Many clients have expressed a keen interest to hunt on horseback. And, it is understandable as it provides a completely different perspective and experience, as well as the obvious reason, to not have to walk as much on foot whilst hunting. I am not too sure these people grasp all of the dynamics of this horse aspect though, as being in the saddle in those mountains day in and day out is tiring in a whole other way. I am all for providing all that I can to make the Ourano Greywing Experience all that it can be, and to keep clients coming back year on year as friends that are happy with the offering. But there is a but. There is always a but. Many clients don’t realise what a cost this will add to this new experience. To maintain, train, upkeep, kit out and tack all the horses year round, to effectively hunt for three months of a calendar year. As I have said, I am all for delivering the best possible experience, whatever it takes, but if some of these clients have oohed and aahed about the extra cost to charter a plane into the remote Highlands that offers the very best Greywing Francolin populations and hunting on the African continent, how are they going to react to the added cost that comes with any horse upkeep and costs to the equation. It is all romantic, and often even whimsical, but the reality is just that.
I charge a premium for anyone to hunt with and over my world class Pointers due to the level that they are trained at, the year round costs that go into this training, maintenance, specialised diet, and general upkeep. Thus I understand first hand how this can go, and of course not to mention the obvious – how costly keeping horses are to anyone that half understands this notion. Not to mention the added safety aspects and risks that come with horses, in steep mountains, and slippery rock faces… The horse dynamic while definitely classic, aristocratic and romantic, is a whole other kettle of fish, and if the cost of a private charter to get to one of the last untouched places I can think of in South Africa is ‘too much’, I fear the added cost per hunter for the horses will not be grasped by those selfsame clients. Sure there will be clients who won’t bat an eyelid, and this is probably the client I should be concerned with and appealing to, but it does leave one incredibly frustrated at times when I learn that other outfitters with average to poor dogs (sometimes even no dogs) are charging the same as I do, if not more… so to hunt over my dogs is the premium at the end of the day, and of course to hunt such glorious places, pursuing such grand game birds.
But hey, that’s life as they say, isn’t it? The same way you can’t have it all, is the same way they can’t have it all.
Always chasing the horizon.