On the Wild Coast Johannesburg Bloemfontein
With 18 of
our working horses located at the beach paddocks in Kei Mouth, Amanda, Jenny
and Roz lead literally hundreds of people up and down the local beaches –
mostly at a steady plod. Every year we experience a great sense of pride that
those same horses that gobble up the kilometres on trail with the wind in their
manes and the sand under their pounding hooves, then take completely
inexperienced riders safely along those same beaches, carefully following nose
to tail in a study of concentration and equine responsibility.
In addition
to the day rides at the beach, we enjoyed a mid-December trail with return
client Werner Vogt and the McLennan family from the Western Cape
Sunray Farm
has seen many guests come and go over the past month, with several clients from
previous trails returning to enjoy a stay at the farm. We welcomed back
Laurence LeGal and thoroughly enjoyed her company once again. We also hosted
the indomitable Christiane Dubat who, at 67 years of age, nevertheless rode us
all into the ground! A good five to six hours a day in the saddle was not
enough to weary this rider! On the one ride, a lady walking past us on the
beach commented, “I used to do that in my younger days.” and I thought to
myself, well, I hope that, like Christiane, I’m still doing it in my not so
younger days!
To assist
with this steady flow of mouths to feed, Sarah Dawson (The Ride’s quieter third
party) joined the team at the farm and produced a consistently impressive array
of meals… even her packed lunches were full of variety and surprises! She also
brought her son, Fynn, along to provide a running commentary on life, the
universe and anything else that popped into his 10-year-old mind at any given
moment!
We are
already missing them both, even though they have only been gone a couple of
weeks, and many tummies and taste-buds have happy memories of their stay here.
In addition
to the usual business of getting bums in saddles, we’ve had the unfortunate
challenge of an outbreak of African Horse Sickness in the area. For those
unfamiliar with the disease, this is a midge-borne virus that causes a leakage
of fluid within the body and affects the inflammatory system. There are several
different strains of the disease which are indicated by a variety of different
symptoms, often making it difficult to diagnose in time to treat effectively.
There is no known sure-fire cure and some horses die within a few hours of
infection. The outbreak began over Christmas with one of the first confirmed
cases occurring on Christmas Day itself.
It has been
a difficult and stressful period for all horse-owners in the Kei Mouth/ Morgan Bay
We were
also fortunate enough to receive a donation of a new AHS vaccine developed by
Disease Control Africa which enabled us to vaccinate all our horses. While this
vaccine is still very new and, in general, available only on prescription, many
believe it offers horses a new hope of surviving this dreaded disease. A
booster of the vaccine produced by Onderstepoort Biological Products was also
provided free of charge to horse-owners in the area, giving individuals the
freedom to choose the most effective method of managing the outbreak according
to their own personal philosophies.
Wild Coast
Horse Trails lost four horses in total, including our Percheron stallion,
Bobby, and managed to save about seven horses that have been confirmed as
having AHS. Our method has been, firstly, to check horses regularly for
swelling above the eyes and around the muzzle in order to identify the virus
early in its development. Frequent checking of temperatures has also been vital
in helping us to pick up infection early on.
We have
been using MMS intravenously and orally to treat those infected horses and it
seems to have proven successful in the majority of cases. I won’t go into the
complexities of MMS here as I am not really knowledgeable enough, but the basic
premise of it is that it works as an oxidizer to kill the pathogens of various
diseases. MMS is made up of, primarily, of weak solution of chlorine dioxide
mixed with water and several additional neutral trace elements. For more
information about MMS, please visit http://www.miraclemineral.org.
We are now
in the fortunate position that the outbreak seems to have abated. Whatever this
can be attributed to, both ourselves and our horses are relieved at this
respite and hope it continues throughout the remainder of our summer.
So, as the
New Year begins, we put old sorrows behind us and focus on the brighter future
ahead. We are eagerly marketing our trails although the year has got off to a
slow start in that department – please do contact us for further details if you
are interested in a thrilling ride along some of the best beaches in the world!
Our working riding programme is looking busy throughout the year so we are
delighted to have so many keen riders coming to join us and share their
knowledge and experience. We wish all our readers, clients, followers and
horses a very happy 2013.
