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28 Jan 2025
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Description
We are vegetarians living on a small farm in the beautiful Charente countryside, running a charity and caring for our mostly rescued horses, dogs, cats and wildlife. Our property is within walking distance of the village of Pressignac, and within cycling distance of a large leisure lake with sandy beaches, swimming, boat hire, riding stables and bars/restaurants.
Our charity provides information and support for anyone dealing with a horse with laminitis, EMS or PPID. We are particularly interested in hosting vets, vet students and anyone with an interest in laminitis, horse health and horse foot care. Several student vets have stayed with us (we can host vet students looking for non-clinical EMS with horses) and enjoyed being involved with active laminitis cases and rehabilitations.
Andrea (55) runs the charity, and looks after our horses and other animals. Martin (64) took early retirement from lecturing in artificial intelligence at Bournemouth University, where he was a PhD supervisor and external examiner. He continues to keep up to date with AI, but also grows organic fruit and veg, brews his own beer and bakes excellent bread.
Our property is an old farmhouse, with a gite at one end, a large garden for the dogs, a large barn for the horses, outbuildings and around 3 hectares used for grazing and hay making. We currently have 1 horse & 2 ponies (but sometimes have horses here for short-term stays), 2 dogs, several cats, and wildlife that includes nesting barn owls and many hedgehogs.Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Language practice
Gardening
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Visitors will be able to get involved with the work of the laminitis charity, to learn about laminitis, EMS and PPID, hoofcare/trimming and nutrition based on the latest published research, and possibly to take part in laminitis rehabilitations and visits to horses with laminitis, and to learn about general horse care and work with horses and other animals. They will also have the opportunity to discuss artificial intelligence and computing with a university lecturer/PhD supervisor. They will experience life in an unspoilt, rural area of France with an abundance of wildlife, and have the opportunity to practise their English with us (we speak English and basic French), and French locally.
Help
We are looking for around 4 hours help per day – this is flexible - and might include helping with the horses (mucking out, grooming, changing rugs, feeding, in-hand exercise, cleaning tack), dogs and hedgehogs, gardening, housework and help with cooking/washing up, helping with gite change overs, helping with the running of the laminitis charity – basically helping us with whatever we have to do. Work with the animals tends to be in the morning and evening, particularly in hot weather. Helpers must love animals and nature and be happy around dogs (we have a Gordon Setter and a young spaniel x setter, both rescued and very friendly). We are looking for helpers to stay 1 – 3 weeks.
We are trying to improve our French, so French speakers would be welcome.
We sometimes have a need for specialist skills, such as tree surgery, roofing, plastering or tiling, or need some "muscle", e.g. to help put in fence posts, hang gates or dig out ditches, so please let us know if you can offer particular skills or experience that might be useful on a small farm with a gite.Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: IntermediateAccommodation
Helper accommodation might be in the gite or in the main house, depending on gite bookings (when the gite is let out helpers have a downstairs bedroom with a double and single bed and en-suite shower room, and share kitchen, dining room and lounge with us). All bedrooms are en-suite with WiFi broadband. All meals are provided, often using our home grown organic fruit and veg – note we are mostly vegetarian but will eat fish – and cooking facilities are available.
What else ...
We live in a beautiful rural area of France, surrounded by fields grazed by Limousin beef cattle and chestnut and oak woodland. There are many waymarked walks and cycle paths (helpers have the use of bikes). Within walking/cycling distance there are several bars, cafes and restaurants, a riding school, fishing lake and 2 sandy beaches with swimming in the lake and boat hire during the summer. We try to take helpers to some local sights during their stay - helpers have visited the war memorial of Oradour-sur-Glane, the ruined castle overlooking the Vienne at St Germain de Confolens, Confolens Dance Festival, Rochechouart chateau, art gallery and night market, the bustling weekly market at Piegut, the newly restored abbey at St Junien, and local fetes and firework evenings.
The easiest way to reach us is by train (SNCF) from Limoges to Saillat-Chassenon - we can collect helpers from the train station in Saillat or St Junien - or by bus from Angouleme to Roumazieres. If no public transport is available, we may be able to collect travellers from Limoges airport, but we may ask for a contribution towards fuel costs for airport collections.
We are happy to welcome one or two non-smoking helpers (aged 18+) at a time, but no children.A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (18)
there is always a myriad… read more
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(5.0)
there is always a myriad… read more
Andrea and Martin took us with… read more
As she has her own horse, Beverley had no problem looking after our 4 horses and knew instinctively… read more
Days were spent caring for the horses, mucking out stables and fields, exercising Dan and walking the dogs. Due to my interest Andrea spent time teaching me about her work… read more
Andrea is so knowledgeable and dedicated to horses. For a person who knows almost… read more
I opted for “excellent” because Andrea and Martin do put a lot of effort into giving the workaways a good time. As like with pre-workaways, they took me to some places nearby like a food market, a historical… read more
We loved her enthusiasm, she was always cheerful, helpful, and easy and relaxing to have around – she brought a lovely presence to our home.
She was great with all the animals, confident with the big horses and gentle with Dolly and the dogs. She cleaned out the stables beautifully, spent hours… read more
First of all, Andrea and Martin are very kind, intelligent people that made me feel a… read more
I particularly enjoyed the simple things like waking up early and going for a walk through the quiet… read more
There was nothing worse than expected. The help required was not too hard (a lot around all the work connected with the horses - which I really liked), I had… read more
Marlen took over the daily jobs of mucking out the horses’ stables and… read more
Yarrow fitted right in with our family way of life and looking after the animals. Her experience and confidence with horses meant that she knew instinctively what needed to be done… read more
The work was not… read more
They are very nice and lovely people. I just felt like a family member!
It was a pleasure to share there daily life! Meeting there lovely friends and parents, watching movies (e.g. Hamlet (-;), cooking, going for walk with the dogs, swimming in the nearby lake, checking the horses at… read more