Their origins steeped in mystery, the wild horses in the Namib Desert have captured imaginations and touched hearts. These resilient animals have survived in the desert for more than a century and over the years have become a major tourist attraction in southern Namibia.
The book ‘Wild Horses in the Namib Desert’ (now out-of-print) is the outcome of a collaboration, revealing the little-known history and behaviour of the wild horse population. Manni Goldbeck sheds light on the horses’ origins, taking the reader back to the tumultuous time of World War l and exploring the more plausible theories, while Telané Greyling (PhD Zoology) shares her knowledge of the intriguing behaviour of the Namib horses gleaned from her many years of research and life amongst the horses. Freelance writer, Ron Swilling, created a text from the material giving it a breath of life. Finally, from the love for the horse and all things wild, the book was born.
An equine biography of the Namib wild horses, the book traces the beginnings of Equus groups on the sub-continent, following their journey over time to Namibia and the present day.
Join us every Sunday as we share the wild horses’ journey with you . . .
(If you’ve missed any of the posts, you can find them on the PadlangsNamibia website.)
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟑: 𝐀 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟕 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭 . . .
The original Garub borehole was used to provide water for the horses until the end of 1991 when new water troughs were built at the present day Garub viewpoint, approximately four kilometres to the east. They utilise a borehole drilled by farmers for emergency grazing in the early 1960s, now belonging to MEFT (Ministry of Environment, Forestry & Tourism). The borehole water is pumped to a reservoir from which the troughs (converted to a waterhole in 2011) are gravity fed. This watering point has the advantage of being in an area with better grazing, visited more frequently by the horses and reducing the distance they travel between grazing and water.
It was also from this time that the horses began to feature in the media. In the late 1980s August Sycholt wrote the initial articles and produced a documentary on the horses. The first investigation into the population size and physical condition of the horses (as well as sheep) utilising the pasture was executed by a Senior Nature Conservation Officer, Chris Eyre, in 1985 and a report on the ecology of the horses was compiled by TC Meyer in 1988. In 1991, a French journalist, Jacqueline Ripart, camped at the original borehole for a two-month period observing the horses and in a report to MET noted that she had counted 276 horses. Although limited, her report was the first study on population structure.
In 1991/1992 a devastating drought spread through southern Africa and there were widespread attempts to rescue game throughout the region. When it reached southern Namibia, local people began to enquire about the starving horses and wished to sponsor food for them. MET decided to remove a number of horses to relieve pressure on the population. Because of inadequate information about the population, horses were captured randomly. One-hundred-and-four horses were sold to interested horse owners at N$120 each. The horses were transported to farms around Namibia, seventeen being taken all the way to South Africa.
After the capture in June 1992, the remaining wild horses were given supplementary feed. The effort was sponsored by CDM, the Oranjemund Riding Club and horse groups in the UK, and included funds raised by Das Tier, a German wildlife magazine, and Charly’s Desert Tours in Swakopmund. It was orchestrated by Jan Coetzer and the Oranjemund Riding Club and implemented by MET. The horses were given supplementary feed until it rained in March 1993 and green shoots of fresh grass emerged. A hundred-and-fourteen wild horses survived the drought, while approximately sixty horses succumbed, mostly from the older and the younger age groups. They were survived by the strong middle core group. When the rains returned, there was soon ample grass and within a month the wild horses had regained their condition.
The captured horses however didn’t fare as well, they had difficulties adapting to their new environments and domestic conditions. The horses that were translocated within Namibia into areas with similar grass species adapted relatively well, with the exception of those that were transported into areas with horse sickness and biliary. These were immediately susceptible to the diseases as they had no immunity-providing antibodies. The horses that went east struggled to adapt to their new environment, taking more than a year to gain condition. Even after receiving the necessary vaccinations, horses were still lost. Several horses, unaccustomed to being contained, were badly injured in fences and camps. As far as could be determined, by 1997 more than half of the captured horses had died.
Public interest in the wild horses continued to grow. In November 1993, a lookout shelter was erected a hundred metres from the water troughs, allowing the public to view the horses. The road to the wild horses is located approximately twenty kilometres west of Aus on the B4. A one-and-a-half kilometre gravel road leads to the viewpoint and the hide overlooking the waterhole. From 1993 to 1994 Telané Greyling conducted a study on the behavioural ecology of the horses. After 1994, she continued visiting the area periodically for research and has kept detailed records of the horse population ever since.
The wild horse population increased slowly in the following four years of average to below average rainfall. In 1997 MET officials once again received permission to capture 35 horses from the population of 149. The horses were selected according to sex ratio and population composition in an attempt to minimise the impact on the population. They were removed to a holding facility at the Hardap Dam, 350 kilometres north-east of Garub, after which they were to be sold at a public auction.
During the first six weeks however, problems began to develop in the behaviour of the horses with the stallions becoming increasingly aggressive in the confined spaces of the bomas (enclosures), something not seen in the wild population. Fortunately, the auction was cancelled and the horses were released back into the desert. As their hooves touched the familiar sand of their home territory, they galloped off into the freedom of the desert.
The sparse rains of November 1997 would be the last for the next two years. The drought of 1998 affected Namibia severely. By July 1998 the condition of the wild horse population started to deteriorate. Because rainfall cycles had been average to below average for the previous four years, there wasn’t an adequate reserve of grazing for the horses. Once again, the natural elimination of older and younger horses began to occur with the middle core group remaining. Eighty-nine horses survived the drought. If the proposed auction had proceeded as planned, the horse population would have been reduced to a dangerously low level, exacerbating the severity of the bottleneck effect on the population and placing their future at risk.
It was at this time that the wild horses’ plight became known internationally. A film was being made outside Swakopmund portraying a story of the wild horses as narrated by a young colt, and referred to as ‘Hoofbeats’ but released with the title ‘Running Free’. Articles published in the United Kingdom (Daily Mail and Evening Standard) and Germany about starving wild horses triggered an overwhelming response. The articles immediately prompted Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group to contribute a considerable sum to the Wild Horses Fund established by the Namibian Nature Foundation (NNF) to provide supplementary feed for the horses. Local businesses were amongst the many who generously donated. Public awareness and empathy for the horses grew worldwide and envelopes containing banknotes flooded in from a wide spectrum of people, from children to grandmothers.
The horses were provided with supplementary feed for a five- to six-month period. The lucerne was distributed by MET and scattered widely to reduce the competition amongst the horses. In March 1999 the rains returned and fell on the parched thirsty earth.
The year 2000 heralded a decade of good rains. The horses spent more time at the water troughs and became more habituated to the presence of people. Because of the good grazing in proximity to the troughs, there was no need for them to spend their time travelling to grazing areas and they had more time for social interaction, resting and playing.