Volunteer for Cintsa Horses

Cintsa Beach horse trails and safaris incorporating

New Hampshire
Equine Rehabilitation
Centre

We are two women, Georgie and Penny, who run a small family equine business in South Africa. The horse trail side of the business funds the rehab centre, as we have no official sponsorships.
We have positions for horse loving individuals.
If you have the basics of walk, trot and canter it’s a bonus. This is a chance for you to get some ‘work experience’ while taking your ‘gap year’.

Georgie came from the United Kingdom 35 years ago, raised and educated in Gloucester. She went on to work and study at Maisemore Equestrian Centre. Tanja was born in Zambia and Penny in Zimbabwe.

Georgie has always either kept horses while in Africa or had strong connections with horse owners, this seems to have passed on to her daughters Tanja and Penny. Ten years ago we decided to venture out and do beach horse trails. We applied for, and were granted the relevant permits which are essential to be able to ride on the beaches in South Africa.

One of the most important projects we have worked on during the last 10 years was to be involved with the European Union.
We were selected as the service provider to go into the rural areas in the Transkei, and teach the local horse owners basic horse care management, and to then have the horse trail guides work with us on our trails. This was to try and improve both horses and guides for the Amadiba and Amapondo horse trails.

This was a vast challenge for us, and we were very proud to be selected for such a task. We wrote manuals in English, to be translated into Xhosa. In some of the sites we visited, we did a lot of our teaching with pictures, especially for the older horse owners who were only semi-literate.

The trail guides were a lot easier as they were much younger and had good basic education. Most of them were fluent in English, and were able to use my more detailed manuals.

Volunteer facilities

We have email facilities for your use within reasonable times.
Bed, breakfast, lunch, and evening meals will be the order of the day.

Saturday is usually a braai"BBQ" and a few drinks, and Sunday is usually a typical English Roast, time frames permitting.

Volunteers will be accommodated at the Thornvalley Cottage which has TV, washing machine, stove, microwave and fridge. The extras that come with the accommodation, a swimming pool, braai area and a tennis court which is currently under construction.

You are also welcome to live in as part of the family.

Volunteer Activities

We are fortunate to have our links with Buccaneers, and can offer our volunteers extra activities during their stay with us. While you’re here learn to surf, go on a trip to the Transkei and meet a ‘sangoma’.

We have the Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve virtually next door to us, for you to interact with elephants and lion cubs.

Some of these activities would be at your expense.

Buccaneers have a pretty good pub, as pubs go.
The site has the most magnificent view of the Indian Ocean, and at full moon, seeing the moon rising over the ocean is awesome.
Please, no smoking in the bar, it happens in the best of places. Smokers are however most welcome.

There are many other activities available, such as just strolling along the beach without a horse.

There is loads of free time to sunbathe, swim, play volley ball with the backpackers, quad bike around the farm, and visit local restaurants (most of them are pretty reasonable).

An International drivers licence is a necessity.

Summer: Our days start at + - 6.30am with the mixing of feed. If we have rides in the morning and afternoon there is time during the day for relaxation. The afternoon ride at this time of the year may only finish around 6.30pm. It’s always nice to drop our clients off at Buccaneers and have a drink with them.

Winter we start later due to the lack of daylight hours.

The farm is 236 acres, and our horse quota at the moment is 31. If you have read the link on the rehab centre, you should know some of them by now.

We have openings for volunteers who would like to help out with the care of previously abused and neglected animals that have suffered through sheer ignorance of their previous owners .

We also provide facilities for horse lovers to work with young horses in the hacking and schooling areas.

The trails side of the farm gives you a very wide scope to be able to ride the beaches with international tourists.
80% of our clientele are from Buccaneers Backpackers, one of the top 10 backpackers in South Africa.
Domestic tourism is also good in the area. Some of are regular clients are German expats working at Daimler Chrysler in East London.

We offer our clients + - 2 hour trails, half day , full day and overnight trails.
You would be involved in all these activities, priority however being the care of our rehab and trail horses.

All our horses, both on the farm, and at our bases at Cintsa West and Cefani, are fed and watered twice a day, and depending on the season, our older horses are blanketed.

"The feeding of the horses has an interesting background. In the UK we used to feed our hunters the waste hops and barley mixture from the breweries. On running a rehab centre we found the expense of buying registered brands of horse feed too expensive as our family grew. We made enquiries at the African breweries as to the composition and nutritional values of the waste product after the beer had been brewed, and found that if we bought the spent grain from the breweries, we could mix our own feed, adding concentrates and trace elements. We have been doing this for the past 5 years, and have had very good results".

Georgie has been the secretary to the local African emerging farmers for the past 4 years. She helps with allocations to individuals, and any problems that should arise between the factory and the farmers.

While with us you will get to meet some of the local guys on our trips to fetch our horse feed and maybe a trip around the factory to see how the African beer is brewed. Without the ‘spent grain’ we would not be able to help so many horses.

Depending on the season our days are quite long. Should we have a 9am trail the horses all have to be fed at least an hour before the ride goes out. As a volunteer you would be involved with the day to day feeding.

Our summers are harder than our winters. Our area has a poor reputation for ticks. Dipping of all our horses once a week is imperative, as these parasites are a nightmare, and cause numerous problems.

We do have staff on the farm, and their participation in the running of the horses is mainly the upkeep of fencing. Should we be really busy with trails, they do know to help with the mixing of horse feed, and providing clean fresh water.

For the volunteer with carting experience we have a Cape Cart that was built in 1892 and is still in perfect working order. We have two other carts built in West Bromwich in the early 1900’s, which at some point we will find time to rebuild.

If you have harness experience we need you, and a bit of carpentry would’nt go amiss either.

Cost factors.

We deal in South African Rand.
The duration is for a one week, two week, three week, or four week period.
Extensions are possible, and the terms will be agreed upon should you wish to extend.
25% deposit to be deposited on confirmation of booking.
Full payment to be made two weeks prior to departure.

The length of time a volunteer spends with us is flexible. For a breakdown of time and costs, see our:

"What volunteers do" Page.

These prices are valid until the 31st of August 2010.
This includes accommodation, food, snacks and transport to and from the different working venues.

Please note that this does not include alcohol or extra activities.

We also offer specialised volunteer work.

Click here to e-mail us for more information