[00:00:00] Welcome back to Katching Up With Katie. We just got back from Kentucky. I am so whipped.

[00:00:06] I'm so tired. Like, we got home Saturday and then straight went into like mini foal watch. And y'all

[00:00:12] will have to stay tuned for more about that. But I have my bestie Dani on the podcast today. I mean,

[00:00:18] is this even a Yeah, it's a podcast. It's a podcast. It's a podcast. Well,

[00:00:22] we're just chatting. Um, and so for a little backstory, because she's a fellow horse girl,

[00:00:27] so we're going to get into horse show stuff, but as a backstory as to like our relationship,

[00:00:32] uh, cuz we've done one of these episodes a long time ago. Um, but when I was 16, I won't say how

[00:00:40] old you were. I would have been 21. When I was 16, she was 21. She was like getting more into

[00:00:47] like university life, adulthood life, and so she was selling her all-around gelding named

[00:00:51] Kalvin aka Zippin On Top and that's who became my youth career show partner. And when I bought him,

[00:01:00] my parents bought him. Uh he came down from Colorado because that's where he had been

[00:01:04] boarded and trained. And I was keeping him at home and I was like having such issues figuring

[00:01:10] out his buttons cuz he was so unique. Unique. we'll call him unique. Um, and so Dani offered

[00:01:17] to help and then my parents were like, "Well, we'll give you a ticket if you'll come, you know,

[00:01:22] hang out for the weekend and just show her how to ride." And so she came all the way from Alberta.

[00:01:27] Yeah. To help me ride Kalvin. And it just clicked. Yeah. Became besties. Um, and ever since then,

[00:01:36] you know, we've had this not only bond over the horses, but we've had we've had really

[00:01:39] cool experiences. And so she lives here now. Yeah. Um, she came to be my maid of honor and met her

[00:01:44] husband while she was here visiting cuz she used to before she lived here, she used to visit for

[00:01:49] like a month at a time. An inappropriate amount of time. Well, and we never planned for it to be no a

[00:01:56] month. It's like you'd come for two weeks. Like let's say it'd be like, oh, come for CMA Fest,

[00:02:01] you know, and then we'll go to the lake the next week and we'll go to the lake and we'll make it a

[00:02:05] two week thing. And then they would come like the day before you'd leave and we'd be panicking. Both

[00:02:09] of us would be so sad and like we'd be calling Brian and being like, "Can you please swap her,

[00:02:16] you know, whatever her flight?" And so her dad would would always oblige us. He was like,

[00:02:21] "I don't care." Um, so that was so fun. And now you live here and unfortunately I feel like we

[00:02:30] the irony of it all. Yeah, we definitely see each other less. But um it's kind of cool cuz it was a

[00:02:37] year and a half ago now. Katie brought me on to help with working with like all of this stuff.

[00:02:42] So I feel like it was I feel like you've been here longer. In October it'll be two years. Okay. Okay.

[00:02:49] Um and so I mean give us a little background on what you do because a lot of people have been

[00:02:53] interested in like you know what goes on behind the scenes because I feel like the team has just

[00:02:58] grown exponentially over the last three years. So give us a little yeah I don't know gist of

[00:03:03] what you do. So when Katie makes her videos she goes through obviously films she edits them all

[00:03:08] herself but then for you know Facebook and TikTok. Those longer formats are okay but not on Snapchat,

[00:03:15] not on YouTube, not on Instagram. So then I go through and I edit every video that needs it down

[00:03:22] to fit the standards. Most of them need it cuz I love to be four minutes long and that's just

[00:03:26] the bane of her existence as of late. Yeah. I'll look at them and I'm like, I hate you so much,

[00:03:30] Katie. I'll look at like a 9 minute video. I'm like, um, and so yeah, I I do that. So,

[00:03:38] everything gets cross-posted by me. Um, and then I also help with the YouTube channel. Um, stallion

[00:03:45] pages. Stallion pages, the merch page. Um, I mean, yeah, you're So, she is wildly uh talented in many

[00:03:56] ways. So, she went to school for neuroscience and then she's also a has a master's in mediation and

[00:04:03] like all these weird things that tie in together. Uh, she and her husband own a trash company. Like

[00:04:08] there's just a whole lot of things. Um, own a jiu-jitsu gym. Yeah, that's like the big one. Um,

[00:04:15] yeah. So, she she's a jiu-jitsu queen and so she also kind of helps like a little bit on the HR

[00:04:22] type of things here as well. So, it's kind of wild to me that that's even needed in a company that I

[00:04:29] created. Like, that's Yeah. wild that like there's that many employees and there's that, you know.

