 "My name is Andreas Endries. I have been living in Portugal since 2001.Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up in the countryside near Cologne in Germany, close to nature and animals. I have always loved horses and that love has guided me through my life and got me to be where I am now." "I started riding when I was four. In my teenage years I was very involved in competition Riding. I enjoyed the playful part of it, the contact with people my age and the horses. I became a much requested Rider and Trainer for many top grade competition horses. The 3-day-events were a great challenge! Soon though, especially in the pre-olympic tournaments, the pressure on me and the horses became too much to bear. What once was fun had turned into stress. I started to prefer the pleasure of riding out into the countryside, just me and my horses. My time with riding as a competition sport had came to an end. A time of searching began. I went out into the world to find myself - my own identity, a profession, my own path, freedom. I chose to start training as a craftsman in carpentry. After a 4months trip to experience the wilderness in British Columbia, I got trained in Forestry which led to the initiation of a Forest-Youth Group. Together with a friend and colleague we organized children from the industrial town near by, to come to the country side and learn about the fauna and flora of the forest. They were easily enthused and so we installed sign-guided walks, planted trees and created protected areas for the wild animals. There were always plenty of adventurous games on offer and once, we even built a tree-house. This success of this project inspired me to carry on working with young people so I decided to study social science. After finishing my studies I felt like moving again and so I spent the following years working and travelling with a theatre group. In was then I had my first contacts with Yoga, T’ai Chi and Reiki which was the experience of a life time. A very full and experimental time of my life , which made me grow up as a person. Eventually, the horses called to me again. A small riding school got in touch with me and asked me to teach for them. So that is what I did next. Around the same time I accepted a job offer from an independent childcare institution to organize workshops for nature and environmental education. Then, an a holiday to Portugal in 2001, one of the local Ring Centers made me an interesting offer and I accepted. The beautiful country, the incredible hospitality of its people and last, but not least, the sunshine touched something inside me. Over the next two years my own ideas ripened and finally in 2003, I started the Holistic Riding project, which got complemented by Antonia Lehrach who joined me in 2005. To contact Andreas Endries, please mail to a.endries(at)holistic-riding.com |
To contact Antonia Lehrach, please mail to a.lehrach(at)holistic-riding.com
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Antonia Lehrach from Berlin, Germany has been living in Portugal since 2005.