#79 From Trauma to Triumph with Mozambique Horse Safari

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In this episode, we're talking with Pat Retzlaff, co-founder of Mozambique Horse Safari.

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And I was very worried when we were heading to the coast, wondering whether it would work. But when I had the first ride, I realized that we had hit the jackpot and that it would be fantastic.

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Welcome to the Equestrian Connection podcast from WeHorse. My name is Danielle Crowell and I'm your host. Today's episode is a truly inspiring story of resilience, purpose, and a deep connection between humans and animals. Pat Retzlaff is the co-founder of Mozambique Horse Safari and the book 104 Horses. In this conversation, Pat shares how he and his family were forced to leave their farm in Zimbabwe during a time of political upheaval and how they made the bold and brave decision to rescue and relocate over 100 horses across borders. We talk about the challenges they faced, what it took to rebuild their lives in Mozambique, and how that experience led to the creation of a unique safari company that offers unforgettable horseback experiences along the stunning Mozambique coastline. Whether you're a traveler or somebody navigating big life transitions, this episode has something meaningful for you. So let's dive in. Pat, welcome to the WeHorse podcast. I'm so excited to chat with you today and to hear more about your story. So welcome.

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Thank you so much, and thank you for inviting us onto the podcast. We need all the exposure at the moment that we can get. Thank you.

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Awesome. Well, we have a really engaged audience, so we anticipate that you'll receive some additional exposure from this as well. And with that, I'd love to chat today not only about your Safari and the company for the podcast, retreats and the rides and everything like that, but also about the book that you have. So that's where we're going to begin is the story that inspired the book 104 Horses. Can you share the core of the story, the moment that changed everything, how you got started and how you got to where you are now?

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Yes, well, very easy. It was a series of terrible political mistakes that took place in the country, in Zimbabwe, which were shocking at the time. And probably also a combination that the Internet was just coming around and you could do emails at that time. So my wife, Mandy, was probably one of the first bloggers. She used to entertain the whole farming community.

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society in Zimbabwe with her blogs and they were mainly funny stories about farming about our daily lives that sort of thing but of course when the politics went bad they then it was all about the politics and what was going on Can you tell us a little bit about that time of the transition how you were forced to move and what that looked like Yes, well, that's the political side of it.

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So it was quite amazing for us as farmers, but we were totally, totally unaware of what was going on underground. But basically, the government was bankrupt. The then leader, Mr. Mugabe, was losing votes and, in fact, lost horribly at a referendum that... They had probably 80 percent to 20 percent and then probably lost the elections. But that was rigged. But the election was shortly after the referendum. So you can only presume that he also lost that. But that was really badly rigged. Anyway, the core of the problem was him losing popularity. And to gain popularity or to remain in power, he had to do drastic things. And that was the terrible mistakes he made. He destroyed basically the agricultural business in Zimbabwe in order to destroy the... union, the labor union, which he saw as being people who had voted against him. So he actually said it himself that he was going to cut the head of the snake or whatever. So it was very easy for him by eliminating or using a very, very popular topic in politics at the moment, taking back land from white settlers. Well, he took it back from not only whites, but blacks as well. But the real essence of it was actually to destroy the union, which he thought that they had voted against him, which they, you know, 80, 20 percent, of course, they did vote against him. So his tactics were to take the land from which, as I say, was a popular thing not in the country because the referendum was about that and they actually voted 80% against taking the land. But it was popular around the world. It was something that people could understand, you know, these terrible white people. had arrived in this country, Zimbabwe, and taken all the land. Not really the case. But anyway, he used that to create chaos, which in essence kept him in power. And it was terrible. Yeah, people were given 24 hours to move off their properties. The labor, we never saw them again. And it was instant. So we don't even know what happened to them. For example, on my property, I employed 350 people. Well, apart from my domestics, I never saw them again. That was it. Never, ever saw them. It was instant for us, and it was instant for them as well. Very, very sad what happened.

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Oh, my gosh. Like 24 hours is shocking. Yeah.

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Yeah, well, that's what they gave us. You got a letter and it gave you 24 hours to get off. And you weren't supposed to take any equipment with you. The equipment was supposed to remain on the farm. You took your personal items. And very often, of course, they wouldn't allow that. So to organize all that, obviously the farm workers themselves were against it. And they actually were supporting us. In a lot of ways, I mean, there was all-out wars on some farms, but they actually released tens of thousands of people from jail to do all their dirty work and what they called the farm invasions. So, yeah, that's, I mean, it was satanical, really. And his experience in that was extremely... good. In other words, he knew exactly how to frighten everyone and drive everyone away.

