Miss Sonja's flair for horses | Farm Holidays in Austria

Basically, it is about the user understanding and correctly interpreting the horse's body language in order to be able to communicate well with the horse and at the same time maintain leadership skills. Or in simpler terms. From the looks of it, Lotte, Smoky and Sidney simply feel very comfortable here. At the Rutarhof in Rosegg.

The Pauls' Rutarhof is a pretty country farm. In Dolintschach near Rosegg, a creative force was at work that decided to carve out a kind of southern balcony of the Eastern Alps here - before the Karawanken mountains tower imposingly to the south. A gentle, dense, fertile landscape of mountains, meadows, lakes and valleys. But enough tourism advertising, it's beautiful elsewhere too, says Sonja Paul, who sometimes ventures a curious look at South Tyrol far away from the main season to see how things are going there. The business of farming. Of course, she thinks that Carinthia is in no way inferior to the south of Tyrol and is much, much more beautiful and varied. She often hears her enthusiastic German guests say that the "recreational" advantages of Austria's south are not well enough known. Out there, above the white sausage equator. What the heck, that's probably the case, but a little "hidden secret" has never hurt desirability. Tu felix Carinzia. Do the hard-working Carinthia advertisers see it that way too?

"Regular guest goes like this: Mr. G. from Graz lives in the pavilion during the summer"

Regular guests are not only found at the Rutarhof. Farm holidays, i.e. holidays with a lot of personal closeness, bind guests and farmers together. Until the 1980s, Sonja's mother-in-law also ran an inn on the side and cooked up a delicious full board. Good old days, where have you gone? Here you are! The loss of the round-the-clock treatments by Carinthian home cooking weighs heavily, but travelers still return to the Rutarhof again and again. Even those who change their vacation destination every year on principle, because something new can always be exciting. Incidentally, I can empathize with this, as I count myself among this fluid species of "Homo sapiens turisticus", who find it difficult to commit to one place.

Which is always good evidence of a successful vacation: When parents are happy to see that their children are relaxed and balanced. At the vacation destination, the carefree non-home. Satisfied and tired, yes. Or, to be more precise, this state that lies exactly in the middle of these two aspects, probably also due to the freedom of movement on the farm. And so that the adults can also get to know each other better, the weekly barbecue evening and the socio-cultural intention of the attentive hosts behind it also help, in addition to the shared tractor ride. Austrians stay here for at least a week, German families with longer journeys two or even three weeks. In summer, mind you. Peak travel season.

"Lotte, Smoky and Sidney"

Sonja has a thing for horses. She spent most of her teenage years at the local zoo. But not with pubescent testosterone boys from the village, but with Maxi, the Shetland pony. Oh, the happy parents. If only they had known. It continued in the same vein. Even a little more intense. At 15, she saved a horse from the slaughterhouse and put it in her mom and dad's garage. The young Sonja already knew what she wanted back then.

To go into the art and philosophy of "horsemanship" in detail here and now would go beyond the scope of this format. Several times over, in fact. All those interested readers who would like to know more about the "Seven Games", which form the basis of all the exercises in this specialty of the human-animal relationship, should visit Sonja and her family on site. The satnav is at Brunnenweg 15 in A-9232 Rosegg.