We are really privileged to be living in the area where we are.
When it comes to nature, you would often find people has a specific preference...
For some people, it's the ocean. For others, it's the mountains. Then you also get people who prefer the bush.
For us, both me and my wife, we just love nature. Choose? Why should we choose...lol? But I suppose if we ever have to choose, it might be the ocean. But wow, we also love the mountains. And going to the bush, enjoying that nice campfire at night...and the wildlife... Oh no...why do we have to choose...lol?
But yes, we'll count our blessings before we complain...lol. We have the ocean right here. We are surrounded by valleys with some stunning views. If we really want to go to majestic mountains, the Drakensberg is about 3 to 3,5 hours away from us.
We have nature reserves and other attractions such as crocodile farms and the Ushaka aquarium, all within less than 30 minutes to about a 3-hours drive from us.
But for today, I want to share some photos of horses that I have taken on some of our recent outings.
S.A. Jockey Club
The first three photos were taken on a recent outing we had to Shongweni on a cloudy day. There we first paid a visit to the Jockey Acadamy's clubhouse.
Every Saturday morning the Jockey Clubhouse is open to the public to enjoy a nice early breakfast while watching the horses training and being exercised.
I got this photo of these two jockeys coming down the track on their horses. The guy with the blue top really came in with some serious speed...
After we left the clubhouse we went to the actual S.A. Jockey Acadamy where the jockeys get their training to become professional jockeys.
The youngsters come here from an early age. They receive academic training and obviously get prepared to become professional jockeys once their school career has been completed.
I took this next photo close to the entrance of the academy, where these two horses were peacefully grazing.
We went further through Shongweni, and just as the mist started setting in, we found these horses and I took this photo.
Polo Pony.
The next 4 photos were actually unplanned.
As we recently came back from Shongweni (yes...again...lol), we drove past "Polo Pony".
It seems like "Polo Pony" has become the name of the area immediately surrounding the piece of land where many horse events take place.
Across the road, you get the Polo Pony Service Station, and then there is the Polo Pony Retirement Village, etc.
On this particular day, a few weeks ago, we drove past and saw some activity going on. We decided to make a quick stop and see what was going on.
It seemed like some gymkhana or something was taking place, but unfortunately, they were having a break between events and we didn't have the time to wait.
I did get a few snapshots in though.
The groom seemed to be getting ready to take this guy away, so I didn't want to waste time getting closer and miss the shot completely.
So I just took this quick snapshot from behind the trailer of this beautiful animal.
This beauty was just chilling while being groomed.
The next photo was actually funny, but beautiful at the same time to see in real life. This horse was being watered down (I supposed he must have just done some event), but he was equally as thirsty as he was enjoying the cool water over his body on this warm day.
He kept going after the water while the groom was cooling him down, taking sips from the running water...lol.
The horse in the last photo was obviously done for the day and it looked like he didn't have a care in the world.
And that's it for today, folks!
Thank you for reading my post!. I do appreciate it.