[00:04:33] Yeah. Um, but it's great. We don't see each other as much probably in a fun way, but you know, it's

[00:04:41] very nice having someone that's like in my corner that like I know without a doubt you you have

[00:04:48] like all the intentions of loving the business or loving whatever I whatever I have going on

[00:04:52] like for me. And it's like when you are building something, it's like you have to have those people

[00:04:58] that you like trust wholeheartedly. So like you're that you're that gal. Well, and it's kind of nice

[00:05:04] because I do have other clients. Um, but I I I don't know. I like like working for you because I

[00:05:10] don't know. It's just like I feel like I'm helping build something, which is really nice. That sounds

[00:05:13] so corny. So, in a good way and a bad way, I'm kind of low-maintenance. Like, yeah. When I Okay,

[00:05:22] too low maintenance. Sometimes you wish I'd give some input. Yeah. Like I just before we were

[00:05:27] talking I just gave like a really bad idea but it was a mistaken like double named people named the

[00:05:33] same thing and she's just like okay. I'm like wait hold on no that's a bad idea. You should not have

[00:05:38] just been okay with that. Like there's just so many things going on at once that I have to just

[00:05:45] some stuff just can't can't take too much spot in my can't take too much space in my brain. And so,

[00:05:53] uh, my cousin Aaron while we were gone on this past trip, she's a photographer and she came and

[00:05:57] helped out by taking some pictures while I was gone. And so, I'm super close with my cousins

[00:06:02] and she's been like a sister my whole life. And so, she was hanging out with my mom one of

[00:06:06] the days. And she was like, my mom was asking her, "Well, what's it like over there?" Like,

[00:06:10] "What's it like?" Which it wasn't even a normal day because we weren't here, but there she was

[00:06:14] like, "What's it like working over there?" And she was like, "So, you know, on the episode of

[00:06:19] Friends where Monica goes and wedding shop and she gives everyone whistles and then she just is like,

[00:06:26] 'Go, go, go, you over there. You over there, you over there.' She's like, 'That's kind of like how

[00:06:31] it is.'" And I was like, I hate that that's the chaotic super accurate, but the thing is

[00:06:37] it's like you when you work with animals and this many people, like things are just unpredictable.

[00:06:42] Yeah. Like, you know, I have a brand manager named Aubra, and she is she's the reason everything goes

[00:06:48] around. Seriously, she is the reason everything goes around. She's amazing. And she will text

[00:06:54] me and be like, "Why haven't you posted this yet or or I need this or I need that." And I'm like,

[00:07:00] Charlotte's trying to die at the moment. I'm so sorry. Six horses are actively trying to die right

[00:07:04] now. I'm like, I'm driving to the vet. I can't do that right now. I'm so sorry. Um, so it's like

[00:07:10] there's a lot of different aspects throughout the day that just cause chaos. Um, but yeah, so you

[00:07:16] help kind of manage the chaos a bit and you are also a good insight into like the horse show world

[00:07:23] of it. And so a lot of people had questions, you know, kind of pertaining to this last horse show

[00:07:29] because it was a lot different than anything that I've ever shared, you know, being gone that long,

[00:07:35] showing in, you know, classes that I've never shown in before and it it was interesting. So,

[00:07:40] um I know you had had some questions, you know, so one of the like especially new for you things

[00:07:46] and you were showing three different horses. Yes. So, can you kind of explain what that's like and

[00:07:53] the difficulties around it? And let me just say a lot of people do this all the time. This isn't

[00:07:57] special. Like, it's not special that I It's not not special. It's It's hard. It's hard to it's

[00:08:06] kind of hard to describe because horse trainers do it all the time. You know, they've got these

[00:08:10] horses that they're um they're swapping back and forth between and they have different feel,

[00:08:16] different buttons, different attitude, different everything, right? Well, I I wouldn't say it's

[00:08:21] uncommon for amateurs to like have one or two horses. Like some might have an English horse and

[00:08:26] a Western horse. Some might do the all-around like I used to where it's all on one horse.

[00:08:30] Others might have like a a three-year-old pleasure horse and then their senior pleasure horse. Like I

[00:08:35] don't think it's uncommon necessarily for someone to ride multiple horses. But I was very proud of

[00:08:40] myself. I will say like I I'm usually pretty self-deprecating. I was very proud of myself

[00:08:45] because other than Kennedy, I don't really have access to the other horses to ride all the time

[00:08:51] and like practice and be, you know, really synced up with them. And so I I showed Kennedy in the

[00:08:56] western pleasure. I showed Denver in the western pleasure. And then I for the first time and then

[00:09:01] I showed Hollywood in the western riding and I don't think you could pick three horses that

[00:09:07] were more different from one another and Kennedy being like the only one that like I said like I'd

[00:09:13] gotten to ride at home and you know be a little bit more in sync with. But you haven't shown her

[00:09:17] that much. No, this is my second It is different. It's so different. It's very different. And so

[00:09:22] this was our second show. Um Denver. This is my first time ever showing him and I have ridden him

[00:09:29] like before I showed him. I I've ridden him three times within the year of 2026. Can you

[00:09:36] tell the story of uh Aaron and you conversing about whether you were going to get to show

[00:09:41] him? This show is really long. It was called the Premier. It's at the Kentucky Horse Park. Um this

[00:09:46] show specifically has a lot of like futurity and maturity classes. So, a futurity within AQHA and

[00:09:53] within a lot of breed associations is usually four years and under. It's like um a class that is for

[00:10:00] these younger horses. Uh and you usually win some money. It's usually has money tied to it. It's not

[00:10:07] just a regular AQHA class. And so, it's usually in like a pro division open like uh I guess I should

[00:10:15] say open instead of pro because anyone can show in it, trainers or non-pros. But then in the non-pro,

[00:10:21] only non-pros can show. Yeah. And so they have the futurities and then they have the maturities,

[00:10:26] which is the same thing, but for like five and over. And so Denver being five, um,

[00:10:33] he has not shown in a western pleasure class since last October. Um, after that he swapped to western

[00:10:40] riding for the world show. And then after the world show in November, he was not ridden until

[00:10:45] late March at all. Yeah. Not a single ride from November to late March. And he was breeding,

[00:10:51] right? Yes. And he was breeding. So that's a whole different mental swap. So then he went back into

[00:10:56] work and only went back into thinking like western riding mode, which is a lot more forward. It's a

[00:11:02] lot freer. It's very different than western pleasure. And so at this show, I was like,

[00:11:07] listen, it's been our goal that I show Denver in a western pleasure class. And I see that there's

[00:11:13] a maturity like a weekend to this show into this show. I I would like to show in it. I was like,

[00:11:20] I would really like to show in it. I would really like to just rip the band-aid off if we can. And

[00:11:28] also, I was joking, but not joking. I was like, "Or I could show him the western riding. That's

[00:11:32] fine. I I'll just show him the western riding." Arguably, I think I'd probably do better at it.

