Welcome to Soetendal
Situated 15km outside Wellington and nestled postcard pretty in the shadow of the Limietberg mountains, lies Julia Pilbeam and Deon Ensink’s Soetendal Estate.
The farm was established in 1852 and was the one-time residence of General J.B.M. Hertzog, the third Prime Minister of South Africa. It is a National Heritage site, but the beautiful property was in a sorry state of disrepair and neglect when Deon and Julia purchased it in 2003.
Being horse folk, the first order of business was to build paddocks and convert the barns into stables, but the main residence built in the Cape vernacular has been painstakingly renovated and extended into a beautiful family home. The back stoep overlooks paddocks and has a 180 degree view of the farm and the mountain range. Not a bad place to while away an afternoon!
Deon is a home grown South African and was born and bred in the Western Cape. Julia, however, has rather somewhat more exotic roots. While her parents are English, Julia was born in Brazil and then raised in the Western Cape. It was while living in Brazil that Julia’s mother Elizabeth decided to realise a lifelong dream of learning to ride. She took her young family along for lessons. In the funny selective way that horses have, the bug bit Elizabeth and Julia, but the rest of the family luckily remained unaffected! Mom Elizabeth became an avid dressage enthusiast and was a popular and well-respected judge on Cape dressage scene. Julia found her passion on the polo and polocrosse fields and was a long-standing member of the Cape Hunt & Polo Club teams, which is where she met Deon. The two now have two beautiful children.
The foray into the racing world started almost by accident. Julia did some work-riding for Eric Sands who then started sending her some horses for spelling. One thing led to another and they soon had a thriving business offering broodmare boarding, foaling down and weaning, yearling sales prep, backing and pre-training, spelling, rehab and post-operative care as well as retirement.
Soetendal Estate has beautiful facilities
The farm is situated across 50 hectares and boasts fifty stables, a dedicated foaling unit, well-secured, irrigated grass paddocks, high-fenced rings for colts and rehab horses, lunge rings, starting stalls, an 800m sand track as well as access to large exercise areas, including hills and a variety of firm and soft going, plus the all-important 24 hour supervision. Critically for any boarding farm, they are situated 15 minutes from Wellington Animal Hospital and a 45 minute drive from Drakenstein Veterinary Clinic.
The location, dedicated facilities and impeccably dedicated and professional approach to every aspect of their work has made Soetendal an increasingly popular choice. It is hard to select just a few of the big names that have graced the Soetendal paddocks, but the fact that they have been entrusted with the likes of Irish Flame, Ato, Flax, Jackson, Via Africa, Captain America and Gold Cup winner Wavin’ Flag speaks volumes. Via Africa’s dam, Bump ‘n Grind has been a long-term resident and has just produced a filly by Oratorio.
Julia Pilbeam & Ricardo Christian
The Soetendal team back their horses methodically and sympathetically using the Monty Roberts ‘join-up’ technique. Julia and her team do the backing and basic training on the farm, tailoring a specific programme for each individual horse. Julia explains that some trainers like their young horses to come in fit and ready for work, while others prefer their young horses a little softer and carrying a bit more weight to give them something to work with. The Soetendal team focus on ensuring that the basics are firmly in place and that horses are confident and happy to be tacked up and ridden out either singly or in company and then tailor a training plan according to each individual trainer’s needs. Julia is very hands on and helps back and get all their horses going under saddle. No horse leaves the farm without Julia having ridden and worked it, so clients can rest assured that every single Soetendal horse has been personally signed off by the boss and has her stamp of approval before leaving the premises.
Ready To Run candidates were historically sent to a training yard for a final sales ‘polish’, but with the addition of the very capable and experienced Ricardo Christian (formerly of the Summerhill’s pre-training division), the Soetendal Team are expanding their pre-training services and are proud to consign their first draft of 10 on the CTS October 2014 Ready To Run sale.
For more information on Julia, Ricardo or the Soetendal team, please visit www.soetendal.co.za/
