THE FILLY SEASON
Claire Keeton and Marianne Schwankhart have some family friendly fun on horseback
YOU can take a horse to water but you can’t make it swim. My mount, Gun Metal, snorted and pawed wildly at the surface of a dam — a sign he wanted to roll (apparently) while I was hanging on bareback — then stood his ground near the bank.
After he’d had a drink, however, he launched into deeper waters.
I could feel his muscles tense and kick into a swim before I floated off his back, holding the neck strap. Marianne was submerged longer on her horse, Swampy, who is in his element in water.
Horizon Horseback Adventures and Safaris in the Waterberg offers swimming with horses, playing polocrosse, another first for us, and game-viewing rides.
Horizon has a team of roughly 80 horses, whose wellbeing is paramount. We loved our rides and our stay at their lodge and tented camp in the rocks.
We went for fast canters and trots through the bush past elands, giraffes and fish eagles. Every ride follows different trails and a British couple, on their eighth ride of the visit, said they had not yet repeated a route.
Military surveyor Alan Honey and his wife Tania, who runs Riding for the Disabled in the UK, said they wanted to come back with their daughter and snowboarding son.
Viva Jung-Heiliget, a 32-year-old corporate lawyer from London, who took three months off to volunteer on the game reserve, intends to stay a year.
“They treat their horses better than most stables where I rode in England and I love it here,” she said.
Viva had an exuberant reunion with guest Sarah Tacke, a news anchor on German TV, by chance. As teenagers, they rode together in Germany and lost contact for 15 years before they crossed paths in Limpopo.
Another volunteer, 19-year-old Carmen Daoust, visited as a guest when she was 13, 15, 16 and 18 years old.
Most of the visitors to Horizon are foreigners, but a new mountain camp has been designed with South Africans in mind.
Laura and Shane Dowinton, originally from Guernsey and Australia, started the horse safaris 21 year ago and their 15-yearold daughter has grown up there. Their commitment to the horses and guests seems to infuse Horizon with soul.
“From our first day on the farm we were looking for a way to stay,” said Laura, who has made the lodge homely as well as very comfortable.
Within minutes of arriving, we had met litters of wire-hair Jack Russell puppies and other dogs and cats on the grass.
The traditional homestead stands on a vast green lawn, which takes three days to mow, overlooking a swimming pool and the Horizon Dam.
A sign at the end of the wooden jetty warns “Beware of Hippos: Swim at your own risk”. A swinging couch secured to branches, two benches and three sunbeds are scattered in the shade of trees.
A baby Mozambique spitting cobra, about 30cm high with its hood raised, also made an appearance near Marianne’s chalet, one of four on the lawn. We herded it away until the snake handler, who is the lodge’s excellent chef, came to move it into the bush.
Rynos Mabiya deftly picked it up and said: “My nephew has caught many big snakes and says his ancestors taught him this.”
The talents of the two local guides, Silas Kolonyane and Lucas Monyani, related more to horses and they were in command in the saddle.
Shane said: “Silas had never seen a horse or a white person before he came here to visit his granny. He started in the garden, then worked in the stables and started to ride and guide. He is very good at polocrosse.”
Lucas took us on our first ride up to Camp Davidson in the mountains and Silas took us back to the lodge the next morning.
My first horse, Crash (initially I thought he was called Creche since I was the most inexperienced rider) was well trained and comfortable, like the others I rode.
On the afternoon ride to the camp on our first day, we passed zebras, giraffes and impalas, riding past wild figs and baboons’ tails. We were welcomed with sundowners on the deck of an eco-friendly pool amid the bush and rocks.
The spacious, permanent tents each had a deck and open-air bathroom at the back, with toilets, running water and hot bucket showers.
A three-course dinner was served under the stars with the cries of jackals in the distance. That night, we heard lions roaring from a Big Five reserve in the Waterberg.
The next morning, we were served coffee early and had breakfast on a deck with a view of the bush. That ride included our swim and we got back to the lodge in time for more food.
A delicious lunch, followed by tea with freshly baked scones — during which we learnt the rules of polocrosse — meant we felt almost too heavy for our horses but in the late afternoon we set off to play.
I found the game much more fun and exciting than I’d anticipated. We played a gentle beginners’ game, which even a child could have joined.
Many families come back after their initial visit, Laura said. The lawn and stables are paradise for children and the lodge has space enough that adults will not feel crowded.
Horizon is a great refuge for any guest, horse rider or not, and we wished we could stay longer. We hope, like about a third of their guests, we’ll be back.