With a whistle and the earth began to shake. An unprecedented hum was approaching within breathing distance. Through a blur of dust, there was frantic squealing and an unsynchronized gallop. And then hundreds of unbridled horses poured out, like a wave, rushing to get closer to their beloved “father” – because, for them, Nikos is their “father”.

“Let’s go,” said Nikos, and they immediately changed their course, leaving everyone who happened to be there stunned, and hastened to climb a nearby rock, afraid, not of being trampled by the wild horses, but of scaring them with their presence- even the sound of the drone, distracted them from the familiar sounds of nature they learned to live with.

Nikos ran after them. The horses were calm as if this whole scene didn’t happen just a few minutes ago. They came up to him to caress and steal kisses. They were looking for tenderness, they acted like little children! “I have many children, more than a thousand, I am the happiest father” he will say with emotion to APE-MPE Nikos Varkas from Ano Poroia Serresa stone village built at the foot of Mount Beles, northwest of the homonymous lake.

Nikos Varkas’ family of horses “came to life” 27 years ago, when he, still a teenager, managed to “borrow”, as he says, seven horses from his fellow villagers and start equestrian tours in the mountain with all of them who wanted to be close to nature, on a horse.

How it all started

“In the 70s, when I was a kid, we didn’t have a horse at home. I was nagging my father to take it. “We have a tractor, we were ahead of everyone, what should we do with the horse?”, he answered me. But I was crazy about them. I was running after all the horses in the village. My dream was that I would have a horse to go to the mountains. Over the years, I thought that many others would also want this, so I started. In 1996 I started with six borrowed horses to do the tours in the forest. In the first year I managed to buy 13 horses, of the Pindos breed, which were very obedient and hardy animals. Then, year after year, it got better and today we have over a thousand horses,” Mr. Varkas tells APE-MPE.

As a “horse father” he shows particular weakness to his “first-born” horse, the 27-year-old today Lazarus, who is in perfect health with the special care and love of Nikos. “Lazarus’ mother was Mary. I remember that they are called one by one, regardless of whether there are many”, he will say, clarifying that “the thousand and more wild horses do not have names”.

“The horses that do the tours have names. In the large herd they are divided into groups. Each group, consisting of 15-25 horses, has its own name so that we can distinguish which group we are talking about,” he explains.

For Nikos Varkas, the special characteristic of horses is their intuition and memory. “They have tremendous intuition, and they never forget. From a path to pass and having to cross it again ten years later, they remember everything. The horse gives you life and you bond with it. But they are also very close to each other,” he emphasizes.

Tatiana and Alkis

“We had a very beautiful black mare, Tatiana, and Alki. These two animals were very close to each other. Wherever one went, the other went. One day, even though they happened to be at a very long distance, around 7-8 kilometers, Alkis sensed that something had happened to Tatiana. He started whimpering, stamping his feet loudly, and finally jumped the fence from the mountain shelter and ran away. I followed him in the jeep. Tatiana had an accident and didn’t make it. Alkis approached her and pushed her to get up… Alkis languished and two years later he died. This is true love,” recounts Mr. Varkas with emotion.

His love for Anna

But he also got the same true love in his life from his wife, Anna. “I first visited Ano Poroia 18 years ago for an excursion, after a friend of mine from Serres suggested that we come to the area to ride the horses. Then I met Nikos. He had very long hair, black then, and a very authentic demeanor. I loved the man, while I already had a great love for horses and nature. So I stayed over here, in this beautiful village that won me over. After all, I didn’t have my own village. I was a native of the co-capital and I found myself in this mountain village to guide tourists and offer Macedonian hospitality” says Anna, a graduate of French literature, who until then worked in the urban fabric of the megalopolis as a medical visitor to a well-known cosmetics company.

Anna left French and piano and became, as she proudly declares, a breeder of Greek Pindos horses, which are part of a European Union program to save indigenous Greek breeds.

The horses neigh in their own way, showing Nikos and Anna that they are ready to welcome their riders for a tour in the “heart” of Mount Beles. Time seems to have stopped. Streams are heard coming down from the mountain, the yellow-gold leaves play with the autumn sun rays. “Time stops here. You enter a “time capsule”. It is a magical place, the nature, the calm that everything exudes, everything is beautiful” says Anna characteristically.

