If you come across a horse and cart roaming the streets of Monte Vista on 29 November, rest assured as The Cart Horse Protection Association hopes to raise R105 000 on “Giving Tuesday”.
According to Marike Kotze, fundraiser at The Cart Horse Protection Association, she and her fellow fundraiser Karen Paschen will be starting from Freedom Farm where they will join Theo Tofiq as he harnesses up his horses and gets them ready for the day out.
He will then drive them on the cart, to Monte Vista, where he usually works.
Kotze said, this will give them first-hand experience to what it is like to “skarrel” on the roads of Cape Town.
“We will stop at a nursery school in Monte Vista Boulevard, where we will talk to the kids about horse welfare and what they can do if they or their parents see a horse which they feel is not in good condition, is overloaded or being abused.”
All this will be live-streamed.
Impatient motorists
Asked about the impatience motorists have with horse carts on the road, Kotze said: “The general public often need as much education on horses on the road as the cart horse operators. People tend to forget that horses are living creatures and not machines. They do not have brakes and cannot stop as fast as a car. Also, they are prey animals and their instinct when they get a fright, is to run – a horse can move extremely fast when it gets a fright and often motor vehicle drivers can be caught unaware because the horse can move sideways as fast, if not fast then it can move forward.”
Kotze also stated it must be noted that according to the City of Cape Town by-law, animal-drawn vehicles have right of way.
R105 000 target
The organisation will also use this opportunity to highlight the services they offer to the cart operators and their working horses and raise funds for the organisation. “Our target this year is R105 000.”
“Each year we run a special campaign on Giving Tuesday – it is a nice way to kick off the Giving Season over Christmas,” Kotze said.
Last year they did an eight-hour marathon live-stream from their Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre in Gordon’s Bay and the year before that, The Cart Horse Protection Association featured two of their good owners and their horses. This was still during Covid-19 lockdown so they were limited in what they could do.
But Kotze said the public seemed to enjoy getting to know the two cart drivers and their horses very much.
No donations yet
Giving Tuesday is a worldwide day of giving. It originated after Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
“We have just taken advantage of the day as it spread across the world. This year we decided to step up our game a little.”
Sadly, Kotze reported that they have not had any donations towards this campaign yet.
The Cart Horse Protection Association offers a range of free and subsidised services to the owners of registered working horses. They have a building in Epping, where they have three qualified farriers that make sure the horses’ hooves are taken care of. Horses are not allowed to work on tar roads without shoes. “We offer a trim and full set of shoes for only R100. We also sell subsidised feed so that there is no excuse for a horse to be in poor condition,” Kotze said.
Horses still neglected
In addition, their Equine Welfare Inspectors are trained to perform a few basic veterinary services such as treating colic and minor wounds and lameness.
They work under the supervision of a qualified veterinarian and if a vet case reaches the point that is beyond their training, the horse will either be taken to Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital, or one of the vets from Cape Vet Equine Practice will come and see the horse and take its treatment further.
“Sometimes, despite our best efforts, horses are still neglected or abused and in such cases, we can confiscate horses either temporarily or permanently, depending on how serious the case is or how much education we have already given the owner or driver.”
According to Kotze, the horses are then taken to the Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre in Gordon’s Bay where they are either nursed back to health and returned to their owners, or in the cases where they are confiscated permanently, they are put into the adoption programme.
