Ncube out to scale more obstacles
Rider features in Easter Festival
Oscar Ncube is a rare breed. Whereas other kids may have grown up looking to become football stars, Ncube adored horse showjumping from the age of five.
Ncube, now 30, will be showcasing his riding skills at the Nissan Easter Festival, which starts tomorrow at Kyalami Equestrian Park and runs until April 17, Easter Monday.
“I have been doing this sport for 20 years now,” Ncube said this week. “I absolutely love it. You’ve got to have a passion for horses to do this. You can get life-threatening injuries along the way, because you will get kicked by a horse. You will fall off the horse. But if you have passion, you will learn the skills and survive.”
What aided Alexandra-born Ncube was the fact that he grew up around horses. “My mother used to work for a family in Joburg which owned many horses, so I grew up in that environment. I started working for Farnham Stables with Barry and Lorette Taylor in April 2007 until September 2010. I joined their equestrian team again in June 2013.”
Ncube, who was chosen for the first equestrian showjumping team to compete at the 2007 All Africa Games in Algeria, says he would like to see more black kids taking up showjumping as a sport.
“There are schools out there where you can ride for free, and if you like it, you can enlist for a full course. I’m part of the Nissan team and we run development projects too. A guy like Enos Mafokate [artist Arthur Mafokate’s father] also occasionally runs projects in Soweto where he shows kids how to ride horses. The thing about showjumping is that you’re dealing with an animal and that requires a lot of patience.”
The Easter Festival, for which entrance is free, will culminate in the SA Outdoor Grand Prix at 2pm on April 17, with 5 000 fans expected to witness showjumpers tackle the 1.50m high obstacles against the clock.
Ncube’s achievements include the Rider of the Year award from the Sanef Accelerated Development Programme 2007. He competed in the FEI World Cup qualifier series in 2010 on Wincent 28 and Aquablade. He attained a 7th place finish in the Cape Town leg on Wincent. He also competed in the SA Championships in 2010 on Aquablade and Wincent, tying for 4th place on Aquablade.