Honeydew Equestrian shares her passion

A bond between a horse and its rider might form over time, or be one of those immediate connections that take shape as soon as the pair meets.

For Lilyana Kiss (22), her connection with the 10-year-old thoroughbred Midnight Memories clicked into place the moment she mounted him for a Warwick training session.

“I recently lost my horse, Woody, and had to ride a different horse for the training. I was still grieving Woody and when I climbed onto Midnight, he was sweet and calm as if he knew my heart was still broken. We clicked instantly, and I adopted him through the Highveld Horse Care Unit,” she explained.

Lilyana explained that Martinique van der Westhuizen, owner of Honeydew Equestrian Centre, where she has been riding since Lilyana was 10 years old, had taken Midnight in to foster him for a few months until he found a new owner.

“It was almost like fate, I spent a bit of time with him before, he is so young and curious, I wasn’t expecting to own him a few months later,” she chuckled. Midnight was an ex-racehorse and was taken in by the Highveld Horse Care Unit to help find him a loving forever home.

Lilyana is currently doing her horseback riding instructor coursework through the centre while also teaching new riders and running classes.

“I have been training Midnight in jumping and dressage; we can jump up to 1.1m and we participated in a dressage training show last week where we got some positive feedback. Midnight is still young and has so much to learn, I am excited to go further into dressage with him,” she added.

She added that Midnight is learning how to smile and do other adorable interactions through groundwork and liberty training with Martinique.