About me

Welcome to my website! My name is Christine Barlow-de Vries and since 2019 I live close to Jacksonville (NC) together with my husband. I was born and raised in The Netherlands where I started horse riding at the age of 5 years old. At the moment I have one horse: Action Z (s. Special D). I bought him when he was 4 yo and flew him to The States with me.

From a young age I always wanted to be around horses, when I finally turned 5 years old my parents allowed me to start riding ponies. By the time I was 11 years old they got me my first lease-pony named Youngster. He already competed two times at the highest level in dressage for ponies. He taught me a lot, we started competing and during the 5 years I trained him we made it to several championships. 

When I turned 16 years old my parents and I went looking for a young horse since I wanted to train a horse from the beginning myself. Action Z, or ' Exie'  as we all call him, became mine. Exie made a lot of dreams come true; competing at big championships and being selected for talent teams but above all how to become a fair trainer, how to listen to him and how to become each others best friends. 

We got the chance to train with some excellent Dutch trainers such as Sander Marijnissen and Dennis Ausma. For a long time Action and I showed in The Netherlands (up to Fourth Level). In The States we continued our journey. We received the Bronze Medal with distinction (all scores over 70%) and recently also our Silver Medal. 

In 2017 I went to pursue another dream of mine. I became a Dolphin Trainer at Dolphin Academy Curacao. It was a magical experience, these dolphins live in a natural environment and are taken to the open water every single day. I developed my trainer skills to a whole new level. The power of positive reinforcement is magical. Training animals is not just about making them do something. It is about trust, building a friendship and growing together into the best version of yourself.

It was on Curacao (2017) where I met my husband and I decided move to the USA to spend my life with him. Now that I live in the USA I want to continue doing what I love most: work with animals!