Zecks Samu’s journey from groom to leading horse whisperer

One of KwaZulu-Natal’s leading horse whisperers started out as a humble stable groom, a job he landed by good fortune despite having no experience with horses at the time.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Zecks Samu (43) moved to Durban a decade ago in search of job opportunities, first finding work as a groom at Summerveld Stables in Shongweni. There he worked with racehorses and soon discovered his talent for getting the animals to trust and listen to him.

But ‘horsemanship’ was not even on his radar as a potential career until a horsemanship teacher from America visited the stables and showed Zecks the possibilities.

Now he is well known across the province, splitting his time between stables on the North Coast – at Galloping Winds and Oaklands Equestrian Estate – and inland at Shongweni and the Midlands.

“I work with horses that are giving their owners trouble, be it in trailer loading, or by bucking and being overly dominant,” said Zecks. “I approach the problem from a position of trying to understand the horse’s psychology so I can learn how to communicate with them.”

Zecks said it took around three years of working with horses daily before he felt he could properly understand them.

And much like humans, horses can have very distinct ‘horse-nalities’.

“There are four main horse-nality types, left and right brain introvert and extrovert, which develops partly from the horse’s environment and partly what they were born with. When I first meet a horse, I try to figure out what their exposure to humans has been and their level of spirit.”

Zecks uses negative reinforcement training techniques, communicating through body language cues and by touching pressure points on the horse’s body. He never uses force or training gadgets to get the job done.

“You are never going to change the horse’s temperament, only suppress their negative habits. It is always my hope when meeting a new horse that I can make their world and the world of their owners, better.”

When not employed to help in specific cases, Zecks also regularly trains a series of horses. With one such horse, Viceroy, he does shows displaying horsemanship techniques that include tricks you might think only a dog could do, like lying down, jumping or rearing onto their hind legs.

Viceroy is owned by Liezel Mitchell and lives at Galloping Winds, near Tongaat.

Zecks has also recently started to do some stunt work on movie sets, including The Woman King, in which he rode side saddle and fired a gun.

“It is great fun working on a movie and I get to do things I would never normally do.”

To see more of what Zecks does, visit Zecks Samu Horsemanship on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

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