Reality rarely exceeds our expectations. I was lucky when the photographer and I went to the farm Domov pro konje, zs Patricia Pitříková, which provides shelter to dozens of animals that would probably not have lived long ago without this chance.
I haven’t experienced so much positive energy, peace, omnipresent harmony and enormous meaningfulness in a long time. “We are not a shelter, we don’t place our animals anywhere. They have a home with us and live here too,” says Patricie Pitříková.
The very trip to the ranch will put you in a different mode. The narrow roads winding through the picturesque landscape of Czech Siberia will force you to slow down, even if you don’t want to. So you can fully perceive the beauty of the surrounding nature, rolling meadows, fields and forests disappearing in a soft, foggy haze. Outside, the creeping winter indirectly confirms that the naming of the area is really not accidental. But there is no time to think about the bad weather, because other sensations will prevail. As soon as we approach the village of Leština, which is between Votice and Mlada Vožica, we drive through pastures, where we see the first contented, grazing residents of the Home for Horses.
And when we enter the territory of the ranch, we don’t know where to go first with our eyes and with our hands. There are more adepts who want to be friends with us immediately than my fellow photographer and I have time to follow and caress. There are a bunch of friendly hafans who obviously enjoy our presence and hang around us to make sure they don’t miss a thing. There are horses that curiously sniff my hand and purse with their warm, soft nostrils to see if I happen to be carrying something for them. And of course, madam cats too. They ostentatiously ignore me, as their nature dictates, but they magically complement this environment bursting with harmony and well-being. Believe me, these animals really show their joy in life – and probably also some gratitude for being rescued. If I’m being a bit pathetic, it seems like an animal paradise where nothing is wanted of the animals and where they can live in harmony with their nature. Which is a miracle for many of them.
There are former racehorses who, from foaling age, had to do only what the man told them to do. There are horses that have been through so much pain that you don’t understand how a human could do this to them. There are “grandfathers and grandmothers” who served people all their lives, and when they no longer had the strength and energy, the owners would send them to the slaughterhouse. There are former draft horses, police and dressage horses, breeding mares and also some of those who were part of the recent case of abused horses in Jankov. And also a dog that was found as a puppy tied up in a sack in the woods, and a small dog that was almost beaten to death with a shovel in Romania. There is also a female dog who lived her puppyhood locked in a sheep pen and it took her a month to learn to eat at all. “Most of them needed to find a permanent home in order to have a chance for a happy life. We are different from ordinary shelters because we do not house animals. They live out their lives with us,” says Patricie Pitříková, the woman who built this oasis together with her partner Pavel Malypetr. They are currently taking care of 36 horses, goats, five dogs, twelve cats, three geese and three cows.
Viktorka and her victory
One of them is called Viktorka. She literally fought for her life when she escaped while being transported to the slaughterhouse. “For ten days she wandered in the fields and meadows near Český Krumlov, and because she didn’t allow herself to be lured or caught, she was in danger of being shot. Her fate touched a lot of people, and when I was asked if I would take her in, I didn’t hesitate. So that she wouldn’t be alone, we also took in a cow from a nearby farm, which was in a very poor condition. She lived with us for only 46 days. She was very strong, how much Viktorka perceived her death at the time. Animals have strong bonds with each other, and we humans don’t always perceive it correctly,” Patricia says, adding that luckily Viktorka soon had two more companions who got a chance to live here. They took in a spotted heifer with a large hematoma on the abdomen, which had to be treated by a veterinarian, and a Prokůpka calf with many wounds on its body and a diseased eye, from which an almost one-ton giant grew here.
Retired Racing Champions
Patricia’s first thoughts about wanting to rescue horses came when she got her first horse, Konorse, twenty-three years ago. He had a successful sports career, but it was also riddled with health problems and, apparently, unkind treatment. When she bought him, he was down and lifeless. Under her care, he came to life and accompanied her to the current location. Konors thus became the “founder” of the Home for Horses. “I bought him then just for fun. He lived to be 25 and a half years old.” She then began to materialize her idea of rescuing more horses when she and her husband bought a farm with forty-two hectares of pasture, founded a non-profit organization, embarked on an extensive renovation of two barns and adjacent buildings over several years, and gradually began accepting animals. They primarily focused on horses, but other animals were added as well.
“I’ve always said that twenty-two horses is the ceiling. But you can’t plan much in this. Once, for example, three horse owners called me in one week asking if I wouldn’t accept them. I couldn’t decide which one to take because the others would end up in the slaughterhouse. I didn’t have the right to decide. In the end, I took them all. Among them was, for example, a horse that was pulling a carriage on the Old Town Square and had a herniated cervical vertebra after an accident,” she recalls. Patricia. They are now fully stocked and are not taking on any more horses, but are trying to find new homes and connect original owners with new ones. Fourteen horses managed to find a home this year.
