A volunteer experience with Skyrian Horses in Greece

Skyrian Horses Update March 2022– Would you like to come and help us with our non-profit project helping a critically endangered breed of Small Horses in Skyros Greece. If so then read below.

Can you help?

Seeking 1 or 2 volunteers with pony/horse experience to join our team this Spring/Summer 2022. Who we are looking for:

• 1-2 volunteers who can commit to 6 weeks or more between late April and September ✅
• Preferably with some horse care and ground skills experience ✅
• You can cope with doing tasks in the heat and are physically fit and strong ✅
• You enjoy basic living conditions and remote Greek Island countryside and of course love ponies 🐴✅
• Honest, hardworking, mature outlook and 21 years or over. ✅

What the daily tasks are:

• Helping pooh pick/collect manure from pony fields, sweeping yards and keeping the farm tidy and clean🧹
• Cleaning and filling up waters buckets and troughs 🪣
• Helping with haying, filling haynets, special feeds and mineral buckets for our elderly ponies🌾
• General daily care and support for well being of ponies here 🐴
• Somedays there might be the need to help with maintenance work that might be happening e.g. whitewashing, painting, cleaning tack room, hay deliveries and field maintenance🧹
• Possibly showing visitors 👋

Helping hours

Around 4.5 hours of tasks a day within 1 shift, either AM or PM, so you will have either the morning or afternoon off each day.

TEAM A: Morning shift 7.30 am to 1.00 pm (1.5-hour breakfast coffee water biscuit break within shift)
TEAM B: Evening shift 5 pm to 8.30 pm plus 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm topping up water buckets

What you get in return:

• Accommodation in a shared room, or tent ✅
• Self-service breakfast and good home-cooked lunch supplied ✅
• 1 full day off a week ✅
• Daily free time to explore beach, local landscape, hang out in a hammock, play with ponies, go for a walk, read or write etc. ✅
• Opportunity to live a nearly off-grid lifestyle on Skyros island Greece, no light pollution, quiet, amazing sunsets and skies, near to beach, pine forest and good taverna.
• Chance to get back to basics and reconnect with nature. ✅
• Opportunity to live close to horses💓

In general, knowing you are doing something of value and helping a genuine non-profit organisation committed to the care and wellbeing of the critically endangered rare breed the Skyrian horse.

📝We can supply you with a reference after having completed a volunteering placement with us.

See the contact details below to get in touch with the volunteer coordinators. 👇

(April 2021) Hi, we look after and care for 34 critically endangered Skyrian ponies and some of these are welfare cases that we have saved and protected. We are a registered non-profit and accept volunteers, offering them basic accommodation in a shared room or single tent. This volunteer exchange includes hot water, basic bathroom, beds and sheets, small kitchen area, fridge, kettle, toasted sandwich maker; the camping has a ring and a self serve breakfast and home-cooked lunch. We either ask for a donation towards food for an evening meal or for volunteers to source it for themselves.

How many hours of volunteering help will you expect per week?

About 20-25 hours – A working day is approx 4 hours helping care for ponies so mucking out fields, cleaning and filling water buckets, mending fences, moving hay, etc physical repetitive farm-based tasks.

Here’s a typical day in the life of a volunteer during the summer months (times vary during winter):

• 7.30 First muck-out of the fields, fill water buckets, assist with feeding
• 8.45 Breakfast
• 9.45 General stable jobs such as sweeping out/organising the stables, grooming, cleaning water buckets, assisting with showing groups around, etc. OR free time depending on whats happening each day.
• 12.30 Help with feed and water.
• 13.30 Lunch and break
• 18.00 Final muck-out, water, feed
• 19.00 (If volunteers are interested and there is sufficient time) Lunging, riding, halter training, handling, carriage training, etc.
• 20.30 Dinner

Days of rest:

1.5 days off a week.

Location

We are based on Skyros, island Greece. The beautiful remote area of tourist track near a beach and pine forest.

Do you charge volunteers a daily or weekly fee?

No, we offer free food and accommodation *breakfast+lunch, no dinner

Accommodation

The accommodation is quite basic. Our volunteer room has beds, a shower, a toilet and a small kitchen area. When we have more than two volunteers, we do sometimes have some of them sleeping in tents, but they are still entitled to use of all the volunteer room facilities.

Diet

We are committed to organic living. Based on a small farm with other animals 10 rescue cats 2 rescue dogs and a goat and chickens. We cook at one hot meal a day, and we do ask for help with the washing up. Breakfast food will be supplied, such as muesli, porridge, bread, cheese, eggs, and milk. We ask you to supply your evening meal or make a small donation for you to get supplies.

VISA -invitation letters

We cannot provide visas or invitation letters. Similar requests will be ignored!

Things to do in your free time

There is always free time in the afternoons which can be spent as you wish, walking, reading, going to the nearby beach at Palamari or just taking a nap! Volunteers are entitled to one and a half days off a week during which we will try wherever possible to allow you to visit Skyros Town and experience the local culture.

For more information please see the contact details section below👇🔍

CONTACT DETAILS🔍📧

Host Name: Amanda 
Email: skyrosislandhorsetrust@gmail.com

For more information visit the host website and social media pages:
http://www.skyrosislandhorsetrust.com

Instagram: friendsoftheskyrianhorse
Fb group Friends of the skyrianhorse – katsarelias Simpson project
Fb page @ friendsoftheskyrianhorse

Support the Skyrian Horses:

See more volunteering opportunities in Greece

Go to the Volunteer programs with horses/section