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How many horses did you have at that time?

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When we were farming, I think we had six horses. Every farm in Zimbabwe had horses, whether they were for cattle, working with cattle, or whether they were just for family, for fun. Traditionally, of course, they were used in farming. But as I say, virtually every farm. So there were probably 5,000 commercial farms in Zimbabwe. So if you, there must have been at least 20,000 odd horses on those farms. That excludes all your racing fraternity and and jumping fraternity, that sort of thing.

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And so what I know of your story is that you not only brought your horses, so those six horses with you, but you also looked around and you saw all these other horses that were being essentially abandoned because the owners needed to leave. And you rescued those horses, is that correct?

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Yes. So I've always been into animals. I grew up in a... My family was always involved with animals. I did an animal science degree at university. And when it all happened, I actually dealt with the CFU, which is the Commercial Farmers Union, in trying to get some sort of strategy in in trying to protect all our genetics, because not only horses, cattle, sheep, I mean, over 100 years, the country had bred indigenous species that were just going to disappear. And these species were incredibly suitable for the country. So that's what we looked at. And At the end and the speed that was happening, I went for the horses because I realized they had no value and that no one was going to do much with them. So we started rescuing around us. And then, of course, the word got around and we were at first being used really to put horses down. at which stage we had to make the decision to just rescue young horses. We only rescued two-year-olds or below in order to keep the genetics as long as possible. The whole idea right at the beginning, I did not believe that the powers that be would destroy the country. So my idea was just let the politics wear off and then all these horses could be taken back by farmers and so that to protect the genetics as it were. So we chose young horses obviously and we chose as variable from colour to type of horse we really chose but we were a drop in the ocean and Thousands were put down.

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Wow. What was it like both emotionally and logistically to rescue and also relocate over 100 horses in the middle of this crisis?

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Fortunately, in the country, the country had areas where They were run by governors. So a number of governors didn't support what was going on. So there were some safe areas. Now, I'd say this only lasted a couple of years before he replaced those governors with madmen who then went the same way. But we had to literally, I mean, we moved them in trucks. Farmers were so supportive. Helping us, I mean, trucks, food, ranch land, and we moved them as fast as we could. I mean, we had to, in some stages in the book, you'll see we moved them in the middle of the night. so as not to get caught. But, yeah, we moved them to safer areas. But as it all advanced, so we had to move them again and again and again. And the horses got quite used to it. In fact, they actually enjoyed it, I think, as though they were going to a gymkhana event or a race event or polo or something. They'd get all excited when they saw the trucks coming.

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That was my next question about, like, building or rebuilding trust. I mean, if you think about it, there's so much upheaval happening and trauma, essentially. I mean, it was trauma from the human perspective and... I'm sure in some cases trauma from the horse perspective, if they had to separate from a friend or their home and things like that. And so did you feel that you had to build or rebuild trust with your own horses or these horses that were now new to you? Or did they just kind of say, I get it, let's do this?

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Yes, I think you're quite right there. They actually believed that. in what we were doing, and almost as though they knew. And they cooperated. And so it wasn't a reason they were all very young. So it was, you know, like I say, almost they believed that they were safe with you. So they did anything.

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I love that. That's so beautiful. I mean, horses just have that ability to... They have so much forgiveness. If you think of the things that many horses go through in their lives, and yet they forgive humans over and over and over again. So that's just so beautiful.

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Yeah, I must say that it wasn't a popular thing at all. So the locals were never... In a few cases they were, but the horses were never traumatized per se. What often happened is as these farms were taken over and the horses left there, there'd be no water and that sort of thing. So we would get some of these farms and the horses hadn't had water for a week, you know, and no one was even thinking about it because of all the drama going on. but they weren't purposely. There was a few cases where stables were settled out. The local population, no real interest in horses per se. They don't eat them. They do eat them in various other countries, but not in Zimbabwe. So, like I said, they had no value. And because they had no value, the locals didn't really... treat them badly. It was just innocent, really. They didn't get water or they hadn't been moved into a paddock or something. So generally it was okay, but of course we did have some cases which were quite nasty.

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Hmm. What was it like reliving the story through the writing process? And then how did you and Mandy decide that you wanted to write this book? Yeah, and what was it like reliving it?

