Voortrekkers, like other peoples such as nomadic Gypsies and American pioneers, laid out their wagons in a circular formation as a defense against raiders and nocturnal animals. These circular fortifications, called a laager in Afrikaans, were an improvised military camp. To pinch horses, cattle or goods raiders and animals had to slip between linked vehicles. And while the laager at Blood River Battlefield does not include original wagons the cast-bronze carts on display are identical to those used by Voortrekkers in 1838.