EQUESTRIAN ACTIVITIES

IngweNet© NPC and its predecessors, GEM People Empowerment Trust and IngweNet© People Empowerment & Sustainable Community Development Trust, were founded on the principle of maintaining the rural lifestyle in Southern Africa, especially in the community context.

Equestrian Activities and Horsemanship has always been a part of the rural lifestyle, and IngweNet© NPC's Founder and Executive Director has established many projects using horses, the focus being in the recreational, therapeutic, and tourism sectors.

However, in the past 10 years, "working" horsemanship has become an important facet of IngweNet© NPC's Executive Director's priorities, with many applications of using horses for "work" purposes being experienced.

IngweNet© NPC's Executive Director, Wayne Lourens, formerly had a history of horse riding and stable management experience, having ridden horses from the age of 9, and then having worked at a large riding school to earn lessons, at the age of 12 was offered the chance to manage a small stable yard on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, where he kept his own horse and two other permanent horses, and a number of visiting horses that were an overflow from the main stable yard.

The main Riding School was very active and had numerous equestrian activities, such as pony camps, Pony Club, the start of Polocross, and regular game ride days, where Wayne was the lead "guide" taking paying riders to where the animals were.

His experience was broadened when he left the main Stables, and had his horse at a couple of smaller stable yards, where he managed the day-to-day maintenance, including corrective trimming of his horse's hooves.

International experience was gained when he joined a farm stable in Byrne Valley, owned by an ex-Kenyan but British educated equestrienne, with a British trained horsemanship graduate as a business partner. Wayne became the rider to try out horses for their horse dealership project, and in the process also was very successful in the regional BP Equestrian Program, before his 18th birthday, winning tuition with top instructors, including Mickey Lowe, a multiple South African Show Jumping Champion and once holder of the South African Equestrian High-Jump Championship title.

Wayne also progressed to a "B"-Grade certificate in the British Horse Society's Pony Club program, turning 18 before he could take the "A"-Grade exams.

After leaving school, Wayne, along with every White South African male of the time, was conscripted for National Service, where he was the first voluntary intake for the 24-month Extended Service program. After 2 days of basic training, he was appointed "Bungalow Captain" & was selected for Officers Training at the Defence Force Infantry School. Medical issues prevented him from getting an officer's rank, but he was able to eventually transfer to the Defence Force Equestrian Centre, where he became an Equestrian and Mounted Infantry instructor.

He was also a part of the Display Team, and was tutored by (then) 3-times South African Dressage Champion, Major Pieter Stark - who had himself been tutored for two years by the acknowledged German Horsemaster, Hans Winkler. The Display Team not only performed military parades and musical rides, but also the Medium Dressage Display Team, of which Wayne became the "leader". The culmination of the Medium Dressage Display Team's appearances was their displays at the International Indoor Horse Show at Milner Park in Johannesburg, where Show Jumping teams from South Africa, Great Britain, and Germany competed against each other. Wayne and two of his Display Team were given special authority by the Chief of the South African Defence Force to wear the Johannesburg Light Horse Regiment Ceremonial Dress to lead in the international teams for their parades and presentation ceremonies.

After finishing his military service, Wayne used the gratuity given for the voluntary Extended Service to pay for a University education, enrolling in a B.Sc. (Agriculture) course at Natal University Pietermaritzburg. Due to fee and book hikes, he only managed to pay for 2 years of the 3 year course, without being able to get a loan or bursary for the 3rd year because of the economic climate of the time, but carried credits for those 2 years study. While studying, he taught riding, and backed and schooled horses, based back in Byrne Valley for weekends and vacations.

After getting experience in a few "town-based" jobs, he was married and his family moved to a farm he bought near Eston, where they accumulated a total of 18 horses belonging to the family and friends. When he was again "forced" to get another "town" job, he and the family moved to the Hillcrest area with a few of their horses.

Over the years, since his marriage dissolved, he has been involved with many eco-tourism and agri-tourism projects, where his depth of experience has been appreciated by many project principles - teaching & mentoring, giving the projects different ways to increase their business using horses. Security of livestock also became an area that Wayne was able to advise on, creating new ways to protect farmers' and rural residents' livestock from theft.

For the past 10 years, whilst on a farm development contract in the Dargle Valley in the KZN Midlands, he was based on a Horse stud farm, that had imported Spanish Andalusian and Portuguese Lusitano breeding stock, together both breeds known as the Iberian Horse. Because the owner was well qualified in Stable Management from England, Spain, and Portugal, Wayne added his expertise to the whole, and the 160 hectare farm, carrying the Iberian stud, an Nguni cattle herd, and Damara Sheep, developed into a "showcase" lifestyle property.

Whilst on the contract, Wayne built an indoor riding arena where equestrian clinics were hosted. Wayne was fortunate to be able to participate with internationally-qualified instructors of the ilk of Veronika Buhn (German "student" of Herr Philippe Karl - founder of the French "Ecole de Légèreté" or School of Lightness) and Zaneta Georgiades (Instructor with Marijke de Jong's "Straightness Training Academy").

Wayne became a life-long scholar with the Straightness Training Academy on the "Entry" Mastery Course, which he won as a part of an introductory "competition", where 3 Straightness Training scholars from anywhere in the world were awarded this "prize".

In 2017, Wayne's "partner" (the owner of the stud) was invited to be the KZN Representative on an Interim Council developing the Spanish/Portuguese/Southern France sport of Working Equitation (WE) in South Africa. Wayne was asked to help, and wrote the South African Working Equitation Association's Constitution, and Constitutions for the Provincial WE Associations. He also launched the KZN Working Equitation Association, becoming its inaugural President. At the Founders' General Meeting of the South African Working Equitation Association (ZAWE), he was elected onto the EXCO and also appointed as ZAWE National General Manager, picking up the tasks that the elected "Secretary" was unable to perform. He particularly drove the Judges and Course Builders Training Program on behalf of the Head of Technical and Judging, refining the audio-visual presentation and presenting the Training Courses. He also guided the ZAWE application to be recognised as an official Equestrian Discipline by the South African Equestrian Federation (SAEF), and was appointed by ZAWE as the first Working Equitation Representative on the SAEF Council.

As President of the KZN Working Equitation Association, Wayne organised and was Event Director for a total of 15 Working Equitation Events between 2017 & 2020, including Clinics and introductory Training Events. In the process, he became the country's most experienced Working Equitation promoter. In WE, officials are also allowed to participate, and Wayne was one of the most advanced participants at each event.

As an official, he also judged and was the Ease-of-Handling (Obstacles) Trial Course Builder. He also built international-standard obstacles that were loaned to a nearby venue for the Training Events and Clinics.

Working Equitation itself, and IngweNet© NPC's part in it, is dealt with under the sub-heading of this page called "WORKING EQUITATION".