“I’vehad horses in the past, but this last year is the most time I’ve spent with these magnificent animals. Horses are like mirrors – they reveal your own emotions to you. Working with them has been a calming experience,” Jaco Reverchon explains. It took hard work to establish an equilibrium at River Stables Sabie. Here, 10 horses are grazing happily in a meadow next to the Sabie River, but it is also home to five dogs, three donkeys and one fat pig lazing about.
The owners, Jaco and Jens Reverchon, moved to Sabie in August 2022. Before that, they lived in the Balule Game Reserve in the Greater Kruger, west of the Kruger National Park, where they managed their lodge, Mhangela. And prior to that, the couple lived in Cape Town.
“We bought the game farm in 2016, but only ended up moving there in 2018,” says Jaco, an architect. “We travelled back and forth from Cape Town for two years.” The look on his face reveals exactly how crazy this commute was.
During their five years in the bushveld, they renovated the lodge and created an intimate experience for their guests. “We like luxury, but we also prefer things to be natural: earthy, healthy and holistic,” Jens adds. “We never wanted to have more than four people sitting on the game drive vehicle.”
While running the lodge, Jaco took on architectural work around the reserve and Jens owned and managed a shop in Hoedspruit called Dream and Dine, which
