Mother and daughter Leonie and Lanel van Niewenhuizen from Louis Trichardt have made endurance riding history.

Leonie, South African senior rider for 2009/10, and Lanel, the top-ranked South African junior rider, are now both riding for South Africa’s senior team.

In April this year, the Tri-Nations were held at Schweizer Reinecke and Leonie and Lanel made endurance riding history when they became the first mother and daughter to be chosen simultaneously to ride in the senior national team.

The duo’s passion for horses goes all the way back to Leonie’s childhood. She introduced her children to horses in the hope that the horse bug would bite them as well. Leonie bought Lanel her very own horse when she turned nine. Today, she and Lanel own eight horses between them.

Over the years, Leonie has competed in 5 700km of endurance riding and has done the Fauresmith and Walvis Bay races three times. The Fauresmith ride (201km in three days) is considered one of the toughest in the world, with between 350 and 400 riders competing every year.    

Leonie bought her first horse in 2002 and competed in Fauresmith the following year. According to her, however, her biggest achievement was when she received her Protea colours at the Tri-Nations race that was held in Beaufort West last year.

Lanel quickly followed in her mother´s footsteps and competed for the first time, at the age of 11, alongside her mom. (According to the rules of endurance racing, a child rider must have a senior to guide them until the year the child turns 14.)

At the age of 14, Lanel represented South Africa for the first time and, to date, has competed in 8 597km of endurance riding. She has completed the Fauresmith five times and the Walvis Bay three times.

Leonie explains that it´s very hard work to keep yourself and the horses fit, and Lanel, who is in matric this year, has to sacrifice a lot of social activities over weekends and holidays.

She also had to excel over the past two years to qualify for the senior team. In March 2007, Lanel was invited to work and ride in New Zealand, where she won on a horse which she only got the morning of the race.

The year after this, Lanel had the amazing opportunity to participate in an exchange programme to St. Marys in Perth, Australia. Last year, as the number 1 SA junior rider, she competed in the World Championships in Hungary. This victory helped her qualify for the senior team. She also received her senior Protea colours and a permanent number at the Tri-Nations this year as she was the first South African in at the finish line. 

Up until last year, Lanel competed as a Young Rider in the age group 14 to 21.

Endurance racing is a family sport and husband Niewies and Stanly make up the ground crew. Liaan, their son, a final year student at Tuks, also likes to ride but has to concentrate on his studies.