[00:11:36] Just testing your luck. You're like, "Or." And cuz his whole thing was he was like, "Listen,

[00:11:41] like there's already 15 horses in that class. It's not that I think Denver is going to be bad

[00:11:45] because he's not bad for me ever." He was like, "But stallions and young stallions specifically

[00:11:50] and like fresh off the breeding train stallions." I mean, he's only been like out of the breeding

[00:11:55] shed for like 60 days. Um, you know, they just can they can be kind of unpredictable and and he

[00:12:02] gave us zero reason to think he would do anything. Yeah. literally at all based on Aaron riding him

[00:12:08] or like me practicing. But you get into a pen of a bunch of horses if like who knows what if a mare

[00:12:14] that's in heat comes in gets right in front of him and and blocks him in and you know you just don't

[00:12:19] know. Yeah. So you have to ride smart while you're in there. You have to make sure you're

[00:12:23] putting him in spaces that are good for him. You have to make sure you're not putting him

[00:12:27] into bad positions. And you know there was just a lot to it that was making Aaron a little nervous.

[00:12:32] I I think but I I think he also believed in Denver and after having a couple of lessons um we were

[00:12:40] walking out to the first lesson and I was like and listen if this is if this is a stretch I said that

[00:12:46] to to Aaron. I was like if this is a stretch and he's like I'm just going to stop you right here.

[00:12:51] There's nothing about this that isn't a stretch. Like this is 100% a stretch. Um we but we're going

[00:12:57] to we're going to figure it out. And so then I had two lessons and honestly the majority of

[00:13:03] the lesson he was like that looks pretty good. Uh looks pretty good. And so I don't think he could

[00:13:08] really tell me no at that point that I couldn't because we had very successful lessons. I think it

[00:13:12] I think if I had gone out there and we were just having issues and not vibing and you know whatever

[00:13:17] I think he would have probably pulled the plug and I would have had to listen to him. Um but you

[00:13:22] know we definitely didn't have like the best go ever in our our show. Like we had this one class,

[00:13:29] it was clean, we didn't break, we had an even pace the majority of the time. Like sometimes it was me

[00:13:35] that kind of got out of rhythm. Yeah. Uh we had a good spot on the rail the whole time. Um you know,

[00:13:41] there was things like we got in there and they called for the extended jog and I was like,

[00:13:47] we didn't practice this. I don't know how fast to go. I don't know. I don't know where, you know,

[00:13:55] I don't want to make him go too fast and then not be able to bring him back down with my feet. I

[00:13:58] don't want you like airing the big eyes. You're like, and then it's like if I if I pushed him,

[00:14:02] I was going to have to pass the person in front of me and like pull him off the rail. And I was like,

[00:14:06] I want to do that. I'm like, I know he does well off the rail, but then I don't know how it's going

[00:14:11] to be getting him back on. And I I like my spot. And so I very much um negated fancy points. Yeah,

[00:14:19] if that makes sense. You were conservative. I was very conservative and Denver like that's where he

[00:14:24] can go win the class is like his extended jog and like like he's so fancy and I just was like no

[00:14:29] nope and and then at one point Aaron's like are you going to use your feet because I was once I

[00:14:37] got in there again it's the difficulty of riding three different horses I had been riding Kennedy

[00:14:44] I'd been riding Hollywood I'd been riding Denver and some of them you like you know I I'd had so

[00:14:50] many so much information put in my brain in like 24 hours. Some of them you like put your feet in

[00:14:56] and then let them settle and you don't use your feet to like come back down from the jog like

[00:15:00] if you want them to like slow down or whatever. Like Kennedy, you don't really use your feet like

[00:15:04] a whole lot at the jog. She has this really cute little like up and down jog and you don't really

[00:15:09] have to work for it that hard and you don't want to push her too much forward. Denver has a very

[00:15:14] cute jog but I was supposed to be using my feet. I got it so backwards. I got in there and I was

[00:15:20] like, I don't remember. Yeah. I don't remember which one I'm supposed to do. I don't know if I'm

[00:15:24] supposed to go in. I don't know if I'm supposed to stay out. And so at one point Aaron's like,

[00:15:28] are you going to use your feet? Use your dang feet. What are you doing? You're like, right. Yes,

[00:15:33] I am in fact going to do that. And so at like one point, he was a little more forward than he

[00:15:40] should have been because I was just like, I guess I'm I'm riding this jog right now. I whatever.

