Your hosts

in the heart of the Gers, in Gascony

Welcome to our home!

Marianne Cornelis, “the Belgian”, was a teacher in plastic arts….
Christian Vergez, “the French one” , was a ski instructor.

…We met at the UCPA (Sports holidays centre), both horseback riding teachers at the time. Our shared passion for teaching, nature and horses brought us together.

We soon decided to become self-employed. We had to find a way to make a living working with horses, while at the same time taking care to respect them and avoiding exploiting them. We wanted to set in place a fun and creative pedagogical system.

In 1980, we created “La Ponetterie”, one of the first pony-clubs in Belgium, where we decided to live.

Its peculiarity was that the ponies were allowed to live in herds, in meadows and open paddocks the whole year round. That allowed them to fulfill their natural needs for fresh air, motion, social bonding and almost continuous grazing. The 30 acres domain was managed using organic methods.

The young riders came for sessions of at least 2 hours, which, in addition to the riding part itself, also included care for ponies and work on foot, in order to highlight the relationship with the animal, and the rider’s responsibility.

Really, “La Ponetterie” was as much about ecology, ethology and education as about teaching.