Leaving Ukraine without taking her horses with her was out of the question for Anita Krylova.

She is 31 years old and has been working with horses for 15 years.

She lives in the east of Kyiv and works as a horse trainer, is the founder of the "Liberty Horse Team", which is about free work and harmonious cooperation with the horse as a partner.

"I can't imagine life without my horses.

They're like children, I can't part with them," she says.

"My team and I have a very close bond with our horses." Some of the eleven horses and ponies have been with her since they were foals.

Among them is a Przewalski horse, which she took in in 2020 after a forest fire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

When the war broke out, Anita Krylova only wanted to stay.

Escape with her animals seemed impossible to her.

But the fodder became scarce, hay and straw stores were destroyed and burned.

When several riding stables were hit nearby and her friends' horses could not be rescued from the flames, she and her team decided to leave.

But how?

“We didn't have a horse transporter or enough cars with trailers.” Although there are many offers of help from other European countries, nobody was able to get into the danger zone with horse transporters in Kyiv

Truck converted to van

Krylova's friend eventually built a horse transporter out of a truck, in which eight horses can stand side by side.

The three ponies came into a horse trailer.

"He knew I wouldn't go without my horses," says Krylova.

She wouldn't have thought it possible, but after three days and two nights of work everything was ready.

It started with 13 people, eleven horses, two dogs and a cat.

"We left no one behind."

The way was difficult.

“We made a big detour around Kyiv to avoid hostilities.

The streets are full of soldiers.

Since many are fleeing, there were long traffic jams,” says Krylova.

Almost all gas stations were closed.

Those who were still open only gave out a little fuel.

There was hardly any water for the horses and very little fodder.

The animals could not be unloaded either.

There were also constant checks at checkpoints.

"We kept hearing shells, especially at night and in the morning.

The day we left the sounds were closer.

Everything was fine on the road, but near Vinnitsa we heard sirens: an air raid.

As we drove past there were rockets flying.

Miraculously nothing happened to us.”

A Polish stable operator wants to help

They traveled the roads for three days before arriving in Khmelnitsky in western Ukraine, some 370 kilometers from Kyiv.

Here acquaintances of Krylova have a riding stable and took in other people and their horses.

The horses stand in pairs in the boxes, in the riding hall, in the lunging circle.

Here, too, the fodder is scarce, Krylova and the others try to find more hay.

But here the horses can first rest until they continue to Poland.

They are exhausted, but otherwise survived the long journey well.

She doesn't know how long Krylova will stay in Khmelnitsky.

Their likely destination is a stable in Zamłyniec, Poland, not far from the border.

The stable operators there have offered to take her team and her horses.

But getting there is not that easy.

Because there are entry regulations for horses that come to Poland from the Ukraine.

The current situation hasn't changed anything.

The Ukraine is considered a third country, from there no horse is allowed directly into the EU.

A veterinary health certificate must be presented for horses.

In addition, horse passports and vaccination certificates must be available and the horses must be chipped.

In addition, there is only one border crossing through which horses can be transported, and that is in Korczowa-Krakowez, as the "Ukrainian Equestrian Federation Charity Foundation" reports on its website.

After that, the animals have to be quarantined for 21 days.

The association coordinates how help can be provided.

Because so far there are still about 100,000 horses in the Ukraine.

Almost 100 have been brought from Ukraine so far.

So far, two drivers for cars with trailers trying to take horses out of the danger zone to western Ukraine could be organized.

"The situation is not in my head"

Krylova does not know how much the documents and certificates will cost.

She doesn't have much money anymore.

Now she had to leave everything behind.

"It wasn't easy, but we had no other choice, we had to get the horses and ourselves to safety." Can her boyfriend leave Ukraine with her and the horses?

Krylova doesn't know that either.

He does have the required certificate, but will he really be let out?

She is in contact with her family.

Krylova's father and many of her friends are in Kharkiv, where she grew up.

Her mother made it out of town, and there was heavy fighting near her house.

It is uncertain whether the house was destroyed.

She takes the whole situation very seriously: "It doesn't go into my head.

More and more news of destruction and death from people I know.

If one of your friends is unavailable for a long time, then it's impossible to keep calm."

She has many friends and relatives in Kyiv who were no longer able to leave the country.

Most of them would have pulled themselves together after an initial hysteria and started to help others.

“My ex-husband is involved in evacuating people from crisis areas, my friends help horse riders to find hay, transport and shelter.

We're trying to come together and help everyone who needs help right now."