Looking for some kind animal-loving helpers on our small horse farm in northern Brandenburg, Germany

Details

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  Description

  We are a small family, my parents Steffen (73) and Dagmar (59) and me Steffi (33), that lives and works on a small private horse farm in a little village located between the big cities Berlin and Hamburg. The four legged part of our family consists of six horses, one small dog and one cat.
  
  Our horses live outside the whole year in a paddock trail/ paddock paradise we built (and always keep on improving) for them, so they can enjoy living in the most natural environment we can offer.
  A horse friendly approach is also important to us when it comes to training and riding. Here we like using the TTeam approach (the Tellington TTouch method for horses) for the basic education of our more inexperienced horses and also for improving the body awareness of the older ones. My personal passion is (classical) dressage but mostly we do whatever training the individual horse needs to move in a healthy way. We also used to train our horses with positive reinforcement (clickertraining) to do Horse-Agility with us, which is a lot of fun for horses and humans.
  In the summer holiday we host a small horse-camp for groups of max. 4-6 children.
  
  We really enjoy living with and caring for our horses, but because of them we have almost no possibility to travel and explore the world. So we hope you come for a visit and bring some of the world to us.
  Please contact us if you have questions or are interested in more information. I will try and answer all messages I get but it may sometimes take a few days. If I don't answer at all please write again, I sometimes overlook messages and forget to reply. :)

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Aside from learning german or improving your language skills, you can learn a lot about horses in general and about how to train them, using the TTeam method and positive reinforcement.
  Please note that we can't really offer riding opportunity.
  If you're lightweight and somewhat experienced (balanced seat and still hands) you could occasionally ride one of the ponys and help train them under the saddle, but they're still pretty green and get mostly worked on the ground.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  Like on every other horse farm the main everyday work that needs to be done is cleaning the paddocks and pastures from horse poop. Other than that we have always a lot of different work to do. It ranges from little to big construction, building and painting projects as we keep renovating our house and improving the farm to picking weeds or mowing the lawn. Our often neglected vegetable garden is also always grateful for some care. In the time of our summer camp we appreciate some help with entertaining the kids or preparing meals for them. And of course there is work all around the horses like cleaning the tack and tack room, grooming the horses and help with training them depending on your knowledge and skills in that area.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  You will sleep in one of our two simple but freshly renovated guestrooms in the attic. You will usually have a room to yourself, but on occassion it may be necessary to share it with a fellow workawayer (especially while we are hosting the summer camp). Bathroom and kitchen and meals will be shared. It would be great if we sometimes could cook and prepare meals together.
  We can accommodate two workawayer and there is also place for one or two children up to the age of 14.
  (It may also be possible to bring one small to medium well behaved dog, that is friendly to other dogs, cats and horses. Though my dog is not a big friend of other dogs - but in case you can't or don't want to leave your dog at home, we could work something out.)

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  What else ...

  Beside from exploring the countryside and just hanging out on our farm enjoying the company of horses and nature, you could go and visit the big cities Hamburg and Berlin (both approximately 2h with train) or take a trip to the baltic sea. Altough public transportation is rare in our village it's no problem to drop you off at the train station next town and pick you up later. And if you want we could sometimes make trips in the surrounding area together. Especially interesting for horse people may be a trip to one of our big German State Studs: The State Stud Redefin in Mecklenburg and the State Stud Neustadt (Dosse) in Brandenburg (where I did my apprenticeship) are both only about one hour away from our place.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  It is possible to bring one small to medium well behaved dog, that is friendly to other dogs, cats and horses. My own dog is not a big friend of other dogs though - but in case you can't or don't want to leave your dog at home, we could work something out.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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