Gawie Naudé runs the Eduan Miniature Horse Stud in partnership with his son Willem near Rhodes in the Eastern Cape.
The Naudés farm on Buttermead, about 5km outside Rhodes, in the Eastern Cape Highlands near the escarpment at the southernmost end of the Drakensberg mountain range in the Barkly East district. The farm is 1 832m above sea level.
The Buttermead horses are kept on the veld and they thrive on the mountainous mixed sourveld. ED According to Gawie, miniature horses have been purposefully bred in Europe since the 1600s from a variety of other horse and pony breeds, including the Shetland pony.
MINES AND PETS
“Apart from being used as pets in England and the US, the miniatures were used in mines after child labour was outlawed. The first miniature horse arrived in the US in 1861. Although they