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Well, it's very interesting in trauma like that is that your brain deletes all the bad things. Otherwise, I don't think you survive. So you very quickly forget, certainly me, myself. You very quickly forget the terrible things and you actually remember all the funny things and all the good things. It's a survival, your body survival technique, I think. But, yeah, sorry, I've gone off at a tangent. You might have to... What was the question again?

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Sorry. Yeah, I don't feel that was a tangent at all, Pat. It is so true that, like you said, like your body does go into survival mode and you do almost block out those things. And so the question was whether like how you decided to write the book or why you decided to write the book. And then, yeah, just really...

[SPEAKER 1]
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I think I've covered that a bit. So internet and emails were just coming up and Mandy was writing these blogs and she carried on writing them. If she didn't write one one day or, you know, we were being thrown out and the internet wasn't working, etc., everyone would be on the phone. You know, what's going on? We haven't had our blog today. So she recorded it all in a funny way, in a humorous way. but also all the trauma and stuff. And, in fact, people urged us to write a book on it, and a company, I'm not sure what the companies are called, they picked it up. Her Stories, people kept them, and this company picked it up, and they offered...

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finance etc and money to research it and to write the book that's how it all happened i just have one more question about it and then i'd love to pivot to more present day um is there anything that the horses specifically um have taught you throughout all this of the the change and the upheaval and the crisis and trust um and all that is there anything that you feel the horses taught you That's a very hard question.

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We learned so much from them, obviously, because even though I was, you know, I'd been riding since I was zero years old. I don't actually know when I started. But we learned so much. We had over 300 horses at one stage, and we were learning very fast. And, yes, like I say, the horses... almost believed in you. That was one thing. They were quite prepared to work if you asked them to. They were very facilitating, I suppose, is the word. What did it teach us? I could talk about that for a month, I think, so much. But once you've got them, you bonded with them, that's your fate. I didn't plan it that way. It wasn't planned that way. But once you've got all these horses, and I realized the initial idea on my part was to keep them and then hand them back to farmers, run it all over. And when we realized that wasn't going to happen, The bond, we couldn't just desert them. You build this amazing bond. And I think that's what keeps you going, really.

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That's beautiful. So let's talk a little bit about the Mozambique Horse Safari. Did you ever think you were going to be running a safari company? And how did that come to be?

[SPEAKER 1]
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No, not at all. We were farmers and happily farming away until this all happened. There was some... So, like I say, we chose horses to try and save. I did want to save genetics and I went for the horses. So when we realized that things weren't going to change, I had to make a plan to use them and to get them out of the country. So we... headed for Mozambique, which had just recovered from a civil war. It's a beautiful country with an amazing coastline. And my wife, Mandy, had always gone on holiday there as a child, her family. So there was a very strong connection there. So, yeah, we had the option. We could have gone to Mozambique. We could have gone to Botswana. We could have gone to Tanzania, Zambia. But we chose Mozambique because there was no competition there. It was a country really opening up. There was a lot of farmers actually going down there to try and open farms and things. So we headed for Mozambique. So every move we made was in that direction until eventually our horses were stuck in the grounds of my daughter's private school. And all the remaining farmers were shipping in wheat, straw and anything to feed them. But they were literally stuck. in the school grounds. And we knew that time had come. And that was something else, trying to get them over the border. That was another nightmare.

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If someone listening has no idea what Mozambique Horse Safari is, what would you say to them? How would you explain it?

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I think it's an experience on the coast. It's a beautiful coastline. I think most African experiences are with game. Obviously, in Europe and etc., you have the beautiful mountains, and like in Canada, your wonderful forests and changing colours everywhere. of your seasons, that sort of thing. But we have wonderful coastlines. Now, when we started, there was only six safaris in the world doing coastlines or coastal riding. Now there's so many, it's amazing. But we were one of the first six. And honestly, I grew up in the bush with wild animals game on horses. And I was very worried when we were heading to the coasts wondering whether it would work. And I'd never even ridden on the coast before. Obviously, we'd been on holiday down there. But when I had the first ride, which is virtually our ride at present, I realized that we had hit the jackpot, as it were, and that it would be fantastic.

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Do people need riding experience, or could somebody book it that's never ridden before?

