Profile information
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Host is looking for help immediately
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Host rating
100 %
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Last replied
26 Oct 2026
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Reply rate
91.7 %
Usually responds within 3 days
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Feedback
91
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Facebook verified
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Email verified
Country info
Badges (4)
Details
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Description
We are Ruth and Marja, originally from the Netherlands, and we have been living in the beautiful Belgian Ardennes since 1997.
We live in a charming 200 year old Ardenner farmhouse, surrounded by about 20 hectares of land, woods and a small river. It is a peaceful and beautiful place, but life on a ranch also means that there is always something to do!
Horses have been a very important part of our lives for many years. We have recently stepped back from our breeding programme, at least for the time being. We still have three older mares, our former stallion who is now a gelding, and several young horses. So horses are still very much part of our daily life, although we are no longer running a breeding business.
We also have our lovely Jack Russell, Daisy, and our chickens.
We enjoy living in the countryside and sharing our little piece of the Ardennes with people from different countries. We like a relaxed atmosphere, good conversations and, of course, a good laugh.
We are not looking for help specifically related to a horse business. Instead, we are looking for people who enjoy outdoor life and the variety of tasks that come with maintaining a small ranch and a large property.
If you love nature, animals, fresh air and don't mind getting your hands dirty, you will probably feel very much at home here!
And if you love the smell of horses... even better! -
Types of help and learning opportunities
Light gardening
Creative DIY projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Help around the house
Light maintenance
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Interests
PetsFarmingPlant careBooksPhotographyGardeningNatureDancingAnimals -
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
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Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We live in the heart of the beautiful Belgian Ardennes, so there is plenty to discover when you are not working.
Nearby you can visit places such as Durbuy, La Roche-en-Ardenne and Bastogne, as well as castles, caves, forests and many beautiful villages and viewpoints.
If you enjoy outdoor activities, there are plenty of possibilities for hiking, cycling, kayaking and exploring the countryside.
There is a bus stop nearby, and we also have a bicycle that you can use to explore the surrounding area.
We are always happy to give you tips about places to visit and things to do, and if we have time, we enjoy showing people some of our favourite places ourselves. -
Help
Life on our ranch
There is always something going on here, but what we do depends very much on the season and on what needs doing. We enjoy having people around who are interested in horses, animals and life in the countryside, and we like to show them what our everyday life is like.
You may help us with the horses, look after the chickens, work in the garden or help with small jobs around the property. Sometimes we work with firewood or do some maintenance. We always do these things together and we are happy to explain how we do things and why.
You don't have to be an experienced horse person or handyman. If you have never worked with horses before, we can teach you. And if you already have experience or practical skills, we are always interested in learning from you too.
We usually find that one day doing things together and one day free works well, but this is something we can discuss with you. We want you to have enough time to explore the area and enjoy your stay with us as well.
We live in a quiet rural area, so it is probably not the right place if you are looking for nightlife or lots of people around. If you enjoy nature, animals, horses and a peaceful place, and you would like to experience what everyday life on a ranch is really like, you will probably feel at home here. -
Languages spoken
Dutch: Fluent
German: Intermediate
English: Intermediate
French: Beginner -
Accommodation
We offer you your own comfortable apartment on the property.
The apartment has:
* a private bedroom
* a bathroom
* a fully equipped kitchen
* a washing machine
* your own private living space with TV (Netflix)
* wifi
You will have your own kitchen and are expected to prepare your own meals. We can provide basic groceries, or alternatively give you pocket money towards your food, depending on what works best for both of us.
You will have your own private space, but of course you are always welcome to join us for a coffee, a chat or an occasional meal. -
What else ...
We are looking for friendly, reliable and down-to-earth people who enjoy being outdoors, animals and rural life.
You don't need to be an experienced horse person or have particular practical skills. Enthusiasm, common sense, respect for animals and a willingness to learn are much more important. If you already have useful skills, we'd love to learn from you too!
Our home is in the countryside, so this is probably not the right place if you are looking for nightlife or a busy social scene.
But if you are looking for peace, nature, horses, practical experiences and a genuine opportunity to experience rural life while sharing your own culture with us, you might really enjoy staying with us.
