by John Smit
The Boerperd is probably one of the most under-estimated and under-utilised breeds in South Africa. It is still not considered much of a sport horse in the public eye, mostly because the horse is labelled literally a farmer’s horse, good for working on the farm and for long outrides in the bush.
Many people have tried to train Boerperde for sport. Those with the right amount of patience have been rewarded, but many have also given up. Boerperde are hot-bloods and require a calm rider with a patient hand to train these fiery horses.
Through my experience over years of training many breeds, I have found the Boerperd very willing and athletic enough for almost any discipline, but specifically for dressage. They are natural athletes – the loose sloping shoulder with the higher head carriage, make for stunning extended trots, as do the long sloping croups for increased collection for movements like the passage.
What I have found in every Boerperd that I have ever ridden, is that they have natural balance and rhythm in the canter, and very little work is needed to improve them in that gait.
Being a hot-blooded animal and very intelligent, they are not a breed to bore with long hours of repetitive schooling. Mentally they learn very fast, which means most of the time you only have to show them what needs to be done four or five times, and they retain that knowledge for life. I’m sure many riders have experienced their horse anticipating a movement after repeating it more than five times.
If this is the case, move onto something else for a while and come back to it later – the chances of making your horse bored and him/her anticipating more will grow with each time you repeat it. And the more bored the horse gets, the more they think of ways to get out of the work, or they just shut down.
In a nutshell: conformation-wise the Boerperd is almost perfectly built for dressage, especially the more advanced movements. What more could a rider or trainer ask for?
SAH