[SPEAKER 1]
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So we do. We have three sort of different aspects to what we do. We have day rides that we do for all the local lodges. So we have horses at three different points in Villanculas, north side, south side, and on the island. And so people on holiday at the lodges, and 80% of them have never been on a horse, they would book for a one-and-a-half-hour ride on the beach or a swim ride, which is a unique experience. And, of course, it's just so beautiful. Then we have a volunteer business. So... As a volunteer, you need to know something about the horses, obviously. But some of our volunteers haven't, and they've been very, very useful. Maybe working with photography, that sort of thing, different things. We've had vets volunteering with us and vet students, that sort of thing. But they pay, obviously, to come. And obviously, the normal stay is about a month. It's obviously a lot cheaper than the other business, coming as a client. But they have a nice premises where they live and stay. There's a nice house there. Mandy feeds them all and keeps them going. And there's a bit of a social life as well. and they exercise, work with the horses and of course if we have clients they join in all the rides as well. So that's a very excellent aspect. We had some fantastic volunteers who've actually helped us a lot when we run short of funds or need equipment or saddlery and that sort of thing. So we built up a fantastic sort of base with all our volunteers and then we have the clients the clients are normally a four or seven or ten day safari and that has a clear itinerary when we started we tried to do fly camps in other words going one way down the beach and honestly the beaches here are all beautiful you think you're riding with your mouth open And you think it couldn't get more beautiful. And you go around the corner and, you know, again, it's a different experience, more beautiful. It's incredible. So anyway, we tried that, but it's just too expensive. So what we do now, we've got a house where the clients stay, very nice accommodation. And we ride from there, from those bases. So like I say, we've got three bases. And we do obviously much longer rides. and they really need to be relatively experienced riders, but we look after our base. We've just had a client who just liked to go on nice, easy rides, and we do that, no problem at all. And, yeah, every day is different, different experiences and riding on the island and doing bush, rides in the bush. And up we have lovely dunes, yeah, going up the dunes. It's really, really beautiful.

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That sounds so enjoyable. I'm just, like, picturing it and, of course, like, looking through the photos and everything that you have on the website and seeing some of the videos. And I think to, like, our society everywhere in the world now, and everybody just seems like we're all so busy and we're all so stressed and, you know, we've got a lot going on. And when you experience something like what it is that you offer, being in nature, being around the horses, being completely disconnected from all of that, you know, stuff that we have going on. Do you see any transformation in the clients and the guests after they do Mozambique Horse Safari?

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I think the stay is only four days, seven days. So you actually, what we do see is they absolutely, they really love it. And they do that after a day or so. They tend to relax and enjoy it even more. I think when they come out, they're expecting... They don't really know what to expect. You know, what are the horses like, etc. But our horses are very well trained. And... After a day, people tend to really relax and enjoy it. And as I say, it is a national park. It's a protected area, obviously for the reasons that it's very, very beautiful. One of the reasons anyway. But it's also for preserving different types of marine animals. And there is game as well. On the islands, small game. And then on the sanctuary, obviously, also big game. But we don't ride in the sanctuary. So it's mainly a horse experience with very safe, no big game predators. Normally, people do a game. a week's game ride in Botswana or something, and then come to us as the end of a trip, which I think they expect ours to be more relaxing and sun and sea and whatever.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Yeah. It sounds so lovely. I'm just thinking, I'm like, I wonder if there's any flights out of Canada towards you. I'm sure I could catch something.

[SPEAKER 1]
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There is, because we get a lot of Canadians. Yeah. So we've just had, yeah, we do, we get a lot of Canadians. Honestly, I don't know which way they fly out, but there obviously are lots of connections through Europe. We're down below Europe, so you probably end up flying to Europe and then coming down. Yeah.

[SPEAKER 2]
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And I think to South Africa, there's direct flights, certainly from the States, there's Yeah, I'm sure I could figure out something. So when we look at the idea of the political disruption that started this, you know, the whole journey and the whole story, I reflect on the current state of the world and. No matter where you are, whether it is in your backyard or something you're seeing on the news, there is political disrupt happening in large scale and in small scale. And I'm wondering if somebody is listening and they're going through a personal upheaval or something. whatever it may be, they're feeling the disruption of the world currently. Do you have any wisdom or advice that you could offer to them from your perspective?

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My feeling has always been when a door closes, another two open up. It's a question of forgetting things. uh, the past and getting on with the future. That was a big, big, uh, uh, lesson. I think with all the farmers, I mean, I just think, uh, we, we ended up doing the horses, but what all the other farmers did, you know, they went farming in Australia. They, uh, opened businesses up all over there and got on with their life. So you just got to get on with it. And, uh, Like I say, in our case, it was fate that ended up directing which way we went. You can plan it a lot better than we did, I'm sure.

