About Us

Our History

Raised in the beautiful bushveld and surrounds of the Kruger National Park, South Africa, Annemie (Greyling) Daly has always had an appreciation of the beauty of and complexities of nature. She grew up with a deep love and understanding of animals, particularly horses. After secondary (boarding school, Annemie attended the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education where she obtained her B.Prim.Ed degree with Psychology.

During this time Annemie joined the Equestrian Therapy project where she met the legendary Bach Hefer. “Oom Bach” was an old-school Horse master and used to head up the South African Equestrian Infantry. He had a calm but focused no-nonsense yet gentle way of working with horses. Even though Annemie had different trainers over the years, Oom Bach would become one of the most influential teachers in Annemie’s life. Apart from his lifelong work with horses, he also did amazing work with the wild horses of Namibia and incorporated his knowledge into his everyday horsemanship – in what is called “natural horsemanship” today.

Together with Oom Bach, Annemie extended the Equestrian therapy project for the University of Potchefstroom. She was formally rewarded for her equestrian therapeutic work at the Ikageng school, E.S.Le Grange centre for disabilities and Witrand hospital. She became the head of Social responsibilities and later headed up 13 different social development projects across the region and received recognition by the University for this.

After university Annemie worked in different school settings but always incorporated Equestrian therapy into her education and therapy programmes.

Eddie and Annemie met and, together eldest daughter Mieke, embarked on an amazing international experience. Over the next couple of years, both in the United Kingdom and Southern Africa, Annemie worked in the field of specialized educational and therapeutic programmes addressing the needs of children with diagnoses such as Autism (Including non-verbal and Asperger’s), Dyspraxia/Dyslexia/Dysgraphia, Epilepsy, Diabetes, Selective mutism, Sight/Hearing impaired, ADD/ADHD. Many of the children would also struggle with low self-esteem and/or depression. Annemie would always incorporate some form of Animal Assisted Activity to assist the children in a non-invasive sensory level which lead to wide-spread success and numerous Television, Radio, Magazine and Newspaper publications.

In an effort to assist even more children, the family established a charity called “Sixty one three” where a team of volunteers with medical, psychological, therapeutic and educational professionals provided non-invasive therapeutic interventions for children in residential care facilities.

The charity specialized in Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal Assisted Activities and the name of the charity was based upon scripture found in Isaiah 61:1 – 7.

After different national and international publications in the media about the positive impact the animal-assisted therapy had on children in residential care, the charity grew very quickly and before long they were providing services to institutions such as SA Children’s Home,  Jellybeanz child trauma centre, Mars Memorial Home, Ottery Youth Detention Centre and Molo Shongololo Anti child trafficking unit. The services also grew to include other child-friendly intervention services such as Individual and Group counselling, Specialized Play therapy and Art and Music therapy.

During this time they also opened a school for children with special and specific needs called “Oak Tree Academy” where non-invasive therapies were part of the children’s daily routine as featured on the SABC Morning show “Expresso”.

The team provided training and conducted workshops for teachers, parents and childcare workers and assisted with trauma counselling for children that have been exposed to extreme violence, child trafficking and severe abuse.

During this time, Annemie was a mentor and guest lecturer at the South African Council for Applied Psychologist on the topic of Animal Assisted Therapeutic and other non-invasive therapeutic interventions and coordinated students from different Universities in Southern Africa, Sweden and Germany, all who would participate in the Equine assisted and K9 programmes in one way or the other.

In 2013 she was approached by the World Childhood Foundation and Sixty One Three became one of their projects in South Africa. In 2014, the World Childhood Foundation invited Annemie to attend the Global Child Forum in Pretoria, South African and in 2015, Annemie was blessed to be invited by the Royal family of Sweden as one of the Global representatives of Child focussed programmes in Africa. The Global Child Forum was initiated by H.M. the King and H.M. the Queen of Sweden in 2009 as part of their long-standing commitment to children’s issues.

During the Global Child Forum many new partnerships were established which led to Annemie working on Child focussed areas across Sub-Sahara Africa including remote areas of Namibia and the remote areas in the copper-belt of Zambia.

After the birth of her twins Pippa and Chloe and 11 months later the birth of their son Oliver, the Daly’s decided that it was time for a sabbatical and to hand the Charity over to the established committee. The family moved to the Republic of Ireland where Eddie continued his IT career while Annemie initially focussed on the children and “recharge” after many years of traveling and working in the field of extreme child trauma and special needs education.

During this time, the family bought their first horse in Ireland, Mieke’s beautiful Irish Draught x Sporthorse mare Susie. Shortly after Susie, the three cobs Paddy, Billy and then Lilly followed for the rest of the children. They kept the horses at livery while looking for a place closer to home. Little did they know the journey ahead!

On a very wet wintery day, Annemie was informed of a property that may have land and stables for the ponies.