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The world is filled with special horses and breeds. One of them is the stallion Astor, who is a Dutch draft horse with more than 30,000 followers on Instagram – clearly a popular gentleman. The breed has historically been in demand because of its raw strength, but today, with only about 1,400 to 3,000 remaining, it is threatened with extinction. Malgré Tout spoke with Dutch Marjolein Scheffers, who owns Astor. She talks about the breed and why she has fallen in love with the grey giant.
It's an impressive sight that meets one when taking a look at the robust workhorse. Despite his size of around 167 cm and nearly the same in width, Astor is gentle as a lamb. His movements are slow and calm, which makes him exceptionally good as a therapy horse, Marjolein explains. Astor shows both children and adults the way to greater self-confidence. Together, for example, they walk over obstacles and perform a lot of exercises, where Astor helps maintain calmness, especially for the nervous clients.
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Marjolein herself describes the breed as a relatively uniform size: "It is best suited with the same owner, so they do not have to go through a lot of hands. They are quite sensitive and clear about what they want and do not want. They love to work as long as you ask them in the correct way."
The breed originates from Holland and was originally built to work in the fields. They were very popular up until around World War II, when most of their work was taken over by machines. This means that today there are few left worldwide.
The large, strong workhorse often has the characteristic grey color and has been created by crossing the Belgian draft horse and the Belgian Ardennes with the Zeeland horse, which is a Dutch breed. In addition to the color grey, the breed is also often found as either chestnut or classic brown.
In the past, many Dutch draft horses were found in the Zeeland province of Holland, where the horses performed hard work on large farms in the harsh marine clay. This type of clay is very greasy, and one can only imagine how heavy it must be to work in. Nonetheless, this is exactly what a Dutch draft horse is incredibly good at. The best feature of the breed, when working in heavy clay, is precisely that it is so incredibly calm by nature and does not have hurried movements. However, it is still easy to energize when asked to do so. Today, the breed is the heaviest of its kind among the Dutch horse breeds.
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It was no coincidence that Marjolein bought Astor about 10 years ago. He is now 13. As a child, like many of us, she spent a lot of time at a riding school, where they had several draft horses. She immediately fell in love with the breed and decided that one day she would own one. It even had to be a stallion, as she explains, “a stallion just fits well with my personality.”
Astor was not used much in the first years, as Marjolein was busy with work. However, he quickly showed an interest in her clients, and in this way, he ended up somewhat accidentally as a therapy horse. Marjolein also didn't spend time preparing him to carry a rider – it just kind of happened one day.
“We hadn't planned anything big for his training. It just happened. He was so stable and relaxed from the beginning, so it was really just about getting on,” Marjolein recounts.
When she bought Astor, it was primarily for forest rides, but he also showed an interest in dressage. Therefore, the two of them do a lot of dressage work from the ground. However, this has been paused for some time, as Astor has been sick. He is now recovering, and Marjolein hopes to be able to resume training.
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Draft horses are actually not so popular in Holland, but still, the pair have managed to get more than 30,000 followers on Instagram. This delights Marjolein greatly. Follow them at @dutch_draft_astor.
“It's fantastic that so many want to follow along. I really enjoy sharing my life with Astor with all the followers,” Marjolein concludes.
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Sources
The Rare Pet Breeds Foundation
Breeds of Livestock Department of Animal Science
