Horse Trainer

He has literally handed over the reins to the next generation. 

TEENAGE INCIDENT CHANGES HIS LIFE PATH

A high school dropout, Enos Mafokate (EM) found a job delivering milk for a dairy farm. At one stop, he said “hello” to a young girl, meaning nothing other than being friendly. However, the girl’s father happened to be around the corner, heard EM say something to his daughter and immediately intervened, full-force punching EM in the face. “His one hand was as big as two of mine,” EM recalls.

While the girl sobbed and told her father that the man had only said hello, one of EM’s bright blue eyes swelled shut. So, her father apologized and loaded EM into his pickup truck, taking him to a nearby medical clinic. EM didn’t know who was supposed to pay the clinic’s bill and he had no money in his pockets so before any treatment, he asked to visit the men’s room but snuck out the back door and never returned to his milk delivery job. 

The swelling eventually subsided, and EM’s eyesight was not impaired.

“If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have found my real career,” says EM. 

EARLY ADULT JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

EM’s next gig was caring for horses at a local stable, a comfortable working situation since EM had often rode his family’s donkey to herd cattle on a farm. He also occasionally traded rides with a neighbor boy, whose family let him ride a pony. 

Soon, EM learned to care for horses as a ‘stable boy’ – permitted to ride them at full speed as part of training the horses but never to compete himself.  Eventually, EM rode horses with such expertise that he became one of the first Black professional horse show jumpers, which included major victories on several continents including South Africa and the United Kingdom. 

SMALL NOTICED SUCCESS MAY LEAD TO SUCCESS ON A BIGGER STAGE

EM’s early success riding show horse jumpers drew the attention of a show jumping champion from England, who saw EM win a few victories and invited him to compete internationally. 

Riding was a ‘lily-white’ sport in England but when EM’s name was called in competition, tens of thousands of mostly White fans roared in applause. A British rider arranged for him to have dinner with the royal family (!). 

“I’m in another life,“ EM remembers thinking. “The world is another thing.”

ZIG-ZAGGING ALONG THE SAME CAREER PATH

When EM’s body told him it was time to retire from riding jumping horses, he worked a series of jobs caring for rescue horses while he and his wife raised their seven children. In his free time, he taught riding in whatever patches of open space he could find locally. One was beside a garbage dump. 

All the while, EM nursed a dream of opening a stable of his own. Eventually his town’s government, proud of their native son’s international accomplishments as a horse jumping rider, deeded a parcel of soggy grassland for his use as a horse trainer. 

With help from friends and parents of children EM had taught about horseback riding, EM drained the ground and brought misfit rescue horses to stay. That same group of men helped erect a few basic stables to house the horses. 

Thus, was born a horse riding school. Today the school has dozens of students from both local and distant areas, who learn not only how to ride but also to groom, feed, wash and tack the horses as well. And they all take turns ‘mucking the stalls’ (cleaning up after the horses).

CAREER SATISFACTION

EM wants his students to develop lasting relationships with the horses in their care and to see them as their teammates and friends. As one student explains about EM’s patient teaching manner, “He says if you fall off the horse, it’s not your fault – or the horse’s. It’s just a miscommunication.” 

Another student joyfully recounted what she loved about what she had just learned, “Jumping is exciting – when you’re in the air you feel like you’re somewhere else, It’s a feeling you can’t explain. People who don’t ride horses don’t understand.”

EM says this is what he has always wanted – for riding to fling the world open wide for his students. “I’ve had this thing in my blood since I was a child,” he says. “My purpose is to help children and to leave something for them.”

___________________________________________________________

This career story was based on an article published by The Smithsonian magazine, published within its July / August 2024 edition without attribution to any author.