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A hands on equestrian vacation working with horses...
- Do you want to escape for a month or two and experience what it is like on a South African horse farm?
- Would you love to ride horses all day, have lots of fun and take care of top class trail horses?
- Do you want to ride along the beach, ride through farms in search of wild animals, get involved with the schooling of the horses and improve your horse riding?
- Do you want to be involved and get hands on experience working with horses?
- Then a 2 to 6 week working riding holiday is the perfect Gap Year or Career Break adventure for you!
- Stay for 8 weeks or more and do a overnight trail for free!
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What to expect.
Join us for 1 to 12 weeks and volunteer by helping to look after the horses, this is a hands on riding holiday, work with horses in an alternative environment using natural horse care. We ride our horses using the classic English style while schooling and combine with Western type riding when riding on out rides. You will be involved with the day to day care of the horses, do lots of riding, exercising and schooling the horses. You also have an option to do a 3 or 4 night multi-day Wild Coast Horse Trail.
Based at Sunray Farm we offer different daily rides around the farm looking for game and from our beach paddocks in Kei Mouth. For a perfect riding holiday, overnight trails can be enjoyed separately or combined to create an authentic rural African experience. Riding at the farm offers a selection of out-rides through indigenous bush looking for naturally occurring game, schooling in our outdoor arena, riding lessons, a mini cross country jumping course, barrel racing and games on horseback, round pen work, several different beach rides in Kei Mouth and Morgan Bay.
This is an excellent environment to get work experience for equine students, advanced riders will enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and great riding, intimidate riders can immerses themselves with the horses, and novice & beginner riders’ riding will improve! We require that candidates be horse lovers, must love the great outdoors and have a spirit of adventure to do new things. No other experience is necessary as we will teach you as you go along.
Daily Routine
The program is dependent on prevailing weather and when an overnight trail has been booked! This is just a guide as to what you can expect during your stay. Our morning starts at 7.30 am for breakfast and we start with the horses at 8 am; we have an hour for lunch and finish around 5 pm in the afternoon. If it is very hot we might take a longer lunch and ride later in the cool of the evening.
After breakfast you will pack the vehicle and head down to the beach. The horses all need feeding, checking and grooming on a daily basis and is ridden at least 3 times per week. This means that your mornings will be spent riding down at the beach or at home on the farm while you train and exercise the horses. Over weekends and occasionally during the week you may have to assist with taking day riders out on rides.
At the farm, the young horses, stallions & broodmares come in at 8am for feeding (we have full time grooms who do this). We may ask you to help out during the morning stable (this all depends on how many work riders we have at the time). Lunch is at the farm or you may like to go and have a pizza at Yellowwood Forest in Morgan Bay!
The work horses come in at 2pm and you will assist in feeding & grooming. During the afternoon you will have the opportunity to do lots of riding. Horses need exercising and young up and coming horses need basic schooling in dressage and jumping. We have a dressage arena, some jumps, a mini cross country course, a space for barrel racing, dams for swimming the horses, lots of out rides on the farm where you can spot naturally occurring wild game! Your days will be full of great riding!
You get to participate in the following.
Grooming, bathing, and general care of the horses, Feeding when necessary, Cleaning tack and equipment, Working with the young foals & yearlings at Sunray Farm. Exercising & schooling horses at Sunray Farm, . Exercising & care of the trail horses at Kei Mouth. Assisting with out rides and trails at Kei Mouth, (Our horses all live out, so there are no stables to muck out!)
A normal working day is from 8 am to 5 pm with an hour for lunch. You spend time caring, working, schooling and exercising horses at Sunray Farm, and down at the beach paddocks in Kei Mouth. However, animals and holidaymakers do not keep time, so we may occasionally start a little earlier and finish a little later. The point of you being with us is to do lots of riding, learn, help out and have fun! It is up to you to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you. The more you participate, the more you will learn and the more you will take home with you. - PLEASE NOTE
- All riding and itineraries are subject to change due to variations in local conditions, riders abilities, the weather & influences of the sea tides and during the rainy season the conditions of the rivers and ground at the time of riding.
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