Tracking Horses 101

I decided to give a little 'tongue-in-cheek' tutorial on how to track animals (specifically horses) today. So read on and laugh at will.


Step 1: Check for spoor (footprints or droppings)

Step 2: Trust your guide

Step 3: Believe what nature tells you (rustling bushes, birds suddenly flying out...)

Step 4: Listen carefully, if you don't, you might be missing whats right behind you

Step 5: Look carefully!

Step 6: If at first you don't see them, look deeper. and finally Step 7: Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers.

Keep smiling (",)

Canelands Beach Club and Spa

As I am sure you already know by now, I spent the better part of my day yesterday in Saltrock, at Canelands Beach Club and Spa managed by Signature Life Hotels.
I have already given you a rundown of the activities that I was kept busy doing at the hotel, but now I intend to give you a review of the Beach Club and Spa itself from my perspective.
Your drive to Canelands (situated on the north coast) is scenic along the N2 highway, and as you come off of the highway you immediately notice that you really are in an up-market suburb. As you arrive at the Beach Club, you wonder if you are really coming to a hotel, or to a millionaire’s private beach house. This is because Signature Life Hotels chooses to keep their hotels smaller than your average, run of the mill, large hotel; which is really quite a nice thing because that gives the guest the best personal service possible, you don’t feel like you are just one of the crowd anymore.

As you walk in through the pretty garden and welcoming entrance, the first of your senses to hit you as you walk in, is your sense of smell. The glorious smell of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the unmistakable smell of the sea mist. Glancing away from the well stocked bar and coffee corner, you look out the large glass doors onto the wooden deck, across the pool and down onto the unspoilt beach.
As we begun our tour of the hotel, we were told that this hotel has 10 rooms, and sleeps only 20 guests. We walked upstairs to view one of the 4 Superior sea facing rooms, each with their own deck. There are also 6 Standard Garden Facing Rooms. All rooms have wi fi internet facilities available, and plasma TVs. Bedroom facilities also include en-suite bathrooms, air conditioning, electronic safes, and Tea/Coffee making facilities. A quick glance in the en-suite bathroom shows you a huge bath, separate shower and large mirrors. The huge cupboards that are big enough to hold a party in even include your own bath gown for use while staying at the hotel.
We were next taken to the private conference room which is designed to provide corporate groups with a superb and luxurious environment for decision-making and meetings. With a maximum seating capacity of 40 delegates, you will be supplied with standard conferencing facilities such as, flip charts, retractable screens, TV and DVD machines, and of course a white board and markers.
Next, we were shown into the Spa, the Spa is run by the renowned Jennifer Eales. This is a very new Spa and has recently been featured in a number of top market magazines and websites, including the ridgeonline.co.za. The spa operates daily and consists of 4 treatment rooms with trained therapists. The spa menu ranges from individual treatment to half day and day packages that can be tailor-made to suit the client. Dermalogica is the product of choice used by all the Jennifer Eales Spas.
Lastly on our guided tour we were shown the open restaurant, what is so special to me about this restaurant is that the kitchen is fully open so you can easily see the chef, Genevieve as she cooks you the most delightful meals, where you can eat either is the shelter of the indoors, out on the deck, or even down on the beach itself!
After the tour I took the liberty to walk out onto the deck, the first thing I noticed other than the view, was the little bell on a pillar with a sign above it that read "Ring this bell when you see dolphins", and I couldn’t help but wonder at their attention to detail. I took a moment to admire the 25m lap pool with a cocktail seat, and then strolled down onto the quite beach as the tide had started to come in. I walked maybe as much as 100 meters south to a lovely old fashioned tidal pool hewn out of what appears to be slate rocks, and watched the waves breaking over the tidal pool. If it had not been such a chilly afternoon I would have loved to take a swim in it.
All said and done, I really enjoyed my day at Canelands Beach Club and Spa, and wish that I could have spent more time to appreciate it. I would like to thank the following staff of Canelands Beach Club, and Signature Life Hotels for the lovely day: Alan Vels, Lerina McCall, Ellen Aucamp, Melanie Roberts, Chris Johnson, and Jessica Nhleko. Also the kind waiter who brought me my awesome coffee, I think his name was Luis?

I would absolutely love to give more reviews on the other hotels and resorts run by Signature Life Hotels, especially the Casa Do Capitao Barra Beach Club and Massinga Beach Lodge. However that entirely depends on the decision, of who are the winners, made by Signature Life Hotels for the “Best Job on the East Coast” competition. So make sure you are listening in tomorrow morning to East Coast Radio from 7am.

