WORKING EQUITATION

WORKING EQUITATION (WE) as an Equestrian Sport (Discipline) only reached South Africa in 2017, and was accepted as an official Equestrian Discipline by the South African Equestrian Federation on 11th May 2019. Since the advent of the Covid-19 lockdowns, little has been done to develop the sport in South Africa - except by the IngweNet© NPC Founder and Executive Director, Wayne Lourens, under the TRAINING name of Fieldwork Equitation. He has presented workshops, clinics, and training events around the KZN Midlands, Highway, and Dolphin Coast areas, as well as a 2-day Introductory Workshop for the Overberg Equestrian Federation near Bot River (close to Hermanus in the Western Cape). Follow-up visits to the Overberg and Saldanha Bay are being scheduled at present.

More about the SPORT of WORKING EQUITATION can be found on the website of WERC (the Working Equitation Riding Centre), an initiative founded and run by Wayne.

However using horses for "work" has always been a part of the rural lifestyle in South Africa, particularly by stock farmers and IngweNet© NPC's Founder and Executive Director has established many projects using horses. Horses also played a part in the infamous Southern African Bush Wars - in South Africa, South West Africa (now Namibia), and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970's and 1980's. And, of course, horses were the main means of locomotion of the British Army in the Anglo-Zulu Wars, and by both British and Boer forces in the Anglo-Boer War.

More recently, Police Mounted Units were established, with horses used for urban patrols, and rural stock theft follow-up operations.

In the past 10 years, "working" horsemanship has become an important facet in the priorities of IngweNet© NPC's Executive Director, Wayne Lourens, with him being exposed to many opportunities to apply his experiences of using horses for "work" purposes.

At present, there are many threats to the safety of farmers, their families, their staff, and every rural resident.

Wayne's experiences as a Chief Disaster Manager for the whole of the Southern KZN region (under emergency regulations during a natural "disaster" event) and Reaction Force Trainer and Leader for the same region are paramountly important in the newest initiative of IngweNet© NPC, the IngweNet© Farm and Rural Safety Initiative.

Horses play many important roles in this Program, being used for AWARENESS primarily, but also being used for purposes as diverse as Public Relations in tribal areas.

WE is not only a sport, but also a means of properly preparing and training any horse and rider partnership for a "working" role.

To that end, horses and riders are tutored in the disciplines of Horsemastership, involving many beneficial training methods from around the world, at WERC (the WE Riding Centre), which is registered at the SAEF.

Training includes different types of natural horsemanship, and an Australian-based WE training by the only certified Australian WE Trainer in South Africa.