During her graduation year of the Master Class Equestrian Sport of NHB Deurne Helicon, Jolanda Adelaar was voted Helicon student of the year out of all Helicon schools, 11.000 students.



Her charter signed by the Chairman of the Executive Board says Jolanda Adelaar is:

• Competent in many different trades of the equestrian industry
• Example of entrepreneurship
• Gained name in the industry in short period



A 12 year old Dutch Italian girl educated a draft horse named “Guus” by herself. Starting without owning a saddle, on a pasture between the cows.. She learned out of books how to train a horse and by watching her idols Anky van Grunsven and Isabell Werth on television riding dressage…
Jolanda Adelaar is born with a creative talent and broke through with her show performance at the FEI World Cup Dressage Final in 2005 riding her self-made musical freestyle, handmade dress and her self-trained fjord horse Guus, showing the heaviest exercises of the Grand Prix; piaf and passage.
Jolanda became the first dressage rider in the Netherlands competing in the Subtop dressage level with a fjord horse and graduated with her fjord from the 2 year during Master Class of the biggest Equestrian Vocational Education institute of the Netherlands in 2010. After her Master, Tinley opleidingen, offered Jolanda a scholarship for a scientific based study to become an Equine Behavior Therapist. This is a scientific education in horse behavior analyzed from the Ethology, Evolution, conditioning and medical causes. Jolanda is an ambassador of Riding for Africa. A foundation that provides free horse riding lessons for children from the town ships of South Africa.

Horses for the poor: In 1953 the Netherlands was captured by a major natural disaster. The flood killed 1.835 Dutch people and 30.000 animals were drowned.
There was a need for a cheap and efficient draft horse for the farmers. In 1954 the first Norwegian fjord horses were imported to the Netherlands. The Fjord horse is a small Norwegian draft horse that can survive with the minimum of foods, is resistant to extreme cold temperatures and has an enormous strength to pull." ” 

The early life

Jolanda Francesca Adriana was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 25 October, 1982. She is the daughter of an Italian/Neapolitan mother and a Dutch father from Utrecht. Their always been a respect for the draft horse in the family. The family of Jolanda’s mother owned a factory near Naples for many generations producing wicker chairs. They used strong draft horses for the work.
Together with her older sister, Jolanda grew up in the southern countryside of the Netherlands, Brabant. Jolanda was born with a creative talent that she used to draw animals.

When girl meets horse...

Before Jolanda met her horse, Guus, she never desired a horse for her own because it was something she could not imagine possible.
When Jolanda was 12 she could go to a pony-camp where she met a Fjord horse called, “Guus”, a typical farmer name from Brabant. Guus worked on a riding school to carry tourists trough the forest. People thought he was weird looking for a fjord horse because he has a different colour then the other fjord horses on that riding school. He has a red eel stripe trough his mane instead of black. Now we know he has a colour called red dun (“rodblakk” in Norwegian) a well known fjord colour in Norway, but less know outside of Norway. Probable Guus came originally from a German nature reserve and was imported to Holland with a group of other fjords to be sold on the Dutch horse market. Nobody knew who Guus his parents were or when he was born.

  
Photo’s: Red dun mane and tail of Guus

Last real wild horses. "The Fjord horse is most resembling with the last remaining wild species of horses: the Przewalski horse, which remained to have 66 chromosomes (domestic horses have 64 chromosomes). Just like the Przewalski, the Fjord horse has the “dun gen” that gives them primitive colour shades and markings.The fjord horse breeding standard recognizes five shade variations: rodblakk, brunblakk, gullblakk, ulsblakk and gra."


Photo: Przewalski horses

 

After this pony-camp Jolanda told her parents she met a very special horse. After 1 year Jolanda was still talking about this Guus-horse of the pony-camp... Eventually her parents told her that she could have Guus if she found a cheap place where he could stay. Jolanda asked the farmers in her neighbourhood if Guus could stay with the cows in the pasture and she succeeded. Guus could be hers.  
Jolanda trained Guus herself without a saddle between the cows.
After 1 year she became a member of nearest equestrian club affiliated with the Dutch Equestrian Federation. When Jolanda and Guus arrived there the first day she surprised everybody, because they expected a sport breed. They asked her if she knew that the intention of the membership was to participate on competitions... 

