Horse boarding near Berlin: a real home for sport and leisure horses

Looking for horse boarding near Berlin is more than looking for a stall. It is looking for a place where the horse breathes well, eats enough, moves daily — and where the rider arrives without having to explain themselves. The Eichhof Akademie in Schenkenhorst is built for exactly that.

Good boarding near Berlin combines species-appropriate care with professional training conditions in a personal atmosphere. The Eichhof Akademie in Potsdam-Mittelmark offers 35 outdoor stalls (4 × 4 m, wood shavings) and four to five open stables with homogeneous herds, complemented by an indoor arena, two ebb-and-flow dressage arenas and a one-hectare jumping field. We sit about 20 minutes from Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm; the Potsdam-Drewitz motorway exit is right at the door.

In what follows we explain how to recognise a genuinely good boarding yard in the Berlin commuter belt — and what we ourselves take seriously at Eichhof Akademie.

What good boarding near Berlin needs to deliver

The expectations placed on a yard in Schenkenhorst and the surrounding region have risen noticeably in the last few years. The reason is simple: today’s riders know more about equine health than they did twenty years ago. Anyone boarding a sport horse asks not only about box size but about footing, ventilation, social contact and training facilities — and rightly so.

Three things really decide things in practice:

• Daily movement budget. A horse that gets one hour of riding and otherwise stands in a stall becomes stiff, mentally tense and prone to airway problems over time.
• Training surfaces that protect tendons. Footing that is too deep or too hard causes wear. Ebb-and-flow arenas keep the surface elastic year-round.
• Personal reliability. Who looks after the horses in the evening if something happens? Who decides if the vet has to come at night? On big mass-boarding yards the answer is often unclear.

At the Eichhof Akademie we keep these three points connected on purpose. The yard is small enough for owner Mrs Gutsche to know every horse personally and large enough to run four to five open-stable groups, 35 stalls and three arenas cleanly.

Outdoor stall or open stable — both work here

Some horses are classic stall types: sensitive, social only in calm doses, in need of retreat. Others only thrive in a group. We therefore offer both — and switch between them as a horse develops.

Our 35 outdoor stalls are 4 × 4 m (3.75 × 4 m in the older building), bright, well ventilated and mucked out daily. We bed with wood shavings, not straw. There is a concrete reason for this: equine asthma is one of the most under-diagnosed conditions in sport horses, and straw together with closed barn aisles are the two main risk factors. Bright outdoor stalls with shavings bedding are a real protective measure — not a marketing slogan.

Our four to five open stables are organised in homogeneous groups, separated by geldings and mares. Hay is available around the clock, in winter the horses use the large open-stable paddock, in summer they spend half the day on pasture. This setup is ideal for young horses, for horses recovering from airway issues, and for those who simply need social contact.

Training conditions for every discipline

Eichhof Akademie is explicitly not just a dressage yard. We train in dressage, jumping, eventing, seat lessons and horsemanship — our training programme accordingly covers everything from a first seat lesson to a Grand Prix clinic.

The facilities:

• Indoor arena 20 × 40 m, ebb-and-flow surface — fully usable in winter and heavy rain.
• Dressage arena 20 × 60 m, ebb-and-flow — competition size, evenly elastic.
• Second dressage arena 20 × 55 m — even on busy days you have space to train calmly.
• Two lunge rings — no lunge hall, but two generous outdoor circles for groundwork and targeted gymnastic work.
• Jumping field 1 hectare, grass — for classic jumping and gallop training.

Add to that regular clinics with guest instructors such as Karin Lührs (Grand Prix), Christoph Hess, Conny Faste (movement studies) and Alfonso Aguilar (horsemanship). Outside riders are warmly welcome at our clinics; regular riding lessons are reserved for boarders.

Location: rural, but not remote

Schenkenhorst is rural, quiet, and yet quickly reachable. We sit directly off the Potsdam-Drewitz motorway exit; from Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm it is around 20 minutes, from Potsdam main station under 15. That keeps Eichhof Akademie realistic for working professionals based in town — nobody wants to drive an hour after a 12-hour day just to get into the saddle.

For hacking out, the surroundings offer wonderful sandy tracks — and you can leave the yard without crossing a single road. Sandy ground is kind to hooves, and longer canters are possible without logistical hassle. If you are travelling from further away and want to train for several days, you can book our holiday flat with stable at the Eichhof — it sits in Mrs Gutsche’s home, right above the broodmares and foals.

Personally run — and that stays so

The Eichhof Akademie was founded in 2021 by Franziska Gutsche together with Master Equine Manager Pia Anina Gerullis. The yard is not owned by an investor group; it is privately run. That has two very practical consequences.

First, the owner knows every horse. If the vet has a question, there is one person who can answer it. Second, we deliberately stay small: we don’t take in every horse, but instead look at whether rider and yard fit. That keeps turnover low and the atmosphere calm — which benefits the horses more than any extra stall.

If you can imagine your horse finding a home with us, contact us by phone or via our contact page. We arrange a viewing and take time to answer your questions — on the yard, with the horses, not at a screen.

Boarding options at Eichhof Akademie at a glance