Lord Westwood, born during Nov 2003. Lord is an unregistered SAB. His mother is a registered SAB (Heidi) and his father is also a registered SAB, but unknown to us.

When we rescued these horses during October 2005, Lord was shown on the veterinary report as a gelding, but in fact he was still a colt. Lord was skin and bone alone, and had no human interaction before. When the horses were loaded to be taken to "heaven", Lord was harshly introduced to a halter and lead rein. He did not know what to do, and instinct told him to back away from this rope attached to him (via the halter). At first he reared to get away from the rope and then decided to reverse. Lord reversed 100 meters to the float and when they reached "heaven" reversed 100 meters to the paddock. That is why his full name is Lord Westwood (as in going west - backwards).

At their temporary accommodation (Albert Falls), Lord was gaining human trust and taught to be lead FORWARDS. He was also taught to lift his feet, for us to clean them - and to balance when one foot is lifted. Lord was green, very green.
At their final destination (Horse 'n Home), training Lord continued. He was lunged as often as possible and soon got the hang of what the "voice" commands meant. December 2006 was time for backing Lord. His first few rides, were on voice commands Later natural riding aids (Legs, hands and body) was used in combination with the voice commands. Since he is only 4 years old, we teach him jumping techniques without a rider on him, in order not to unbalance him, since he is still working on his own balance during jumping. Today he is an enjoyable riding horse, that will even go out on his own.
In the beginning of 2007, we have decided to try and register him as a stallion with the SA Boerperd society. Several DNA tests were done in order to determine his sire. The only other stallion, at the stub he was conceived at, had blood registered with the society and in order to determine if that was his sire, would have cost a little fortune! We were sad about the DNA outcome and decided to keep him as a stallion in order to get some benefit out of our 2 wild unrideable mares.
As everything happens for a reason, not that we always see the reason immediately, Lord turned out to be a monster between other horses during September 2007. He started to chase them all around. Lord started to jump or run through the electrical tape. Advice was seeked from local horsemen and it was made clear: Unless you are prepare to keep your stallion alone in a enclosure, it is better to geld him. Since we care for the welfare of our animals and it is important that they live naturally as far as possible, we decided to geld Lord. The next hurdle on our way was that the vet required Lord to be stabled the first night after the operation. First a room in the outbuilding had to be converted into a sort of stable and then we had to wait for hay to put down on the stable floor. As from September we had to keep Lord in the lunging ring. He ran up and down and these photo's were taken just before he was gelded. We knew he was unhappy, but could not do more than we did. Eventually, all was in place and Lord was gelded on the 12th of December 2007 but he broke out of the stable, so this long waiting period was all in vain.

A month later and Lord is picking up weight and was in a paddock with Amy and Savannah, until this weekend when he jumped over the fence and chased the mares again. Not a chase to flirt, but a real bully chase - Neck and head level with spine and Ears flat back.

Sadly we have to say that he is back in the lunge ring until his hormones have been normalised. We will place him every weekend with the mares to see if he has settled. Unfortunately, this process can take up to 6 month.

On the left is a picture of Lord in August 2007 when he was less of a problem and could socialise with the other horses.