Lydia Böck's “Marina” farm in Arget is a small horse paradise.
Many horses that can no longer be ridden athletically due to age or illness enjoy a good old age here.
For Lydia Böck, this is an affair of the heart.
Arget
- Lena gets Serro out of his box.
First of all grooming and a few crawl units.
Then it goes out to the outdoor area, right next to the stable.
Serro (complete: Serro-Linnert) is 31 years old.
That's a house number for horses.
The gelding trots happily next to Lena.
“I'm doing ground work with him now,” says the twelve-year-old.
Means: He has to listen to Lena's commands, stop when she stops, move on when she walks on - and also step backwards or sideways when asked.
Several times a week, Lena takes care of "her" Serro, who belongs to Lydia Böck, the stable manager.
She knows: Even old horses don't just want to be fed.
You need address, a task, something for your head.
Basically, it's like humans.
The oldest horse is 33 years old
Local appointment in the Marina stable, just behind Arget. It has a good reputation in the district - especially as a pension for the elderly, which is not entirely correct. Because the youngest horse, Don Camillo, a dark brown gelding, is eight years old, the oldest, mare Samba, 33 years old. But it is also correct: Many horses that can no longer be ridden in sport due to age or illness enjoy a good old age here.
There is space for 14 animals in total, that's how many paddock boxes are available in the airy, bright stable.
Paddock box means: Every horse can step out of its box into a fenced area outside at any time - if they are not in the paddock anyway.
Between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. they are here on the pasture.
"Then they have to go in, because of all the brakes and mosquitoes," explains Lydia Böck.
Böck, 57 years old, has been running this stable for 21 years.
Together with her partner Robert Herrmann, she runs an idyllically situated horse paradise between meadow and forest.
“I am a nature lover,” she says.
Marina stall?
"I named it after my daughter."
Previously successful in trotting
The pensioner's farm or the charity stables were never planned: "But many horses have been here for so long - that clearly influences the age structure." speaks.
In her previous life, the trained florist Böck was successful in harness racing.
Back then, in the early 1990s, you could still earn good money at the Daglfing racecourse.
“The winner got 3,000 marks, and even those who didn't finish first could easily win 500 marks,” she recalls.
The horses practically earned their own maintenance costs.
Long ago.
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With targeted exercises, the horses stay physically and mentally fit: Lena trains the 31-year-old gelding Serro on the outdoor area.
© Volker Camehn
Lydia Böck, born in Johanneskirchen, “turned her hobby into a profession,” she says.
She pursues this with a lot of passion.
The stable is swept perfectly, the litter in the boxes, either straw or shavings, clean and plentiful.
The horses are fed three times a day, the monthly board price (370 euros) includes hay, straw and concentrated feed, and paddock anyway.
If you want something special for your four-legged friend, you have to put it up yourself.
“I feed what the horse owners want.
It's all a matter of consultation, ”says Böck.
But she also pays attention to whether the horses are too fat or too thin.
Check that everything is right.
Actually 24 hours a day, as she lives right next to the stable.
Lots of care
Lydia Böck takes care of it. Late in the morning, when all the horses are still in the paddock, the boxes mucked out and the yard swept - those are always the best moments of the day for Böck: “A good feeling when everything is done and in good shape.” She ensures also that the four-legged friends are carefully grazed at after winter, a few more minutes each day until they have got used to the fresh grass. This procedure is called grazing, because horses have a sensitive digestive tract, which quickly threatens colic, which can be fatal.
Anyone who asks horse owners, including former ones, why they hire their horses here, always gets similar answers: the well-tended stable, the care of its operator, reliability in stable management and the possibility of extensive riding trails. Comfort meets idyll, that's what Stall Marina scores well with. Trouble in paradise seems to be rare: “In the last 20 years, only two horses could not stay, they just couldn't be integrated into the group when grazing,” says Böck. And currently the stable roof has to be repaired, hail damage. "That easily costs 10,000 euros again."
Gelding Serro comes back to his paddock box after his work is done.
Lena is satisfied with him and probably with herself too.
She pats him lovingly.
And tomorrow morning the former trotter is going back out to the paddock with his buddies.
Volker Camehn