[00:15:45] And we got we brought it back. It was all good. The second way was much better. Yeah. I had a much

[00:15:50] better understanding of him turning around and going the second way. Um so there was things like

[00:15:55] that. And then one time at the lope I was loping him. And I remember hearing him say outside, he

[00:16:00] can lope slow. Let him lope slow. So in turn when I got in there, that meant in my brain, lope as

[00:16:08] slow as you possibly can, which isn't the best for him. He looks better going more forward. But that

[00:16:14] didn't make sense in my brain at that point. You were like, "Last cute. Go slow." I was like like,

[00:16:19] "Yeah." And so I'm loping down the line. He's like, "You're almost trotting. Lope kiss bush."

[00:16:26] And so it was really funny. But then so it's like he's so like from the sidelines. Aaron's so

[00:16:34] serious and sassy, but then you get off and he's like, "That was so good." You know, and um so we

[00:16:40] had we had an awkward little high five at the end. There's video of it and it doesn't look nearly as

[00:16:44] awkward as it felt because he went for one of like Okay, so high five. He went for this and I didn't.

[00:16:50] And so then it was just like a really weird You're like, "Yeah, it's a really weird handhold." Uh

[00:16:56] anyway, so that was riding Denver. So different. I forgot the original question. Um yeah,

[00:17:02] riding riding the three different horses. Um and kind of their feel cuz Denver's not necessarily

[00:17:09] like you're not pushing them the whole time. You just kind of get in there and then you just ride

[00:17:12] his rhythm. Yeah. Like you just keep in rhythm. So like I counted a lot when I was on him and you

[00:17:18] don't want him to lay on your foot because a lot of the times like let's say you're on the right

[00:17:22] lead. So that means their right front leg is extended the most and you're trying to push him

[00:17:26] forward into that like that leg and you're trying to keep his hind end engaged. Well, with Denver,

[00:17:33] he'll he'll start to just lay on your foot if you keep it there. And and then you lose your

[00:17:39] your momentum. You lose your power with that foot. So, you just ask him to you you just kind of put

[00:17:45] it on him when he needs it and you take it off. Whereas with Hollywood, which is my 18-year-old

[00:17:51] western riding gelding, Yeah. Um he was just like there's a couple times in the pattern you can see

[00:17:57] where we like we don't necessarily break, but we like stall out for a half of a stride and

[00:18:02] it's very noticeable. And so like I came out and Jeff Malot who was helping me at the show

[00:18:07] was like you took your leg off, didn't you? And I was like yes for like a half a second and he's

[00:18:12] like yeah you can't do that. And so Denver is very different in the fact that you know you just put

[00:18:19] it on when you need it. You need it the entire time with Hollywood. It's like the opposite.

[00:18:23] And then his jog it's very snaky. It's very low to the ground. There's not a lot of lift to it.

[00:18:29] And so to get over the log clean and to have like a nice cadence, you kind of have to just like use

[00:18:35] your seat and you have to really use your feet the entire time to create this cadence. Uh he's not

[00:18:40] going to do it for you. Like you have to to help him. Yeah. And so that's so different going from

[00:18:45] one where you're pushing and driving the entire time and then get on to one where you're more so

[00:18:50] thinking about just rhythm and staying soft and square and then on Kennedy who's a weirdo. So,

[00:18:57] for instance, Kelby Hutchinson. Yeah. He trained her for like a year. And so, he was watching me on

[00:19:03] her and he was like, "Kennedy, I love that horse. She is the most still to this day one of the most

[00:19:09] talented horses I've ever ridden, but she's a weirdo." And I was like, "I'm figuring that out."

[00:19:15] Um, I'm well aware. Yeah. And so like Stephanie who you know is training here at home and then she

[00:19:22] went to this show absolutely knowing that we were going to try to get tips from Aaron and we were

[00:19:25] going to use this as kind of like a fact-finding mission on Kennedy because we had multiple times

[00:19:30] of showing her and she's just she's interesting because she's so naturally talented. Um but you

[00:19:38] have to really hone in on like her prep. Her prep is really important. Some horses like Hollywood

[00:19:46] who don't want to move and don't want to go faster than they have to and whatever like he doesn't get

[00:19:52] lunged. He doesn't get he doesn't get like a whole lot of prep. Like you take him out and you might

[00:19:57] you know get him off of his shoulder a little bit or you might whatever you might do a little

[00:20:01] schooling ride. That's about it. Kennedy if you don't have her energy level down enough she's just

[00:20:09] like a crackhead and is like I look over there look over there. And she's not malicious and

[00:20:15] she's not meaning to be bad. It's just you have to have her prep. She's mentally high energy. She's

[00:20:19] she's high energy, but um it's like as you get her mentally prepared a little bit more, which doesn't

[00:20:27] always mean just like running her around, like it just, you know, there's some exercises that Aaron

[00:20:32] told us that made so much sense, but pissed me off at the same time because they're so tailored to

[00:20:39] Kennedy that once we did it, I was like, I would have loved to have known that. And these are kind

[00:20:45] of interesting because a quarter horse normally won't do these things. So once Aaron got on her

[00:20:52] cuz at the very beginning of the show he's like she's too high energy. She needs for me to for

[00:20:56] me to accurately fix these buttons. She needs to be knocked down a bit. So we waited until I

[00:21:02] showed the first day which the first day there's a literal picture of me loping down the rail and

[00:21:08] it's from straight on and you can see me. My legs are just completely off of her. Just air because

[00:21:16] she was wildly too energetic the first day that we showed her and I was just trying to go for a clean

[00:21:24] ride and so like I would get her into the lope and she's very naturally talented and like will you

