One of the owners was very distressed, his stolen mare had a very young foal, and it was frantically looking for it”s mother.  Along with the owners, we followed the spoor – not always easy, as some tarred roads were crossed, and we eventually, miles later, arrived in Soweto – a good 60 km’s from Tsakane.    Here the trail ended.  Our inspector, Trevor Mosia, had a few suspects in mind, and took one or two of the owners with him to outlying areas in Soweto and found the stolen horses!

Mare and foal were reunited, and everyone, except the horse thieves who are under investigation, was delighted!

horses in government pound

We are going to try to raise awareness for the plight of horses not only in Lesotho, but South Africa too, by getting some sort of attachment/sponsorship from the recently released film War Horse – that would be great!

The welfare of equines is a huge problem in the southern hemisphere, and we need all of the help that we can get!

At a meeting with regional Government officials in Mokhotlong, we were advised that the pound laws of Lesotho had to be obeyed, and that the majority of the horses and cattle were either stray, or stolen, and that cases were pending.  We accepted that, but pleaded with the officials to at least give the animals feed and water – they are literally dying of starvation in the enclosure.  We didn’t get any real answers, and our only recourse is to go as high up in the government as we can.  A proposal has been drawn up to firstly release all of the animals during the day, where they will have access to grazing and water – if necessary, putting them back in the pound enclosure at night with fresh water.  We have proposed that we then go to Lesotho, make recommendations that don’t necessarily cost much, and train the staff how to look after the animals.  Either way, we will have to go back soon – very soon.

We have opened  a special emergency fund to help us with the costs of this:

FNB MEYERTON  Current A/C No: 53010034238,   Branch Code 250137  (Highveld Horse Care Unit  ”Lesotho Fund”  )

FNB MEYERTON
A/C No: 53010034238
Branch Code 250137

you CAN help… we are setting up an emergency fund for the Lesotho crisis.
Please mark your donation, with your name and contact details, “LESOTHO FUND” FNB MEYERTON, A/C No: 53010034238 Branch Code 250137

There is now so much more we can do with the website – it may take me a while to get the hang of it, but I will!!!  I can’t wait to write about the work we are doing  - there is so much to catch up on…….. an illegal horse slaughter bust, two court cases, OBP horse updates,  the heartbreaking situation of horses and donkeys in Lesotho Pounds, an update on the coalyard mare with a badly fractured jaw, a new PR and Fundraising team and lots more!

Lesotho Pound Horses

Solly and Samson have gone back to Thaba Nchu, and they are accompanied by Andrew Portch, equine dentist, who is donating his professional expertise to us so that we can make an even bigger difference to the horses in that area.  We are truly fortunate to have his help.  They are due back tomorrow – I have heard that they are getting through 15 -18 horses a day!  Andrew, we are grateful to you!

BELFAST ‘HORSE TRAINER’
We are monitoring this case closely – although I believe the individual has moved… we’ll find him – that’s NEVER stopped us!

This horse was beaten with a whip whilst it was being ‘broken in’. The horse is very nervous, and I am afraid that the treatment that was inflicted on him may well have damaged him even further.  It is pitiful, it is cruel, it is unnecessary and it is wrong.

This horse fared even worse – he was injured in the crush whilst the ‘trainer’ was saddling up, and fell, injuring himself badly.  After HHCU intervention, the horse was eventually humanely euthanased by a veterinarian.  It is touching to see how the pony in the photograph tried to protect the injured horse from harm.

DEALERS – THE NEW TREND – SELLING NEWBORN FOALS:
A few people have been advertising ‘bottle fed foals’ for sale on Junkmail.  Our investigation revealed that the foals were not ‘orphans’ as advertised (tugging on the unsuspecting public’s heartstrings) but were taken away from their mothers.

Unfortunately we did not have legal grounds to confiscate the foals – they were being fed – but we have warned the perpetrators that this practice is cruel, and to stop immediately – we WILL take further action.  Two of the five foals that we know of have died – the others are being well taken care of by new owners.  But it’s not a happy ending – the foals need their mother to teach them how to socialize, and they need colostrum and the correct mare’s milk to survive.  Fair enough if your mare has died, and you have no alternative but to bottle feed to rear the foal, but absolutely wrong if you are putting newborn foals into this situation out of greed.

RIDING SCHOOL – PRETORIA

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…..

ODDS AND ENDS:
We have lots on the go at the moment – this morning we had a meeting with our new chairman John Awbrey – this man is a shaker and mover – and I realise how lucky we are!
He is a truly good man, with loads of business and financial expertise, and he is compassionate where animals are concerned – what more could an equine welfare organisation ask for?  He complements our dedicated committee and staff perfectly!

NHT (The National Horse Trust) have taken on a PR company ANTICLOCKWISE to assist with fundraising. Half of the funds NHT raises is sent over to HHCU to help with our operational expenditure – they also fund a large part of EC HCU and assist Coastal HCU.

Good luck ANTICLOCKWISE – we will give you all the assistance we can to ensure your success!

LOTTO FUNDING:
I am wading my way through another – this time I hope we are successful – application for funding for our township work through the Lotto Board.  We desperately need an injection of funds for this very important aspect of our work in order to be able to continue in 2012. Keep fingers crossed for us!

