Profile
A riding Career...
Eight medals at six European Championships... That was the result of a very successful youth period which Joyce Heuitink had with Berkel I.Dancer. She schooled her Candy Boy-offspring, bred by Vincent te Poele from Lievelde, The Netherands, all by herself. It is hardly impossible to mention all placings of Berkel I.Dancer. That is because the tiny but impressive moving mare was prize-winning in all her tests at international level. In the 1997-2002 period the pair from Groenlo, a little town in the east of The Netherlands, was of great value for the Dutch national team. Together they won three gold and three silver medals in the team competition of the European Championships for Juniors and Young Riders. Both in Joyce's final year as Junior and Young Rider she took the individual bronze. After that Joyce and Berkel I.Dancer were silver medallist in the Dutch Seniors Championships at Small Tour level in five consecutive years, among the best Grand Prix riders and horses of The Netherlands.
The adventure started in 1992, after Joyce's pony Juliėtte got lame. The search for something new was so hard ... . After a long period Joyce found Berkel I.Dancer; the unbelievable thing was that she was stabled only three kilometres from home. Dancer was born as Iwiecka at Vincent te Poeles in Lievelde, The Netherlands. Te Poele, breeder of Dutch Warmblood Horses and co operator of the Royal Dutch Warmblood Association KWPN, had the young mare by Candyboy for sale because she was too tiny.
In The Netherlands ponies can have a maximum height of 1.57m and Iwiecka was only 1.54m when she was sold to the Heuitink's. Joyce started to compete with Iwiecka in 1993 in both show jumping and dressage. Iwiecka also got a new name: Lucky Dancer (later changed into Berkel I.Dancer). At the age of five, Lucky Dancer got too big and could no longer compete in pony-classes. They started to compete at shows for horses. Which titles they have won so far can be found in the list of honours. She found a successor for Berkel I.Dancer in 2004, named Wup. This NRPS-approved breeding stallion was schooled all the way up to Intermediaire I level by Joyce. They won many medals at regional and national championships at all levels and won their international debute in both the Young Horses (French Tour 2007) and in the Intermediaire I (Freestyle at Mondorf-Les-Bains LUX 2008).
Joyce has passed all her exams as dressage judge untill Intermediaire I and Freestyle in May 2009.
Study
Joyce went to the Gymnasium, the highest level in Secondary Education, after she had done her Primary Education at the Deken van Dam School easily. At the age of eighteen she finished her Gymnasium with good marks for the following subjects: Dutch, English, Greek, Latin, History, Economics, Trade and Drawing. In 1999 and 2000 Joyce studied International & European Law at the University of Nijmegen. Because it was hard to combine this study with horse riding at international level, Joyce decided to take it a bit easier. She went to the Saxion University of Enschede and studied International Business & Languages there, because this subject did not take that much time. She did market research in Scandinavia and Great Britain for ANKY Technical Casuals and in Southern Germany for De Berkel Professional Clothing. In February 2005 Joyce graduated in European Management.
Her passion for languages and writing was not only clearly visible at the Gymnasium and at Saxion University, where she had followed courses in Dutch, English, German, Spanish and French.
Work
Joyce worked as a freelance journalist in the equestrian world for years. From 1999 on she wrote interviews and show reports for the famous Dutch horse magazine De Paardenkrant. For example she wrote about several World Cups, the CHIO Aachen, National and European Dressage Championships, the CCIO Boekelo and several international pony-, junior-, young rider- and senior dressage shows. Apart from that, since 2003 she is the author of the Media Guide for the Royal Dutch Horse riding Association KNHS.
Joyce has translated a book from English into Dutch in 2004: "How to get your Horse Bombproof" is now in Dutch available at Tirion Publishers.
She used to be employed with the Drenthe University in Emmen (The Netherlands) as Project Manager for Horse Business Management, one of Economic studies of Drenthe University in Emmen. After that she was shortly employed with the Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation (KNHS) as Senior in Internal and Digital Communication. Since November 2007 she is responsible for development of E-Learning of a new media company in The Netherlands, HorsUs BV, that focusses on the total equine branche in digital media. Since June 2009 she is employed with the Pan European Sports TV Network Eurosport as equestrian tv commentator.
Spare time
Although she does not have a lot of spare time because of her working, riding and writing, she tries to get the maximum profit out of every second. Going out, shopping, teaching and jogging are her favourite occupations. In case she had a lot of spare time, she loved to make drawings of animals and portraits. Nowadays she spends all her time with the love of her life Michael Kennedy.