[00:21:30] never have to worry about her having like enough impulsion or enough hock or enough whatever. So,

[00:21:37] she's more of the type of horse that you have to try to soften to the ground. Like, she'll just

[00:21:42] get really punchy to the ground if you don't if you don't let her um soften into it. Like,

[00:21:48] if you're just pushing, she'll just get harder and get like a loftier looking. Yes. Yeah. And so,

[00:21:55] like the first day that I showed her, um it it was very much just ride what you've got because

[00:22:01] we can't fix this in the show pen right now. We've just got to deal with it. And so I was just trying

[00:22:06] to create a rhythm instead of like push her or like affect her gait really that much. I was just

[00:22:14] kind of letting her do what she naturally does and try to keep it an even pace. That's that's

[00:22:19] basically what the first ride was. So after we got through that and figured her out a little bit more

[00:22:24] as the show went on, he hopped on her. And mind you, Aaron Moses is the one who trained Kennedy.

[00:22:32] So, he's the one who won the Congress with her as a 2-year-old. He's the one that had her in

[00:22:37] training the majority of her show career. And, um, he and Kelby are good friends, and so I'm sure

[00:22:42] they do things a little similarly. Well, Kennedy is very unlike Denver in that Denver, like I said,

[00:22:50] you have to keep him off of your foot. Like, he doesn't he wants to lay on it. And so, one of the

[00:22:53] prep things we do with him is like rollbacks, which I'll just get on the fence. Yeah. And so

[00:22:59] like I'll just turn him and lope him off quick and then I'll stop. Turn him and lope him off quick

[00:23:03] and just get him like pushing off of my foot and like like really getting underneath himself with

[00:23:07] his hind end. If you did that with her, it would get her so jazzed up and amped up and like way

[00:23:14] too energetic and it would just frazzle her. That would not be a good thing to do with her. And so

[00:23:20] he knows that. And so he figured that out with her that instead of doing some things that you would

[00:23:24] do on the more dull horses, you have to do things that are just for Kennedy. So I remember I was I

[00:23:32] was riding around on Denver while he was kind of doing his little Kennedy figure out session and

[00:23:38] he comes by. He's like, "Oh yeah, I forgot that I taught her the piaffe because that that works

[00:23:44] for her." And that's why Aaron's a freak in the show pen and that's why he's a freak of nature as

[00:23:50] a trainer is that he doesn't put himself into a box and he listens to the horse and he does what

[00:23:56] the horse needs. Yeah. But in the same breath it's so annoying because that makes so it makes so much

[00:24:03] sense but because we've put ourselves in boxes it's hard to get out right and it's hard to think

[00:24:08] about it. So he's like yeah she she's not like the other horses that you can do this or that with.

[00:24:13] So for her jog because she wants to go really forward but she can have this cute really up

[00:24:19] and down really clean jog. Like in the western pleasure that's probably my biggest grievance

[00:24:23] with western pleasure is people their jog gets trashy like it gets to where it's not a two beat

[00:24:29] and like I hate that it's basically like a fast walk. You know it it looks terrible. And

[00:24:34] so with Aaron I appreciate that his horses jog like he he makes sure they're doing a nice one

[00:24:40] two clean beat. And so with Kennedy, you can get her to achieve that really slowly because she has

[00:24:45] this really natural impulsion and carriage, but to achieve it, he's like, I taught her how to piaffe,

[00:24:53] which we definitely need to insert a video of just to understand what it is. Essentially, a piaffe.

[00:25:00] It's like you're jogging in place, like you're staying in the same spot, but they're doing a one,

[00:25:05] two beat. Yeah. And horse dancing. It looks like they're dancing. So he just stood there and had

[00:25:11] her piaffing and I'm like what the freak? Like who would have thought of that? And then he was

[00:25:16] like oh yeah and then for the lope because again she gets where she like skips off of her hind

[00:25:21] end. It's like she gets lazy and because she's so naturally gifted and she can reach up underneath

[00:25:26] herself with her hind end so easily. She gets lazy and so instead of just being slow and soft

[00:25:31] to the ground, she like boing boing boing like bounces off of her hind end. And so he's like,

[00:25:37] to get her to rock back, I can't do the things that I do with my other horses that are duller.

[00:25:41] I have to to do for Kennedy because she'll get too jazzed up. So he taught her how to do a pirouette,

[00:25:48] which is really rocking her back on her hind end, making her be more up in her shoulder and

[00:25:54] like reach around and and basically keep her butt in the same spot, lope a circle. It's it's wild.

[00:26:00] Again, another video needs to be put in here just so you can understand what it is. And so

[00:26:05] then he's just out in the middle of these western pleasure horses doing this stuff. And I'm like,

[00:26:09] "Okay, Aaron, like because he was he was geeking out. He's a little nerd and he was geeking out and

[00:26:14] he's like, "I taught her how to piaffe. I forgot." And so he um was making her do it. And I and then

[00:26:19] she like looked fantastic. Yeah. And so then the next day for prep, he had another horse that he

[00:26:26] was riding and so he couldn't hop on her the next day when I was getting ready to show in like the

[00:26:30] level one amateur, but he was out there. And so, um, I did the same things myself on her and then

[00:26:36] went and probably had like our best, most clean, most controlled ride ever. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm

[00:26:43] not saying we figured everything out about Kennedy at this show, but big things were discovered,

[00:26:49] though. It's wild how unique every horse is and how if you get too mixed up in having everything

