The Farmer, the Coal Merchant, the Baker: A Personal Impression of the Development of the Gelderland Horse World

In the fifties and sixties of the previous century the province of Gelderland gradually became the hub of the warmblood breeding world in the Netherlands. Stallions, such as Amor, Pericles and Voltaire, just to name a few, became household names whereas the local breeders using these stallions had no idea that, in a matter of just thirty or forty years, this would lead to the international fame of the Dutch Warmblood of today. Liz Barclay grew up in Gelderland during that time and, having lived in the States before settling in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, she saw that what once was a local enterprize has now become a huge international business. As a horse trainer she worked in both countries with many warmbloods, who had the blood in their veins from stallions who, during her youth, did not live very far from her doorstep. The stories of breeders Henk Nijhof and Johan Venderbosch and trainers Roeli Bril and Jan Oortveld, men she knew, or knew of, during her youth in Gelderland, give a wonderful impression, not only of how life was, but also how life changed. Starting with the breeding lines of Totilas and Valegro as the prime examples of the Dutch breeding success, the book, with Liz’s younger years as the common thread, gives owners of a Dutch sport horse anywhere in the world the chance to connect the breeding papers of their warmblood to this heartwarming tale of some brave Gelderland horsemen, who dared to stick their neck out, never shy of taking a little risk.