Save the Horses in Namibia

28/01/2020

Is there someone willing to drive the route this weekend? Horses must be fed, fuel and food will be supplied

22/01/2020

UPDATE - trip to South - 18/01/2020

As usual, our trip started off early on Saturday morning, bakkie packed with lucerne sponsored by Tanya Britz, thank you Tanya, it made the world's difference 🙏 and armed with dozens of bottles of 5lts of water.

We've heard that the south received some rain here and there, and it's with almost childlike excitement that we drive, expecting a greener South of Namibia. We found much greenery just outside of Windhoek, which grew little as we neared Rehoboth. Between Rehoboth and Kalkrand, it was evident that the rain that fell, which we humbly thank the Lord for, needed to come again, and again. Please keep on praying.
20km outside of Kalkrand we had our first feeding, it went with a lot of tears, a foal died during the night, it was lying on damp ground from the rain that fell, but too late to make a difference for him.... the ground around him was digged out as he struggled to fight his fate. We fed the 2 remaining horses, mother and sister, who stayed close to him as if expecting that he would stand up soon.
From there we fed 3 more horses before reaching Kalkrand.

Just after Mariental, we found 8 horses, which we fed. Just before Gibeon, we found a horse in a camp, he is in a very poor condition. Whilst feeding him, his owner approached us, he said that the drought took everything from them as they stand helpless while their animals die. We left food for the week. We also assisted with animals on another farm, horses as well as 6 sheep, we also left enough food there for the week.

In total, we fed 20 horses and a few sheep, we filled water buckets, a few had been removed and will have to be replaced with the next trip.
We thank our Heavenly Father for a safe trip as well as for the rain received.

May God bless everybody who makes a difference 🙏♥️🐴

22/01/2020

UPDATE - 10/01/2020 travel to the south

First of all - our sincere gratitude to JC and Stephanie Faul for their trip to the south. They sponsored their own fuel and the food was sponsored by Uschi Behr 🎉 Thank you to both these sponsors for their love and care - this made all the difference!
It is also important to mention that JC made a second trip to the south after seeing the desperation which was sponsored 100% by them 🎉♥️
Stephanie Faul

Report as written by JC Faul -

Left WDH 5h00

14 grass bales, 85 liters of water, 1 bag 50kg 'boskos'
a. First sighting - on left - 47km after Rehoboth - 3 horses on farm. While dropping off 2 bales 8 more horses appeared.

b. Second sighting - on left - 28 km after Mariental - 7 horses behind fence - food left

c. Third sighting - on left - 5km before Gibeon turn-off - 5 horses
Dropped off 2 bales and made sure each had 10 liters of water. Had to keep the one stallion away to let the 2 foals drink

d. Fourth sighting - on left - 16km after Asab - 2 donkeys and young foal
Very skittish, so I dropped 1 bale and left them to eat. Asab river still had puddles of water but no rain fell in the area.

e. Fifth sighting - on left - 36km after Asab - brown horse with black main and legs, white patch on lower left rear leg walking next to railway line
Dropped of 2 bales, he sniffed a bit, had a few mouths full and then started grazing whatever was left of the dry grass.
Gave him water, he only had 2 liters before wandering off. I managed to get him to eat a bit more but then he ignored me.

Continued until a few kilometers after Tses without seeing any horses and turned around.

Stopped at the fifth sighting again, he was grazing 50 meters away from the bales. Tried to get him to eat but he just sniffed.
Tried water - not interested.
This horse is in bad condition. i'm not a horse expert so anybody that know why they do this? Body shutting down?

On way back at third sighting dropped off another bale and gave them 5 liters each again.
At least they were standing at the bales and eating.
While one of the foals was drinking I plucked the loose clumps of hair on the right side of his back.
He finished drinking before I could do the other side and walked away.
They were still thirsty but I had no water left - gave my 4 liters to the foal.
Tried to get water from a farmstead with water tank 2 km away, but the tank was empty.
There are 2 in this group also in a bad condition.

f. Sixth sighting - 17km before Asab - on right - 12 horses and donkeys
They scattered into the bushes when I approached so I just dropped 2 bales and left.

g. Seventh sighting - 36km before Mariental - on right - black horse with a grey face
dropped of 1 bale. There are puddles of water under the railway bridges until Mariental.

h. Eight sighting - 10km before Rehoboth - 2 horses and 1 donkey on left.
I had no more bales so gave them the boskos - they were hesitant to approach, so I left them.

Now I was out of feed and water and headed home arriving at 17h00.