From calm to a day’s hard work

But what is a typical day like for Nikos, Anna and their 1,000 “children”? “From night to night” Nikos will say. “We start before dawn with feeding the animals and cleaning the stables. We need at least 3-4 hours and two people are needed for this job. This in regard to the large herd of 1,000 horses. The herd of 35 horses that we use on tours are also fed and grazed freely. After grazing, they are cleaned, combed and ready to guide tourists on the trails of the Belles. The horses of the tours also need two people” explains Nikos Varkas, giving the first picture of a long day as during the lunch and afternoon hours, he deals with their food and care on the estates he cultivates.

There, after harvesting the crop, he will make the bales of hay and transport them to a fenced area of ​​more than 150 acres, where the hundreds of wild horses of the Greek Pindus breed are located, all of which are, as he says, “chipped” – this will last from May to November. “Horses consume 15 to 20 tons of feed per day. A horse needs 15-20 kg per day. During the summer months, the animals graze freely. They go to the mountain, when the conditions are good, under the supervision of four shepherds.’

Expenses and grants

As Mr. Varkas mentions, the costs for the breeding and maintenance of the horses are huge, while the grants given by the EU they are not enough to cover them.

“The money given by the European Union is a drop in the ocean. I officially started in 2006, with 100 horses. Back then I didn’t even know there were European programs. At that time the subsidy was 475 euros per year for each horse, which was already marginal for their needs. In 2011 they reduced the subsidy to 350 euros and today, with the increases that everything has suffered, it still remains at 350 euros. This amount is highly prohibitive as it is not enough. We fought for 12 years with studies we submitted and sent to the European Union to increase the money for all animals, not just horses. They extended another year with the old amounts, although from January 2023 and after the approval of the European Commission, the support prices for animals of the rare breeds program in this period were foreseen to be increased, due to the excessive cost of animal feed. However, the program has not yet been implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development. We are at an impasse. In November we have to get an advance payment to maintain our holdings and the Ministry of Rural Development together with OPEKEPE have not yet made the necessary arrangements even for the extension of the previous program” points out Mr. Varkas, who in order to make ends meet, as he says , in addition to the food he buys, he cultivates hundreds of acres, rented and his own.

“It is a preparation that takes place mainly in the summer to get the year out,” he will say and add: “there is a great need to demarcate pastures. I believe that the pastures are the most important because, while the horses must graze on the mountain, according to the directives of the European Union, they do not give us pasture and give it to the stabled animals. The second big problem we face is the increase in feed prices. In addition to all of this, wolf attacks are added, where of course we cannot do anything, except to protect them” he points out, while he does not avoid commenting on the lack of staff.

“The Greeks don’t come to livestock work, even though the monthly salary can reach 2,000 euros” he says with disappointment.

The tours with the horses

Tours start daily from 11am until dark, depending on the season. The tour with the horses costs from 10 to 20 euros, depending on the distance and time. This is mainly Anna’s domain.

“Me, I deal with this part, the guided tour in the forest, the communication, I also handle the advertising and social media. The tourists who come from almost all over the world and for the last three years even from Israel, will leave as soon as it gets dark, but we continue with the grazing of the 35 horses and finally closing them in the stable.”

Unpredictable things are not missing from everyday life, such as machine breakdowns, animal health issues, such as their care, shoeing, anti-parasitism and others. “With these and with these, the day passes, night falls and we start again from the beginning” says Anna.

The Upper Poroia of Serres have always been a tourist destination, for Greeks and foreigners alike. “It used to function as a sanatorium because of its climate. Then they rented rooms, today there are guesthouses and taverns. It is impossible to come to Poroia and not try the smoked trout and the veloute soup with trout. In Poroia, the famous kazan dipi, buffalo butter and buffalo sausages have their place of honor.

“No one can come to Ano Poroia just once. And no one can do just one horse-riding tour of the mountain. Those who were children once, today are fathers and bring their children to live the experience” concludes Mr. Varkas who, despite traveling almost all over the world and wandering in Australia and Europe as an economic migrant, nothing could keep him away from the horses and his beloved mountain village.

He leaves our meeting on his horse. His 13-year-old son is riding next to him. Anna confesses that her husband has been putting him on the horse since he was six months old. “My heart sinks, but at the same time I feel confident,” he says.

“I knew I would stay here forever and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It was a childhood repulsion and it came true. And if I had 2,000 horses, I wouldn’t say no,” says Mr. Varkas, who “gets lost” riding in the dense foliage of Mount Belles.