About Us

Dutch Dreamhorses; Importer of Dressage Horses

Dutch Dreamhorses Inc. was started by Nicky Oostveen in the beginning of 2008. Initially the business was run out of Salt Lake City, Utah, but by the summer of 2008 it had moved to a brand new equestrian facility on the central coast of California.

Nicky is British and as well as living in England, France and Germany, she also spent many years in The Netherlands. She started riding as a child, initially cross country in her native England and later show jumping and dressage in Germany and Holland before concentrating on dressage, and she has owned horses all her adult life. She often clinics with German GP rider Marcel Wolf when back in Europe, as well as training in California with Pam Nelson, Jaime Amian, and has ridden in clinics with Juan Matute and Shannon Peters. She is currently showing at PSG on her own Dutch Warmblood, Oeral.

After moving to the US, it became apparent how popular the Dutch Warmblood and Hannoverian Horse are for the sport, and how difficult it is to find the right one from so far away, especially if you don’t have the contacts or speak the languages. For us this is not a problem, and we have a network of breeders and trainers in Europe who help us find the type of horses we are looking for our clients. After import, their training is continued with our resident trainer, Vefele Petruik.

Canadian born Vefele developed a passion for dressage very early in life and has studied under many well-known coaches including Canadians Will Clinging, Simone Williams, Shelley Lawder, and Lisette De Rooy, as well as Dutch Olympic riders Coby and Marlise van Baalen, Shannon Peters, and World-Class Judge Stephen Clark. Vefele also completed one full year of direct tutelage under Hilda Gurney. She began her own business in Canada two years ago called True Equine Connections, and now at 26 you can see her compete with her own horse Rockefeller at I1, as well as with some of our sales horses.

Her experience includes coaching, training, showing, preparing horses for sale and stable management. She is happy to train all levels of rider, helping them achieve a true connection with their horses to gain a better level of communication and understanding, and especially enjoys helping riders achieve their goals in the show ring. She can also prepare your horse for sale by personally handling the training and showing to prospective clients, preparing sales videos and advertising over the internet and through various sales websites.