The Finca Soley Volunteer Program is designed for natural horsemanship and classical riding interested people, who want to combine a unique, inspiring learning and working experience with a social journey in Costa Rica.

Surround yourself with the pure nature of our stunning Costa Rican mountain setting where a freely living herd of mixed horses from rescues to home bred, youngsters to shetlands is living in peace together. Learn how to communicate with horses using body language, psychology, energy and even more getting your ideas and intentions clear. With the study of Natural Horsemanship you will not only learn to understand horses but will also learn a lot about yourself. 

After connecting to your horses mind and earning his friendship you will learn how to proper train his body in order for your horse to be able to ride with you with pride and honor and withour harming himself. Within the study of Classical Horsemanship you learn about the horses anatomy, biomecanics and how to use flexion, mobalisation, lateral movements and your seat to improve his balance and strengh. You can witness how rescue horses can become happy, self confident and strong again. 

The first week of your stay you will mainly work with the horses on the ground. Please consider the longer you are able to stay the more you will be able to learn and develop. When you are an expirienced rider you can help us training the horses from the saddle. Beginners might also get a chance to ride, but will be more working on the ground with the horses, learn confidence and get the first contact with horses. This program is not only about riding but about growing an equal relationship towards an equine friend. Some of our horses are in rehabilitation and cannot be ridden at all in the moment. But putting time and the correct training in, we hope to rehab all of them. 

As a Finca Soley volunteer you will be able to set themes for your stay. Besides the horse work you can choose between farm work, social work or helping with building. Your first week at our farm you will meet your project horse and be fully immersed into our horse program. From the second week on you will have 2x per week lessons and can use your free time to keep practicing with your horse the learned things to develop. Your work tasks beside the horses depend on what themes you choose to work in. This can be farm work, mantainance, art work, building, sustainable projects like fermenting, harvesting, cheeses making etc. and/or teaching the local kids and adults. Within our weekly meeting will will discuss the week projects and you can assign to the jobs of your interest or into what is needed to be done. 

On the afternoons you have time off to practice with your project horse, take use of our horse libary, observe the horses in their pasture, take a tour, book extra Spanish lessons to your weekly course or just relax and chill on our peaceful mountain farm. 

Finca Soley is a family run project established in 2014. We love to put our hands on and have built all structures here. The farm counts with 3 houses, a 20x40m riding arena, a paradies paddock with shelter space for the animals, plenty of fruit trees, jungle, pastures and incredible views. Next to the horses our family remains of dogs, cats, chickens and cows. We try to keep our surroundings organic and natural and live a simple lifestyle in respect of nature and in harmony with the animals. 

As a working student you will be part of our team and learn Natural Horsemanship, support us on our farm in all means and meet many new people. This is a great opportunity to expirience something new, do something for yourself, learn new things to take home and experience real Costa Rica, off the beaten tourist tracks. 

There is a wide range of activities you can get busy while working on our farm. After our weekly meeting Volunteers can choose their jobs from the following areas:

• Care for horse herd: cleaning open stable, moving horses to fields, feeding, grooming, training, riding, teaching kids lessons
• Care for other animals like: chickens, dogs, cats, cows etc.
• General farm work: repairing fences, landscaping, gardening
• Handcrafts & building: building wooden furniture; tire walls, new constructions, house building 
• Art projects: Paint a wall on our pretty houses 
• Teach English to locals in a rural town

The farm is a place where people from all over the world meet and share their passion for horses and traveling. The team of Finca Soley loves to welcome guests and volunteers. We are a family run farm. 

You will be living on site in our spacious and newly volunteer house. Volunteers have a kitchen. Also there is a library with books and DVDs about horses, big living room, gardens with hammoks, organic gardens and fruit trees and loads of jungle mountains around.  We have good cellphone connection. To use the internet you can use a national SIM card for a small fee you have internet.

The farm is located on top of a small mountain within a 30min. walk you are in the peaceful town of Tucurrique with shops, sodas, cafes, bars and a soccer field. From here you can take a bus to Cartago o Turrialba. There are cheap taxis to take you around. 

 What we require

• Minimum stay of 4 weeks
• 5 hours work for 5 days a week 
• physically fit in order to do farm work 
• The will to learn
• A positive attitude !!!
• Teamplayer
• Love for animals and put your horses needs first
• previous horse expirience is a plus but not a must: beginnners are welcome too!  

What we offer

• shared room 
• Natural Horsemanship lessons and learning bitless art of riding (classical riding), learning in a group and access to our big library of videos and books
• join in courses offered at the farm 
• work with different horses 
• hikes with the horses
• Participate on tours (extra costs can occur) 
• An unique way to combine your travels with learning Natural Horsemanship and improving the live of the people around you