do as you please.’
Photo: Dinette competing at the Dutch horse show “Zwolse Paardendagen”
'At that time, I had a stable with friends in Balkbrug, we did that for ten years, with young horses that we rode for a while and then tried to sell, sometimes it went well and sometimes it didn't.' Jumping rider Dinette kept up that life in the Netherlands for about eleven years: 'Of course I had thought hard about it, saved money too. I didn't want to wait until I was 65 years old, I just did it. Sold the horses and sold the truck, quit my job and started traveling. Everyone gets fun out of different things, for me it was this. I've never regretted it.'
As a Rider at Zangersheide
'Looking back, I followed my heart and ended up back at my passion. At the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, I met Alex Korompis, who then made contact with Marleen Melchior in Argentina. I rode there for a year, full-time, also competitions, I think from 80 cm. up to 1m30. At first I thought it was very strange that they had to go to bed in the afternoon for a siesta. But yes, the first few days I got three or four horses to ride, then six and not much later ten. Then I understood why they enjoyed the siesta, I was exhausted.’
Originally posted in Dutch on Nieuws.Horse | Translated by Google Translate with a few human touch-ups
Read how Dinette Neuteboom has given substance to her life. And maybe you will be inspired. The former teacher switches just as easily from Argentina to China, to New Zealand, to Mongolia, to America and more. Everything for the horses: as a groom, as a rider, as a trainer, as a journalist and as press officer at the renewed Indoor Friesland. "I didn't want to wait until I was 65, I just did it," she says.
Dinette Neuteboom grew up in Hattem, with a musician as her father and a teacher as her mother: 'Yes, a horse girl without horse parents. I was classmates of Margje Fikse, daughter of Helmert Fikse, who was known for the stallion Duc de Normandie. I spent many nights there to see a foal being born, so beautiful. Margje now presents programs on TV. I spent lots of time at Johan Jonker’s stable and went to Jenny and Fred Schoenman’s place in Wapenveld. I learned to work hard and learned to ride, I think that has determined my life in an important way.'
Teacher
'I wanted to go to the equine college in Deurne, but Johan Jonker and my parents advised me against it, they thought there was no money to be made in the horse industry. Johan had once sold a 3-year-old stallion at the auction at Zangersheide, Belgium, to Marleen Melchior who ran Zangersheide Argentina together with her husband Ricardo Kierkegaard. Johan told me they had a few thousand horses on the pampas in Argentina. Wow, I thought, that must be cool. I started the teacher training in Windesheim, plus the ORUN training. As a result, I was allowed to teach Dutch and horse subjects like horse care, nutrition, training, and practical riding lessons at De Groene Welle from 1998, they were the first equine college in the Netherlands to offer the first phase of the ORUN Instructor training.’