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Read about Dinette here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/kcndc/hvwa/#p=1
Dinette Neuteboom is a Dutch-born equestrian professional, writer, and educator, and the founder of HorseGrooms — a platform dedicated to supporting and educating grooms around the world. She grew up in Hattem, the Netherlands, where despite coming from a non-horsey family, a friend in elementary school introduced her to horses and she was immediately hooked — spending hours absorbing everything she could about horse care, riding, and showing jumpers. That early passion quickly found a second outlet: she began writing for her equestrian club's quarterly journal, which quickly morphed into covering equestrian sports for Dutch regional and national papers.
After earning a degree in education and her international trainer's license through the Dutch Equestrian Federation, Neuteboom combined her work as a teacher at an equine college with riding young show jumpers, training horses and riders, singing in a classical choir, and writing for equestrian magazines. Then, in 2009, she made a decision that would define the next chapter of her life: at age 34, she quit her job, sold her horses, said goodbye to family and friends, and left for what she thought would be a trip of a lifetime — an around-the-world journey without an expiration date.
What followed was a career that spans five continents and almost defies summary. She worked as a trainer of young show jumpers in Argentina and China, was a barn manager in New Zealand, and eventually made her way to the United States — including working a summer riding across the plains and mountains of Wyoming and becoming part of the teams behind some of hunter-jumper sport's most celebrated performances. She experienced the highs of the equestrian world by being part of the teams of the winning horse in the WCHR Peter Wetherill Hunter Spectacular and the International Hunter Derbies at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington — and also the lows, including horses breaking a leg, dying from colic, and suffering difficult lives. She even has the distinction, delivered with characteristic candor, of having been fired by George Morris because the tack trunk didn't come back clean enough after a summer of showing horses all over the East Coast.
Today, as the founder of HorseGrooms, Neuteboom believes the industry is only beginning to understand how much responsibility rests on the shoulders of the people working behind the scenes — and she has made amplifying and supporting those voices the central mission of her work. Through HorseGrooms, she has launched educational partnerships, including a legal education series with equine attorney Kimbrell Hines, to give horse care professionals practical knowledge before they need it. Whether developing educational resources, writing for a global audience, or helping equestrian teams refine their practices, her guiding question remains the same: what does the horse need, and how can we help people see that more clearly.
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Thank you so much for joining us today on the Plaidcast. This podcast is a labor of love, and every single episode exists because of this incredible community of riders, trainers, barn managers, parents, and horse lovers who show up in the barn, in the ring, and right here with us.
At The Plaid Horse, our commitment goes far beyond the show ring. We believe deeply in the power of literacy and education and that every rider, at every level, deserves access to knowledge, stories, and ideas that make them a better horseperson and a better human being. Reading matters. Learning matters. And the stories we tell each other in this sport matter more than we sometimes realize.
Whether you are a junior rider picking up your first copy of The Plaid Horse Magazine, a professional trainer looking for inspiration, or someone who simply loves horses and everything this world stands for then this community is for you. You belong here.
We build this together. Every article, every episode, every conversation is an opportunity to learn something new, to feel less alone in the challenges of this sport, and to be reminded of why we fell in love with horses in the first place.
Until next time, keep reading, keep learning, keep riding, and remember that the horse world is better when we build it together. I will see you at the ring!
