safari@waitalittle.co.za, www.africanhorsesafari.com
content and images © 2010 designed by Gerti Kusseler
WAIT A LITTLE’S FACELIFT
During the past 10 years, the monkeys have been using our tents as a playground! They find it highly amazing to bounce about on the roofs which has had a knock-on effect to the poles holding the tents in place and there has also been some roof leakages. Not wanting them to fall down on our clients, we decided it was about time that they were revamped.
Jack our handyman has done an amazing job and fixed all the tents during the world cup (he obviously doesn't like football!!). All the tents have now been renovated with new thatch roofs over the bathrooms and bathtubs were installed in camp 1 and 2.
Truly 5* luxury in the African Bush...
WAIT A LITTLE ON YOUTUBE & LAUNCH OF NEW WEBSITE by Gerti Kusseler
Hi everyone, after some years we were due for a new video and as I have discovered YouTube, hopefully we will publish many more. Many of you had seen our PREVIEW now you can see the full version.
We have also launched a complete new website, the layout of this Newsletter will give you an idea already. New pictures of the horses, animals, movies and lots of fun things are now available on www.africanhorsesafari.com. Please ignore the spelling mistakes.... ☺. I have also discovered the advantage of Facebook. So don’t be shy and add your comments.
Generally Philip and I would like to mention, that we are very proud of South Africa and the soccer world cup. It went very smoothly, the atmosphere in the country was absolutely wonderful, everyone seemed happy and enthusiastic. One experience I’d like to mention: I went to Johannesburg for a special occasion and had to go to the airport. I found the whole highway to the airport framed with huge flags from all the countries that participated in the world cup. For at least 10 km there were flags everywhere. Inside the airport happy people with vuvuzelas wishing Ghana all the best! What a sportsmanship!
South Africa has shown to the world that this is a wonderful country, safe to travel in, a good infrastructure and security. We hope for the country that this will be a good reference for future investors, businesspeople and tourism. Thank you South Africa for such a wonderful event!
GOOD BYE MANY HORSES
Sadly we have waved good bye to a couple of horses. Luckily we found very good homes for all of them. Beck’s and Murphy went to two little girls in the area, who love them to bits, we still hear from them and can go and visit.
Blackadder went to Johannesburg, as he had always struggled with the hot climate, Mellow and Giraf found new homes in the Kwazulu Natal Area.
Sadly we lost Maizel, one of our beautiful foals to horse sickness. Poor Kate had to deal with it all by herself as it happened when Philip and I were at Badminton Horse Trials. What a nightmare and poor Kate has never had to deal with a horse sickness case before.
Then, 5 month later another tragic horse-sickness case. Our little Diamond lost the battle against the disease as well, in a month where it’s a very unusual time of the year to contract it.
Kate on Beamish, the winner!
Philip on Triple
LOT’S OF SHOWS by Gerti Kusseler
This time it wasn’t only me, even Philip got the bug and entered his first show-jumping competition in Hoedspruit. But on which horse? The decision was pretty easy, as we were given this wonderful eventing horse Triple who has had a lot of experience.
Of course Kate, Anna and myself also went to do some show-jumping and Dressage. Anna won the Prelim on Lui and Kate came second on Joe. Surely Liebling and I won the Elementary - Medium as we were the only competitors in this class! HaHa..
We also presented our musical kur, as a warm up for the musical festival at Kyalami Equestrian Park, Johannesburg, which we were going to ride a week later. There we got 65% and were very pleased although we didn’t manage to get a rosette. It was a good platform to see how much I still need to train to be able to ride at the SA Champs.
However, now back to the ponies. As I said Philip jumped Triple, Anna was on Lui, Kate jumped Beamish and our friends daughter, Nadine, who has spent almost every school-holiday of her life with us jumped the 50cm class with Joe. As poor Steiner was sick I had to choose a different jumper and decided on Windhoek. What a great choice, as he was super in the 80cm class. But I had no chance to beat the little girls with their ponies and only managed a second place, whilst Kate won her class on Beamish and Anna came second on Lui, both of them did so well!
Philip would have wiped the board...if.... he just would have remembered the course!!! Hey ho what do you expect from a bush jockey, at least he remembers the way home on safari!!! Both of them did so well, Triple jumped everything clear, but only because Philip never lost his nerves (surprisingly) and kept him calm all the way around. Triple can be quite hot, but Philip was cool and easy and I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of the two of them.
The show was really lovely, the theme being the soccer world cup. Traci who owns the show ground, did an amazing job to decorate all the jumps in the colours of participating countries.