Best Job on The East Coast The Competition Update

So last blog post I told you all about the back round info of the “Best Job on the East Coast”. In this one, I will tell you about how the contest itself is panning out.
I of course took one look at the details of it and proceeded to enter, about 20 times!
Then one Monday morning about 3 weeks ago, while I was fast asleep (I work on weekends thus usually sleep in on a Monday morning) I woke up with my phone’s alarm, then realized that I had not put on my alarm. So I looked at my phone and saw a call coming in, I picked it up and the man on the other side introduced himself as George from East Coast Radio. He said that he was calling to let me know that they were going to call me again in 5mins and interview me live on-air! So I quickly composed myself and just managed to get a big breath before they phoned again, they asked a little about me, then tested me by seeing how quick I could do a Twitter update, which I did. Then they said goodbye and that was that. But I bugged them and bugged the entire East Coast Radio team, Signature Life Hotels, and all my friends and family all over my twitter and facebook for the next weeks.

Then about 2 weeks ago, they called me and said I am one of the finalists and must come into the radio station for another interview! It was for Monday the 7th and I had to be there by 7am, yes, you better believe it, I dragged myself out of bed at 5am and got ready and to the studio on time. At the studio I met one of the other finalists, Sharney. So we went in and they first recorded a ‘promo’ where we had to say what we would do to win the competition with the help of George (the producer) and Wes (not sure exactly what Wes’ job description is, but he works really hard behind the scenes). Then we went into the main ‘on-air’ studio and chatted to Darren Maule for a bit, yes, that’s when the whole Irish surname and accents thing came on. Anyhow every morning for the past week they have interviewed some of the finalists (except for Wednesday and Friday). And then we (the 20 finalists) were all told to come to Canelands Beach Club in Saltrock for a ‘function’ hosted by Signature Life on Saturday (today).

So we jump to today.....
I arrived at about 9.30am Saturday 13th August to an intimate hotel on the beach front in Salt Rock. I walked into the lobby to see the other finalists mingling with the staff and the glorious smell of fresh coffee. We were put through our paces by being taught how to make our own Pina Coladas (spelling?), Getting changed and sunning on the fantastic beach, given a tour of the ten room intimate hotel and open kitchen restaurant, and then had to facebook and twitter about it. And then they sat us all down and called out 7 people's names. I was one of them, got told to go into the next room, sit down and wait! The nerves were shot by then. After a few minutes our lovely hosts entered, and told us they had been watching everyone's interaction with other people, they had fairly judged everyone, but eventually it had come down to the speed that we could do social networking at. They paused, and then said we had only just made it! That whittled us down to the final 7, from 13! I couldn’t believe I had made it that far! The suspense was killing us all, the competition was stiff, and we all knew that we ourselves wanted it and are good enough to make it, but we also all know the others are amazing too. No one wants the others to lose, but no one wants to lose themselves. We were then told to blog about our experience that we had had thus far, we had only ten minutes to do it! You can see mine by clicking the following link http://www.ballitonews.co.za/2011/08/13/signature-life-hotels-and-ecr-sponsoring-the-best-job-on-the-east-coast/
Once done that, the 7 of us were then told to sit and wait in another room, and they took what felt like ages to come around, and felt like we were on Idols. We all knew that only 2 are going to Mozambique! We were lined up next to each other, and they told two of the 7 to stand forwards, I was not of those 2. They said they are very sorry, but the two who had been called to step forward were going home now, the rest of us still stand a chance!!!!
We were then told we need to come into the East Coast Radio studios for the Breakfast Show (called the Breakfast Stack) at 7am Monday morning where Signature Life Hotels and East Coast Radio will be announcing the 2 winners of the “Best Job on the East Coast”

Make sure you listen in Monday morning! I will soon upload all the photos from today on my facebook page which you can access by clicking on the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ECR-and-Signature-life-Please-pick-Amelia-Byrne/165026366902269

The 5 finalists’ are Amelia (me), Bruce, Helen, Ashley and Sharney.

Best Job on The East Coast

About a month ago our local radio station started promoting a competition that they called “The Best Job on the East Coast”, this competition is actually sponsored by a hotel group called Signature Life Hotels in conjunction with East Coast Radio, and there will be two winners! Here is a little info about it.
The prize? The prize is an all expenses paid, one month trip to two very new and fancy hotels in Mozambique. To be exact, two weeks spent at Massinga Beach Lodge (89km north of Inhambane) and the other two weeks at Barra Beach Club (closer to Inhambane), and a R10,000 salary at the end of the month! The winners will be spending time in the hotels, doing the touristy thing in the area, and seeing behind the scenes of the average guest to see what the staff do and possibly help out a bit.
But it is called a “Job”, so what are the duties? Well they are doing this for marketing, so the duties of the winners is to write a daily blog, and update their facebook statuses and twitter feeds, in other words, the winners become professional tourists for a month, ambassadors and advertising agents for Signature Life Hotels.
How will they judge the winners, are they just randomly chosen? The winners are NOT randomly chosen. They are carefully selected by their expertise and abilities in doing various tasks, social skills and social networking abilities. Signature Life Hotels has to have someone who can be a good ambassador and not bring reproach upon their brand.
By now I am sure you are asking who exactly is Signature Life Hotels? Signature Life Hotels group is an umbrella organization that creates strong hotel brands, they do Sales Management, Distribution Management (branding, websites, ect.), Pricing and Yield Management, and Customer Relations Management. They are located in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Europe, Mozambique and Mauritius. They help to get to the correct target market, they make sure the standards of service and quality are correct, they help figure out the budgeting and pricing, they also train staff to their standards.

