Elderly Elanta offers rest on his farm: a little man with the smallest horses, Samogitian therapy and rustic food

When I stop at the Alanta Horse Homestead in the village of Kazlų, the Ogis breed from Newfoundland, weighing more than me, immediately catches the eye. Striking the hind legs, he could throw the front part over the shoulders of a medium-sized man. The black giant.

Right here, a hybrid Viki begins to twirl around her legs, instantly becoming your partner. Hearing the voices of the guests, from a distance, like a small fluffy ball, a small German Spitz Flufis flies in their place.

“Every member of the family has a pet,” smiles Aidon, the farm owner, who feels confident.

As Fluf spins around his legs, I take and it amazes me: no four-legged person ever bites, even when meeting a group of strangers on their territory, as if emphasizing the main feature of this place: peace. Wow, even the pets here are ready to make sure, – it amazes me. The hosts accompany this thought of mine with smiles.

We pass the main single-family house, built in 1840. It was rebuilt in 1939 and renovated in 2010. Rebuilt preserving old architectural details such as original shutters or roof decoration.

The farm received its first guests in 2013. The idea of ​​the accommodation business was born, as the hosts joked, “accidentally”. After growing up and leaving the birth house to Užubaliai’s eldest sons, the second floor of the old renovated farm in Aukštaitija remained empty, so why not rent it out to strangers who yearn for peace and quality rest in the village? The owners are still on the first floor of the house, but Aidon says he bought a dilapidated house on a nearby hill; There, far from the tourists, the family promises to settle down in the future. This will free up the first floor of the house for guests.

The cabin has countless newly reborn details. Everything a tourist who enjoys the natural environment may need to think about.

Equipped a villa with an old brick stove.

Over the years, the farm has expanded. In 2019, the owners of a pond surrounded by water lilies built a modern two-story villa with a large covered terrace and a bridge to a fish pond.

The villa has a sauna and four bedrooms. Windows on the second floor look out onto the dreamy landscape and towers of Alanta’s church.

The furniture, made of natural wood and compatible with the environment, was created for the Alanta Horse website by a local young master. When they find an old piece of furniture, or a door or a plate, the owners update it and find a suitable place to decorate the house with it. Here is a stove in the sauna, which has always prepared brooms for “her” and “him”, built with old handmade bricks, each one different, and breakfast is served on a centuries-old table built in the meadow in the shade of the pines. On it is a bouquet of thyme, very suitable for a linen tablecloth crocheted by my grandmother.

Visitors can spend the afternoons on the terrace, walk on it from the pond to the pond, immerse themselves in the water, in winter: skate on the frozen ice, fish, enjoy a rest by the fire, grill their favorite dishes, play volleyball, take a dip in the hammock, go to the hammock in the woods.

From physical education teacher to Samogitian breeder

Aidonas, who works as an elder in the town of Alanta, one kilometer from the hacienda, is a graduate physical education teacher.

“I spent the night at the stadium,” he laughs when he remembers.

A hobby becomes a business when at least one stranger is hired.

Together with his wife Giedre, they lived and worked in Vilnius until one day they got very bored.

“Not wanting to sit in the apartment, I decided to go to the store to buy bread and then flour. Fun in the city only at a young age. I myself come from a town, apparently that town began to attract me more and more. In it , the action is also through the eyes, just different. We started looking for a farm with Giedre. We traveled many places until we found this one. Everything was abandoned, but we felt great potential. In 2007 we got up to live, we did not level the hills, although many would be in a hurry to do it first – it is healthy for the horses to walk on natural terrain and the mountainous landscape through the window envelops the guests ”, the owner of the farm began to tell the story of Alanta Horses.

He worked in commerce in Vilnius. For five years I drove daily between the capital and the village of Kazlų, dedicating 3 hours of my day to it. The spouse did the same for a long time. Currently, she works remotely in a state company in Kaunas.

“I sit and think, the hobby is still a business,” Giedrė, the farm’s owner, recently admitted in one of the Facebook posts.

According to Aidon, a hobby becomes a business when at least one stranger is hired. It happened this year. Their organic horse and cattle farm, which also provides rural tourism services, is slowly expanding, but the couple still retain their government jobs. To preserve the breed, the farm raises old Samogitian horses, raises beef cattle, mini ponies, and offers accommodation to guests, as mentioned above. The activities seem to have no end.

“If you have a goal, a wish, combine everything,” Aidon says. – The ideologues are more. Here is cattle breeding, a hobby, the second litter of this year only with us. Last year they gave birth to the first litter – 5, this year again 5. There are three heifers left last year, that’s why we raised them ”.

