Portugal
Favourited 156 times
I´m Simone, a single middle aged person with rescued animals. I live in a small cottage in the countryside, somewhere below Lisbon. The region is known for cork oaks, pine trees, and black pigs. I am not native to Portugal, but have lived here since 1999. I´m looking for someone who can help me with the horses.
For various reasons, one being my nervous cats, I do not accept volunteers that want to take their dogs anymore.
Animal Care
They can enjoy Portuguese lay back country living, and get the buzz of the capital city if they want too. Get a taste of the Portuguese kitchen in restaurants (meals are 8-20 euro, including wine, dessert and coffee). Learn or better their English and/ Portguese. Learn about different horse breeds including the native horsebreeds.
All the help is around horse care. Mucking out, but also field maintenance (pulling out weed), feeding, grooming etc. some riding is sometimes possible, depending on the person, but not necessary. The help concentrates around about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and the rest of the day you are free to go. It´s quiet country life, I have horses (they are in at night and out during the day), dogs and cats and chickens. You will have to get up at 7 or 8 in the morning, depending on the season. In the weekends you can lay in. In summer it´s custom to sleep a bit after lunch. Tempertures can reach around 40 ºC and over in June to September. Prefer short periods over longer stays.
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
Portuguese: Fluent
Own bedroom with queen bed, in the small cottage.
Nearest village 8 km. Beaches at 20-30 minutes by scooter. Other beaches by bus. Bus stop very near, but only 3 busses either way. Lisbon can be reached by train. Setúbal also by bus and ferry. I have a bicycle available. I speak Dutch, English, Portuguese, some German and Spanish. Prefer a non smoker. LGBT welcome. I cook mainly vegetables with pasta or rice. I have eggs from my own hens. Cereal/bread for breakfast, warm lunch, tea with cookies/biscuits and bread for dinner (but you are allowed to cook something for yourself if you want to). Fruit available all day.
Limited internet use, but this is due to the bad signal, not because I don´t want people to use it. Sometimes signal is strong and fine for a day, sometimes it´s weak and only a few hours accessable. It can be frustrating and it is no good if you depend on it for work. No TV. I do have hundreds of DVD´s, in a variety of genres. I have books you can read, in Dutch, English and Portuguese. Mostly horse related ofcourse, but also thrillers and novels.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
This host can provide space for campervans.
One
2-3 hours a day, weekdays
