Cally Hotson
“They say money doesn’t buy happiness. But it does buy books. And that’s sort of the same thing.”
Throughout the ages, the image of the horse has captured our imagination. It is beautiful, strong, and powerful and man has always had an abiding fascination with what is, quite frankly, one of creation’s most exquisite creatures.
Someone who has turned this fascination into a career, is Cally Hotson, who will be manning the Horses In Art stand at the CPYS sale this week. For those who haven’t already planned a visit, you’ll find her just behind the main stand, diagonally across the bar. I highly recommend dropping by.
Treasure Trove
I first met Cally at the inaugural CPYS sale at the CTICC. Her stand was an Aladdin’s cave of beautifully framed equestrian prints, paintings, objects d’art, ceramics, soft furnishings, vintage jewellery and my personal weakness – books. They were everywhere. Art histories, rare breeding, training and racing volumes, a few copies of Thelwell and Penelope, turf biographies – in short, everything from Pocket Power to De Pluvinel. I spent a substantial portion of the sales lost in her bookshelves, although I’d sadly arrived a little late and most of the good stuff had already been reserved.
There’s the old saying that some things are so old that they’re new again. As a self-confessed Amazon junkie I can vouch that there’s a new horse book printed every minute. The irony is that the more you collect, read and study those shiny new volumes, the more you realise the value of the old ones, because that’s usually what the new ones are based on! So ironically, the books one ends up really wanting, are the older, out of print volumes, frustratingly beyond reach of the convenient click of a mouse button. But as with most things in life, the fact that they are not available simply makes them all the more desirable.
Cally clearly has an eye for a rare book and regularly turns up some real gems. As someone with such fantastic material at her fingertips is well worth getting to know, I caught up with Cally as she was setting up her stand at the CTICC this week to find out more.
Cally Hotson
Cally is gracious and softly spoken, with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes. She grew up on the historic Bergvliet Farm in Constantia in what she describes as “a horsey family” and paints a picture of an idyllic childhood spent galloping through the vineyards. Cally and her sisters were members of the Western Province Horse Society and show-jumped with the likes of Jenny Haytread, Chris Snaith and Mike Bass. Like a lot of the competitive community, she was also a regular racegoer. “Everyone knew everyone back then,” she explains. As Thoroughbreds were more or less all that was available back then, a day at the races also offered an impromptu opportunity to window shop. People on the lookout for a new horse would earmark potential race day candidates and then contact their trainers or owners to express interest. There was often fierce competition for particularly desirable horses.
After studying law at UCT – “with a strong interest in politics” – she did a stint at the Cape Times as a junior reporter, and then went travelling. Twenty-three years later she had racked up experience on a host of different publications and a passport full of stamps to exotic and far flung corners of the globe. She had also kept up her love of horses and riding, competing and eventually breeding competition horses in the UK (a few of which she brought home with her to establish a small Warmblood stud).
Collector
Cally says she’s an incorrigible collector of decorative antiques and collectibles, with a strong preference for anything horse-related. By the time she moved back to South Africa, she had amassed an eclectic collection of everything from rare sporting prints to riding spurs from Chile. Most of these treasures were languishing in boxes in her South African garage when a friend talked her into unearthing some to support a local art fair. Cally says the response was so good that she realised there was a business opportunity and she officially opened “Horses In Art” in 2004.
Having unearthed numerous treasures at English antique markets and boot sales, Cally now goes on regular collecting trips to the UK. “Horses are such a part of the culture and they are steeped in equestrian history and heritage – you always find masses of stuff.” Although her original focus had been the competitive riding community, her first foray to the CTICC in 2011 was an eye-opener. It was her first exposure to the racing industry in a business context and the enthusiasm and demand for her stock was overwhelming. She says the depth of knowledge and appreciation for the books in particular came as a pleasant surprise and she has shifted her focus to concentrate primarily on the racing industry.
Apart from trawling the markets and antique fairs, Cally has also built up a solid network of contacts to help her track down particularly rare and hard to find items and she does source items on request. She has also expanded her line of beautifully framed Stubbs and Munnings prints and now carries work from celebrated local artist Andrew Barlow (which can be commissioned or customised to order).
Cally has a showroom at her home outside Stellenbosch and hosts several open days a year. These are particularly popular over Christmas with people hunting for something unique for that ‘hard to buy’ person. Horses In Art can be found at Barberg Stud, Bonniemile, Vlottenberg and contacted on 021 881 3626 or by email on [email protected] for an appointment.
The Sales
We left Cally to finish unpacking and setting up her stand while we wandered through the rest of the building. The sales hall was in a state of mid set-up with teams of workers laying carpets, setting out tables and generally getting everything ready. I find the personnel at the CTICC particularly friendly and they were most interested in the stallions (advertised on the beautiful big banners at the entrance), how the sales worked and where all the horses would end up.
Our transport companies have been working overtime, bringing sales drafts from all over the country, like so many little streams all converging into the main hub of the CTICC. Ann Dalton is the quiet, reliable driving force behind many of our local sales and was at her usual station, quietly seeing that everything was running according to schedule. The first of the babies arrived on Sunday, with another sizeable portion arriving throughout the day on Monday and prospective buyers were already on site to get an early look at their picks.
Grooms are kept busy ensuring their charges are looking their best. Here and there I noticed an empty stable and when I asked after a specific lot, a groom tells me “Something always goes wrong just before the sales. That’s life,” he shrugged philosophically and headed off to attend to the rest of his charges.
Between settling in their babies, the breeders have also been busy setting out their stands. Winterbach stud has a most attractive stand right at the entrance to the stabling area. Pippa Mickleburgh was adding the final touches to the Avontuur area and we had a quick chat about Oratorio. She says he has arrived in immaculate condition and seems to be taking the quarantine conditions in his stride. They just need to add the finishing touches to his paddock and then everything will be ready for his arrival at his new home.
Ross Fuller was happy with his draft and reckons that housing the sale indoors actually helps the horses to be more settled. Terry and Annabel Andrews were making some last minute stable adjustments for a fractious colt while John Slade showed me round the Maine Chance draft. How can you bear to part with them? I ask. “It’s a bit like a wedding,” says John. “After the high of all the anticipation and exhilaration of a successful sale, there’s the massive comedown and heartbreak of saying goodbye. But you move on. You have to. That’s the business.” He looks wistfully at a favourite lot and then walks away.
It never ceases to amaze me just how incredibly resilient and adaptable our Thoroughbreds are. Despite being summarily removed from everything familiar, transported goodness knows how far and then thrust into the noise and general activity of a busy sales environment, most of the yearlings were quietly appraising their new surroundings, with the more worldly individuals already tucking into their roughage as though it is perfectly routine to take their dinner in a giant air-conditioned convention centre in the Mother City. The best description I’ve ever heard of these youngsters remains the one from Natalie Keller Reinert when she wrote “All the promise and power that is a Thoroughbred, you can see in the yearling. Their wildness is still present, although they are ready to be put to saddle and bridle. They are half-tamed, they are children, they are athletes, they want you to comfort them and they want to bite you.”
By the time you read this, most of those babies will be back on a float, heading off into the next chapter of their lives. It is heart-breaking, it is exciting and yet, it is simply a necessary stop on the inexorable carousel of the industry we inhabit.
Whether you’re buying, selling, viewing or visiting, I hope everyone has a successful sale. Just remember I have first dibs on the Wynmalen!
