It's Time

 

It's been two years since my husband and I brought our Nokota® horses home from Frank Kuntz's farm in Linton, ND. Since then, we've often been asked, "So when are you going to be able to ride them?" 

Our standard reply is, "When it's time." 

Anyone who really knows me, knows I do pretty much everything very slowly. I always have, even as a kid. Call it overly cautious, timid, incapable - whatever. It's just how I am. From cooking to crafting, it's not uncommon to hear someone say it's hard to watch me do things. So it should come as no surprise that training my own horse is, indeed, going at a snail's pace.

A couple weeks ago, my seventeen-year-old niece was visiting from Wisconsin for our own little horse camp. Long story short, at some point, I had RainyDay's saddle cinched up tight, and I eased myself up to hang my full weight over his back and dangled my arm over. He just stood there. I looked at my niece and said, "If I had my helmet on, I'd swing my leg over and get on him. 

She replied, as only a brave teenager could, "You're already on him."

She was right. So I carefully brought my right leg up, rubbed his rump with my hand a little, told him to stand and that he was a good boy, and I swung my leg over.

And he just stood there. Huzzah!  Then I got down after about 30 seconds. And he just stood there looking at me like, "That's it?" I told him he was the best little war pony on the planet and thanked him. End of lesson. It was a good moment.

Next time, we may even move! LOL

Talking with Frank last week, he reminded me that these horses are not for everyone. The Nokota aren't meant to become push-button horses and, therefore, trained as such. Even though I have said, time and again, that I really don't know how to train a horse, Frank has encouraged me from the beginning to do this myself. Why?   

He says it's not about training for a purpose. Do this. Now do that. Because I said so. It's really about building a friendship. Creating a relationship, just like with the important people in our lives, often takes a lot of slow time. That time is filled with struggles, patience, fun, failures, time off, time on, frustrations, and celebrations. That is how I've been trying to think while working with RainyDay. We figure out how to meet each others' needs and try to remain sensitive to them. And I'm sorry (not sorry), anyone who says you can't talk to a horse, has never looked into the soul-filled eyes of a Nokota.

"Soul Full" 

Photo taken by me with my junky little iPhone 5.😊

It's easy to write the words Frank says. It's even easier to read them. But now that I am living them with RainyDay, I truly am grasping them. What probably looks like slow-motion training, is quickly becoming one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. I look into RainyDay's eyes and feel waves of friendship coursing between us. And, mind you, none of it has gone perfectly, but he is so patient with my fumbling, stalling, and whoopsies. Then he says, "It's okay. You can try again."

So I do.