Sun, Sea and Saddles: horse-riding holiday with Wild Coast Horse Riding Adventures

The Kei River Horse Trail is for those who want to leave the limits and restrictions of everyday life behind and embrace the freedom to be yourself and discover the beauty of the Wild Coast from the back of a well-loved, sure-footed equine friend.

Does the mere thought of a week-long horse trail leave you rubbing the insides of your thighs and walking like John Wayne? Well, the wonderful hosts at Wild Coast Horse Riding Adventures know that not everyone who loves horses wants to spend their entire day on them, so have conjured up some amazing packages to suit those who want a bit more flexibility in their holiday itinerary.

While you’ll still get to experience the magic of a fast canter along the beach and the adrenaline rush of riding along clifftop paths, you’ll also get the opportunity to soak up some sun on the nearby beach at Kei Mouth and sample some of the local food at one of the village’s pubs and cafes.

So, throw a sundress in with your jodhpurs and embrace a relaxing beach holiday that gives you the opportunity to ride as much or as little as you’d like. Although there’s no set itinerary for the Kei River Horse Trail, it does include an unforgettable 2-night, 3-day trip up the Wild Coast to the exquisitely situated Wavecrest Beach Hotel and Spa where you can be pampered while enjoying views one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Enjoy the casual comfort of a home from home at the Kei Mouth Guest Lodge and ride as many different horses as you feel comfortable with. If you fall in love with your steed on the first day, you can choose to stick with him, or challenge yourself by swapping from a sturdy Percheron cross to a lightening-paced Part or Anglo Arab as the week flies past.

Aside from the fun mini trail to Wavecrest and back, highlights of the week’s riding include the cliffs at Morgan Bay, a ride to Yellowwood Forest to sample their wood-fired pizza under the shade of indigenous trees, and the chance to let rip along the golden beaches of the Wild Coast. 

If you love horses and would like to learn more, ask one of the guides to reveal some of their insights into working with these incredible animals on the ground. Discover the benefits of T-Touch and why Wild Coast Horse Riding Adventures is committed to a regime of holistic horsemanship.

Wild Coast Horse Riding Adventures is a highly personalised experience, where you’ll really get to know the people as much as you do the horses. With limited places on each Kei River Horse Trail, you’ll never get lost in the crowd or left behind on the trail. Friendly, experienced guides will point out the vibrant colours of a passing Knysna turaco and explain the history of the Wild Coast and its notoriously numerous shipwrecks.

It doesn’t matter if you ride every day or haven’t been on a horse in years, the friendly team at Wild Coast Horses will adapt the rides to suit you and your ability. If you choose to, you can ride for up to four or five hours per day but, if you’d rather, you can always choose to skip an afternoon’s outride and instead indulge in a foot massage or sip a cocktail at The Deck of the local hotel. The more adventurous may opt for a spot of abseiling or pop across the road to the Kei Mouth Country Club for a game of golf complemented by breath-taking views of the Wild Coast.

Two itinerary options are available 

• 7 night 8 Day Kei River Horse Trail - includes accommodation, meals & riding
• Short stays on a select your own rides basis

The Kei Mouth Trail is an informal beach riding holiday, where you can embrace our wide open spaces, wild sea, warmhearted people and our wonderful horses. 

www.wildcoasthorsebackadventures.com 

It is summer on the Wild Coast

On the Wild Coast, it is not only Santa Claus who arrives at Christmas – in fact, it usually feels like half of Johannesburg and Bloemfontein also descend on the area to celebrate the festive season. As a result, December through to early January always prove to be busy for both the equine and the human team.

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. Time Warp proved himself once again, carrying Werner safely and expertly for the full four-day trail. Initially, we were concerned that Time’s old leg injury would mean he would struggle to carry the extra weight (Werner is about 6 ft tall and weighs around 95kg) but he did a sterling job and came back sound and still full of running. The McLennan family experienced a few aching muscles being unused to such long hours in the saddle, but nevertheless enjoyed the thrills and spills (well, just the one spill!) of the trail.

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 area, with a total of over 60 horses dying as a result of the disease. On a more positive note, we have received huge amounts of support from people far and wide. Professor Alan Guthrie, one of the leading specialists in AHS, came down to Kei Mouth to offer advice and support to our local equine community.

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.