We will give the new team of fundraisers our support

Solly and I had a meeting this morning, and he has made me aware of just how serious the situation is for the horses and owners in the areas he worked in last week.  He said that 98% of the horses he saw were legally confiscatable. But, the people are desperately poor, and have never had the benefit of education or assistance. They are fully co operative and want us to help them to get their horses fit and healthy.

Last week, Solly de-wormed over 100 horses and foals, attended to wounds, adjusted hobbles and tried to repair or replace many sets of harnessing. He’ll have to go back again shortly…….

PRETTY HORRIFIC, AREN’T THEY…..

THE HORSES BELOW ARE FROM AN AREA LESS THAN 30 KM’S AWAY WHERE WE HAVE BEEN CARRYING OUT CLINICS AND EDUCATIONAL TALKS FOR A YEAR… IT ILLUSTRATES BEAUTIFULLY HOW OUR WORK REALLY HELPS!

Trevor and Samson returned late on Friday night from Amsterdam, Mphumalanga, where they spent 4 days carrying out a clinic for working equines.  We have never been there before, but responded to serious complaints from the public.

Although spread far and wide in the area, the donkey-owning community is fairly small – Trevor saw 69 animals in total.

We were fairly impressed with the condition of this horse – de-worming, a replacement bit, and advice on housing the horse at night just about summed it up.  The next time our guys return, they will attend to the horse’s feet.  He doesn’t pull a cart, he herds the donkeys from the mountains back to home.

There are a lot of problems with the donkeys…… they urgently needed de-worming, and quite a few had burn wounds inflicted by residents when the donkeys stray into their veggie patches.

We clipped out, cleaned and dressed the wounds, leaving medication for the owners to treat them.  We always involve the owners in this, so that they can learn how to keep wounds clean and prevent soreness and infection.

This business of throwing boiling water on marauding animals is a huge problem – the donkey owners let them out at night to graze, because most owners don’t have space or adequate fencing to keep the animals enclosed.  We are going to tackle this by helping the owners find a safe place to keep the animals at night, and by going into the schools and teaching the kids how wrong this maiming of donkeys is, and hope that they spread the word.

Harnessing and tack is a huge problem… your donated tack really helps. Samson shows his disgust at the home-made bit.  Samson is learning to become a field-worker.  We met him in Thaba Nchu, where he was so helpful and willing to learn new ways so that he could help horseowners in the area, that we brought him back with us!

This cart was pulled over for overloading, and having a ‘skew’ axle, which put all the pressure on the one donkey in the left of the photograph.

These 2 donkeys were brought back to the Unit for medical attention. They were found to be unfit for work, and will not be returned. They are presently ‘on leave’ and enjoying food, medication, and attention.

We will have to go back to Amsterdam fairly soon. If you are able to help the donkeys by contributing to our ‘donkey fund’ please do so – we PROMISE that within 6 months you will find a tremendous difference in their lives!

Ashley Ness and Bobbie Niederberger, two of our Inspectors, are doing a lot of travelling – I think I have only seen Ashley for about 5 minutes this week and last week.  Benoni, Pretoria, Witbank, Middelberg and White River are just some of the places they have been carrying out inspections.

Solly Motingoe and Trevor Mosia, our township working horse inspectors have been just as busy.  Next week, Trevor will spend 3 -4 days in Amsterdam and nearby rural areas, where we have received complaints about serious neglect of working horses and donkeys. We have never been to those areas before, and I honestly didn’t want us to take on more problem areas for financial reasons, but ……… what do you do? Does anyone have a magic wand that they can wave and help us by doubling up on our income so that we can employ more staff? 

At some point – and soon I suspect – we are going to have to draw a circle around the areas that we can cover and stick to helping just those animals.

Solly has just come back from a week spent in Clarens, Ficksburg, Hobhouse, Thaba Nchu and Rooifontein.  He saw hundreds of horses, and the picture is pretty grim I am afraid.

Worm infestation, lack of grazing/feed, appalling harnessing, shocking shoeing, hobbling and overwork are the problems that horses are facing in these areas.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but we will be going back there in 2 weeks to carry out a second de-worming and check up on the problems we tried to rectify on this last clinic.

WORKING HORSES – CLARENS AND FICKSBURG AREAS

SHOES ARE MADE WITH EXTENSIONS BY THE OWNERS TO ‘LAST LONGER’

HOBHOUSE AND THABA ‘NCHU

What is disappointing about Thaba ‘Nchu is that the majority of the horses that we have been assisting for the last 2 years appear to have been sold – we suspect that they were sold for a good price, as thanks to HHCU they are now in a good condition, and the owner has been able to purchase two horses in a bad condition………. difficult situation, and one that we are going to try to resolve by charging for deworming etc.

ROOIFONTEIN:

ANY SECOND-HAND/UNUSED TACK THAT WE ARE DONATED GOES DIRECTLY INTO REPLACING UNSUITABLE TACK USED ON WORKING HORSES AND DONKEYS THAT WE MONITOR – PLEASE SEE IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DONATE!  MANY THANKS

……. look at the face!!!!

Ashley and Bobbie have been to the Free State to carry out inspections and re-check inspections. There is a problem with an American Saddler Stud farm in Bloemfontein, which we are trying to rectify.