Support for Quick Brown Fox
QUICK Brown Fox, the only unbeaten runner in Saturday’s World Sports Betting Fillies Guineas, came in for further support yesterday. The sponsors opened her at 8-1 and she is now fourth favourite at 6-1.
But she has never been further than 1 200m and neither her trainer nor her I STARTED working for Coastal Horse Care Unit (CHCU) in 2014 doing rural outreach.
The main part of my job is to go into the deep rural areas and educate rural horse owners on how to care for their horses.
While working in these communities and carrying out research on what these people wanted and needed in order to look after their horses better, I came to realise that these communities really needed these horses in order to survive in these remote areas.
Most of these horse owners really care about these animals and rely on them for herding and transport.
Caring
They do not deliberately mistreat their horses it’s just a case of not having access to knowledge, services and products and this limits them in caring for their horses.
CHCU has been interacting with these communities since 2009 and have built relationships based on trust and commitment.
In the two and a half years that I have worked in these rural communities I have jockey know how good she actually is even though they both rate her highly.
Greg Cheyne said: “She had always shown us a lot and we were very impressed with her maiden win.
“It was after that race that Brett Crawford told me we would have a go at the Fillies Guineas if she won the next time – which she did.
“She has an incredible stride and that is noticed that at my in-field training workshops there is a great interest from the younger generation to learn about their horses.
These children are the ones in the family that are in charge of looking after the horses and they are the ones that ride them when herding the cattle or going on errands to the local spaza etc.
After seeing the interest of the younger generation at our in-field training workshops I started thinking that offering a rural children’s educational holiday camp would be a good way to improve the life of the rural horses as well as uplift and empower the children themselves.
Although my older rural owners are always keen to learn, human nature is such that it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.
They have been doing things their way for generations and generations.
However, children are much more open to new ideas and skills.
The idea to have a children’s holiday camp was all good and well but the problem was how to finance it!
That’s when I approached SPANA for funding.
SPANA is a UK based charity that was her biggest attribute but she does it all so effortlessly and she can really quicken. I am happy with the extra distance – she is not a speed merchant and she is so switched off – but she is still an unknown quantity. Although she is in at the deep end she has made great improvement since her first run.”
Crawford, who won the 2005 Cape Fillies Guineas with Bad Girl Runs, added: “We were always hoping with her and it was a good start when she won on debut, even more so when she won again. If she hadn’t won that day I wouldn’t have run her on Saturday but from a one draw we are taking our chance. She has a lot of speed in her pedigree but I think she will like the extra distance.” founded in 1923. They are a leading charity for the world’s working animals and are passionate about protecting and caring for working animals.
In May 2014 I sent them a proposal for hosting two children’s educational holiday camps. This funding was granted and the first children’s camp will be taking place from December 13 to December 20. The children will be hosted at the newly completed “Emmahashini Training Centre” on our farm in Cato Ridge.
The aim of the camp is to educate children, aged 12 to 17 years old, from rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal, about all aspects of horse care and welfare as well as the fun side of owning and looking after horses.
Valuable lessons
All sessions will be designed to teach valuable lessons through fun and creative methods, in order to promote children’s knowledge and skill caring for horses as well as their self-esteem and confidence.
We plan to expose these children to various other aspects related to the equine industry. By educating children to understand and care for horses, a more knowledgeable and compassionate generation of future horse owners will be created in these communities. After the camps, children will return to their households and communities with many more skills and experiences and they will pass on this learning to their siblings and friends. It is human nature to want to show off what you have learnt, especially with children, and this will work in our favour.