Rare Nokota Horses Have Made Their Way to Missouri

Horses have always found their way into the hearts of many. Some ranchers call it a sickness; others refer to the statuesque creatures as their greatest love. Jim Smith, 60, of Festus, Missouri, said that he grew up riding horses on his family farm and dreamed of owning a horse ranch one day. Now that he is a retired construction laborer he owns a ranch 40 miles south of St. Louis, Missouri, where he and his brother-in-law, Jim Faries, raise their breed of choice. The two men have been accumulating a wild and rare horse breed named the Nokota. The Nokotas are from southwestern North Dakota, an area known as the Badlands. 

Brothers Leo and Frank Kuntz of Linton, North Dakota, are credited with saving the breed from extinction. This breed ran wild for hundreds of years until the 1940’s when the Badlands were partially enclosed to become the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Many of the Nokota were inadvertently enclosed in the boundary fence. The Kuntzes bought a few of these horses in a 1978 park service round up which was an attempt to rid the park of the wild horses. They immediately recognized that these horses were a distinctive breed. The Kuntzes were cross-country horse racers and found the horses’ great endurance and speed suited them for the Great American Horse Race circuit. This race was featured in the movie “Hidalgo.” 

Smith said he learned of the breed when he and his son visited Alaska and saw a reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn that included Sitting Bull’s horse, a Nokota. So three years ago he bought his first Nokota. 

“They gentle down really easily and quick,” Smith said. “They are really intelligent and are good riding horses and have such a good disposition.” 

Smith explained that he would have never guessed that the breed would be so sociable because “they were wild as a deer when we got them.” 

“I am at my ranch nearly every day and when they see you coming they will swarm you because they want you to pet them,” he said.