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Dear guests, friends, family and everyone who follows Wait A Little,
It has been more than 1 1/2 years since we have published a Newsletter. No apologies, but yes 2018 has been crazy busy and although Clare and I have started to write a Newsletter in June, we never managed to finish it. There is always so much happening that there are too many stories taking too much time to tell. So what we have decided is that we publish now the Newsletter we had written in June, as the “Oldletter” and will bother you with another one about the News after June a little later in 2019. So please note, that this is basically “old” news, until June 2018. Thank you very much for your time reading this.
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BIG FIVE RIDE AND DINE SAFARI pictures by Rusty Steel
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End of May we had our first Ride and Dine Safari, formerly the Gourmet Ride. The idea for this ride formed last year, when Garonga had lost our booking for a Garonga Ride and we had to make a quick decision where we are going to go with a fully booked safari. Friends of ours, Claudia and Robin, have been using Clive’s Camp for quite some time and we had the honour to experience a cooking safari with them once at this camp and we absolutely loved it. That was with their clients and game drives so there were no horses involved. We were lucky and we could book both for this Garonga Ride, Robin as a chef and the camp.
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The safari was such a success, and Robin, who is a very very dedicated and excellent chef made such amazing food for us that the idea was born to combine excellent riding and of course game viewing with superb cuisine. The two camps Clive’s Camp and XiDulu are made for this with their open plan kitchen where, wine in hand, you can watch Robin cook the most wonderful dishes, often little pastries as a teaser, lot’s of salads and different cuisine from every corner in the world.
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To me what is so special about this ride is the time we can spend looking for animals, the sightings we had on this very first safari were amazing. The three different camps, Wait A Little, situated next to a river, Clive’s Camp next to a huge open plain on a waterhole and XiDulu at the dam give you the perfect opportunity to spot different types of animals.
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20th ANNIVERSARY by Gerti Kusseler
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Yes yes yes it’s true, we have been going for 20 years - can you believe it!! So many stories to tell, but the one thing I would like to mention is that Philip and I arrived in South Africa 20 years ago with 2 suitcases and 2 sleeping bags… that was all we brought….
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NEW HORSES by Clare Morrell
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KOEPI
short for Koenigspilsner joined us in June 2017. He is a stunning 6yr old iron grey and since his arrival he has grown in both size and personality!! Two of the volunteers fell in love with him - Jenny and Insa have both spent so much time educating him in the arena and out on trail, which is why he is such a gorgeous little horse!
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is my new horse and is also a real sweetie - but I’m biased!! He’s a 15.1hh chestnut gelding who, having been a city boy in Johannesburg, has settled into bush life very well. He is super calm to handle and can turn his hoof to anything - arena work or outrides. On his first trail as backup we encountered Lions, very deep water and Hippos - what a way to start! He stands in front of Elephants, Buffalo, Lions and has led out of a Black Rhino sighting straight into Hyena - what a little gem!!
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SOME NICE PICTURES OF OUR HORSES by Rusty Steel
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NEW SADDLES FROM STUEBBEN by Gerti Kusseler
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Philip and I are very very excited to announce our new range of saddles. Since years Philip has been trying to get one of the Stuebben Scout Saddles actually made for the mounted police. Quite expensive saddles, needless to say, but Philip decided to buy one just for himself. He was so in love with this saddle that he wanted another one and as Philip and Johannes Stuebben like drinking beer together in Aachen, we were right at the source. Since the first saddle we have obtained another 6 saddles so do have quiet a collection now. They are amazing for trail, very comfortable and super for the horses backs. Thank you sooo much Johannes for helping us to get these wonderful saddles.
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VISIT FROM FABIENNE LUETKEMEIER AND DAVID LICHTENBERG by Gerti Kusseler
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As you might remember a couple of years ago we had Helen Langehanenberg and her husband David Lichtenberg visiting.
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Since then Helen and David wanted to come back and organised for a big group to come out over New Years Eve. Shortly before, Helen fell pregnant again with her second child (the first one was almost a Wait A Little baby…. ) so she sadly had to stay behind. David came with a whole bunch including one of Germany’s top dressage riders Fabienne Lütkemeier. We had an amazing week together with super sightings and just a lot of fun. Only sad that Helen couldn’t be there. I had been looking forward to getting lessons from her, so Fabi had to jump in, I can’t let any opportunity go past. She was a great substitute, thank you sooo much Fabi.
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EKTOR IS BACK IN THE GAME AND NERO’S FIRST SHOW by Gerti Kusseler
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I think it is safe to say, that Ektor has made a recovery, if full needs to be seen and only time will tell. So end of last year I started trotting him a bit, but he was still quite unsound to start off, but got better during the riding. One of my volies Gregor actually rode him mostly, but we were both a bit insecure and Gregor has also got a great knowledge about horses. However as I had an amazing vet here over New Years Eve, David Lichtenberg, as mentioned above I asked him for advise. And I am soooo grateful that David had a look at him, as he found that there was nothing wrong with his legs, rather may be with his weak neck, which obviously hadn’t done anything for 2 years and I should start riding him properly.
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What can I say, now we have already done our first show and rode a little novice test where we already scored over 70%. He has become a little insecure being on his own, so he was calling a lot in the indoor arena and got a little tight in the neck, otherwise he went really well. He is such a looker.
Nero also had his first day out. I took him to his first show in March, we had to do Novice as there wasn’t any Prelim at this particular show. He was so great, still a little nervous calling to the other horses bringing his neck up, but we came out with 65% which made me very very happy, as he is still a little baby with just 5 years and he did such a great job.
Can’t wait for his future.
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NICHOLAS WETTSTEIN WINNER OF THE STUTTGART GERMAN MASTERS INDOOR DERBY AT WAIT A LITTLE by Gerti Kusseler
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Last year’s winner of the Stuttgart German Masters Nicolas Wettstein came for a visit together with his father Frank. What an amazing safari we had as there were also our wonderful return guests Gaby and Gabriele on this ride. Gaby, as in Gaby Hauptmann, is a German bestseller author and I think Frank might be playing a part in her next book …. smile. Later this year Nicholas rode at the CIC 2* in Marbach where he took the picture of our Pferdesafari jump. Thank you so much Nicholas for your visit we had so much fun with you.
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Frida by Gerti KusselerIn March we welcomed a new ridgeback puppy which we named FRIDA. This puppy was booked the moment I heard that the ridgeback of a friend of Claudia’s is having puppies.
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Claudia brought the father for a visit a while ago. What an amazing dog called Bruce and I said to Claudia then that I would LOVE to have one of his offspring. So Frida was booked long long ago. She was also booked before Olga sadly disappeared earlier this year. We are pretty sure the lions got her, but it still gets me that we actually don’t know what happened to her. One morning she just didn’t come back and Elsa had a big scratch on her back end. We searched all day, the next day and many days after, but absolutely no sign or remaining of her. Hard to comprehend.
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Stephen Clarke Seminar by Gerti Kusseler
In November 2017 Cabby and I were invited to ride at a Stephen Clarke Seminar. Only 8 riders in the country were invited to ride and we had the honour to be one of them. First we rode an Inter I test, which Stephen judged, then the next day he gave us a lesson in front of a crowd of judges. It was soo exciting.
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Copyright © 2018 Wait A Little Horse Safaris, designed by Gerti Kusseler, all rights reserved.
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WAIT A LITTLE African Big Five Horse Safari
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