For us, the most important part of hosting is the exchange: sharing our way of life with you, learning about yours, and enjoying the experience together. -
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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How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
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My animals / pets
Daisy
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (45)
Because we shared very similar work ethics, … read more
Mohammad is a wonderful person: kind, respectful, reliable, polite and very easy to have around. He helped us tremendously with our horses, especially with starting our three-year-old Mack … read more
Photos
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.8)
Communication:
(5.0)
Because we shared very similar work ethics, … read more
Mohammad is a wonderful person: kind, respectful, reliable, polite and very easy to have around. He helped us tremendously with our horses, especially with starting our three-year-old Mack … read more
Linda is a super nice woman who came to us in her self converted camper along with her sweet dog Rex.
She is very pleasant to deal with, a hard worker who sees the work herself, and she helped us make the 2 gardens (ornamental and vegetable … read more
We are grateful that she helped us so much with various jobs on our farm.
She is humble and friendly, nothing is too much for her and she works very hard.
Marit has helped us with painting, putting up fences, lunging, mucking out, feeding and cleaning mainly young horses, and … read more
Die Ranch liegt inmitten der schönen Ardennen und ist ein kleines Paradies für zwei und Vierbeiner. Mir hat besonders gut gefallen, dass die Pferde natürlich gehalten werden und die Fohlen gemeinsam in der Herde aufwachsen. Hier … read more
Nothing is too much and she was always cheerful and positive. She is really super nice to deal with and we miss her.
We had a lot of … read more
Kira is someone who really likes to roll up her sleeves, she has helped us tremendously with halter training the foals and teaching the basic things to the yearlings, as well as putting up fences, mucking out the stables, feeding and taking care of the horses, feeding and taking care … read more
I can only say VERY positive things about Thamis.
In my opinion he can do just about anything, he is a professional who works very precisely with everything, he works very hard, is a very cheerful personality, with whom you can have nice conversations about anything and everything.
So actually a … read more
I have learned more than I expected.
Horses are just perfect and the ranch is Heaven on Earth for humans too.
Thank you guys for having and trusting me and hopefully coming back in October to work with the foals :-)
She is super friendly, considerate, very neat, responsible, very good with the horses, she gives the horses confidence, she LOVES horses and you can tell by everything.
Unfortunately she could only stay with us for 2 weeks due to circumstances, but we really … read more
Marja picked up us at the train station and we went together to the supermarket and after that to the Ranch. In the very first moment we were love with that place with all the horses (and gooses, dogs and … read more
What an incredibly sweet couple they are.
They helped us a lot with different jobs in the yard, not always the jobs with a WOW factor but they did every job with equal joy and good spirits.
Always cheerful, polite and friendly, really nice people … read more
We wish you the best of luck with your … read more
She helped us with feeding and mucking out the stables, which suited us very well as my husband was not allowed to do anything due to surgery.
Thank you very much for your help … read more
We had different tasks, for example building / painting / cutting wood / gardening, as well as cleaning the stables and putting horses in … read more
I can say nothing but good things about them, they helped us sooooo much.
I will mention a few things; like helping in the garden, with the construction of a new aviary, (not quite finished yet so you have to come back), with splitting wood, (with the machine) and sawing wood, brushing horses, … read more
2 girls from France, totally crazy about horses.
They have been with us twice now for 6 and 12 weeks and it was really great.
They have helped us tremendously with the young horses and foals, I hope they have learned a lot here.
These are girls … read more
2 girls from France, totally crazy about horses.
They have been with us twice now for 6 and 12 weeks and it was really great.
They have helped us tremendously with the young horses and foals, I think they have learned a lot here.
These are girls … read more
She has helped us very well with the horses, both with the care (cleaning the stables etc.) and with the lunging and groundwork from the youngsters.
Half a word is enough for her and she knows immediately what is meant, she learns very fast.
We warmly … read more
They have done a lot of work here. And always as cheerful and friendly. It was really nice to have them at our farm.
They helped us in the garden, they completely reorganized a whole piece of the garden, and also with (a lot of) weeding, according to Jeff it was addictive hahaha they … read more
Nicolas stayed with us for 3 weeks and luckily we had good weather to work outside. He has helped us very well with the construction of the new aviary.
He also sawed wood and cut grass with the brushcutter.
Nicolas is a very hard worker, he is very punctual, friendly and … read more
I stayed in an apartment next to the house. I shared dinner with the hosts and cooked for myself breakfast and lunch.
The farm is located on … read more
The place is lovely, in the nature with a river and the horses. The place where we slept is really comfortable and nice.
We really liked the work, building the terrace with Ruth. We learned a lot.
Marja and Ruth are both really kind people, patient, and helped us a lot to … read more
They've worked very hard in the two weeks they've been with us. We are really full of respect!
