Potted history

The Melck family were the biggest breeders of horses in South Africa, in the days when these were used for transport as well as sport, and horse portraits are everywhere in their home, as are hunting trophies.
Interestingly, coach horses used in the Northern parts of the country were susceptible to tsetse-fly and horse-sickness, so the coaches were for a short while replaced with zebras - but these didn't have the stamina of horses, so "salted" horses were in great demand... Until rail travel (and later the model T Ford) changed the face of transport.