Progress to date
- We have finally found the right premises in a wonderful old Mas right in the heart of the Luberon, a stone’s throw from the lake l’Etang de la Bonde and also right next to a specialist school for autistic children in la Tour d’Aigues. La Bourgette (contact made and interest established). There are three hectares of land and a house where we can comfortably lodge 6 guests. Final signature was last summer and we are gradually getting settled in.
- The first move has been to acquire an extra hectare of land in front of the house that secures both privacy and gives the horses more natural grazing land. There is a total now of 2 hectares dedicated to the horses and the project.
- The Mas will need renovating but it will be cosmetic as opposed to structural and there are already 3 working double bedrooms with a separate kitchen and lounge and a large “ salle polyvalente” that will be used as a classroom for different activities.
- The 3 horses meanwhile are in good shape and are being trained to be perfectly adapted equitherapy mares and we will look to buy one more who will already be trained. We have 3 other horses on loan nearby if we need more but the aim is to keep things small until we know what our exact needs will be.
- We aim to organise trial sessions on the Cobalt team in May and two other groups of willing clients. The aim is to fine-tune both the facilities and the offering. We will continue to trial until April 2024 which will be the official start date though inevitably there may be some slippage.
We do not need much infrastructure as this is a very different environment to a traditional riding school. The horses will not be stabled as this is known to be bad and unnatural for horses. They will rather be left to roam freely in as large a space as possible. Within the property we have access to circa one hectare of flat land. We can also acquire another 2-3 hectares as the project develops and if we decide to take on more horses. The only things necessary other than open space are water, simple fencing, shelter for the horses and their food. There is water on site both our water well and from water from the canal system: shelters need to be built.
Funding
Funds are required for the following;
- To remunerate the operational team
- To pay for the upkeep of the horses and the grounds
- To cover some basic infrastructure costs
- To cover event management, costs and marketing
The numbers are not large and we believe that this initiative can be put in place with startup costs of circa €40,000 and run on an annual budget of circa €50k. Please get in touch for a detailed breakdown of our budget and costs.
