Namaqua Horse Trails
Education in Springbok

Horse Trails in and around Springbok, Northern Cape, Namaqualand, South Africa.

Namaqua Horse Trails is owned and run by Ann and David Barnes. It is based on a small farm near Springbok in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Springbok is in the heart of Namaqualand, which is home to the famous Spring flowers. But flowers are not the only reason to visit Namaqualand. Ann Barnes is a SANEF-qualified riding instructor who is well known in Namaqualand for extensive knowledge of horses. She runs a riding school where she teaches both children and adults. She particularly enjoys three-phase eventing and dressage. David, a zoologist and oceanographer, particularly enjoys climbing mountains on horseback and driving horse drawn carriages. He is well qualified to share the wonders of the flora, fauna and geography of this unique landscape. David and Ann grew up as mountaineers and have all the skills needed to make a trip into the wilderness exciting, safe and pleasurable. David and Ann have many years experience in taming and training horses and love the challenge of taking a wild horse and making it a willing and gentle riding or draft horse. They also have many years experience working with children and teenagers and love having them on camps. Ann is a qualified stud manager (Diploma in Equine Studies from Pretoria Technikon) and she and David have together caught many foals and successfully dealt with many injured and sick horses. They also take recovered horses through a steady, controlled fitness program so as to bring them back to a full working fitness. Horse handling lessons for horse owners (trucking, feeding, general handling, etc.) Intensive riding courses (2 or 3 days of one-on-one or one-on-two lessons and/or coaching for those who need to learn something specific or just want to progress in some speciifc discipline) Activity camps, including horse riding, abseiling, art, craft, making movies, making books, swimming and whatever else we can think of. We make wild or untrained horses rideable and they can be groomed, washed, have their hooves trimmed, stand tied and be boxed. Schooling horses (Depending on the requirements of the owner, we train them to a more advanced level, including basic dressage, show jumping, eventing, endurance, gymkhana, cattle herding, trailing, packing.) Our emphasis is always on praise rather than punishment and we prefer to take our time over training.