SA Boerperd: a breed tempered by Africa, for Africa

A five-star rating system being implemented by Erica Stud is taking the SA Boerperd into the future. George Nefdt, owner of the stud in KwaZulu-Natal, tells Sabrina Dean why he believes the breed to be the perfect companion or competition horse.

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Several years ago in 2017, when KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) cattle farmer George Nefdt was at a crossroads on whether to relocate to Johannesburg for his corporate job or continue some type of operation on his farm Erica at Sevenoaks near Greytown, his life took an entirely unexpected detour.

"I'd always liked horses, and when a position with my current employer Plennegy made it possible for me to stay at the farm, I decided to look into using my kikuyu camps to breed horses." As a child, he says there were always horses around the farm, but his interest had never been "serious". When he started considering using his pastures to breed horses, he decided to take a look at the SA Boerperd breed. It was at this time that he also heard of the dispersal sale of the breeder Mitzi van Rensburg’s Harmonie Stud.

Nefdt says he sent his father-in-law Kerneels Nortier to attend, and he returned with Erica Stud’s foundation mare, Harmonie Pérel.

“It wasn't that he chose her, it was more a case of she chose him,” he recalls.

As Pérel and another mare grazed around the homestead, he saw in her the potential that would form the basis of what he wished to take forward into the future of the breed. A lot of this had to do with her temperament and type.

TEMPERAMENT

Nefdt says one of the major non-negotiable factors in any animal he breeds is temperament.

“I am not referring to breeding dull, placid animals with droopy ears. I am talking about an animal that is consistent,” he says.

This was true even in his cattle breeding days, where he realised it was far easier to work with a good tempered animal than one that was volatile and unpredictable.

'IF THAT HORSE IS NOT SAFE ENOUGH FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN TO RIDE ON, IT'S NOT SAFE FOR ANYBODY ELSE EITHER'