Round trip 890km
A. Some of 11 horses
B. 7 horses
C. 5 horses, this in one bad shape
D. 3 donkeys
E. Lone horse, not eating, in bad shape
C. Keeping stallion away so foal can drink
G. Near Mariental
H. 2 horses, 1 donkey

22/01/2020

We urgently need donations on food for the horses, please assist to enable continuous feeding

08/01/2020

UPDATE: Trip to the South - 4 January 2020
As usual, we started early and left Windhoek with a bakkie load of lucerne and water, water buckets and plenty of red lint to do the things to be done. We found the daylight just after Rehoboth, about 70km from Whk, and immediately started feeding. We found a lot of horses between Rehoboth and Kalkrand, we fed them all and made sure to leave enough food. It was evident that rain fell and pools of water could be observed, we thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings. I find much joy in reporting that we found the white Gibeon horse, the one on our profile pic, she is so used to us by now that she came to greet us at the bakkie close to the fence. It is important to note that all animals are being fed at the furthest point away from the road for everyone's safety. She waited for us to drop the food and then waited patiently as we filled all 3 water buckets. Once her thirst had been clenched, she started to eat. We filled the buckets 3 more times before we left. We also found donkeys close to Tses, which we fed. A man approached us, asking for food for his sheep lambs, we gladly obliged, this is after all the purpose of our trip.
We found very little horses between Mariental and Keetmanshoop, but food were left at all marked points, all buckets were filled. It was still very dry, but the water pools left much hope in our hearts.
We wish to thank our Father for a safe journey and our sponsors for making this trip worthwile
Seeing gratitude in these animals' eyes is so rewarding, may God bless you all and bless all dry areas in our country with plenty of rain bringing forth life

03/01/2020

Save the Horses Namibia - Google My Maps

https://goo.gl/maps/QAP4P8qBLYJQ5keP6

Please follow this link in order to find the water and feeding points 😊🙏🐴

Save the Horses Namibia

03/01/2020

Following previous post: we would like to thank the following people for making this trip possible
*Kelvin & Venita Nolte
*Dirk & Michelle Coetzee
*Jacques vd Smit for your effort to drive the route again and for creating this awesome link to make finding the points a bit easier 😊🙏

A warm and heartfelt thank you for enabling us to keep on doing what we are doing 😊🙏🐴

03/01/2020

Save the Horses Namibia - Google My Maps

UPDATE: trip to the South - 28/12/2019
Report as written by Jacques Van Der Smit, our driver for the 2nd consecutive week. Thank you Jacques! 🙏🐴

I set route with 11 lucerne bales and a total of 110L of water.
I had also with the help of a friend created a Google map with all the points marked so that I could easily and reliably use the phone to accurately navigate to each point. Here is the link to the Map:
https://goo.gl/maps/QAP4P8qBLYJQ5keP6

28 December 2019: I left Windhoek at about 04:30 taking the B1 South. At 06:30 I reached Point 1 – I am glad to report that the containers are still there. I topped them up with water.
I kept a lookout for the animals, especially near the locations where I had fed them the previous week. Unfortunately I did not encounter any of the black and white horses on this trip.
On the way to Point 2 and before Kalkrand I fed 2 donkeys and 3 horses. At Point 2 I sadly had to replace the container as it was gone. I sunk it into the ground this time. I noted that rain had definitely fallen in the area before Kalkrand as it was much greener than the previous week.
After Mariental and before Point 3, I fed 3 donkeys and 3 horses. I reached Point 3 and here I found that the container I placed the previous week had been moved, but still there. I sank it into the ground and added a second container. I also left feed here as I expected that the horses which I fed earlier might move South and pass this point.
Continuing South I passed the grim carcass of a brown horse who died next to the road (see previous photos) but soon thereafter spotted a larger herd of horses to the left. They were 9 horses in total situated in two camps next to each other.
A bit further South I spotted a “new” point which was marked with Red Fabric – It was a tree on the left of the road just after a rest stop on the hill. I marked this location as Point 9 on the Map. Here was no container so I sunk one into the ground and left feed due to the horse dung which I could see was relatively fresh.
I proceeded to Point 4 “Gibeon horse”. At the original location (now Point 4A) I sunk a new container as the old one was gone and I left food. At the next location (now Point 4C) I noted that the location was clearly visited by a horse(s) and that it had rained here. I replaced half of the rudimentary 5L containers I placed there the previous week with a new container and left feed.
At Point 5 I just had to top up the container which was still there and left some handfuls of the loose lucern on the Bakkie. I established Point 6 (which was removed previously by the locals) again at the railway bridge by a thorn bush as there is not much shade in this area.
At Point 8 I filled the container which was still there.

