There are two things that you will discover when first undertaking an Equestrian sightseeing tour of Holland: one, a huge quantity of our own horses are really donkeys (although thanks to organisations such as Scottish Sports Horse this is rapidly changing) and two, you will magically have more money than you realised because you will undoubtedly buy a horse before leaving.

The Director of Scothorse, Rosalyn Serex and I recently flew to Amsterdam to find out first hand the Dutch equestrian experience. Our guide for the weekend, Johan Wiersma (Horsefind and Foalscouts) was there to meet us and drove us to our first destination.

Looking out from the car whilst travelling on this fast moving autobahn we were delighted to at last see the Tulip fields, which despite the grey over cast skies lit up the surrounding area with their splendid display of colours. Windmills old and new turned majestically in the gentle breeze.

We shortly arrived at Stal Klaver at Schoorl in the north. There are two hundred Dutch Warmbloods at this yard including three warmblood stallions, all incorporating an impressive list of breeding lines. Several Dutch warmblood horses were displayed in the indoor school. They demonstrated quality movement combined with jumping ability. One young stallion in particular, a young Baloubet stallion by Galoubet Du Rouet, out of a Polydor mare. He had just covered a young mare and therefore was showing himself extremely well. M.Kees Klaver explained to us that the young stallions dam had been flown to Paris for insemination. This impressive boy was the first horse to be seen by us over the weekend that encouraged Rosalyn and myself to empty our pockets. Fortunately for us, he was not for sale!

The stud’s yearlings, from bloodlines such as Flemmingh, Rubenstein, Orame, Redford, all out of Keur, mares changed our minds about which one to buy (bearing in mind we had not intended to buy anything!). Such was the power of these beautiful horses.

Rosalyn fell completely for a little dark filly foal by Ferro out of a champion Ster Prestatie Flemmingh mare, and had to be strongly discouraged and hauled off into the car. We were later informed that she would probably fetch around 25000 euros at auction!

We then travelled to Friesland. The fields were filled with the jet black Freisan beauties for which Holland is also renown. In fact everywhere our heads turned herds of young Dutch warmblood and Friesian colts, mares and newborns grazed in lush green pastures.

Our next stop was Dressage breeder M. Schaaf’s yard, where a stable of strong Hanoverian mares was shown to us. M. Shaaff uses only approved stallions and has his mares artificially inseminated. This seems to be the general trend in Holland.

Some of the lines used here included Rhodium, Ferro, Lancet, Obelisk, Redford and San Remo. When M. Joop Schaaf, however, produced a two-year-old colt by Nero and out of a Washington mare (Pref), I knew that I had found a horse that must be bought for someone, if not for me. Tentatively, I inquired about the price, and to my delight realised he was an affordable horse even with transportation costs.

Generally, to ship a horse to Lancashire (relatively central) to the UK costs around £300, and it is a simple matter then to have one of the Scottish transporters pick the horse up and complete the journey.

Having decided upon the ‘fortunate’ friend to buy this horse in particular, I informed Johan of the ‘interested’ party’s email address. Johan emailed Photos and a video clip were that very evening to my friend, and as I had assumed, the recipient was more than eager to look further into the matter – to the point of flying out to Holland himself. Having done my good deed for the day, I returned happily with Rosalyn to our Hotel (booked on behalf of us by Johan) where we enjoyed our evening meal and Johan’s entertaining company for an hour.....