Horsemanship Abroad

Relaxing in Namibia

It was 30 hours since I had boarded the South African Airways flight at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. I had arrived in Otjiwarongo, a small town in Northern Namibia – it was the final stop on my trip before arriving at Uitsig, a cattle ranch just North of the famous Waterberg Plateau.

I had come for a holiday – and to work with some of the horses that call Uitsig home. They are a cross between Hanoverian and Arabs – small and rugged animals, they live their life in the bush, foraging for their own food and only coming in for water or to be ridden. The tails on all the horses are short. This is not a fashion statement, but a testament to the harsh environment that they call home. Acacia trees cover the land the horses live on and the thorns from the trees pull the hairs out of the tails as they search for grass.

The horses are ridden by Niena, daughter of Jorg and Maria Diekman. Jorg runs the farm and Maria runs the Rare and Endangered Species Trust – a wildlife organization that is dedicated to saving the Cape griffon vulture in Namibia.

Working with these horses reminded me of a truth when training horses – the horse has to be relaxed both mentally and physically before you can expect it to perform. The horse that brought this home was Comet, a four and half year old that had been broken three months before my arrival. A year before, Comet had been a young stallion running with a small group of horses living in one of the farm’s cattle camps.

Being a young horse, Comet is weak through his back and is also very stiff when going on the left rein. He’s stiff to the left because that is his strong side (weak, but supple on the right side of his body). As a result of the weakness through his back he would drop his back, get tense when under saddle, and raise his neck and come behind the bit. There was little point in Niena taking up a contact with the reins because Comet was so inverted through his back and high in his head carriage. The challenge was to get Comet into a more forward rhythm where he could engage his hind legs under his body, start to work properly over his back and then come into the contact offered by his rider.

We worked on several things over the course of two weeks to help Niena relax Comet and to get him working over his back. The first thing that we did was to give the rein contact so that Comet had something to work into. We worked in rising trot and pushed Comet into a forward trot concentrating on a consistent rhythm. In the walk, we worked on changes of direction, focusing on Niena’s position and weight aids to encourage her to be quiet and consistent in her seat. We were also careful to encourage the engagement of the inside hind leg when changing direction.

The consistent rhythm allowed Comet to settle mentally which in turns led to him being more relaxed through his body. The big trot encourages him to work off his haunches and work over his back, encouraging him to reach into the contact as opposed to coming behind it. The walk work brought home the importance of position to Niena and started to tune both her and Comet into the importance the weight aids as opposed to relying too much on her hands. By focusing on the importance of engaging the inside hind leg on turns, we encouraged Comet to bring his hind legs further under his center of balance. This increased engagement of the hind legs, coupled with the more relaxed back from the balanced forward trot started to reflect itself in an improved head and neck position.

More work needs to be done prior to Comet completely relaxing along his top line, but the first steps were taken. As he becomes more relaxed through his frame, he and Niena will be able to work on increasing his engagement and balance – and as this improves, he will become more sensitive to the aids and better able to perform more advanced exercises.