Tussen wilde Namib-perde
Hellmut Hettasch van Yzerfontein skryf:
In die artikel Intelligent horsemanship deur Theresa Odendaal, wat in 'n vroeëre uitgawe van SA Horseman verskyn het, word daar onder andere melding gemaak van hoe Kelly Marks wilde Namib-hingste in haar round pen tuis laat voel het. Kelly het ook bygevoeg: "It was so incredibly easy."

Dit het my weer laat dink aan die reis wat my vrou, Johanna, en ek verlede jaar na Namibië onderneem het. Toe ons opgery het, was ons twee dae in Aus. By Aus is 'n goed-ingerigte toeriste-inligtingsentrum. Op een van die mure verskyn 'n berig oor die Namib feral horses. Dit was vir my só inte­ressant, dat ek dit daar neergeskryf het.

Ons het toe na Garum gery om na die perde te gaan kyk. Naby 'n suiping was daar 'n trop van 20 of 30 perde (daarby ook ­merries met vullens) wat rustig gewei het. Toe ons oplet dat hulle nie deur ons teenwoordigheid bedreig voel nie, het ons ­tussen hulle beweeg. Geeneen het gevlug nie en daar was van hulle wat toegelaat het dat Johanna en ek aan hulle raak.

Ek het gedink ons is by die verkeerde perde, maar daar was 'n bord met die ­inskrywing: "Namib Feral Horses – A ­project by PS Helen van Ryijn. Domestic animals living in the wild in the Namib Naukluft Park: In the year 2000 it was 90 horses ­divided into 34 mares and 56 stallions. For more information contact the ministry of ­environment and tourism."

Hiermee die inligting soos verkry by die Aus toeriste-inligting­sentrum:

Domestic horses turned feral
The wild horses of the Namib are descended from domesticated horses which adopted a feral existence – like Mustangs in North America. The Namib horses have lived near the drinking trough, set up for them at ­Garum, about 20 km west of Aus, for ­decades.

But how could domesticated horses be lost in this area? There has been plenty of speculation about their origin. Some maintain that they were on a freighter which ran aground with a cargo of domestic ­animals about 25 km south of the Gariep/Orange River mouth in the late 19th century. ­However, there is about 200 km of desert between the river's mouth and Garub.

Others point to Hansheinrich von Wolf, who bred horses at Duwisib Manor, about 250 km northeast of Garub. They say that many horses ran away after his death ­during World War I. According to Duwisib's books, no horses went missing until close to 1940, whereas reports about the wild horses at Garup already appeared during the 1920s.

Lost in the turmoil of war
The size of the present herd and the ­variety of characteristics, also suggest a large ­primary group. This raises the ­question as to when large numbers of horses could have been lost in the area. The answer: During World War I.

In early 1915 German colonial forces massed hundreds of horses in the vicinity of Aus. Ten thousand South African troops advanced from Lüderitz with 6 000 horses and pitched camp near Garum in March. A report, compiled later, states: "In the morning of 27 March 1915, the indefatigable flight lieutenant Fiedler flew to ­Garub and successfully dropped bombs on the South African camp, scattering about 1 700 grazing cavalry horses."

The South Africans wanted to stay hot on the Germans' heels and may have ­refrained from catching all the animals. Besides, up to the early days of the war, a stud farm existed in Kubub, 30 km south of Aus.
Photos show striking similarities ­between stallions from Kubub and ­Duwisib. The core of the herd probably consists of horses which belonged to the South African army, the German colonial forces and the Kreplin Stud.

Animals which were dispersed or left ­behind in the turmoil of war, gathered in the mountains around Aus, where many natural watering places can be found.

It is thanks to the diamond finds at the coast and the tightly controlled restricted areas, that the wild horses were not caught later on. The area around Garub became part of Sperrgebiet II, which in 1986 was ­incorporated into the Namib Naukluft Park.