[00:26:57] prepped the same, you you're just putting yourself into a box. Yeah. And I think that's like really

[00:27:03] what stands out about these highly skilled trainers is they can really read the horse

[00:27:06] and figure out what they need. And so I was very grateful that we had that at our disposal at the

[00:27:11] show so that we could figure Kennedy out. Yeah. And it's really hard as a rider to do what you did

[00:27:16] hopping on like think about like if you're driving a car and then if you've ever driven a right-hand

[00:27:21] drive car like in England, Australia or whatever, that's kind of what it feels like. It's like you

[00:27:25] jump out of a regular car, get in that one, try and drive and then you drive a stick. Yeah. Well,

[00:27:29] no. So, it's like, and then you get into a third car and when you turn the wheel left,

[00:27:33] the car goes right. And when you turn it right, it goes left. And your brake is now your gas and

[00:27:36] your gas is now your brake. Like, that's literally how it is on some horses. Like, they're literally

[00:27:40] cued so differently, like opposite, the exact opposite where legs on means slow down, legs off

[00:27:48] means speed up. Then you have ones that are the opposite. So, it's really impressive that you're

[00:27:51] able to go on three, especially ones that you with two that like you don't get to ride all the time.

[00:27:57] I again I'm usually pretty self-deprecating and I I'm very proud of myself for that and that I was

[00:28:03] able to do it successfully. So like Hollywood and I won the um level one amateur circuit

[00:28:10] champion in the western riding. We had some pretty significant bobbles in our amateur goes and so we

[00:28:17] were like eighth and tenth and like we were but out of like 20 something horses so it was still

[00:28:22] still good. Still good. And then um Kennedy, we were circuit champions in the level one amateur

[00:28:27] western pleasure and the level two amateur western pleasure. Um and then we were still placing pretty

[00:28:33] nicely in the level three and I was I was very proud of that. So and then Denver, you know,

[00:28:38] in the maturity that I showed him in uh had 16 horses and they were all very very nice horses.

[00:28:45] It was not a cheap class to enter. Where people weren't entering it just willy-nilly, you know,

[00:28:49] they were paying good money to put their horses in there thinking that, you know,

[00:28:52] they were competing and it uh it was really cool to get third. Yeah. Out of out of that

[00:28:58] bunch of horses. So, I'm I'm kind of laughing because Katie is always very self-deprecating,

[00:29:04] but then I have to laugh at the contrast of like uh me and Rebecca being your best friends because

[00:29:09] we're both so different and how I'm like, "Your hype, man." I'm like, "Yeah, that's so amazing.

[00:29:13] You did all these things. You're doing so good." Rebecca's like, "Ah, it's okay." No,

[00:29:16] no, I'm kidding. In private, she likes to make fun of you, though. She does. She does make fun

[00:29:20] of me and she humbles me. But then in private, like she's she's you're both absolutely like my

[00:29:24] cheerleaders and um that's great to have, but but also I appreciate the the humbling. So Rebecca's

[00:29:34] kids train at uh the jiu-jitsu gym I own, and so her and I get to hang out once a week. And yeah,

[00:29:39] when you were gone, we were talking about like how well you did, and Yeah. So, she's she's

[00:29:44] always like your cheerleader behind your back, but then I do laugh because she'll be like, "Ah,

[00:29:48] it's all right, Katie. You did all right." Your face. Um, it and but then she'll be like, she'll

[00:29:55] call me a bad word. And then she'll be like, "You didn't send me your video. I want to watch your

[00:29:58] video and be proud of you." No, I love it. But yeah, it it was a really good show. Sometimes you

[00:30:05] gotta go to those long ones where you just show a million times and it's you're so exhausted by the

[00:30:11] end of it, but then you come out like like had it just been a weekend show and the only I and I only

[00:30:19] had the first half, I would not have experienced the like aha moments. Yeah. with Kennedy that

[00:30:24] we ended up having, which was very important in our journey because I do really want to show her

[00:30:30] um like our plans are to show her at like the NSBA World and the Congress and and so that's so

[00:30:34] exciting. Yeah. Uh I'm I'm really pumped. And so we are going to try to do the western riding with

[00:30:40] her as well. I don't know if that'll be achieved this year or not, but um that's it's in the plans.

[00:30:46] So, how cool would how cool would it be if next year I'm showing Kennedy and Denver in the western

[00:30:54] riding? Oh my god, how cool would that be? That'd be wild. I've always looked at people that will

[00:30:59] take multiple horses. So, western riding is like one of the classes where you could take multiple

[00:31:02] horses in. And uh I'm always like, man, that must be so hard, but also such a flex. Like, well,

[00:31:10] but then I'm like, here's my stallion and his mother. Like I think it's so badass. Oh no. That's

[00:31:19] gonna be so cool. And and I think that just speaks to like I mean breeding is just so important and

[00:31:25] like the longevity and the mind and you know we're sitting here talking about Kennedy being like

[00:31:30] we're like oh she's so weird but she's phenomenal. Like like it's it's because of her quirks and

[00:31:38] because of like her mindset that she is so yeah talented and freaky. Um, you just have to, again,

[00:31:45] I think people just get too in a box. Yeah. You know, when thinking about training and and showing

[00:31:50] and things like that. So, it was a lot lots of lots of mind-opening experiences over the last

[00:31:55] little bit. So, another thing with your showing, so one like you haven't shown in a long time, so

[00:32:02] this is like your first time kind of really coming back to showing. Yeah. And then something else

[00:32:06] like for people to understand, Katie also mostly comes from an English riding background because

[00:32:10] that's that's my background as well. So this is also like as someone who's shown and shown at a

[00:32:18] high level in the English, but I've never shown at a very high level in the western like other

[00:32:21] than horsemanship. I can't like it's I'm I fully respect what you're doing because I'm like if I

[00:32:28] got on a pleasure horse, I don't care how good that pleasure horse is, I'm not going to do well.

