"Shostka" Horse Club

"Shostka" Horse Club is not only a base for training sport horses and athletes, but also a wonderful touristic location. Families, school classes or work groups often come here for excursions. It is located in the north of Sumy Oblast, in the village of Dibrivka, surrounded by picturesque nature of the Bychykha river.Horses were imported from Zhashkiv and Petrykivka studs, and there - from Germany. Since then, the club has horses of German breeds, mostly Westphalian, but there are also Ukrainian horses, Oldenburg, Holstein ... Now the club has one of the best horses in Ukraine.

The territory of the base occupies more than 10 hectares. There are three stables (for small horses up to 3 years old, for mares with foals, and for sport horses that go to competitions). During the tour, athletes demonstrate training (after all, show jumping is one of the most spectacular sports, extreme), everyone rides on thoroughbred horses, for small children there are pony rental. One of the club's services is fishing. Visitors are also shown a shower with a solarium for horses, a treadmill (exercise machine) where sport horses train every morning. The club was established about 10 years ago by a private entrepreneur (now a deputy of the Sumy Regional Council) Volodymyr Yuriyovych Pylypeiko. Horse specialization - showjumping (overcoming obstacles on horseback on the show field). This is an Olympic equestrian sport. Horses of the International level, professional trainers-breeders of club, train horses for performances at competitions, including the International level. Horses begin to train from the age of three, they take a training program for 4 years, then sell them to athletes.Three athletes and a coach work at the base, including the master of sports, the Champion of Ukraine in showjumping - Mykola Pylypeyko. The team also includes athletes - Eduard Garmash, KMS Volodymyr Chepikov. Now on the basis of Horse Club «Shostka» there are about 50 horses, annually up to 10 small foals are born. There are horses, who are brought for insemination (there is a competitive stallion on the base, which has a license to inseminate the Westphalian Union, to continue the breed). Horses are also brought to the training, because the club employs professional trainers who can raise the Olympic champion from a horse). Each horse has a pedigree, has a red passport of the Westphalian breed, a medical book, which indicates all the manipulations that were done to the horse.Every year, representatives of the Westphalian Union from Germany come to the «Shostka» Horse Club, to check the affiliation of newborn horses to their breed (take blood tests, make measurements), put a stamp (brand) of the Westphalian Union on each horse and enter them in their studbook. Why keep a pedigree of horses? Horses, like humans, have their talents and abilities. For example, there are horses that can dance (there is such sport called dressage). The main thing is to develop the talent. Westphalian horses have the ability to jump well, which is inherited by them. The ancestors of the horses that are in HC"Shostka" are world-famous horses-athletes. An unprepared sport thoroughbred horse, up to 3 years-old, can cost up to 15 thousand euros. If it is prepared, takes prizes, its cost increases to 100 thousand euros. And even such expensive horses are often bought by athletes abroad, because they take prizes and win competitions. Horse Club has sports houses for athletes, gazebos for visitors, as well as cafes, where visitors can have a snack during excursions.The club also coaches children. The coaches have a pedagogical education. If children are particularly interested in equestrian sports, there is the possibility of individual training with a coach.Many people come to the club for a photoshoots, because it is always clean, cozy, hospitable. Visitors call Horse Club «Shostka» a "piece of Europe" in a remote countryside.