Jolanda started to compete with her fjord horse between the sport horses. Within 2 years competing, Jolanda and Guus were regional champions in the advanced dressage level. Even when there were offers for selling Guus or exchange him for a sport horse...it never crossed Jolanda’s mind.

Guus survives operation tumour

Guus developed a strange growing bump on his head that turned out to be a tumour adjacent to an important vein to his brain. It was growing and needed to be removed before it was too late. Grand mother Adelaar helped to pay for the operation. The operation went well and Guus his live could go on. Grand mother Adelaar died in 2010, the year that Jolanda would graduate with Guus for her Master Class...

Guus recovered 100% from the operation.

Guus continued competing. Jolanda became the first dressage rider in the Netherlands competing in the Sub top level with a fjord horse. She tries to give Guus the best live possible, giving him the freedom to stay all day in the green field with other horses and she alternate with bridle less riding.

Lifetime commitment to a horse

In 2007 Jolanda montaged a movie of her story with her horse so far. It inspired many people around the world by youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVb-DFI7G1k   

Jolanda and Guus were invited to perform on many national and international horse events including the FEI World Cup Dressage Final in 2005. Jolanda uses her creativity among other thing to develop her own artistic horse shows. She created a fan club for her horse on internet, made the website superguus.com and in 2006 Jolanda wrote and illustrated her first book, titled “Guus”.


Animation made by Jolanda

 
Master Class with Guus

In 2008 Jolanda was accepted to the Master Class of the biggest Equestrian Vocational Education institute of the Netherlands, NHB Deurne Helicon. A study she financed herself. The Master Class is a 2 year equestrian education for riders who already ride on a professional level national or international. Well known former students of this Master Class were Olympic rider Imke Schellekens-Bartels and World champion Young Riders ’09, Lotje Schoots. Jolanda was the first who could access the Master Class with a fjord horse or even a horse that was under a height of 160cm. During her Master Class years Jolanda started to train with Marlies van Baalen. After 2 years of hard working Jolanda graduated with Guus in 2010 and was elected Helicon student of the year. She was honoured on Guus during “Horse Event 2010”.


Jolanda on the student of the year gala

Equine Behavior Therapist

After her Master, Tinley opleidingen, offered Jolanda a scholarship for a scientific based study to become an Equine Behavior Therapist. A type of psychotherapy that can be used to help animals. This profession is also popular named as "Horse shrink". Cognitive therapy focuses primarily on the thoughts and emotions that lead to certain behaviors, while behavioral therapy deals with changing and eliminating of those unwanted behaviors. This makes behavior therapy the psychotherapy for animals with behavior problems.

 

Ambassador of Riding for Africa

Jolanda want to make equestrian sport more accessible for everybody. She is an ambassador of Riding for Africa. A foundation that provides free horse riding lessons for children from the town ships of South Africa. Jolanda: “The ability to have a passion in the live, either it is football, playing an instrument or working with animals, protects a child from negativity as drugs, criminality, joining gangs. Horses touched my live and I hope many other children can be able to have this joy in there live. Go to www.ridingforafrica.com to read how you can help.”




PROFESSIONAL PROFILE


Name: Jolanda Francesca Adriana Adelaar
Nationality: Dutch, Italian
Born: 25 October 1982 Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Education: Master Class Equestrian Sport NHB Deurne
Equestrian Sport Instructor III
Horse behaviour specialist Tinley
Emergency Rescue Member (BHV)
Graphic designer / DTP

Honours: 2010 - Helicon student of the year
2010 - Ambassador Riding for Africa
2008 - Miss Italia nel Mondo - Olanda
2005 - Special act  FEI World Cup Dressage Final
2000 - Regional champion advanced level (with fjord)

Books written: “Guus” 2006

Languages: Dutch, English, Italian

Sponsors: Kentucky Reitmode
JRS sport
Tinley opleidingen

Sport: Equestrian - Dressage
Name trainer:  Marlies van Baalen



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