Not so much in the city center of Leipzig, but certainly on the outskirts it's easy to stumble across a number of local Bauernhöfe (farms) with typical farm animals, including sheep, cows, and pigs, but especially horses. Germany itself has a longstanding tradition of horse breeding that has even been funded by the Bundesregierung (federal government), due to how economically lucrative the industry is for the country.
Horse riding as a sport is very popular in Germany and many young girls start out riding horses from around six years old. A colleague of mine from the school owns a horse and frequently takes it out for rides in her free time!
Not far from my city apartment is an artifical lake, called Kulkwitzer See. This lake is one of many that was transformed from an open-cast, lignite coal mine starting in the 1960s, back when Leipzig was occupied by the Soviet Union. From 1864 to 1963, Kulkwitzer See was one of many sites in the former East Germany for mining brown coal, a cheap fossil fuel and essential resource used for generating electricity.
Starting in the early 1960s however, the government began flooding many of the former mine sites and turned them into lakes where people could swim and once again interact with the natural environment. In 1973, Kulkwitzer See was opened to the public and now hosts a residential district nearby, bringing more and more people to the lake each year. Today, it's a popular spot for camping, diving, and water sports in the summertime.
