Let us introduce ourselves:

Ladies first:

Michèle van Kasteren has more than one profession. In normal life she is a lawyer.

But at home she is a breeder, rider , trainer and an artist .

She speaks german, french, english, dutch, spanish and a little russian. Not to forget her native language, luxembourgish.

She is a passionated rider ever since. She started to ride in 1977.

In the 1990's she started to breed Akhal-Teke horses.

She is mainly competing in endurance but did start her competition career in eventing, discipline in which she competed in Germany up to A-L level. Though Michèle did ride her first endurance ride in 1995 she slowly started to focus only on endurance since the van Kasteren's moved to Belgium.

 Michèle at LUXHORSE exhibition with Sugun in 1997

Michèle & Peter van Kasteren, stud owner, breeder, trainer & rider

Coming to Peter:

He is the grey eminence in Tekes. He is a studied doctor and has been a genuine sportsman ever since. He did decathlon, marathon....and later (he began in the 70ies) endurance. All those sports quiet successfully up to high level in competitions.

For endurance he is in Germany what Jack Begaud is right now. One of the best riders....but politics never did let him go to european or world championships.

 What third persons do say about us and our (ex) horses

Jaq from UK:        

I  am not an expert on ATs, but these are just my views.

Is Aschir a better horse than Arab (ie sire line founder in the Akhal-teke breed) ? Well in performance terms, he certainly hasn’t achieved a world high jump record, and will never be 8 times national show jumping champion, and the possibility of him taking part in a race from Askabad to Moscow is extremely remote, so, in those terms, no, he probably isn’t as good a horse as Arab, but that could also be said of just about any horse of any breed in comparison. Does he have the potential to achieve? – yes, he certainly does. In terms of conformation, I think he is more refined than Arab, whether this makes him a better horse will be a matter of debate.

Aschir is not of the greyhound type.

In performance he has not achieved his potential, YET, but he has only just started and is handicapped by having me riding him, however he is improving.

 BUT he is the most fantastic ambassador for the breed; he looks a million dollars ($1m couldn’t buy this horse) and always behaves impeccably,

thanks to the great start he had from Michele,

who always produces her horses beautifully.

Wherever we go, either to an event, or even just out hacking, people come to ask about him, and he has been seen by some of the top people in eventing (he has even been ridden by a triple Olympic gold medalist). So, I think I can say that he is doing his bit to promote the breed in a positive way whether he ever covers himself in eventing glory, or not.

More importantly perhaps, the horse is happy and healthy and the most gentle, polite person you could wish for, and I feel privileged to be allowed in to his life.

The farm

Our farm, called "Le Grand Moulin", the Big Mill, is a 400 years old building, in natural stone, located in the hilly Ardenns, in the middle of the natural reserve of the black Storck, in Turkmen Kara Leylek. The reserve has the status of Natura 2000, which means it is a high valuable nature, worth to be preserved and protected. In fact, from our dining room, we are able to admire, besides our horses also foxes, deers, storcks, kingfisher ...... and whatever nature provides and is willing to show.

Some of our visitors were also already able to taste our "homebred" trouts.

The horses life at our stud

The farm is surrounded by 30 ha that we call our own and that the horses can enjoy. From this surface, the mares enjoy around 10 ha with their foals and it is a pleasure to observe their natural day tour, going to the water in the morning, (we have natural springs), grazing, lying in the sun during noon and enjoy the last sunshine in the evening on the plateau on the top.

The stables are mostly common stables, besides for the adult stallions such as Sugun and Myr for instance who have their own box to rest. Otherwise teh young stallions are altogether, from yearling to , some years up to seven years without any problems or without making trouble or hurting each other.