Producing cowboy-style workhorses naturally

The past few years have seen a slump in South Africa’s horse market due to drought conditions in many parts of the country. This has pushed up feeding costs, in turn driving down demand and resulting in many horses, even top stud animals, selling at slaughter prices.

However, Pierre and Carine Kleinhans, owners of a horse-breeding operation on the farm Draaiberg, near Touws River in the Western Cape, saw the situation as an opportunity to rethink their business strategy.

“We love our horses and realised it was only a matter of time before the market recovered. It also made sense to hold onto the genetic material, rather than rebuilding stock from scratch once conditions normalised,” says Pierre.

In an effort to reduce production costs, they skipped the breeding season twice during the drought to maintain their herd size