Kranshoek (Equine SA) Project
History Of the Kranshoek Horses Initiative;
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” Mohamed Ghandi.
On 7 June 2017 our town, Plettenberg Bay, South Africa suffered severely by the recent Garden Route fire crises.
On 10 June 2017, the people from Kranshoek, a local settlement, whom were also severely affected asked for help to move their horses and life stock, to another area where they would be safer from the roads as fences were destroyed, plus they had no grazing. Volunteers arranged transport and we moved 7 of the horses to Stonefield Polo & Equestrian Centre. A couple of weeks later we moved another 2 horses to where we could care for them.
We were astonished by the lack of knowledge and resources available to these horses and their owners. We decided to offer the Owners of the horses in our care, some training and assistance to help the horses, as their handling were not in a humane manor. We started with some basic theory training at my house and on the second session, when I wanted to get to know the horses through some basic horsemanship and ground work, I noticed that the horses were severely traumatised when handled and some of them became aggressive when their people approached. Not one of them were comfortable with people, they took to fight, flight or freeze mode as soon as people approached them. Ms Lee Naude decided to stop all interaction with them and we are currently rehabilitating them, restoring trust and confidence.
The next step was to develop the Owner’s skills in correct handling. We started meeting with 5 of the children to see how we could help them to develop their Horsemanship skills and in getting to know them and from being a qualified Equine Assisted Psychology Horse Specialist, realised that the we will not be able to teach the kids unless their environment became positive, calm and assertive. The parents are excited about our vision to develop the next generation, especially since they have a proud Horse Heritage, and this herd directly assents from the original Griekwa people and their horses, which were lead down to Kranshoek, by their Profit, Die “Kneg” from the Western Cape.
On a daily basis, not including the fire and the fences being burned down, these horses have to endure theft by their communities juvenile delinquents, illegal racing, returning with injuries and death (refer photo of Donna), abuse by strangers and starvation now that there is not enough grazing. The organisation which tried to act as the local welfare organisation does not have the skills to help and decided that the good quality grass such as Lucerne donated, will only be allocated to Thoroughbred horses.
Our vision is to restore dignity to the horses and their people, especially at risk Youth, to reset the balance between human and nature in an area where horses were and could be again, a huge part of their future, not only as transportation, but as healing components, farm work, and sport, but also as part of building their economy with a positive carbon footprint (hoof print), and open up the equestrian world, previously perceived as elitist, along with its possibilities for careers, employment, sport and sustainable green living.
Horses in our Care;
Donna, Lilly (Donna’s Foal), Flicka, Joy, Clover, Roxy, Gorgeous (Roxy’s foal), Blaze, Jupiter.
Our Facebook Page;
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=kranshoek%20horses
or search in FB “Kranshoek Horses“