In my blog series “Travel & Draw” I’m writing about some trips I did accompanied by some of my drawings.
In May 2025 I worked as an animal care volunteer at the Tenerife Horse Rescue and Sustainable Animal Sanctuary! For two weeks, I supported the “Small Animal Team” with physical work, and whenever I had some free time, I managed to draw a bit. Since I was surrounded by animals, a lot of nice people and an exciting environment, I had a lot of subjects to draw!
The organisation describes itself as this:
We are a fully registered, NGO non-government funded charity founded in 2018.
Our aim is to offer homes to all equines who need a second chance. Horses are our main focus, but we didn’t stop here. Our animal sanctuary has a huge array of abandoned animals, all rescued from the island. For example, dogs and cats, birds, ducks, guinea pigs, goats, pigs, tortoises, hamsters and more.
Sustainability is our way of living. All our electricity is solar, we heat our water system pipes using horse manure, we turn all our waste food to compost, eat ‘freegan’ and we are entirely built from recycled materials and clay.
We are entirely run by volunteer. Community is our family.
http://www.tenerifehorserescue.com , accessed on 03.06.2025, 04.15 p.m. (UTC+2)
And that’s exactly what I experienced there. I cared for all those animals (didn’t see hamsters though – but I heard about them!) and lived in a very sustainable community. We also had some events like Pizza Nights, Oil Painting and Yoga Sessions, which I enjoyed. Sometimes, some of us would visit one of the many beaches there, visit a city by bus or explore the nature and places around us. I enjoyed drawing with watercolor at various places around the finca and went for a swim quite often.
I slept in a van and ate two delicious meals per day prepared by the kitchen team (also many vegan options, since most stuff was made of vegetables and fruits, donated by the supermarkets). On weekends, I would cook for myself or get a share of self-cooked meals from other kind people!
Here it is Maki, one of the volunteer’s dogs!
It was my first solo traveling outside of Germany and I liked it a lot! Of course, I needed some time to adapt to the different way of living there: shared outside showers, outside toilets, outside kitchen – basically everything shared and outside except your sleeping place; Very warm, very sunny, very windy, very dusty! I got sunburned on my very first day, and nearly dust in my eyes every day; Physical, dirty work with lots of animal poop and mushy vegetables and fruits for feeding preparation; Attention to animals all the time: Do you hurt them unintentionally? Could they hurt you? (Don’t forget some of them have traumas or bad experiences with humans and could react scared and defensive).
But caring for animals and experiencing the proximity to them was so very much rewarding, as much as the thought of enabling them a better life! Also, I met a lot of great people, now friends, and heard so many interesting and inspirational stories. I can really recommend trying out volunteering for something that matters to you. Surely it wasn’t the last time for me, applying to such a project!
Fun Fact: My most beloved animals there were: The bearded dragons (sunbathing with them for 10 minutes was a very chill task!), the tortoises (super chill themselves), the dogs (I’m a dog person!) and the cockatiels (cheeky, little rascals, trying to steal my earrings and landing on my head and shoulders).
Jasmin Bölter 