Hutchinson ? Carlos didn’t know what a harness was. He didn’t even know how to lead.

And Willis Nisly had never seen anything like the zeedonk – deep gray in color with black stripes from head to hoof.

But still, the soft-spoken man was determined.

“Listen now – pay attention,” he whispered in Carlos’ ear as he commanded the zebra/donkey cross to follow him around his Reno County farm.

At first, Carlos was stubborn. He wouldn’t budge when Nisly pulled on the lead rope.

A few weeks later, the 4-year-old zeedonk is beginning to pay attention to Nisly’s tender words of encouragement.

“You have to teach them to respect and respond,” said Nisly as he stood next to a pen of animals he is training – his straw hat shading the day’s hot sun from his eyes.

At 69, Nisly could be considered a throwback to an older way of training. His philosophy is simple: “To teach an animal, you must first get to know why an animal does what it does.”

Willis Nisly tugs on the lead rope of a zeedonk, Carlos, at his rural Hutchinson home. At first, Carlos was stubborn. He wouldn't budge when Nisly pulled on the lead rope. A few weeks later, the 4-year-old zebra/donkey crossbreed is beginning to pay attention to Nisly's tender words of encouragement.

This is what he has been trying to do for all these years.

After finishing up work at his day job at an auto-body shop, Nisly gives riding lessons and trains horses and other animals for riding, driving and leading. He has never advertised but always seemed to have a steady stream of business from area residents.

Most of the animals he trains haven’t seen a saddle, or a halter for that matter. But he rarely gets bucked off.

“I’m not talented at riding a bucking horse,” he said, adding he would rather avoid it. Instead, “I teach them it’s not appropriate to buck.”

And he does so in his quiet, gentle way.

Nisly’s way with horses grew from childhood. His first memories of riding horses was when he was about 6 years old – hitching one to a wooden sled to haul barrels of water to the farm.

At 16 or 17, his father gave him a colt to break.

But it wasn’t until he moved to a small farm southwest of Hutchinson about 35 years ago that Nisly took up his passion again. He began reading about training methods, raising his own horses.

Much of what Nisly follows is called “Beery’s Method” – developed by a famous horse trainer of the late 1800s who strove for control and obedience in horses.

Nisly has implemented the practice with his Arabian stallion, Gazmar, who follows Nisly’s commands by voice – not by halter.

“His disposition probably sold more service fees than anything else,” Nisly said, adding that Gazmar is so well trained that the horse doesn’t even need the halter while servicing mares.

But even at his age, Nisly doesn’t mind trying something new.

A white miniature mule on the farm will be trained to pull a cart. And in the past, he has halter-broke camels and even trained them to cush – or simply to lie on their knees.

Then there is Carlos.

“This is the first,” he said of training a zeedonk. But there aren’t many like Carlos. Zeedonks are rare, and even more so in Kansas.

It’s not too difficult, he said. He is learning Carlos’ character, which is similar to a mule – all the while giving Carlos a bit of gentle persuasion.

“He just has a way with horses,” said Shirley Luther, Great Bend, who owns Carlos and many of the camels and horses Nisly has trained. “He’s kind of like a psychiatrist. He understands them and knows them and is sensitive to them. It is just a natural ability he has.”

Nisly, however, is humble.

“I’m not known in the professional world,” he said. “I am a common, down-to-earth person.”