BlindLove March 2023 Cart Horses Report
With the help of Animal Aid Abroad’s supporters, BlindLove, based in Thaba’nchu, South Africa, runs cart horse outreach clinics as part of what they do.
During the month of March 2023, the team from Agripreneur Farmers Institute held 5 outreach clinics. They are a group of 4 passionate, young Agricultural graduates living in the Thaba’Nchu area, and the ones ‘on the ground’ actually holding the outreaches with the cart horse owners. One member of their team, Boitumelo Legegeru also completed her Equine Welfare Training Course last year through The Cart Horse Protection Association.
Outreach dates were: 3rd March, 4th March, 11th March, 6th March, and 29th March.
A total of 58 horses were seen during March. This is great news, numbers are increasing each week as word spreads amongst the owners. At these outreaches owners contact details are saved, horses are recorded, given a body condition score, harnesses checked and minor adjustment made. All horses are also treated for internal & external parasites ( ticks, worms, flies ), and any minor injuries caused mostly from ill fitting harnesses are treated.
The team is also chatting to owners about the welfare and care of their horses and what they can do to improve the lives of their hardworking horses. The team made a simple flyer and started with the basics, the 5 Freedoms For Animals. This has well well received by the cart horse owners, and it seems the team is really enjoying spending productive time with them….in their own words “we laugh and rejoice while talking horse welfare!”
On the 29th March the team held their first veterinary outreach with the new young CCS (Compulsory Community Service) Vet stationed in Thaba’Nchu for 2023, Dr Arno. These young vets have to complete one years’ compulsory community service after graduating and are stationed in rural or remote areas all over the country. It has made a remarkable difference in these areas, as people who never had access to veterinary care now do.
Dr Arno is also very keen to perhaps get 2 veterinary outreach done each month. After the vet outreach on the 29th, he headed out to treat a horse in one of the nearby villages. The owner had contacted BlindLove Director Philippa Du Toit the day before, his horse had a shoulder injury that needed to be attended to. The horse was treated with pain meds and anti inflammatories, thankfully nothing broken.
Harness Repair / Replacing is one of the major focus areas this year. The team have been chatting to various experts for a while now about the best possible harness in terms of simplicity, cost and value the horse owners feedback too!
In Feb Blindlove purchased the rolls of nylon webbing which we will be using to make up these harnesses. The team have decided to make up our own buckles, d-rings and triglide sliders. They have found a couple of locals with industrial sewing machines and have been sewing/ test fitting a couple of different options. The difficult part has been all harnesses need to be fully adjustable. They are almost there and hope to start sewing up and rolling out the new harnesses for the cart horses in April!!
As Peter Muckle from SaddleAid in the Uk said to Director Philippa last week “something that will end up looking very simple takes a lot of time and thought to get right…. The eternal problem is simplicity is best, but a bit of complexity works better!” Once the team are happy they will send up a couple of harnesses for the owners to test run and give feedback on, with any final adjustments then being made.
We can’t wait to see these horses going around sporting their new bright comfortable harnesses!
