{"id":5419,"date":"2020-02-26T16:10:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/?p=5419"},"modified":"2020-03-30T21:35:24","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T19:35:24","slug":"catching-a-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/en\/2020\/02\/26\/catching-a-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching a Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by\u00a0Wendy Corniquet<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe children don\u2019t even have a\ntree to climb\u201d, said their mother, \u201cwe must move from the city to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in 1969, we moved from the\nvillage of Scotia, NY, across the Mohawk River from Schenectady to an old farm\nin Ballston Spa.  This farm had many\napple trees and a small creek that flowed through it.  The farmer opposite us, across the street was\ntending his vegetable stand and carefully observed what we were doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nfarm house and the vegetable stand on the right from which Mr. W. observed the\nactivity of the newly arrived city folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our four children loved the\nland.  With our dog they would wander in\nthe forest, climb the apple trees, and go splashing in the shallow creek.  The television remained off that whole summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a bright summer day two loose\nhorses ran across the street into the apple orchard behind our house.  I asked my friend, the farmer with the\nvegetable stand, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"REEL14-082\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr. W., do you know who owns\nthese horses and why they might be here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know to whom they belong\u201d, he\nreplied, \u201cthey escaped and no one has been able to catch them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to try catching\nthem,\u201d I said with some confidence.  He\nlooked at me and could hardly suppress his urge to laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou, who grew up in a city, want\nto catch these horses?\u201d he chuckled, \u201cbesides that you are an engineer!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, certainly,\u201d I answered him\nand returned to my family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey kids,\u201d I said, \u201chop into our\nVolkswagen Microbus, we are going to catch some horses.\u201d  Our four children were immediately ready for\nthis adventure.  The VW rumbled out among\nthe apple trees, but the animals had not gone very far.  We stopped within hearing distance from them\nand I got out of the vehicle.  \u201cPay\nattention and stay quiet in the car while I try catching the horses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nactual VW with which we chased the horses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, with outstretched arms\nand high pitched steady whistling, I approached one of the two horses.  It pricked up its ears and stood perfectly\nstill – just as Nonni had described in his books \u201cSonnentage\u201d, \u201cAuf Skipalon\u201d,\nand \u201cEin Ritt durch Island\u201d.  The animal\nluckily still had its reins attached, and I quickly grabbed a hold of\nthem.  I had caught the first horse in my\nlife.  The other horse, however, ran\naway.  The one I captured quietly\nfollowed me to our house where I tied it to a pole and provided it with\nwater.  I returned to the VW and drove\nthe kids back to the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"REEL9-013\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan we keep the horse?\u201d, they\nbegged, \u201cyou caught it all by yourself on our own land!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, that is not possible.  The animal belongs to some one and we must\nreturn it,\u201d I explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I crossed the street to my\nfarmer friend who had seen all of this and stood there completely baffled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCould you please call the owner\nof this horse and tell him that I captured one of his animals?\u201d  Having just moved to this farm, we had no\ntelephone yet, but we had ordered one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I shall do that\u201d, he said,\nwhile looking at me as if I were a magician. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd where do you think the\nsecond horse went?\u201d, I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost probably it returned to its\nhome because you caught its companion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I returned home.  My friend, Mr. W., was scratching his head,\nlikely thinking \u201cHow on earth did accomplish this?  He is a city boy and an engineer with book\nlearning only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not tell him that I learned\nhorse catching from Nonni.  In America\nthe Nonni books are completely unknown and most of them are unavailable in\nEnglish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little later the owner picked\nup his horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a true story from the\nyear 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many thanks, Nonni.  Happy 160th<\/sup> birthday! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wendell Neugebauer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov. 16, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the great Nonni still contributes to the recovery of runaway horses after his death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"series":[],"speaker":[],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/white-horse-1136093_1920.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/podcast-img-scaled.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.hestasaga.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/hestasaga","embedCode":"

Catching a Horse<\/a><\/blockquote>