So that is the back round information about the “Best Job on The East Coast” competition. In my next exciting blog post, I will tell you all about how the competition itself is going, and why I am writing about it.

Why I dont want to ever leave South Africa

I have decided to give a non horsey blog post today. It has taken me quite a bit of deliberation to try figure out what to talk about, mostly because I live, think, sleep, work and play horses. So with all that deliberation I decided I would talk about something else that is in my life. No, not my cell phone. It is the place I live. And by that I do not mean the farm, although I greatly love the farm. What I am talking about is all the positive aspects about living in South Africa and closer to home, Durban. By no means am I even hinting along the lines of politics as it is, as it is my decision in life to never get involved in the politics of any country and I will remain neutral. Rather what I am talking about is the beautiful land that I live in, the friendly people with their diverse cultures and customs.

Many people, including people that I personally know decide to immigrate to “Better Lands” under the guise that South Africa is a cursed country where you will be murdered on the street just because you are a certain skin color or just because you decided to walk there on a particular day. How I personally feel though is that although in South Africa that might happen, those occurrences are in actual fact very far and few between. However people do see the information about these occurrences because the media sensationalize this. The truth of the matter, that most people who immigrate fail to recognize is that every country has problems, nowhere on this earth is perfect. I know for a fact that even first world countries also have troubles. America, not only does everyone sue everyone else (yes I am generalizing, but so do others who choose to immigrate), but they have big crime gangs, just think of the mafia. Europe, need I remind you of Norway’s catastrophe just a few weeks ago? Or of the Irish catholic and protestant wars still happening?

I have decided a long time ago that I really have no need to immigrate, I love travelling and would love to see the world, but this is my home. As far as the danger levels go here, as with everywhere else on this beautiful blue planet, one purely has to be streetwise. So today I have decided to put together a whole bunch of positive things that I really love about South Africa and in particular, Durban. I have not numbered them, because I cannot choose one above the other, I love them all.

• We do not get any hectic natural disasters. Yes, there’s the occasional flood or drought, but we don’t have hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, tsunamis or earthquakes.
• In South Africa, but especially in Durban, the people are friendly, always a smile and a wave.
• There is never a boring moment here.
• We are a major tourist destination and thus are always meeting new and interesting people.
• We are spoilt for public holidays, both with the places to go and the times to go. We have 12 public holidays.
• South Africa has the oldest game reserve in Africa, Hluhluwe.
• While we’re there, the Big Five.
• We’ve got the world’s biggest green canyon.
• The amazing range of biodiversity in flora and fauna.
• Street side Vendors
• Driving 5minutes from the city centre or centre of the suburbs and landing up in untouched wild bush
• In Durban, every year the locals get to laugh at the Vaalies (nickname derived from the old name on Gauteng, Transvaal, where Joburg is.)
• In Durban our grass stays green all year long.
• Low cost of living compared to other places across the world.
• We have 11 official languages.
• South African English has bits and pieces from the other 10 official languages, nogal! You catch my drift bru?
• There are still old fashioned castles to be found with an African feel.
• South Africa is medically advanced and has the worlds largest hospital!
• Tax is included in store prices ( USA charges extra taxes)
• The African Thunderstorm.
• African Minibus Taxis
• Where else can you eat raw, half dry chunks of meat and not be considered gross?
• Everybody’s name gets shortened and then lengthened (unually ending in ie or y) into a unique nickname. i.e Ronald-Ron-Ronnie
• There is a vibrant feel in the atmosphere
• The beaches
• The true African sunsets

I will stop here for today. But you are more then welcome to hit me with some of the reason you love this land of beauty and splendor, biodiversity and where everyone is a friend or cousin.

Frequently Asked Questions

On my job there are some very common questions the client asks me. Now I’m not talking about the questions they ask about price, times and availability when they are booking for a horse ride on the beach with us. No, rather what I am talking about is when I’m out on the trail with them and they are curious about the beautiful animals they are riding, curious about the area we are in, curious about the us (the guides and people who are working with them), and so on.
And I do not discourage these question and answer sessions, as not only does it make the whole ride more interesting for all, but I also strongly believe you cannot learn a thing without asking questions.

