Horse riding vacation in Romania

Environment

Equus Silvania has the objective to act in a responsible way in all its activities with regards to environmental impact. We are always open to new ideas of how we can maintain and improve the integrity of the natural environment around us.
Education and Information
Our visitors get a first-hand experience and extensive information about flora, fauna, and sustainable land-use systems. We are attempting to make your vacation not just a relaxing and enjoyable experience, but also an interesting one.

Energy and Construction
During the construction of all our facilities, we endeavored to use environmentally friendly materials. Wood, free of non-natural wood preservers, has been our main construction material as it is a renewable resource. We heat exclusively with renewable resources and have our guesthouse insulated with a thick layer of rock wool. Solar power provides warm water throughout most of the year. As a tourism enterprise, we are not able to fully avoid the consumption of fossil energy, however we still choose sustainable alternatives whenever this is feasible from an ecological and an economic point of view.

Food
Here at Equus we use mainly locally produced organic food in our kitchen. People in Sinca Noua generally do not use pesticides or artificial fertilisers, and the livestock is still kept the old way: outside on the pastures. Our own garden delivers fresh onions, salad, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, berries, peas, beans, and many more vegetables and fruits. Other food such as milk, eggs, honey, potatoes, lamb, and veal is bought from the farmers in the neighborhood. Pork, chicken, ducks, geese, and all cold cuts are from our own production. We are particularly proud of our home-made hams, sausages, and bacons.

Trail selection
When we select the routes for our trails and excursions, we take very seriously conservation concerns. We avoid sensitive areas such as wildlife day resting sites and seasonally important areas. We also take care to not cause soil erosion and stay outside of wetlands, where the hooves of the horses may cause damage. In summer, we of course respect the farmers' needs and stay on the cart tracks when we ride through hay meadows.

Conservation Project
Equus Silvania is a proud partner and supporter of Foundation Conservation CARPATHIA (www.carpathia.org), which has the goal to create a world-class wilderness reserve in the Southern Carpathians. Sinca Noua is not only on the Eastern most edge of this future National Park, but Barbara and Christoph Promberger, owners of Equus Silvania, are also directing the CARPATHIA project. In this context, we kindly ask all our guests to contribute with a donation to the conservation of these beautiful and important forests and grasslands.

Community

We use mainly locally produced food in our kitchen. Our own vegetable garden delivers fresh onions, salad, zucchini etc., other food such as milk, potatoes, lamb or veal is bought from the farmers in the neighbourhood. We have 10 local Romanian employees and receive a large part of the goods and services from the people of Sinca Noua. Incomes are not large here so we definitely believe on putting a price on sustainable, local resources to support the area.
We try to implement a sustainable development which includes the employment of staff from the village, the use of locally produced, organic food, or the inclusion of local attractions into the programme. Our clients also contribute to a regional conservation fund, which helps finance the long-term conservation of the incredible area we live in..