HORSE SICKNESS
It hit us hard this year, after we had lost Maizel we had another 5 cases. All our foals got the disease including Castello, my young Warmblood.
End of June we thought it was over, as usually in winter there are no midgets and concluding no horse-sickness. But all of a sudden some of the babies came up with a temperature again. As we didn’t want to take chances we again injected them. Miguel and Timothy recovered after two days, so I presumed they had just relapsed, as there were no insects. Then, middle of August little Diamond came up with a temperature. I wasn’t too worried, as the other two had come right so quickly. On day two he was still fine, no temperature at lunch time, by 6pm he was dead.
Now we realised, that this was not a relapse this had to be another strain. So horse-sickness can occur all year around at any time this is what we now know.
Nugget had it three times now, but luckily is still alive. If you are interested read more about African Horse-sickness on:
LARRY THE LUMP
Some horses are going, some are coming. Larry had been given to us by Rosemary, a friend of Rissa’s. She just didn’t have enough time for him and did not want to sell him, as he has got an injury on his left eye it would have probably been difficult. Larry is a 16.3h Warmblood, well schooled and a really good weight carrier (we all look for weight carriers). Unfortunately he is a little bit of a bully and runs through everything with you. Trying to lead him from the paddock to the grooming area is an experience. When he decides he doesn’t want to go somewhere, he just pulls away! That’s why we call him Larry the lump.... !
Because he doesn’t see well he also sometimes catches a fright when he sees animals (although he is not scared) and then takes you through thorn bushes... so he still needs a little education to be a safari horse. Kate and Frederike, one of our volunteers has ridden him quite a lot and both of them like him, he is an awesome ride, very comfortable, so he just needs to learn a few manners on safari! Thanks Rosemary for this nice horse.
DAKTARI
Daktari’s Newsletter is now Online on this website. Please follow this link to watch it, it’s really worth watching. Keep this link on file, as Michele publishes a Newsletter every month.
We had an amazing amount of our guests donating money to Daktari thank you soo much everybody you are great!
MY TRAINING FOR FGASA by Katie Spitzmaul
I really want to make the most of the wonderful opportunity I have at Wait a Little so I decided I was going to do my FGASA (Field Guide Association of South Africa) training. I had already learnt so much from Gerti and Philip experience, and was very keen to expand my knowledge by doing my training.
I really enjoyed studying all the different subjects in the training manual and felt I really gained a lot. I also found that I was seeing things from a very different perspective while out riding and really beginning to understand how many different aspects are interlinked within the ecosystem.
I passed my Level 1 Theory exam last year and went on to pass my practical assessment earlier this year. I had to take the examiner on a Game Drive, showing him as many areas of interest as I could. I had to point out different trees, grasses, soils as well as any animals, birds or insects that we came across. He was a bit worried when he arrived that I was going to put him on a horse and take him riding!! I did some practice runs before with Gerti and the Students before hand which were great and gave me much more confidence. I continued my studies this year and went on to take my Level 2 theory exam at the end of July, I will get the results in a few weeks time. As well as Gerti and Philip helping me loads while out on rides or walks, there are plenty of people around on the reserve that are always willing to help with any subjects I am finding a bit tricky.
This was my second year as stable manager, I am really keen to continue to learn more each day about this truly wonderful environment, that I am so lucky to be a part of
Again this year Philip went to Aachen on the stand of our German agent Pferdesafari. The stand is always very nicely decorated and well visited.
Aachen has become one of the worlds best horse events with amazing participants and a lot of international spectators. The three day event has also proved popular and as one can see in the picture Clayton participated not only in the show but also in the beer drinking competition on the stand.
SPONSORING
Joerg Rufer, who has been riding with us on many occasions, his son Hansjoerg and Andy Villinger organised us a sponsorship with the R4 Promotions Show-jumping Tour in Switzerland. Hansjoerg won the tour last year and look on their website, where he is in third place at the moment. So if you live in the area go and see the Final of this CSI *** jumping competition in Humlikon, Switzerland from the 6th till the 12th of September.
Andy has kindly printed a brochure to advertise Wait A Little on these Tours with excellent pictures he had taken on safari and the phrase: “One of the last real adventures for the ambitious leisure- and sport- rider. Excellent horses, wild animals, great holidays!”
We would also like to thank Barbara Stoll who has brought all these wonderful people to us. She is also a great supporter of Daktari.
