Igor is dead. The ten-year-old belgian cold-blooded horse lay dead on friday morning on the fub of a small but steep slope at the edge of its paddock in hohenroth near rieneck. Not long ago, the horse was in the rhon for jerks. It worked again on the dunsberg, the nature reserve near oberelsbach.
The mayor of rieneck, wolfgang kuber, who owned the horse, speaks of a tragic accident. He assumes that the animal suffered fatal injuries in a fall. He did not want to believe the news of the death of the horse at first, he had come back only on thursday evening with the stallion from the rhon.
Kuber has been a guest there for many years with people from the SOS village community of hohenroth. Since the early 1990s, they have spent two weeks in the rhon in the summer to volunteer in nature conservation projects. Most recently, he helped with his horse and a 14-head group in oberelsbach, where they thinned out pine trees in the dunskopf nature reserve. There the group was already for the fourth time in use.
Commitment to nature conservation
The overnight stay was at the environmental education center in oberelsbach, so the journey to dunsberg was short. The task of the working group was to clear the pine forest in order to expand the habitat for valuable and rare native bird, insect and plant species on the calcareous grassland of the dunsberg. In addition to the silver and golden thistle, these include ground breeders such as the heath lark, the robber thrasher and the ninth-dead, as well as butterfly species such as the white-throated bluebird. Various species of shrimps and gentians are also found at dunsberg. The removal of the forest was agreed with the lower nature conservation authority.
Igor, who had been struggling with the effects of an illness for a long time in the spring, was well again during this mission, reported kuber. The animal, which had lost a lot of weight in the meantime, had regained its former weight of around 700 kilograms. The stallion had no difficulty in drawing the lineage from the forest. "I didn't even understand it at first because of that.", kuber describes his reaction to the news of the horse's death. There were no signs of problems. He felt like he was in the wrong movie.
Kuber and his horses take part in festivals such as the kirchweih in rieneck. The town has twice been the venue for the bavarian woodturning championships. Kuber and his horses also take part in many events organized by the SOS village community of hohenroth, from the raising of the maypole to the church fair and the martinmas celebrations. Many of the people in his care therefore had a close relationship with igor. They reacted with corresponding shock to the news of the stallion's death. The level of concern among them is rough, reports kuber. Some of those in his care had already come home to him, said kuber, who comforted them. The death of the animal is also close to his heart. "He was so well-behaved, so easy to handle", he describes the character of the stallion. Kuber acquired the cold-blooded six years ago.
Igor was the fourth horse kuber worked with in the forest. For more than three decades, he has been using his horses to work with the disabled, and has honed igor's training for this purpose. For work with the handicapped, the horse must have a certain basic calmness, says kuber. Igor had this characteristic. "For our purposes it was optimal."