A but further on I noted another “new” point again by a tree on the left hand side of the road. This point is now marked as Point 10 on the map and is +/- 200km from Mariental. I sank a container here. Still on the way to Keetmanshoop I fed 3 horses. I did not stop at Point 7 as the horse which was bound there was no longer there.
Accordingly on the Southwards Leg: 18 Horses and 5 Donkeys were fed, 2 missing containers replaced and 4 new containers sunk. (It was great that only 2 containers were missing this time)
30 December 2019: I restocked the Bakkie in Keetmanshoop at Kaap Agri with 5 bales.
I refilled Point 10 and Point 8. I spent some time trying to construct a bit of shade out of dry thorn bushes at Point 8, hoping that it would slow the evaporation. I did the same at Point 6.
On the way to Point 5 I fed 8 donkeys and 3 horses. At Point 5 I just had to refill the container which was still there.
It is with great anticipation that I reached Point 4, as I wanted to see if the horses had ate the lucern, drank the water and perhaps I could encounter the white Gibeon horse myself. To my delight all the food was eaten and the containers empty! It was clear that this Point 4 (as a whole) was a successful one. I filled the containers at both Points 4A and C and proceeded to add another container in the shade of a tree between the two points, thus establishing Point 4 B (about 25m North of 4C). About 10km North from Point(s) 4 I finally encountered the Gibeon horse! I provided a full food as it was very skinny (see photos).
By the time I reached new Point 9 I had fed 3 more horses. At Point 9 I noted that the food I left there days before had been spread out and eaten, the water container was also empty. I refilled and re-baled this point.
At Point 3 I found the same. I re-baled and refilled this point. At Points 2 and 1 I only had to top up and left some of the loose lucern at both points.
It is worth mentioning that some rain did fall in the South and that there were some pools of water here and there, but South of Point 4 is definitely the driest.
On the Northwards Leg: 10 Horses and 8 Donkeys were fed, no containers missing and clear evidence that some of the points had been used by horses.

Save the Horses Namibia

24/12/2019

Thank you to Linda Tromp and her team for their care and love and their awesome contribution to the project! These gestures are what will take these animals through this intense drought ♥️🙏🐴

23/12/2019

Please keep Namibia in your prayers, very little rain fell in certain areas.
Will you talk to God about the South in particular whilst on your knees🙏

23/12/2019

Related to Jacques’s report (previous post)

We wish to thank our MAIN sponsor Fodder Sam all the way in PE for their contribution and caring. Without you this trip would not have been possible! May God bless you 🐴🙏 Sam did put in a lot of effort to get sponsors in PE and even auctioned off some items to raise money. ♥️

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Jacques Van Der Smit for giving his time and energy by driving to the south on Saturday (21/12/2019), and dropping off much needed food and water to our animals. He also sponsored 10 bales for this trip 😃🙏 He did a great job and he also placed the water buckets in the ground to make stealing them a bit more difficult. Jacques, an avid photographer, also provided us with beautiful pictures of the journey. Looking at these animals we hope you see the need to keep on sponsoring so we can keep on feeding 🙏🙏

23/12/2019

UPDATE: save the horses Namibia ♥️🐴
20 December 2019 preparations:
Collected 10 of 16 bales from Kaap Agri in Windhoek. The remaining 6 bales were kept in credit to be collect on the next trip. The Bakkie was loaded with 32x5L water bottles and 2x25L containers.

21 December 2019: Left Windhoek at about 04:20 setting off South towards Mariental. After passing through Rehoboth it became light enough to spot the animals. Soon enough we encountered two horses feeding dangerously close to the road. We immediately stopped and dropped the first bale of the day close to the fence, hoping to draw the horses away from the road.
Further along the road we spotted a black and white horse with a brown one. We gave them one bale and watched as they eagerly ate the much needed food.
Still on our way to Kalkrand we found another black and white horse and brown horse combo and they too received a bale.
Not long after we came across four horses standing on a ridge. Two of them were eager to approach whilst the other two were hesitant. We dropped two bales on the rocky soil and watched as they started to eat.
With only two bales left we encountered six horses of which one was a small brown filly. He was still suckling on his mother. All six horses approached out of the thorny bushes and enjoyed the green lucerne.
With no more bales we focused on filling the water point before Mariental and hoped to stock up on bales in Mariental. In Mariental we filled up on diesel, pies and negotiated to purchase ten bales from a local farmer.
With a newly fully stocked Bakkie we set of towards Keetmanshoop. Unfortunately most of the water containers were gone when we arrived at the designated points. We dug some holes and placed new containers in them to make sure that the wind cannot blow them away. We placed some of the containers behind the bush hoping that they would not be easily spotted and thus stolen. We placed rocks along the edges of the sunken in container to give it a border and filled them up with water.
On the way to Keetmanshoop we found two of the railway horses who were close to point 3. They were still in rough condition and we provided them with a bale. They are not afraid of people and one can almost get close enough to pet them, although we did not as we did not want to scare them unnecessarily.