The first 2 days they were here they worked their way through a huge mountain of wood, cleaved, sawed and then neatly stacked up. We … read more
Laurel is super gentil with the horses, she was so lucky to be here while all the foals were born. We took turns waiting for another mare to give birth, and she was really very involved in the births.
It was great the way she helped us with the … read more
Too bad that her english is not so good that made it a bit difficult to have long conversations. But she understand quick and needs half a word. She is very responsible.
Thank you very much for all … read more
We can only give positive feedback about Tyler. He's a very hard worker, very friendly and polite and very sociable.
Tyler has helped us with the horses, mucking out, feeding, he helped us with plumbing and various other work.
He is great with animals.
We warmly recommend Tyler … read more
Their farm is in the country of Belgium, but close to train stations and they are more than happy to give you a ride into town.
The work on a day to day business consisted of caring for the horses in the morning, and then working with Ruth on projects around the farm.
While I … read more
Marja and Ruth saved us from another workaway in England, we stayed with them 28 wonderful days, Marja picked us up in the center of Marche, since the first day treated us with great care and respect. She took us to the farm, and took us to our very well equipped accommodation, with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living … read more
Jessy was a joy to have around. She fit in beautifully with our family, was willing and eager to help.
Jessy is a very kind and lovely person who loves animals. Our dogs loved het very much :)
Jessy helped us with the horses like cleaning boxes, working with the foals but also helped with weeding, … read more
It was a pleasure to meet them and to have them with us to help. Javiera and Juan are super friendly, they work very hard, neat and fast and nothing is too much. Really great!
They are real animal lovers, and our animals loved them.
They helped us with garden work, with the horses, with the … read more
It was really great to be able to host you for a month, seldom seen 2 girls who can do such a lot of work.
Always cheerful, nothing was too much, pleasant conversations at the table and a lot of respect for the computer work you did in your 'free' time next to it.
Irina and Veronica helped us with many … read more
A very nice experienced in general!
Craig is a VERY hard worker and he helped us with demolition, cleaning, building, woodwork etc.
He is uncomplicated and funny. We highly recommend him for future hosts, you will not regret it!
You are always welcome at our … read more
It was really nice to have you at our place, the dogs and we miss you!!
Please come back if you have the … read more
We only had to work every other day, so we had opportunity to visit the nearby villages, our hosts even provided a ride for us!
On a working day, we had to work about 6-8 … read more
Ruth & Marja are this kind of people who make you feel at home. We spent there one month and we have the intention to come back again the next year.
- Work: It was more related to learning about horses than hard work. We cleaned stables, moving horses from/to … read more
They are VERY hard workers, always happy to do the tasks you ask, and also when you don't ask, they do something :)
Alex and Esther helped us with a lot of things, like cleaning stables, feeding horses, put horses in and out, brushing horses and … read more
Francesco and Yani helped us f.e. with building fences, grass mowing, chopping and cutting wood, … read more
Natasha and Franco helped us with a lot of tasks like working in our garden, they helped us with the horses and with the concrete for a new building, and with … read more
We really enjoyed the time they spent with us. Two very nice guys, VERY hard workers, nothing is to much, I love their humor, they are polite, very easy going, they love animals, our dogs loved them we had nice conversations and just had a great … read more
We were really lucky to have Andrew with us. He fulfilled all our expectations. His interest, dedication and good attitude to hard work were amazing. We laughed a lot and had much fun. His scottish accent is so nice :) unfortunately he could only stay with us for one week....
Andy helped us with … read more
Ruth and I really hope to see you back, you're always very welcome here.
We highly recommend … read more
Making a mold for a concrete wall was an interesting job and Ruth was ready to explain everything and is a great person to work … read more
As it was our first Workaway experience we were unsure what to expect. As mentioned in previous feedback, we had our own fully equipped apartment next to the main house. We ate dinner with Marja and Ruth and sorted our own breakfast and lunch in the apartment's kitchen. … read more
This was my first Workaway experience.
I had my own apartment (well equipped). Marja is an excellent cook, she made always healthy delicious dinner. We went to the nearby town for shopping, usually twice a week. We went together to Durbuy to the Christmas market to have a dinner, that … read more
He was a pleasure to have around, he stayed at our place for three weeks and did a lot of great jobs here. He helped building a roof and building a fence, he helped with the horses, he has our hifi reconnected on a splendid way, he saw the work and was always there with a helping hand.
We felt very lucky to … read more
They were always more than happy to take me anywhere I wanted to go, because they are somewhere a bit rural (although the … read more