[SPEAKER 2]
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I love that. It's such a positive perspective. Just it happened. Now what? You know, how will we move on from this? What's next for us? Things like that. It's a really positive spin on it. So I really like that.

[SPEAKER 1]
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Yeah, you can't go backwards, can you? Yeah. So the thing is just to go forwards. I was very fortunate, or we were very fortunate, we had horses. And that really is very, very positive. I mean, the wonder, probably the best years of my life. in fact, was in that trauma working with the horses. I mean, that was so rewarding. And then in the background, sort of all the problems going on the whole time. It was ridiculous, really. But that was, I say to everyone, that training the horses and working with them initially was probably the best four years of my life.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Wow. Pat, we have four rapid-fire questions that we ask every podcast guest. It's just the first thing that comes to mind for you. So the first one is, do you have a motto or a favorite saying?

[SPEAKER 1]
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For the company, I think my son invented that. Ritz laughs the name, horse riding's a game. So the motto is that anyone who wants to ride... it's got to be available. We've got to break our backs to make sure that it happens. So that's our motto, is to let people enjoy horses and being with them.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Who has been the most influential person in your horse journey?

[SPEAKER 1]
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Oh dear, that is a difficult one. Well, when we were training and building up And like I say, at that time, computer was, you know, databases were opening up, that sort of thing. So I was able to use the, probably the computer was very powerful in us deciding. And there was a lot of, they weren't podcasts in those days, but a lot of video type things available on training horses, looking after horses. And I'm very, very interested in history, especially history, local history. That's African history, Southern Africa. And so I bought a lot of old veterinary books, Boer war books, that sort of thing, which related to what we were going through. And we used that. So it was information. Information and information technology and technology. who I think we lent so much from each person, like Pat Pirelli, the horse whisperer. He was very influential at that time. You probably heard of it, Join Up.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Oh, with Monty Roberts.

[SPEAKER 1]
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Monty Roberts, yes. He was the original horse whisperer. And, yeah, I mean, I got information from veterinary books, which were 100 years old, but became very, very important because of all the drama and everything, we weren't able to get all the medicines and we didn't have the money actually to do that. So we had to revert back to things that were used in the Boer War and they worked. And we're still using those methods. It's amazing. So we put our own, from all the different innovations, sort of worked out what was the best way. And I think we still do. We're still changing. You know, you develop it the whole time. You never stop learning with horses. Never, ever.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Yeah. Yeah. You're so right. If you could give equestrians one piece of advice, what would it be?

[SPEAKER 1]
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I think, you know, I told you I rode. I don't know when I started. My father was a great rider. My grandfather owned a riding school in Germany. My grandfather. Great-great-grandfather bred racing horses. So definitely in the family. I don't know when I started, but I definitely, when I started studying it properly, I realized that I didn't know much about farming. Not farming, much about riding. I'd actually, what happens if you've got sort of your own horse is you develop a bond with that horse. And that horse learns to ride with you, and you learn to ride with a horse. If you take it really seriously, and like I say, for purposes of safaris and things, you have to learn a bit more than that. And that's the amount that you can develop, the depth that you can learn about horses and how to handle them, how to train them is wonderful.

[SPEAKER 2]
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it goes hand in hand with the other one it's the idea that you never stop learning with horses and then also you should never stop learning with horses the final question is please complete this sentence for me horses are for me horses are they're my life really What we depend on, like I say, they work happily.

[SPEAKER 1]
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It's almost as though they know they have to earn their bit of money. They have to do their bit. Yeah, it's a wonderful experience. Wonderful.

[SPEAKER 2]
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Pat, thank you so much for coming on the WeHorse podcast. It has been such a pleasure hearing your story and being able to spread this story so that people do have the awareness of everything that you've gone through in order to bring Mozambique horse safari to life and then also hear about the the really cool experiences that you now offer like I said I'm going to be looking into some flights to uh to be able to check that out for myself so thank you so much for being here and uh and for for speaking with us today thank you so much and yes wonderful to speak to you thank you Thank you for listening to this episode of the Equestrian Connection podcast by WeHorse. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a rating and review, as well as share us on social media. You can find us on Instagram at WeHorse underscore USA and check out our free seven-day trial on WeHorse.com where you can access over 175 courses with top trainers from around the world in a variety of topics and disciplines. Until next time, be kind to yourself, your horses, and others.

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