Giedrė also finds time to turn around in the kitchen: she prepares an authentic rustic breakfast for the vacationers, made with local delicacies. It is they, along with the unlimited service and dedication of the hosts, who receive the most applause from the guests. And soon I will see why.

“We have not received such a delicious breakfast in any of the 5-star hotels”, was the comment of a client.

No TV, just a view through the window

We join the second season terrace of the villa. In the distance, horses graze on the hill, a goat eagerly swirls around the tree, fish flutter in the pond, and reluctantly begin to listen to the orchestra of birds. Not surprisingly, farm rooms don’t have televisions; nature here gives its own changing sights and sounds. It remains to enjoy them, forgetting the urban bustle.

On the tables, a feast begins to evaporate: the cheese made by the neighbor with nuts and berries, at the campfire to the wine with stewed vegetables along with the meat of the Angus cattle that are grown here. A candy! Soon, Giedr is already placing two different pieces of cake on plates, Aidonas offers a glass of homemade wine, and she prepares natural herbal tea. If it was still small, we also tried the French pie with salmon. Such a modern kind of break with a farmer – a noble lunch!

Hosts acknowledge dreaming of a small family restaurant with a vaulted top. She already has a place on the farm. All that remains is to lure the son of a chef working in a French restaurant to a town in England. And while Užubaliai still doesn’t sell the farmed beef, he hopes the family restaurant will serve up farmed beef dishes.

Aidon: “After a hard day, the horses calm down”

“Sometimes clients call and ask what kind of entertainment we have on the farm.” I suggest going to the Vichy water park, “smiles Aidon.

Here life close to nature and animal therapy are “sold”. It’s time to get acquainted with the four-legged farm pets. Invited by the host, a group of Samogitians, the same ones the Lithuanians once rode into the Black Sea, open up downhill.

A mare should soon have a foal. You can make friends and take pictures with the Samogitian family, and how delicious they eat a carrot or a piece of bread that they grab from the palm of your hand. Only the foals still do not know its flavor: they turn their noses more and look for their mother’s back.

“Last year we were recognized as the third largest Samogitian breeders in Lithuania. Of the private ones, we are the only ones whose mares have given birth to three foals. The pregnancy lasts 11 months. The seven horses we raise have names. They are given according to the first letter of the father’s or mother’s name. They eat more than cattle because they eat 16 hours a day, ”laughs Aidon.

According to him, there are around 800 Samogitians in Lithuania. The buttocks are grown and raised to ensure that the variety does not go extinct. Even in winter, the Samogitians spend outdoors, all they have to do is build the shelter available to them.

“If you have a difficult day, I come to them and calm down. A horse’s intelligence is different from other animals,” Aidon said.

Offer a selfie with the smallest horse

Five small Shetland puppies are also bred on the farm, one of the smallest horses in Lithuania, weighing only 40-50 kg and 50-60 cm tall at the withers. During our visit, three of them went to the guests “to the gentleman”, Michele and Heart became the heroes of the personalities.

“If you want to pet a mini Shetland, you have to squat down. These are the smallest,” warns Agnė Vaitkuvienė, director of the Lithuanian Rural Tourism Association, who intends to raise these little ones herself.

And do you know what the purpose of the little Shetland ponies is? Ogi tows chariots full of coal in deep mines! At Užubaliai farm they are farm friends and decoration.

The ponies, as Aidonas says, had to be separated from the Samogitians. You ask why? Because the only Samogitian stallion that grows on the farm does not divide the “concubines” according to their height when the estrus arrives.

“The size of the stallion will not matter. A dead mare pony will rush. Oh, and the stallions disagree. We had a pony foal, it fell into the unequal fight with the Samogitian stallion. As a result, it is now necessary to” lead the ladies “to the guests”, told the owner of the farm a sad story, after having decided to deepen his knowledge a couple of years ago: he began to study Rural Development Management at the Agricultural Academy of Vytautas Magnus University.

One thing you can avoid is the visit of the wolves. There is a lot in your area, according to Aidon. Here they slaughtered 12 sheep in the neighborhood that day.

From September 4 to 6, during the Open House in the Village campaign, get close to the Aidonas Samogitian family and the ponies, feed them carrots, visit farms and surroundings, enjoy cheese, bread and honey from neighboring farmers under favorable conditions, go fishing or bathe. .

The journalists’ tour of the farms was organized by the Lithuanian Rural Tourism Association. The content of the article is not affected.