Our Foundation Horses
This is a tribute to our foundation horses and a short description of their lives with us.
History Of Honey Bee - Our First Foundation Horse
Honey Bee is a Section A, Welsh Pony, and stands 10,2 hh. She joined our family when my son (who was deaf at the time) started having balance difficulties and Dr Wynne Hon, his ENT suggested horse riding to help improve his balance. Honey Bee was his second birthday present from his Great Grandmother. I persevered with his lessons, and with time his balance did improve considerably. Charl outgrew Honey Bee many years ago, but Honey remained in the school and ironically is still one of the little childrens favourites.
Photograph of Honey Bee and Juanita du Plessis at the 2006 Equestria by: Charl van Rooyen
At 10,2 hh, Honey Bee dreamt of being a race horse. She finally got her chance when she won 3 out of the 5 heats at the 2006 Equestria Shetland Pony Grand National.
She has a choppy hard stride that is well suited to Cerebral Palsied children and has the endurance to do a good 15 km
walking without tiring, per day. Despite the ripe old age of 19 she still is a feisty old lady, and is still
resident at the centre today.
Honey, thank you for all you have given, we salute you!!
History Of Kingston
Photograph of Kingston by Jon Jon Hess.
When I was first introduced to Kingston, he was a patrol horse for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police under Elwyn Pelser, but he was going through a difficult period. He was in discomfort or pain and would no longer allow anybody to ride him. His head was set on unbalanced from an old injury, and he was showing nerve damage. With every attempt to ride him, he would rear as his rider was mounting, and send them flying.
It was during this period, that the Metropolitan Police decided to phase out all other breeds of horses and only keep Friesians. This meant Kingston was one of the first to go. With him not wanting to be ridden, his prospect of finding a new owner was bleak, and so he was booked to go to slaughter.
With my husband being a member of this unit I got to hear about it and he was saved from this fate. We bought Kingston and set about finding out exactly why he didn't want to be ridden. It turned out that the atlas/axis junction (joint at the top of the neck) was out of alignment. To evade the pain, Kingston would rear every time someone would mount him. When the rider put their weight in the stirrup, it pulled on his neck, bring about the unbearable pain. Besides this, his left eye also seemed to have impaired vision.
I had a local chiropractor reset his head. I then set about looking for a way to manage this very dangerous vice and get him back into the arena. It took me about 2 years to regain enough of his trust to work with him safely. In this time I worked on transforming the disobedience (rearing as a form of napping (being naughty)) into an obedience (only rearing on command). He now only rears to stretch the muscles along his back and asks to rear when they are becoming tight and stiff.
This all started way back in 1991 and as the years have passed, we were able to understand him. This understanding allowed him to express himself, looking for the tell tale signs of what he is thinking of doing next, so that his behaviour could be managed without any further abuse. A key to his rehabilitation was his rider's skill in outwitting his behavioural difficulties. This has helped Kingston find his way into the hearts of almost every rider who has ridden with us, in both our conventional riding program and our rehabilitative program.
His importance to us has stretched much further than being a school horse. He also played an integral part in our herd
and the herd dynamics. He was responsible in rehabilitating and re-establishing lost instincts in other abused horses
that have come to us. He has over the years installed balanced herd dynamics, the importance of this being the herds
pecking order has been challenged and established during grazing time allowing safety to maximised during therapy and
riding. Kingston is still resident at the centre.
Kingston, thank you for all you have given, we salute you!!
History Of Little Lady
Photograph of Little Lady by: Dirk Geldenhuys
Little Lady was the third of our foundation horses to join us after Honey Bee and Kingston. I bought three ponies from Gloria - Little Lady, Sugar Stick and Filece, but I only really wanted Little Lady. I decided to swap Filece for another horse, which in turn was swapped for Ramzey. I put Sugar Stick down as she was very old at the time.
Little Lady had a strange shape and she was a genuine example of a horse that was close to the ground. Being such a comfortable ride, the kids called her the 'Stretched Limousine'. She offered almost a high head carriage and a sway back to hold her riders in the saddle, all round she was a brilliant pony, giving all who started on her a safe ride.
In her young days she was a strong boned pony, but in the end, her size and weight in relation to her legs made her knees start to splinter. After removing bone chips twice, she became lame for the third time, and we decided to put her down.
Loosing this pony was really difficult to get over, and the children that had bonded with this pony really battled to move
on and work with a new pony.
Lady you gave us so much pleasure and we really miss you!!
History Of Ramzey
Ramzey ridden side-saddle by Helen du Plessis. Photo by Dirk Geldenhuys
Ramzey joined our family about 6 months after Honey Bee and Kingston. Ramzey, whose initial name was Indiana Jones, had also been a patrol horse for the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police. Soon after we bought Kingston, Ramzey was sold by the Metropolitan Police. My husband was no longer a member of the unit at that time and we did not know that he was for sale. So he was sold to Andre (another member of the unit). He called me saying that he wanted to sell Ramzey, and in the end I swapped a horse and a pony that I had just acquired, for him.
