Valuable Appaloosas disappear into Lesotho

On 25 January three valuable stud Appaloosa mares
– two of which were pregnant and one with a foal – along with a number of non-Appaloosa horses, disappeared from the Hunter’s Stud in the Kamberg Valley in the Nottingham Road area of KZN, 30km from two possible passes into Lesotho.
Despite a search by the local Stock Theft Unit and police stock theft helicopter unit, it was concluded that the horses had been stolen by Sotho nationals and run at speed up the Loteni Pass into Lesotho. “This was an incredible feat for such young and unfit horses, almost as incredible as the fact that nothing has been done to secure these two passes, where the narrowest point is only 1m wide,” said Appaloosa’s Luanne Vacy-Lyle. “We’re hearing about the hundreds of thousands of rands worth of cattle and horses that have been steadily passing through these passes into Lesotho.”
A few days later one Appaloosa mare, without her three-month-old foal, was spotted and retrieved. “We have concluded that our two remaining mares, and possibly the foal, are all in Lesotho,” said Vacy-Lyle.
The only hope now for retrieving the horses is by luring cooperation from Lesotho, by offering a reward for any information resulting in the safe return of the horses. “With almost no communication, word of mouth is the only way this message will be spread,” said Vacy-Lyle.
Vacy-Lyle, like all farmers who have lost valuable stud animals, is desperate for any information and insisted on describing her missing horses. “Both these mares are irreplaceable in terms of genetics. Although not spotted, they are both quite distinctive in their colour. They are a bright white and with dark legs up to their knees and are three years old. Habana (the three-month-old foal) is in Lesotho and is a white horse with a chestnut neck and has spots all over,’’ she said. – Mike Burgess
Contact Luanne or Craig on 083 779 2828 or 083 6252 993
respectively, or e-mail [email protected].