[00:32:34] That's not a true statement. I've I've done some nice pleasure horses and it didn't go super well.

[00:32:39] You would figure it out. You would figure it out. And what people don't understand is is that okay,

[00:32:44] so I want to say this carefully, pleasure horses to have them at the utmost like like to to show

[00:32:55] off their talent at 100%. It's very hard. Yes. But I think pleasure horses offer an entry level that

[00:33:03] people don't understand that they do because so like everyone, you know, Taylor Sheridan brought

[00:33:09] reining horses to like a lot of people's eyes, right, through like Yellowstone. Yeah. What a

[00:33:15] lot of people don't understand is like they might hate on western pleasure but starting in western

[00:33:20] pleasure and understanding the fundamentals of a horse because you have to isolate their front end.

[00:33:24] You have to have to isolate their hind end but you're going at a slow speed and you're probably

[00:33:27] on a safer horse than pretty much any other discipline. Yeah, it I truly believe after growing

[00:33:35] up in the all-around and the western pleasure and the hunter under saddle, I truly believe starting

[00:33:41] in that I mean I have I've gone and gotten on a a reiner. I've gone and gotten on like I I truly

[00:33:48] feel like I could get on just about anything and understand the fundamentals, the mechanics. Yeah.

[00:33:54] And the mechanics. And so I I think a lot of people don't realize is that you might not be

[00:34:01] able to go do that sliding stop and you might feel like, "Oh, I can't do horses." You might

[00:34:06] not you might not be able to understand it to do it at like the world show right at the beginning,

[00:34:10] but I I feel like anybody could start in the western pleasure, which I think is a beautiful

[00:34:14] thing. Yeah. I I'm not taking away the difficulty of the high-level riders in the western pleasure,

[00:34:19] but the entry level but the entry level I feel like is is really accommodating to just about

[00:34:25] anybody. That's such a good point. And and I wish more people knew that. And and it really

[00:34:29] does give you the ability to learn so much about about your seat, about using your feet, about

[00:34:36] um again just the mechanics. And um I I would really encourage those that feel like they're

[00:34:42] in a box and can't go jump Grand Prix jumps or they can't go do a sliding stop on a reiner or

[00:34:49] they can't handle the jerking motion of cutting or they you know whatever give it a shot. Give,

[00:34:56] you know, those that hate on it haven't gotten on one that cracks around like Kennedy or cracks

[00:35:01] around like Denver and it's exhilarating. It's slow. I understand. I don't know how to explain

[00:35:08] it to you. It's exhilarating. It's amazing. That's such a good point about it being a good

[00:35:14] entry level. Um because I've never thought of it that way because I always think about it at

[00:35:18] the highest level and I'm like, "Oh my god, that's so unachievable." But no. Yeah. Like the baseline

[00:35:23] is Yeah. Like I mean I used to take Kalvin in there before he was even a did western. Yeah. Um,

[00:35:29] we would move very quickly around the front, but I mean, we were able to do it and like we would

[00:35:34] we'd place like we'd get like, you know, seventh or eighth or something like a regular show. I was

[00:35:39] looking at my points because I'm now level one in everything because I've been out for 10 years.

[00:35:45] Yeah. And so I was checking out how many points I have and everything. Um, and it was like 200 and

[00:35:52] something equitation points and then uh a whopping 30 western pleasure points. A whole 30 from like

[00:35:59] a decade of showing. So um okay. So a question I have because uh it's been a long time since I've

[00:36:07] shown. It's been I'm bad at math. I'm not even going to try it. Um but it's been a minute. So

[00:36:14] when I was showing your options were like novice youth, youth, novice amateur, amateur and then the

[00:36:22] opens. So so they've leveled it out now. Yeah. Um and that's been around for probably a decade and

[00:36:28] I still don't understand everything about it. Um so like within the maturity and futurity classes

[00:36:34] it's just non-pro and open. Yeah. So, open classes mean it's usually trainers and you if you get your

[00:36:44] pro card with AQHA, it means that you are being hired by people. You're being paid by people to

[00:36:50] train and to do things with horses, right? And so, you cannot show in the non-pro events. You

[00:36:56] cannot show in the amateur events. But in the open classes, it's open to everybody. So, if you're a

[00:37:02] non-pro and you want to ride your own horse in an open class, have at it. You're welcome to do it.