He had the purest and safest of characters - he had no vices, he boxed well, he was always willing to work and he had the most amazing empathy with any rider that had a difficulty. He would alter his pace to suit his rider, soft like he was walking on eggs for the riders with balance problems and hard and proprioceptive to the spastic rider, he would shift his weight to balance a rider that was having difficulty and he would give my advanced riders a run for their money in the jumping arena.
He had an added talent, he was step father to all our weaned babies over the years, he reinforced exceptional temperament qualities in all our young horses and ponies, gently teaching them right from wrong, generosity and patience with us humans and all things we ask of them.
He died on the 1st of December 2007, as a result of an "intercusseption" (Bad colic). It was one of the hardest days of my life. I tried to treat the colic myself but at about lunch time I realised that the colic was very serious, with no vet and Ramzey being in his 30's I decided that he had suffered enough and he was put down. This was the most heart breaking thing I had to do in my life.
When we started becoming involved in the training of candidate instructors we decided that it would be a good idea to have
Onderstepoort clean and prepare the skeletons of our old horses and so Ramzey is still with us. Yes he may not be alive
but through his skeleton he lives on to teach some more.
Ramzey thank you for who you were and what you have given us over the years, you touched the hearts of many - we will always
Love You!!
A Tribute to Ramzey written by one of his past riders:
When I went to Windy Hollow I was worried about what horse I was going to ride, so then comes this stunning Chestnut
Warmblood gelding walking out of his stable with a tiny groom compared to him. I was put on this magnificent animal and
Helen the instructor told me to keep him on a tight rein, because he was very strong boy.
It was very hard work, but it was worth it. I learnt so much from Ramzey, the first thing is confidence, not to get a
fright or to be scared, to work with the horse, not fight him, because the more I fought him the stronger he got. I learned
how to give and receive but not too much, because then you went for a nice run. I also learned how to talk to a horse to
calm him down with my voice and as he relaxed, I relaxed and that was when him and I started thinking as one, and I stopped
thinking about myself.
I would just like to thank Windy Hollow for giving me the opportunity to learn from one of their best, and a big thanks to
Ramzey, you stole my heart, and thank you for letting me have the privilege of learning from you. You taught me so much
more of what riding really is.
What makes Windy Hollow different from other riding schools:
Firstly, you don't really have a lesson from a human instructor, the horse is your instructor.
Wium van Huyssteen
Secondly, Helen coaches you as a rider, giving you a chance to prove yourself.
Thirdly, there isn't any jealousy under the riders, everyone gets a fare chance.
Fourthly, Helen is the best instructor you'll ever have, she does not hold back on teaching you anything, she's willing
to give 110% and more, meaning you get much more than you pay for, if you are willing to give your best.
The History Of Midnight Angel
Midnight. Photo by Dirk Geldenhuys
When Midnight came to us, he had been rescued by a local Walkerville horse lover and who told us, he was still a stallion when he was found grazing in a private grave yard. I don't know too much of his history other than he was found very thin and weak, he was fattened up and gelded. During this process he became too much for the girl who owned him to ride and so he was sold and I bought him.
It was during his difficult to control period that he injured himself by jumping out of the lungeing arena, he did not make the jump properly and caught his one back leg on the top rail. The resulting injury was basically the tendons were ripped off the point of pelvis on one side and so he was rested for a long period for this to heal.
With rehabilitative schooling we were able to strengthen his pelvis and he was able to work with our advanced pupils but in his old age it was this old injury that really caused his death. Over the years his spine moved into a scoliosis position as the tendons that were left in his leg shrunk, and one morning while trotting out to the field his back legs gave way underneath him and he stumbled, almost falling from behind.
He had always been such a good horse and we loved him so much, which is why we said he was never going to suffer, when his injury showed signs of becoming too much for him we would put him down, I phoned the Lion Park and he was put down on the same day.
He was our Herd leader with Wonder as his lead mare, and within a week of him going the herd was in mourning and Wonder handed over control of a very confused group of horses to the 3 pony mares - Orphan Annie, Stars Delight and Pumkin, this was about a month before her own bad injury to her hip.
This all happened about 5 or so years ago and our herd has never been the same, until I put Kingston into the herd after
Chaira�s death. It has been difficult for them, they have moved 3 times now since my mother sold the farm and gave us
notice, finding peace and contentment within the herd has been difficult.
"The horse you get off is not the same as the horse you got on... it is your job as a rider to ensure that as often as possible, the chance is for the better." -unknown