Saturday, February 18, 2023 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH Saturday, Feb 18, 2023
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 1, Edition 18
Hooves of rarity Preservation breeder Heise continues Nokota legacy BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
Park System would sometimes round up and auction off these horses. Brothers Frank and Leo Kuntz appreciated the breed and began trying to buy as many of the horses as possible at these auctions. The Kuntz’ were the ones to coin the name Nokota. Heise purchased two from the Nokota Horse Conservancy and several from Frank and Leo Kuntz’ herd, and the rest are offspring. Her very first Nokota, named Cali, came from Frank Kuntz when she attended a horse clinic in Linton, North Dakota. The horses, she said, connect with people on a different level. At the clinic, the participants created a human corral around a group of 20 mares and each person walked through the middle of the herd. “You greet who looks at you and acknowledge them,” she said. “This little filly, she was two, came out and stood right next to me and there she stayed and she let me pet her all over. We created a bond and I kind of lobbied to work with her in that clinic.” At the end of the clinic, after lengthy
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Nokota horses graze on the North Dakota prairie near Linton. There are fewer than 1,000 Nokotas in the world.
lobbying with Kuntz, she bought Cali and brought her back to her new home. For the first years of ownership, Heise took her mares back to Lint o n ,
North Dakota to breed them with one of the wild stallions, but now she has her own stallion. The Nokota breed have big feet and big bones with feathers on their feet and can be divided into two different types: ranch and traditional. The ranch style Nokotas are large r
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Heise said the Nokota horses take distinct roles within the herd. “Everybody in the herd has a job,” Heise said. “Jewel is the sentry, if she senses danger out in the pasture, she makes sure everybody else is behind her.”
Heise page 2
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We wanted to make sure that this herd didn’t go away. That this is living history … they are historic animals. They are really something special.
- Kathy Heise
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(16 hands and taller) and the traditional style is smaller (14.3 hands). Heise owns both styles. The breed also has great color variation, their dominant color is blue roan but colorations also include white, red roan, bays, grays, orange and black. They have excellent stamina and a lot of versatility. People use them for dressage, western pleasure, endurance riding, trail riding, therapy, polo ponies and shooting sports.
This month in the
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Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on March 4, 2023
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LAKE CITY – For some, owning a historical piece means an antique, but for Kathy Heise, her pieces of history trotted onto her farm and stole her heart. Heise owns nine Nokota horses on the nine-acre ranch she owns with her husband Don near Lake City. Nokotas are rare, feral horses whose recent ancestors came out of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There are believed to be around 1,000 of them still in existence. “That’s why we wanted to be preservation breeders,” Heise said. “We wanted to make sure that this herd didn’t go away. That this is living history … they are historic animals. They are really something special.” In 1993 the legislative assembly named the Nokota horse as the honorary equine of North Dakota. Nokota horses, according to the State Historical Society of North Dakota, are believed to be descendants of Sitting Bull’s horses. Today, Heise owns nine Nokotas and she works to continue the pure Nokota bloodlines in her herd. The recent history of the Nokota starts when Theodore Roosevelt National Park was fenced in, accidentally trapping the horses inside. The National
PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
Kathy Heise smiles beside Sweet Gem Feb. 7 on her ranch near Lake City. Heise says that Nokota horses will steal your heart.
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