Saving the Nokota Horse

Continuing from my previous post, "The Nokota Horse:"

1979 was a big year for the mustangs of North Dakota. A rancher and horse breeder named Leo Kuntz bought a couple of them from neighbors, admiring their brains, endurance, strong bones, and willing nature. He originally intended to breed them with other breeds, to introduce the mustang qualities to his Thoroughbreds and quarter horses. Meanwhile, the park management decides to "improve" its horses by selectively removing typical mustangs, and replacing the stallions with a grab-bag of breeds, including part Shire, Arab, and quarter horse bloodlines. They have to remove the wild stallions, because they'd beat the crap out of the domestic horses being introduced. So they take the Nokotas, round them up, and sell them.

From the Nokota Horse Conservancy's web site:

Nokota Horses are characterized by a square-set, angular frame, tapering musculature, V-shaped front end, angular shoulders with prominent withers, distinctly sloped croup, low tail set, strong bone, legs, and hooves, and "Spanish colonial" pigmentation. Their ears are often slightly hooked at the tips, and many have feathered fetlocks. Nokotas tend to mature slowly, and some exhibit ambling gaits.

There was a huge roundup in 1986, and Leo Kuntz saw his chance. He and his brother Frank purchased 54 mustangs being culled from the park.

Another roundup in 1991 gave the Kuntz's seven more important foundation horses. But the park management wasn't through culling. Roundups continued in 1994 and 1997. At this point, the Kuntz's are holding and preserving the pure Nokota bloodlines that the park management is determined to wipe out. In 2000, their newborn Nokota Horse Conservancy was granted non-profit status by the IRS. (Nokota, short for North Dakota Horse). And the park holds yet another roundup, and removes the last Traditional Nokota horse from the wild. NHC supporters purchase it and four more.

There was another roundup in 2003. Once again, typey Nokotas were the target. Even as I write this, I shake my head. What's the point here? To rub out that which is unique, that which is perfectly adapted to the conditions and habitat of this unforgiving place? To deny the Nokota's history and heritage, and replace it with something prettier? If you're going to have a "demonstration herd" of wild horses on public land, why not demonstrate what the Lakota ponies looked like, instead of letting a bunch of domestic breeds mingle there?

I am deeply thankful for the Kuntz's, and the Nokota Horse Conservancy, for recognizing the breed, for preserving irreplaceable bloodlines dating back to the Lakota (Sioux) ponies. Perhaps someday the park management will recognize that it eliminated its finest and best adapted animals in a quest for improvement.

I know there are purists (including one staunch Floridian who struggled free of the coils of an Everglades Burmese python long enough to raise the flag in a comment on my last post) who don't believe any horse belongs in the wild. And that can be argued, too. It raises many, many questions. Interestingly enough, the genus Equus originated in North America about 4 million years ago, and spread to Eurasia via the Bering land bridge. So let's think about that. Mitochondrial DNA analysis has revealed that Equus caballus, the modern horse, originated about 1.7 million years ago, right here in North America. Europeans domesticated horses by crossing wild strains of an animal that actually originated right here. Our native horses died out as late as 11,000 years ago, in some of the mass extinctions that took many of our unique North American megafauna. The last surviving North American horse, the Yukon horse, was called E. lambii. Mitochondria DNA analysis has shown the the Yukon horse was genetically equivalent to E. caballus, the modern horse.

Had they not migrated to Asia and Europe, the species would have died out altogether. Along comes Coronado. In 1519, Equus caballus was introduced to Mexico, where it became wildly popular, and was traded and spread throughout North America. Plains Indians took horsemanship to new places, selecting strains and improving the breed as they saw fit. The Lakota horses were small, wiry, strong, willing, and incredibly smart. Lots of them got loose. And once again, Equus caballus was running on the plains of North America, where it evolved in the first place. You can read more here.

So. Is the horse a feral exotic, or is it a native species, reintroduced 500 years ago? How far back do we need to go to say whether a species is exotic or feral? Do horses belong on the North American plains, if they evolved here? There are people who want to introduce rhinoceros to North America, on the basis that they once lived here, too; calling that a reintroduction. And rhinos do spectacularly well in Texas, breeding, feeding, surviving on game farms. The more you think about it all, the more you realize there may be no correct answer to whether wild horses are noxious exotics, or natives come home. Shades of gray, roan, bay and black.


So there are horses running wild on these mounds and mountains of bentonite clay, and they're not competing with anyone's economic interests in this fenced enclosure. They look great here; they seem to fit. Tourists like me dig 'em. But the Nokotas fit a lot better, thanks to years of intense natural selection in a harsh environment, than the doubtless bewildered domestic quarter horses, draft horses, and paints being released by park management in an effort to "improve" the herd.

I've adapted the Nokota horse story from the excellent web site of the Nokota Horse Conservancy
which has a wealth of information and glorious photo galleries by Christopher Wilson (don't miss them!) of typical Nokota ponies and the people who love them. From the web site:

Nokota owner Margaret Odgers coined the term "the equine all-terrain vehicle" to describe the athleticism, durability, and stamina that are Nokota characteristics. Nokotas are sound, low maintenance horses with extremely solid legs and strong hooves. They all seem to have an uncommon jumping ability and are very handy and agile. These qualities have made them popular among fox hunters. Mentally, Nokotas are "problem solvers," who actively think their way through things, sometimes quite independently. At the same time, they tend to develop unusually strong, reciprocal bonds with those they trust.

We watched this stallion, with a large, still-open neck wound, have a squealing disagreement with a red roan stallion over a little bunch of mares and foals. I shot hundreds of photos of the argument, the rearing and prancing, the vanquishing of the rival, all of which were lost in the Great Computer Meltdown of July 2009. All of which were are deeply mourned. I never even got to see them on the screen before the computer crashed and ate them. The photos here are by Bill of the Birds. And I thank him for them.

The red roan beats a retreat.

A young foal and his placid mama.

Whether these horses were Nokotas or not, they were lovely, and I suppose that's all the park management is shooting for: something pretty for we tourists to exclaim over. It's a great shame. I trust that, through the efforts of the dedicated breeders in the Nokota Horse Conservancy, this wonderful breed will be appreciated and perpetuated into the future. It's regrettable that the park management doesn't get the big picture; doesn't value the home-grown North Dakota horses enough to appreciate that it's rubbing out its own history and heritage.

The horses at Theodore Roosevelt are busy multiplying, as Equus caballus does so very well. No matter how docile, a horse released remembers how to run wild.


It's good to know that, thanks to people of vision and foresight, the Nokota will not be lost forever. I hope I've gotten their story right, and thank them for all they've done. And thanks to Stacy Adolf-Whipp, USFWS biologist, for telling me about Nokota Horses in the first place. Without her input I'd just have been exclaiming at all the pretty horses, instead of thinking hard about priceless Lakota bloodlines, nearly exterminated and now conserved. I think if I ever got a horse, I'd want a Nokota.