On the banks of the mighty Zambezi river...
ShaTranj is the Arabian word for chess, literally translating to "black and white".
When the word was first adopted in my Arabian horse stud, around the turn of the millennium (2000), it was referring to my black Arabian stallion Inshallah Kishor and his white counterpart Ariq Hiralldo as the first two purebred Arabians in the stud.
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Time carried on, and when I met another soul just as passionate about horses, the outdoors and doing her own thing…Marcia became my wife and ShaTranj expanded into not only an Arabian stud, but a riding school, a mounted archery school, a centre to teach bushcraft, combat skills, weapon skills and much more.
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Eventually an agricultural consulting company, ShaTranj AgriConsult was added to help finance our passion and eventually our Dogo Argentino Stud was formed and made operational…the rest, as they say…we'll have to see !
Representing South Africa in South Korea, Marcia as National Mounted Archery Coach, and Johan as Team Captain and athlete.
ShaTranj specializes in mounted archery, mounted combat disciplines, traditional weapons training and bushcraft.
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As husband and wife team, we have more than 8 years experience in mounted archery & combat disciplines and more than 30 years experience in bushcraft and combat.
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Johan de Bruto received Protea colours twice and competed in Korea and Hungary (where SA ended 7th out of 25 countries). He has also received an award of Honour from the World Horseback Archery Federation (WHAF, in Korea) for his contribution and dedication to the sport of Mounted Archery.
We are affiliated in Korea, China and Hungary; with the aim of establishing Hungarian Martial Arts as a sport in South Africa.
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Marcia de Bruto has received Protea colours as SA coach twice and had the honour of her junior students receiving 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings in International Tournaments.
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Our Bushcraft training aims to prepare the individual for an amazing outdoor experience, as well as general survival.
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That been said, survival is about much more than just the ability to fend for yourself out in nature, but also how to handle yourself in a conflict situation. Physical conflict can be survived by using various parts of your body as weapon, blunt or sharp traditional weapons, other objects that have been substituted for weapons, or modern firearms etc.
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The period before and after direct conflict are however, just as important. Without the necessary preparation and the aquirement of the survival skills needed, whether that be wound and shock treatment, the aquiry of food and water, food preparation, shelter and heat; the chances of survival for a person who finds himself/herself seperated from modern luxuries (electricity, water, cover...Pick’nPay.....) becomes dramatically smaller.
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At ShaTranj these skills are demonstrated and taught. Much better to have skills and not need them, than need them and not have them !!