Untamed and unrestricted — the wild horses of Southern Africa

The wild horse colonies of Southern Africa are a bit like the creature of Loch Ness: they capture the imagination. But unlike Nessie they are regularly spotted.

Three colonies exist across vastly different landscapes, from the rugged Rooisand on the edge of the Namib to the wetlands of the Overberg and the lowveld of Mpumalanga.

One colony inhabits an area similar to Nessie’s — the Bot River lagoon, which is part of the Kogelberg biosphere reserve, near the Overstrand village of Fisherhaven on the shores of the Bot River estuary, close to the towns of Kleinmond, Onrus and Hermanus.

The late FJ van der Merwe, author of The Wild Horses of Kleinmond, described how feral vlei horses have adapted to their environment. Their large, saucer-shaped hooves are suited to the wet conditions in the places where they roam. They graze in the marshes, feeding on grass and coastal fynbos.

Van der Merwe observed that many African nature reserves host large mammals. Old travel journals indicate that hippos were there in the 19th century, contributing to the environment by creating paths through dense reed beds that open up essential drainage channels, a role now performed by the horses. Today a few hippo survive and live further east in the Nuwejaars wetlands on the Agulhas Plain of the Overberg.

Van der Merwe found that early Dutch settlers introduced horses to the Kleinmond area. He suggested that they were culled when they were no longer needed on farms after tractors and harvesters were introduced. Some survived, however, and are believed to be descendants of the Boland wagon horse, a robust local breed.

After Van der Merwe died two years ago photographer Leanne Dryburgh became a campaigner for the 27 remaining horses in the area.

Dryburgh and her husband, Peter Hassall, own Wild Wellness, a company that offers hikes on which you can get a glimpse of the horses. The best place to see the horses is on the R44 road (Clarence Drive), which skirts False Bay and the coast and goes on to the Bot River estuary and the Rooisand nature reserve.

Dryburgh says population growth poses a serious danger to the wild horses because it has led to increased land sales and the erection of fences, both of which hamper the horses’ ability to roam freely.

“While there is still ample land for them, the area is also experiencing an increase in visitors. This is their greatest threat,” Dryburgh says. Visitors often approach the horses, which “tames” them, she says. She suggests that the horses should be viewed from a safe distance. “It’s the only way to preserve the heritage.”

Last year the nonprofit organisation Rooisand Horse Watch was established. Dryburgh produces an annual calendar, which is sold to cover the expenses of signage and veterinary services. She emphasises that the horses are healthy and need a vet only in emergencies.

In contrast with Kleinmond’s environment, the area where Namibia’s wild horses can be seen is from a structure that was built near Aus, en route to Lüderitz. It was built by Namibia’s ministry of environment, forestry & tourism in collaboration with the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation.

A three-month sabbatical in the Namib offered me insights to the horses, enhanced by discussions with Telané Greyling, who has studied their behaviour for nearly 30 years.

Namib horses adapted to the desert, says Greyling, by enduring dehydration better than domestic horses because of their clever behaviour, saving energy by staying calm.

A blood-typing study by the University of Kentucky in 2001 revealed that Namib horses are most closely related to the Arabian horse cluster, specifically the Shagya Arabian population. This enforces the theory that the Namib horses’ lineage goes back to the Kubub stud farm, south of Aus, founded in the early 1900s and owned by Emil Kreplin, who was interned during World War 1 and lost his assets when he left for Germany in the early 1920s. “At that time there were no fences in the area, so the horses, left to fend for themselves, would have followed the availability of grazing and water,” says Greyling.

At Garub was a reliable source of borehole water for steam trains. There the horses likely mingled with military horses that remained after South African troops were shelled by retreating German troops, who left horses behind in a retreat during the war.

Van der Merwe also believed the Namib wild horses exhibit the physical traits of cavalry-type riding horses that were bred for police and the military in what was German South West Africa between 1890 and 1914.

Since February 1999, lucerne bales have been supplied to the horses occasionally during droughts. Around that time, debates emerged around the wild horses in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. This park spans 4,976,800ha and is managed by the ministry.

Conservation officials are often at odds with landowners and tour operators. Some argue that the horses are a “mistake of history”. The conservationists say the horses’ overgrazing harms the local ecosystem by uprooting grass, which is vital for termites and species like lizards and birds.

Greyling does not agree. “The only long-term grass in the horses' area is the eragrostis nindensis, which remains unaffected by the horses ... No significant differences in biodiversity were found between horse-occupied areas and adjacent park regions. In fact, areas used by horses exhibited a greater variety of species and a healthier ecological balance.”

The wild horses also bring about a different conflict. A clan of fierce spotted hyenas has found them an easy food source, nearly halving the wild horse population. In 2017, the foundation was allowed to temporarily feed the hyenas to distract them from the horses. In 2018, the ministry agreed to capture the hyenas and move them to a different area.

“The horse population has been around 80 horses for the past five years,” says Greyling.

Hundreds of kilometres away, Kaapsehoop, a village in Mpumalanga, is home to about 49 wild horses, but poaching has become a concern, along with tick-borne diseases and road traffic.

Residents of Kaapsehoop have arranged for the production of Wild Horse Gin to raise money for the support of the horses, and 10% of the profit goes to the initiative. The local Wild Horse Fund relies on volunteers to take care of the animals. 

The Kaapsehoop colony is believed to have originated in about 1980. The horses roam across 40,000ha surrounding the village, extending to the adjacent and unfenced Blue Swallow nature reserve. The herd is steadily declining, as are the blue swallows that are found in the area.

“You come to Kaapsehoop for a sense of wellbeing,” says Kaapsehoop Horseback Trails owner Christo Germishuys. His company offers tourists rides on its well-trained horses through breathtaking landscapes where Kaapsehoop horses sometimes emerge from the morning mist, moving dreamlike through the forest. These animals embody resilience and adaptability in facing challenges such as climate change.

Throughout history, the bond between horses and humans has been undeniable. Wild horses remind us that we, too, can break free to explore new frontiers.