Among Patricia’s wards are also former stars of the racing world – the legendary Tiumen and Retriever. The two champions who ran Velka Pardubická enjoy the joy of not having to do anything anymore. Just be.
Communication with animals is in listening
In Dom, horses work within individual so-called families. Patricia divides them according to how they get along, have similar needs and thus be in harmony. A special group consists of “grandmothers and grandfathers, between the ages of 27 and 33, in a separate barn. They no longer have teeth, so they must receive a special diet. The basis of another family is a group of horses from Jankovska, a case that was widely discussed in the media at the time, when dozens of horses were taken away from an irresponsible owner. And the most vital individuals are with their family on pastures all year round, with the fact that they have a reserved generous shelter. This group is called Karlík’s family. “That’s the name of the gelding who is the leader of this family of seven horses and a goat,” laughs Patricia.
Horse care, which includes not only high-quality feed, but also veterinary care, is understandably financially demanding. The Home receives a certain amount of money thanks to the fact that several horses are stabled there, whose owners pay properly for their facilities and care. The Home receives additional income from donors and supporters. Partial funds also flow from Patricia’s energetic work with horses and animals in general. “I am often a friend on the phone and advise the owners on what they can do for a horse, dog, cat or other animals. Even according to the photo, I can connect to the animal and remove certain blocks. With the help of energy, you can not only remove the cause of the disease, but also reveal the reason why the animal is sad or why it has a health or psychological problem,” explains Patricia.
When the owner then asks her how to deal with her, she replies that she can either send the animals to the Home with feed or vitamins, or that she can contribute as she wishes. Over the years, she is said to have learned to listen to animals and horses and understand their speech. And it’s undeniable that when you see her in the middle of a group of horses, she doesn’t say much, and yet there’s a strange, non-verbal communication between her and her charges that probably only they understand. “I think we can all communicate with animals, it’s actually possible. It’s just a matter of listening to them. Stop speaking human language and just be. Stop and suddenly you feel their energy. It flows and you know it’s speech without words. We had a stabled horse here that was paralyzed on its hind legs, couldn’t stand due to swelling of the spinal cord. I knew he didn’t want to die, he wanted to live. They indulged “We gave him three weeks to recover. We held him so he could stand, we supported him on his side, his hip and he didn’t give up. There are many stories when you communicate with an animal and know what it needs,” adds Patricia.
24/7 deployment
Patricia handles all the work at the Horse Home together with her husband and with the help of their fifteen-year-old son. “I also have to thank our friends who come to us regularly. It’s a twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week commitment. First thing in the morning, we go to check on the horses, because we never know if they’ll be all right. First, we check on the oldest, who is thirty-three years old. When a man drives his son to school, their task is to check the horses and cows in the pasture from the car. Then I go to pour crushed hay and feed on the elders I ride, in the meantime I clean the shelters and continue to the next group of animals. Pavel takes care of other habitats and replenishes the animals’ water supply and so on,” lists Patricie.
The care also continues with the health care according to the needs of individual horses. “I think they know they can rely on us, and trust is essential for them,” notes the owner of Domov. Since the majority of its inhabitants are older horses, or horses with various health problems, their departure is part of the local environment. “To date, 29 horses have died with us in these fourteen years, which is not a few. For example, three last year, three this year as well. You can sense and feel in advance that time is running out. The purest thing is when a horse dies alone. And that time is spent lovingly with us. I remember, for example, Eliška, a crossbred horse that we bought from the owner, who had deep holes in her from which it was leaking puss. She was a broken animal. When you see this, you don’t understand how evil and cruel people can be. She left us and the horses with a loud squeal.”
I am happy when the animals are happy
No matter what animal topic you discuss with Patricia, one main leitmotif always permeates her words and opinions: Viewing animals as sensitive, sentient beings with great bonds between them. “We see it anytime, for example, when we take a horse out of the herd for examination. The others stand by the fence, cackle, call him back. My principle is to treat the animals with respect and dignity, to give them enough time, not to push. It’s as if I were myself. I wouldn’t want people to be nice to me either.
Animals are dependent on our decisions and expectations. Whether it is horse racing, show jumping, military, or breeding. Some horses are sold ten times in their lifetime, in each country they speak a different language and the new owner expects the animal to do everything he wants right away. With us, the animals don’t need anything, which is why there is such harmony here,” explains Patricia. I wonder if she has any space in her work-filled days to be aware of the moments when her mission fulfills her. She answers without much thought: “When I see that the horses are really happy, that they just see you and call you, welcome you, follow you. At the same time, it’s also a beautiful feeling when we check on them in the pastures, they they just register from afar and otherwise you are not interested at all, because they have their own pasture, hay and water. That is a great joy.”
You can find out more about the Home for Horses, zs on the website
Source: Recipe magazine,