TOGETHER WITH IN THE SADDLE TO THE ALTECH FEI WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES
Very exciting coming up our visit to the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. Our flights are booked and we are ready to go. In The Saddle decided at short notice to have a stand, where we will be joining them from the 27th of September till the 3rd of October. So please if you are in the states or intending to go to the WEG, we would be very happy to see you on the stand!
WAIT A LITTLE NOW ON FACEBOOK by Gerti Kusseler
Eventually I also got it... one has to be on Facebook. So now guys it is up to you to post pictures and links to our African Big Five Horse Safari page, that everyone who has not been to Wait A Little or those who would like to visit can see what it is all about and the experiences of past guests.
Click on facebook to connect with our page and share photos and information. There is also an option on our website to write a review on Tripadvisor.
CLARE’S LAUGHING CORNER by Clare Morrell
One of the things I love most about being at Wait A Little is the diversity of people we meet, be they guests, students or our friends. Many funny situations have arisen so in honour of that, we are starting ‘The Laughing Corner’.
I had one student, who shall remain nameless, (Jem!!) who had more than one blond moment! Sitting on the decking having sun downers one evening, we heard grazing noises coming from behind the large trees and bushes. Our student calmly announced ‘Oh, it’s only Impala’ one second before the whole breeding herd of Elephants wondered into view and gave us the most amazing sighting!
Jem also got her conditioner and hand cream muddled up whilst having a shower!!
But one of the funniest moments was out on trail. Jem had got into the habit of saying Goodbye to the animals when we left a sighting. On this occasion we were watching some Zebra grazing and as we started to leave she gave them a little wave and said ‘Goodbye Giraffe’.....!
Only this week, my student Freddie and I were going with some guests to visit Daktari. Philip drove us there in the game viewer with Freddie and I sitting in the back. As most of you will know, the road there is very bumpy and Philip was driving so fast that we felt like we were on a roller-coaster ride – giggling like helpless schoolgirls! At one point Philip slowed down, turned round to us and said with his cheeky grin ‘I bet you both wished you’d put your sports bras on now eh!!’ And this is from the man who likes to wear overreach boots on his head!!
Philip has also been known to get his lead horses confused. Only yesterday he saddled up Sam thinking it was Anderson!! We had to get another saddle taken over to the sleep-out for Sam, and we were so tempted to sneak him back to the stables and replace him with Anderson! I've also seen Philip have a tender moment with Sam, giving him a hug and whispering sweet nothings in his ear - then calling him Elliot! At least our trusted guide can tell the difference between an Elephant and Lion - we hope!
If any of you have stories you would like adding to the Laughing Corner, please feel free to send them to me. I have many stories concerning Philip and Mahlahla, most of which I can’t publish here – although I am open to bribery.....!
REFLECTING BACK ON SOME MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES by Katie Spitzmaul
Over the past 6 months I have been very lucky to experience so many special moments, wonderful rides and amazing sightings, but a few really stand out in my mind.
I remember going out on trail one morning, it was quite cool first thing and the mountains were the clearest I think I have ever seen them. Every time I caught a glimpse of them it was simply breathtaking, I could not stop looking at them and thinking, as I very often do, just how lucky I was to be there. Philip was tracking Rhino and we found a mother with her 2 year old calf. They were very curious of us and came really close. The calf was calling to her mother, that was an amazing sound to hear. They were so relaxed they even lay down right in front of the horses, it was such a privilege to be there watching them. On the way back we also saw a Giraffe bull drinking at one of the dams, such a special and rare sight.
Gerti on Windhoek
Anna and Lui the dressage pony
Kate and Joe
Gerti at Badplaas, qualifying for the SA Champs
Elephants are definitely my favourite animals, they are such magnificent creatures and fascinating to watch. I can still see so clearly in my mind the image of one of the big bulls, standing on the airstrip in front of the mountains just as the sun was setting. We had just been finishing our sundowner drinks as the breeding herd emerged. We had a fantastic view of them as they made their way across the airfield right in front of us, the sunset spectacular, in the background.
We have fairly regular visits from the Elephants either into the garden or around the camp, but one night was a little different. A few of us were sitting out on the deck one evening having a drink when we heard some branches breaking nearby so we knew the Ellies were close. Shortly one by one the whole breeding herd emerged and made their way along the river bed just below us. It was a clear night and nearly a full moon so we could see them quite clearly as they splashed across the river and climbed out on the other side. All I can say is Simply Magical!
Check out these pictures from Fredricke Dörfler on Facebook!
Elies (and Nyala) in front of the camp
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