Ellen

Netherlands
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Travel information
I am currently
Travelling
Activities i am interested in:
Animal care; Horse riding; Hiking; Gardening; Anything outdoorsy really
My next destination:
Chile - from Jan 2024 until Apr 2024
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Description
Hi!
Thank you for visiting my profile page :)

About me:
My name is Ellen, I'm 27 years old and I live in the Netherlands, together with my boyfriend and 3 cats. I have studied forest and nature conservation and thereafter marine biology, which I completed in 2019. Since then, I have been working as a marine biologist for an international company. My hobbies include horse riding, hiking, scuba diving, cycling, any outdoorsy activity really. I also very much enjoy curling up with a book, playing a game with friends or watching some Netflix. I'm a social person and love making new friends but also appreciate peace and quiet time to myself.

What I'm looking for:
I'm looking for a place to go for ~2.5 months between January and March 2024. I would very much like to spend a large part of this time working with horses: helping to take care of them, (trail-)riding / training them, perhaps guiding guest rides, etc. Besides this I would also enjoy things such as taking care of other animals (dogs, cats, cows, sheep, you name it), maintaining riding / hiking trails, gardening.
I'm interested in any location that offers adventure and the possibility to go horse riding in nature (in the months of January to March), currently looking at places such as Namibia, Argentina, Costa Rica, southern Europe.

My experience:
I have been riding horses since I was 7 years old. For the first 10 years, I mainly had dressage lessons, with the occasional jumping lesson. On early holidays I found out that I most enjoy trail riding, there's no better thing than exploring nature on horseback in my view. Therefore I have spent the past 10 years mainly doing trail rides in different places, with one of the highlights being a 5-day trek through Iceland with a herd of free running horses. For the past two years, I have been riding an Arabian gelding twice a week, mainly in the forests near our home but we also have dressage lessons in the arena every now and then and enjoy doing ground work too. Horse wellbeing is my top priority and I love learning more still about topics such as natural horsemanship, horse anatomy, gear fitting, hoof maintenance, etc.

I hope this gave you a little insight into who I am, if you would like to know more please send me a message!
Cheers, Ellen
Interests
Yoga / Wellness
Pets
Plant care
Sustainability
Outdoor activities
Nature
Mountain
Farming
Gardening
Hiking
Events & social
Cycling
Culture
Books
Beach
Animals
Adventure sports
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
French: Beginner
Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn
I'm interested in:
Gardening
Life at a Farmstay
Animal Care
Hospitality/Tourism
Eco Projects
More details about your skills
Horse riding (trail riding, dressage, ground work);
Animal care (we have 3 cats, we had a dog at my parents and sometimes I still do dog sitting);
Gardening (basic knowledge but eager to get my hands dirty and learn more);
Age
28
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements

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1 Feb 2024

Left by Workawayer (Ellen) for host (Horse lovers welcome to help ...)

I have spent the month of January at this place and time has flown by so fast, because of how absolutely amazing the experience was! First of all, Marco is one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. He puts a lot of effort into making you feel welcome, introducing the place, the work and the people to you and making sure you're having a good… read more time. At the same time, when he sees you are experienced and comfortable handling and riding the horses, he gives you a lot of trust and freedom in what you do, often allowing us (me and the other volunteer who was staying at the same time) to also ride by ourselves and trusting the place to us when he had to go away for a few days. It was amazing to ride and work with him, to learn from his experience as a veterinarian and overall great rider.

The work itself did actually not feel like work at all. There is only a very small amount of daily chores to be done. The rest of your "work" time is spent on prepping for and sometimes riding along with guest rides; riding with Marco or by ourselves to train the horses and keep them fit; doing groundwork such as lunging and leading the horses on hand-walks to prepare the young ones for riding; and whatever other fun ideas Marco or you come up with: he is very open to your own input and suggestions. During my time here I have ridden nearly every day, sometimes twice or even three times a day. The riding is done on trails and/or the beach and the horses are all so well behaved and surefooted. Animal welfare is the highest priority at this place and the way the horses are kept, treated and ridden is of a very high standard.

We also had a lot of free time, usually we would do an early morning ride, then have some time to ourselves before and after lunch and gather again for e.g. a guest activity towards the end of the afternoon. During this time you are free to explore the amazing hikes that this absolutely stunning place has to offer. We would sometimes hang out with the staff working at the hotel: hiking, playing volleyball and making bonfires at the beach. All the people that work at the hotel are wonderful, so friendly, welcoming and passionate about the place they work at. Most of the people do speak some English and were also very willing to help me work on my Spanish. When you want to work on learning / improving your Spanish here I would recommend already making sure to have a solid basis, because Chileans speak very fast and sometimes swallow letters or syllables, so if you don't already have some basis (which I did not really have) it's fairly hard to understand which made them (so very much appreciated) usually switch to English for me.

Regarding food, accommodation and logistics: I was generally very comfortable staying at this place. There are two different places a volunteer can stay depending on availability: at the farm house (where me and the other volunteer shared a room), which is very cosy, has a shared bathroom, kitchen and living room and is situated at the beautiful vegetable/flower garden; or in a room at the wings where the workers are accommodated, which also has shared facilities. The farm house is a 20 minute walk away from the main lodge (where three meals per day are served) and stables, but sometimes Marco would pick us up in the morning if we had an early ride. There is also a paddock near the house so some nights we rode two of the horses up at night and back in the morning, a very fun way of 'commuting' ;) The worker accommodation wings are much closer but tend to be a little noisier. Things that may be handy to bring: snacks if you want to eat in between the three meals; beer/wine if you want to drink this; laundry detergent if you're staying at the farmhouse and light coloured clothes if you're coming in summer (there are stinging horseflies which are more attracted to dark colors). There is no cell reception in most of the reserve but there is wifi at the accommodation and the lodge. For me this was perfect to disconnect from the hectics of digital life for a month.

Words simply cannot describe how amazing this experience has been, thank you so much Marco for having me as a volunteer! If I someday have the opportunity to come back, I absolutely will.

(Excellent )

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