# Hi from sunny South Africa



## Kido (Jul 17, 2012)

Hi, I'm from South Africa. I'm a happy hacker. I have 3 horses - a retired saddler which I've had since he was 2,5 years old and 2 Nooitgedaghters, a stallion and a gelding, which I have bred. 

I'm a registered Nooitgedaght breeder. The Nooitgedaghter (or like we like to call them, Nooities) is one of 3 breeds indigenous to SA. They are very hardy horses, well suited to the SA environment. I don't actually breed, although I am a registered breeder - I only bred my stallion and gelding and then realized that I am not able to part with my horses. So, no point in breeding if I'm not willing to sell them!

I am attacthing a picture of my stallion, Kido Clodan.


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## TexanFreedom (Apr 2, 2012)

Hi, welcome to the forum 

Your stallion is very beautiful, but I have never heard of The Nooitgedaghter before. What discipline do you use your stallion and gelding for?


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

Welcome to the forum! 

I've never heard of them either but what a solid looking guy! Definitely appeals to my QH roots. What are they known for/used for?


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## Kido (Jul 17, 2012)

Hi TexanFreeform, thanks for the compliment. My gelding is only 4 years old, so I have only started him recently. He is a halfbrother of my stallion. I use the stallion for western riding, which is a fairly new discipline here in SA and we are sort of just trying our hand at it. But mostly we are just happily hacking around in our beautiful surrounding mountains. I live in a very small town called Tulbagh in the Western Cape. It is a lovely area with beautiful places to ride!

I'm attaching some pics of my Nooitie gelding, Kido Nicholis (he is a halfbrother of my stallion), my saddler gelding, Quaker Town, and another one of my stallion.


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## Kido (Jul 17, 2012)

The Nooitgedaghter is an indigenous breed to SA and are very versatile horses. They are extremely affectionate to human beings and are therefore often used as family horses or as children's showhorses for jumping, dressage, showing and they also do very well in endurance riding. They are good weigth carriers and do well on very little feeding, go barefoot and are very economical to keep. I guess they would be similar to the Mustangs in USA. You can check out our FB page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/153910055484/ or visit the Nooitie website at Nooitgedacht Horse Breeders Society


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## TexanFreedom (Apr 2, 2012)

They are stunning, I like how they are built. 

Do you suppose they could make good competitive sport horses, like for eventing and dressage, and compete alongside warmbloods? 

What kind of western riding do you do there? Are there any shows you can go compete in?


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## Kido (Jul 17, 2012)

The Nooitie can certainly compete in all these disciplines, but at this stage they can't really compete with sport horses and warblood types. They are relatively small in size - min height is 13hh and max height is 16hh, but the average Nooitie is about 14 - 15hh. My stallion is 15hh and my gelding is quite big at 16hh. Originally they were used as farm horses, working sheep and cattle, having to work long, hard hours under the saddle. But, they were also the reason why the Boere won the British back in the Anlo Boer war, because they knew how to survive in the veld without extra food, and carrying the quite heavy Boere for many hours. They went barefoot and had a very special relationship with their owners, and therefore they lasted, while the British troups rode imported horses who couldn't survive in the veld without extra food which they had to carry on their backs, they went lame over the rough terrain, and generally couldn't keep up the hard pace and long hours under saddle in unknown territory. 

So yes, while Nooities are used extensively in the children's market in all these disciplines, they are not used so much by very competitive adults, because of their size. But, what they lack in size, they make up for with their huge hearts. People owning Nooities can't stop talking about their special relationships with their horses. 

Here's a stallion that did very well in Hunter show classes and even won the warmbloods and THB in a Supreme Championship once. His name is Pretman Tornado.

I'm just trying Western Pleasure and Western Horsemanship with my boy at the moment. As I said, WR is still very small here in my part of the world, so we do it on very small scale. There are a few competitions that I can attend, but it's not always possible to go with out African Horse Sickness regulations and far distances to cover. But I do go to the ones I can.


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## HorseLovinLady (Jul 18, 2011)

Welcome to the forum!! Your horses are beautiful!!


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## DimSum (Mar 28, 2012)

*Hallo, hoe gaan dit met jou? (that phrase and "Eish!" are the limits of my Afrikaans LOL) I have visited your beautiful country and absolutely loved it! Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your lovely horses with us.
*


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Welcome! That's a mouthful of a breed, ain't it?!

Lovely horses though


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## Kido (Jul 17, 2012)

Eish, DimSum, I'm impressed with your Afrikaans vocabulary! I'm an Afrikaans mother tongue speaker, so the English doesn't always come out as it is supposed to! I agree, I love my country too! In which area have you been? Tulbagh is probably one of the most beautiful towns in SA! (of course I'm not biased...)

Skyseternalangel, it is quite a big name, but it is proudly South African. I really LOVE the breed!! If you ever come to this part of the world, make sure to visit one of the studs!


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## DimSum (Mar 28, 2012)

Kido said:


> Eish, DimSum, I'm impressed with your Afrikaans vocabulary! I'm an Afrikaans mother tongue speaker, so the English doesn't always come out as it is supposed to! I agree, I love my country too! In which area have you been? Tulbagh is probably one of the most beautiful towns in SA! (of course I'm not biased...)
> 
> Skyseternalangel, it is quite a big name, but it is proudly South African. I really LOVE the breed!! If you ever come to this part of the world, make sure to visit one of the studs!


Haibo! Eish angaaz~ I was surprised myself it's been quite a few years. I have been to JoBerg and Durban in KZN but didn't get to the Cape side though. I always wanted to go there  and see the penguins and Great Whites...from a safe distance of course! My friend who lives there told me that "The African sun burns a spot onto your heart." I know it did mine.


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