A passion for horses drives them

With a passion for horses, Piet and Shelley de Beer from Little Acres Equestrian now is dedicated to giving ex-race horses a second chance at life beyond the racetrack.

According to Piet, he established the stables in 1984 with his two sons. At that time, De Beer and his sons only specialised in breeding Warm Blood horses for show jumping.

However, in 1994, Shelley de Beer joined the stable yard and showing and dressage became part of the disciplines that riders could learn at Little Acres Equestrian.

Since day one Little Acres also is a livery yard where horse lovers could stable their horses and come and ride them on a daily basis.

Shelley explains that they once had 48 horses on the yard of which 28 were Warm Bloods.

“As race horse breeding increased, a large amount of South African thorough-bred horses were bred. Due to race horse breeders constantly breeding better and faster stock, a lot of these beautiful creatures have no alternative use for the breeders,” says Shelley.

Little Acres started to scale down on the Warm Bloods and felt passionate about giving these ex-race horses – South African thorough-bred horses – a second chance at a life.

“We started acquiring ex-race horses with the hope of turning them into show jumpers,” says Shelley.

She says they currently stable 20 horses, including liveries. Five of these horse are ex-race horses and proved to be in top shape to become great show jumpers.

Although caring for these animals are a full-time job, Shelley and Piet tackle each day with the same caring and loving routine for their four-legged friends.

“Each morning at 5am I start working in the stables. Firstly I check every horse individually to see if they are warm and well-looked after then I put out feed for the stablemen to give to the horses,” says Shelley.

After this Shelley leaves the yard to attend her day-time job.

The stablemen then feed the horses at 8am and an hour thereafter the horses are taken out to the paddocks.

“The competition horses are fed again at 1pm and an hour later the stablemen groom all the horses on the yard,” says Shelley.

From 4pm horse riders come to the equestrian to train the horses and ride them, after which they are fed again and put in the stables.

“I then again check every horse to ensure they have enough hay and water for the night and that they are warm and cosy in their stables. The next morning at 5am the process starts again,” Shelley explains.

She adds that regardless of the amount of work it takes to keep these animals in a healthy and muscular shape, she would not give it up as her passion for horses drives her to keep her beloved horses happy and healthy.