Blog 5. Ben Freeth’s Ride for Hope –Heading from Klein Spitzkoppe towards the Spitzkoppe River
- Ben Freeth
- Sep 25
- 3 min read
25 September 2025
My morning yesterday was a happy one. There was good grazing along the banks of the Spitzkoppe River and Warrior grazed happily. Whenever I went out of sight he got worried and came post-haste to find me. It brings tears to my eyes to think of that. To become bonded in such a way with a horse is a special connection. We have learnt a mutual trust in each other. The tie between horse and human can be tremendously strong.
Mostly I sat happily under my Albida tree in the riverbed, reading and praying and thinking.
Heading out into dry, forbidding desert landscape; A desert flower
By 11 am there was still no sign of the group of riders on their mainly Appaloosa horses who had arranged to meet with me and I started to wonder if I was in the wrong place. Perhaps there was another track a little further downstream and I had missed them?
By midday I decided to head downstream and so I left a note with my very hospitable “fish in the desert” Damara family. They tried to give me two sandgrouse that one of them had shot with a catapult, but I had to refuse their kindness as I knew they would spoil before I got to cook them.
I headed up above the river so that I would cut any track further downstream where they might have come along, all the while looking back for dust where they might have been delayed.
After a while the country became a lot more broken so I descended to the riverbed to see if I couldn’t see any spoor down there.
It is a beautiful riverbed, almost canyon-like in places with great cliffs rising up either side. I felt so privileged to be riding down it with Warrior.
On two occasions the river narrowed and was blocked by massive rocks, making it impassable for a horse. I had to then back-track and find a break in the canyon where we could ascend to the broken country above. It was tricky work and on a number of occasions we came upon other tributary canyons blocking our path. It was like a maze.
All this time I did not cut any spoor of the vehicles of horses and imagined that they must have decided to go in the more open country.
At one high point, before making the decision to try to find more open country and make for the Omaruru riverbed where I knew that at some point I would find water, I decided to check my phone for signal and lo and behold, I had a weak signal! I managed to get a pin from the group where they had decided to camp.
It meant recrossing the Spitzkoppe river and a number of canyons in between. I prayed that God would show me the way.
Amazingly, I found what I can only believe are ancient elephant paths winding through the much-fissured terrain. Elephants have uncanny civil engineering skills and they find the very best routes - always.
In time we worked our way across the canyons. There was one particularly difficult manoeuvre where a river I was following dropped down into the main Spitzkoppe River. It was a flat rock bottom and the drop was 5 feet to the sand below.
True to form Warrior took it, with a bit of coaxing. For a Kalahari sand desert horse who had never seen such obstacles I was so impressed!
From there we wound our way out through another network of elephant paths in the last of the light and hit the open country just before sunset. I thanked God for leading me along the “ancient paths”.
I told Warrior we were going to find other horses and water. I had drunk sparingly and still had 8 litres with me to give him out of my hat to tide us over till we got to the Omaruru - just in case.
He sensed the excitement and set off at a fast trot. We ate up the ground and just before it was completely dark, I noticed the shape of a vehicle and a person silhouetted on top of a rock. It was Vesta Burger, who has been a wonderful help with coordinating this ride. Vesta is a therapeutic riding instructor and the founder of Serenity Stables Therapeutic Horse Riding in Namibia.
It was a huge relief to get to my wonderful Namibian family!
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