I was contemplating this on yet another ride I took yesterday, and realized that yes, the average client I am dealing with has had little or no experience with horses in their lives, so it’s understandable that they have all these questions. Then I realized that hey, those few people who actually do read my blog have probably wondered such questions as these too. And I figured you might find it a tad entertaining as well. So here are just a few those infamous FAQs. Today I’m just sticking with a couple of horse facts; I’ll get to the other usual questions soon.

How old do horses get?
This normally follows the question they ask of how old is their specific horse, which when we work with 23 horses, I’m not going to go into that detail here. However, I will stick with the main question here. Basically horses can reach about 30 years. Obviously this is a give and take kind of thing, for example humans live to around 80, many live into their hundreds and some tragically die very young. The oldest thoroughbred racehorse (he did not race all his life) got to a record 42 years old.
How do we know how old a horse is when we meet him for the first time? Well I’m sure you have heard the expression “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, that expression comes from telling the age of a horse. Horses have special tooth tendencies and markings that change with age.
Dogs are 7yrs (?) to 1 human year, but if my horse is 12yrs old, how many horse years does that put him at? Well, this is a little more complicated, you see its not all the same as dog years, because dog years you can give a blanket that each year is seven years our time, but with horses it differs. Their 1st year is equivalent to 8 human years. Their 2nd year to 5 human years (thus when they are 2yrs old, they are matured to 13yrs), their 3rd year is 4 human years (puts them at 17), their 4th year equal to 3 human years (so at 4 they are20yrs old and start proper work) and from 5 to 30 years of age, each year is equal to 2.5 human years. Confused? So am I. So let’s hit the next major question.

What is the cost of buying and looking after a horse?
Well, before I answer, first tell me what is the cost of buying a car? It really depends hey? That rust heap on the side of the road might cost you a couple of thousand (I’m in South Africa so will be talking RSA currency) and then probably wont work, or of course that larney Ferrari might cost you a couple of million. Same sort of thing goes with buying a horse, you might pay R2,000 for an old horse that should be retired, or you could pay up to R200,000+ for the winning racehorses.
As for the upkeep of a horse? On average just the cost of board and lodging (stabling and feed) it’s going to cost you R3,000 + to keep your horse. That is excluding any extras.
What extras you may ask? Well, vets bills (and yes horses do get sick), farrier’s bills, tack (the stuff you put on a horse to be able to comfortably ride it and control it), lessons and so on. Oh, and a lot of hard work because you don’t always have someone looking after the horse for you, often you have to muck out stables yourself. So horse riding might be for everyone, but owning a horse is not for all. And just a note about the generalization that horse owners are rich, in actual fact they might have had money when they bought their horse, but then the money disappeared.

What kind of weight can horses handle and how do you know?
This question normally stems from the fact that our establishment has a maximum weight limit of 80kgs. Unfortunately this means that about 40% of our possible clientele does not end up riding with us.
But what weight can horses really take? Lets answer it this way, how much weight can the average human being pick up? Ok, now, can the average human being carry that weight at speed? On soft beach sand? And for a distance of 12 or more kilometers? What about the non-average human being, maybe a 60 year old woman? You see it largely depends on the situation and the individual. Factors such as the breed (much like dogs have various breeds with traits that they are good at and traits they are bad at, so do horses), the health, age, and fitness levels of the specific horse all come into play. Now that really doesn’t tell you very much at all. Some stronger breeds of horses can take 150-200kgs. But not your average horse, I would say it’s not really safe to put more than about 100kgs on your average horse, then again, it all depends on that horse itself. Some people do a percentage of the horse’s weight and that is how much that horse can carry, I personally disagree with this theory as if your horse weighs 500kgs, but is 20yrs old and has not been ridden in a year, and that would be severely unkind to put someone 100kgs in weight onto that horse.
So then you may ask “how do we figure out how much weight a horse can handle safely and comfortably?” We let the horse tell us that! Sound strange? Well, we put light weight on the horse at first, and work our way up each ride till we think that the horse is at a suitable limit, if the horse however looks uncomfortable or in pain during or very shortly after a heavy rider (or any rider for that matter), we immediately lower the weight limit on that horse by about 15-20kgs.
Please keep in mind however that not only is it unkind and unsafe for a horse to carry an overweight person, but also according to medical practitioners, it is physically unsafe for the overweight person because if they fall, they will be falling harder and do more damage ultimately to themselves.

Well folks, that’s all I have time for at this present time. However, as I said, more soon. Should you have any questions you would like to know more about, feel free to email your question to me at horsebackbeachadventures@gmail.com.