[00:37:07] But in the non-pro classes, it's strictly amateurs and youths that are not professionals. So then

[00:37:14] within the AQHA classes, so where it's youth and amateur, level one, so there's no more novice. Oh,

[00:37:23] no more novice. It's a level one, level two, level three. So level So level one,

[00:37:29] same thing with green. Green is now just level one. Okay. So level one is I believe 25 and under

[00:37:37] points in that class and you're a level one. So it's like ultra novice basically. If I was going

[00:37:43] to like it's just novice. It's the same thing as novice was pointing out was what 50 points. No,

[00:37:48] it's 25 before like old school. Okay. Okay. So I I still probably don't know exactly on the point

[00:37:54] system for all this, but I can give you like the gist of it. To level one. Um, and at the big show,

[00:38:01] it's still it it's still steep at the big shows. Um, especially now that they've done it where you

[00:38:05] can go back to being novice. There's a lot of lot of people that were really good in the youth come

[00:38:10] back as an amateur and and whip butt. Um, so level one is like your entry level and they do have walk

[00:38:18] trot classes now too, which I think is great. I think that's really good. That that's uh the entry

[00:38:23] level and then they usually run it concurrently. So, the only place that they're really going to

[00:38:29] split it up is at like the world show. Okay. Um, but for the amateur class, the regular amateur,

[00:38:36] they'll have it level two and level three. Okay. Um, same thing in youth. So, level two,

[00:38:41] it's it's the same thing. You point out and then once you get a certain amount of points,

[00:38:45] you can only be in a level three. Yeah. Um, so right now I whenever I go into the amateur,

[00:38:50] I enter in as a level two. So, and then how many points is it to go from level two to level

[00:38:55] three? I don't know the answer to that. Okay. But yeah, it's it's a little confusing. No,

[00:39:00] I actually kind of like that because that was a big issue was like a lot of people um you know,

[00:39:06] they it felt like there wasn't it felt like you went from novice big jump from novice to big dogs

[00:39:11] and it felt like yeah there there was a little bit of a jump scare. Um at the world show they

[00:39:17] do have like level two and so it's not a big globe but you still get a trophy and it's still its own

[00:39:22] thing. So, I do plan on if I take Kennedy showing the level two western pleasure and I'll I'll show

[00:39:28] Hollywood in the level two and level three western riding and Yeah, that's awesome. I like that.

[00:39:34] That's a good change that they did. Yeah. So, I'm I'm really excited about it. Um being level one,

[00:39:40] you know, back in the day I used to be like they shouldn't let people go back to level one and you

[00:39:45] know, whatever. I was like that that's not fair. Being out for a decade. I'm level one. Yeah. Like

[00:39:52] I promise. And I've been out longer than you. Like it's probably been 15 years. I promise. I'm level

[00:39:57] one. So the only thing is you never won the world. No, I got second. I was going to say I think if

[00:40:05] you won the world, you can't ever go back. But you were second. Yeah. Second and third. So yeah.

[00:40:14] Yeah. You you're you can go back then, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you you had and then that

[00:40:20] was the thing I skirted by the skin of my teeth on being level one again because I had superiors

[00:40:27] in equitation, horsemanship, showmanship. And what's a superior? 50 points or over. And so

[00:40:37] I think the rules are like you have to have not gotten a superior within the last 10 years. Oh,

[00:40:42] interesting. Yeah. And so my last year showing was 2016 and I didn't show a lot. Mhm. And so

[00:40:53] even though I went and showed and like went and like showed at the Congress and was like third at

[00:40:57] the Congress, I didn't show a lot. So I didn't get a lot of points. Yeah. That's kind of cool, man. I

[00:41:01] would go back to I'd be a level one in everything. Yeah. That's so crazy. I I have babies. I have I

[00:41:08] know I have horses. Katie's been trying to get me to go back to showing. I mean, I still have my I

[00:41:13] just want you and Rebecca to come to shows with me. One I'll uh I'll jump on an English horse. I

[00:41:19] think I'd be too scared to get I know. I don't have any like yet, but I will. Yeah. I I would

[00:41:26] I would do a hunt seat class because there's some that like Okay, for instance, Weezy and Penelopey,

[00:41:31] I don't want to sell them. They're They are going to be broodmares in my broodmare band one day.

[00:41:35] Yeah. So, if I have too many babies coming up that we're doing in futurities and maturities

[00:41:40] or or I can't decide which one I want to show as my amateur horse, I would like to like lease the

[00:41:44] other one out, you know, and it's like because they I don't want to end their career too early,

[00:41:47] but it's like I can't show all these horses at once. And so, it would be cool if I could lease

[00:41:53] them to people that I love. Anyway, something I love that Katie does like in all aspects of her

[00:42:01] life and um it's like ill-advised for most people is she's just like I'm going to employ my close

[00:42:09] friends and I'm going to like make them come and do all these activities with me which has I love

[00:42:15] but I laugh at cuz I'm like no one else does this. You're like let's just all do this thing together.

[00:42:22] It probably is ill-advised by most people but it's all right. Anyway, so we're about to eat

[00:42:27] lunch and we don't really honestly, like I said, get time to hang out and and chill that much. So,

[00:42:33] we're going to go chat and have lunch together. I think I mean, I don't know if this is going to

[00:42:38] make sense to everybody after I just realized how much I rambled, but if you like the nerding out

[00:42:44] about the horse stuff and deep diving into all the differences, and I hope I I could translate

[00:42:50] it good enough. But if you have more questions, I would love to have Dani on more because I mean

[00:42:56] honestly, it's just fun to chat and I think we could bring in a new little uh new little

[00:43:01] segment. Yeah. So, if you have more questions or more things you want to hear about the horse show

[00:43:07] side of things or or whatever, please leave it in the comments. Um we have so much going on over

[00:43:12] the next couple weeks. I don't know that we'll have a Katching Up With Katie every single week,

[00:43:15] but for the next episode, let us know what you want to hear about and we'll see you then.