UMgungundlovu Rural Horse Riders ready for Dundee Julyt

The 16 uMgungundlovu District rural horse riders were filled with excitement after they were selected to represent the District in the upcoming Dundee July Rural Horse Riding event in Dundee next month. The selections took place in KwaMpande outside Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, 12 June, and involved about 60 riders from throughout the District.

The main objective of this event was not just to select riders that will go to the Dundee July and represent uMgungundlovu district but to also promote rural horse riding, support local riders and get the youth of uMgungundlovu District to be involved in horse riding.

The Department of Sport and Recreation is supporting districts in the Province to select teams that will compete in the Dundee July, to be held under the theme Kingdom Bicentenary – in recognition of the 200 year celebration of the amalgamation of a strong Zulu Nation. The Dundee event takes place on Saturday, 16 July.

Among the talented jockeys who excelled during the KwaMpande event was seven-year-old Sphesihle Sibisi from kwaNxamalala who impressed with his horse riding skills. He said he was excited to have been selected to be one of the 16 horse riders who will be heading to the Dundee July. “I’m very excited to have won as well as to see so many horses & riders in one place and I’m looking forward to be part of this event again next year,’’ commented Sibisi.

The residence of KwaMpande came out in their numbers to watch the event.

I’m very excited about the turn out of the whole event, the horse riders showed great improvement in the level of performance and after this event we going back home to set up the programme of training in order to perform well at Dundee. But one the thing I would like to see is a programme for rural horse owners to be taught how to feed their horses, to keep them healthy, how to look after their well-being, how to train them and which food they should be fed,’’ commented event organiser Mbuyiselwa Mkhize.