It is worth mentioning that we were blessed with overcast conditions for most of the trip and even saw rain in the distance. We think that this might have been a reason for not finding so many animals.

On our way back to point 4 (Gibeon Horse) we fed four more horses. After struggling to locate point 4 we finally found it and saw that the containers were gone. Unfortunately our containers were finished, but we made a plan and cut some of the empty five litre containers open so that the animals could drink from them. We sank 6 of them into the very hard and rock southern Namibia soil. Although there were no horses in sight we dropped a bale. The sun had set and we were about to leave when a car stopped next to the road. Out climbed two persons from SA who were visiting Namibia and they asked “is this were we give the water?” They then gave to us two five litre containers full of water, which we used to top up the six in the ground.
With the sky darkening we drove back to Windhoek, arriving late at night, tired, but with the certainty that it had been worth it and a difference has been made, even if it is just for a little while.

Report as written by our amazing volunteer Jacques Van Der Smit 🙏

15/12/2019

WATER POINTS 💦

1. 65km before kalkkrand - left side of road - direction: Mariental

2. 38km before Mariental - right side of road - direction: Mariental

3. 38km outside Mariental - left side of road - direction: Keetmanshoop

4. 63km before mariental - left side of road - direction: windhoek

5. 145km before keetmans - left side of road - direction: Keetmanshoop

6. 94km before keetmans - right side of road - direction: Keetmanshoop

7. 6.5km outside keetmans - left side of road - direction: mariental

8. Just before the 190km to Mariental sign - right side of road - direction: Mariental

15/12/2019

UPDATE:

As we started our journey early yesterday morning, we had so much hope in seeing a different landscape in the south. That hope just grew bigger as we drove between Rehoboth and kalkrand and everywhere a little bit of green showed their head.
Unfortunately as daylight came, hope faded, it was evident that the little rain that fell in parts of the south was not enough.

We fed everything, from a baboon, donkeys, goats and horses. It seems that goats have been left on their own,fighting for survival as well.

We fed the horses where we found them because they are weak and cannot walk hundreds of meters to find food. We created some new waterpoints and appeal to the public again to please fill these buckets as they go along this route.

We would like to thank all our amazing sponsors for making this a very successful trip!
*Gert Kotze
*Diana & Andre Benjamin
*Kelvin & Venita Nolte
*Sue Middleman
*Hans, Desi and Sonja Keil
*S. Swanepoel
*Gert Breedt
*Taliza & Alwyn Steenkamp
*Shannon Grellmann
*Kazanne Schouw
*Chris van Tonder

See the following post for directions to current waterpoints 🙏🐴

15/12/2019

Evening everyone,

There is a samaritan who’s willing to drive the route this weekend (we will unfortunately be out of town). We still have sponsors for food but none for fuel. If you are willing to assist please let us know

😊🙏🐴

15/12/2019

Good afternoon,
Would there be anybody willing to assist with feeding these horses this coming weekend?
We will provide food and water, maybe someone from Mariental and Keetmanshoop, then the drive is not that long if taken from Windhoek

14/12/2019

Again.... Some of the water point buckets have been stolen 🙈🙈 it is so sad to realize that a human being is prepared literally take the one thing that might keep these animals alive without any conscience 😭😭😭😭

These might be strong words but I do hope that who ever took these buckets will go to bed every night thinking about an animal whose life he might have ended with his selfish act.

You thieves - these buckets cost only a few dollars - please buy your own.

Fellow supporters, please when driving this route - carry a bucket or 2 with you so we kan keep this initiative going and help these animals 🙏

14/12/2019

And so the next journey starts 🙏🐴👏

11/12/2019

😃🙏♥️

Meneer Espach, ons Skoolhoof, gooi vir die diere water by die spesiale waterpunte. In die droogte is daar punte aangedui met rooi strikkies waar mense langs die pad kan water gooi.🐦🐃🐆🐎

Ons daag almal uit om ook water en kos saam te ry op julle reis na vakansie.💦💦

Vir meer inligting skakel gerus vir Elcorné Geel - 081 230 1724

"We dare YOU to CARE"💛 💛 💛

10/12/2019

Baie dankie aan Ella Vd Bergh vir die volmaak van waterbakke op hierdie roete, die Here seën jou❤️

10/12/2019

We would like to thank Ria Grobler and her parents for filling water buckets along the route!

Your sharing and caring goes a long way and is not only appreciated by the animals in need but also by us ♥️🐴

Thank you so much 🙏

10/12/2019

Save the Horses in Namibia