Living stories: 90-year-old visits the youth village in Neu-Ulrichstein

Living stories: 90-year-old visits the youth village in Neu-Ulrichstein

In a moving home excursion, 90-year-old Horst Koch visited the sites of his youth in the youth village of Neu-Ulrichstein. Together with his wife Tamara and some friends, he impressively remembered his beginnings as a milking. It was an exciting journey through time for the former Berliner, who learned his craft there as a 15-year-old. With a smile, he tells how he was surprised by a cow unwelcome on the first day, which almost caused him to escape from the stable. But thanks to his master's patience, he returned and struggled through the initial phase, which was supposed to shape him for a lifetime.

Koch, an “Icke” from Berlin, found himself in the rural surroundings of the Vogelsberg after he was evacuated with his mother during the Second World War. With the help of the police, he came to Neu-Ulrichstein in 1950, where the youth village offered a new chance for many young people from poor conditions. Here Koch was quickly instructed into work with horses and kept afloat in agriculture with dairy cows and pigs. With skill and determination, he formed a group of riders and further developed his “horse feeling”, which accompanied him all his life.

a life between milking and chemistry

Despite his passion for agriculture, Koch later turned to the chemical laboratory profession when the milking was increasingly replaced by machines. "As a milking, you have to live where the stable is," he reflects. And so he trained and found employment at "Dow Chemicals". Before his professional realignment, he gained a lot of experience and was able to look forward to his new job with a very special background knowledge.

The memories of Horst Koch are alive and impressive while looking back at a moving past. Even after a stroke last year, he keeps the memories of the time in the horse stable alive and continues the stories to his still enthusiastic listeners. The inheritance of his milking years will continue to live through his experience and passion for riding. An imperishable part of his biography is the connection to the horses that have accompanied and shaped him to this day.