Journey and Innovation in the Heart of Kentucky

Harness Up with Haste dives into the journey of returning home, bridging the gap between personal and equine experiences. This episode focuses on the importance of training, community engagement, reflections on horsemanship, and the new adventures ahead for Dwayne Noel. 

• Dewayne shares his journey back to Kentucky and its significance 
• Challenges faced as a horseman in Wyoming 
• Training techniques for developing a dependable draft horse 
• Emotional connections between horses and their handlers 
• Insights on the importance of clinics for building horsemanship skills 
• Introduction of Dewayne’s coffee venture reflecting shared values 
• Encouragement for listeners to pursue their interest in draft horses

Chapters

• 0:12 Kentucky Life With Draft Horses
• 7:30 Draft Horse Clinic With Guest Speaker
• 21:06 Juniper Mountain Coffee and Merchandise
• 27:38 Teaching and Learning With Horses
• 31:12 International Connections Through Horses
• 37:20 Developing Personal Horsemanship Without Limitations
• 43:35 Reviving the Art of Packing Mules

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules, where we talk all things related to these magnificent animals, from their history and uses to training and care. We cover it all. Join us as we chat with experts and enthusiasts in the field, share stories and tips and explore the world of draft horses and mules. Whether you're a seasoned owner or just curious about these gentle giants, this podcast is for you. So harness up and join Haste Draft Horses and Mules for some lively discussions about these God-given creatures.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Howdy everybody. Stephen Haste here back with Harness Up Podcast with Haste, draft, horses and Mules. Hope everybody's doing good, having a good January. You may see a familiar face here if you've watched the podcast or been on it a while Mr Dwayne Noel. How are you, dwayne? I'm well, sir. Thank you, good to see you, buddy, glad you're here. Good to be here. Dwayne's a good friend now we met Y'all may have watched out in Wyoming in Now a lot of people are wondering where Dwayne went, so Dwayne may want to tell them what he's done now. I disappeared, disappeared out of Wyoming.

Speaker 3: 1:27

You've got to burn the stump and sift the ashes if you want to find me. That's right. No, we've moved back to Kentucky and I mentioned it on one of the videos but not everybody sees all the videos why we moved back from Wyoming to Kentucky. We loved Wyoming. Wyoming's beautiful, a lot of space, had a lot going for it. It was just too expensive. We were up in Sheridan and we of course the school wanting to do the school, wanting to grow the school. It takes land when you got a herd of horses that big and we were having to rent and lease everything and we were trying to buy something and just the price of real estate was too rich, we just couldn't do it. And then my mom's back here in Kentucky and we just wanted to get back closer to her and the family. We've got kids here in Kentuckyentucky and dana was missing the kids and and, uh, there was just a lot of reasons but mostly, mostly, it was just uh.

Speaker 3: 2:32

Wyoming was a, was a pretty thought and it was a pretty place, but you can't, uh, you can't, eat scenery. It fits your lifestyle. For a while it did and you know it still would. It was just right. Now northern wyoming is um, it's not an affordable place. If you go out to work a job and get paid a salary and they put you up on a ranch, that's a different story. But to go out and try to start a business and and it just it wasn't. So we had to step back and restructure and start over.

Speaker 2: 3:04

I'll never forget pulling into that place out there, though yeah, I still got that picture in my mind. Yeah, where you lived out there. Oh, it's beautiful, unreal yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:13

I still have a picture in my mind of when I paid over a year of rent for that place. The house, beautiful house. You go ahead then.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Yeah, pulling in there. Yeah, that house was gorgeous. Yeah, the land, the mountains. It just really fit what you was doing, right, but sometimes fitting what you're doing ain't financially.

Speaker 3: 3:34

Well, sometimes fitting on paper isn't fitting in reality that's right.

Speaker 2: 3:41

I didn't really know before I went out there that you was from Kentucky. Normally it's where you was born.

Speaker 3: 3:46

Seven generations. I was a seventh generation on my dad's side and I don't know exactly how many, but probably seven or eight generations on my mom's side, my mom and dad were born and raised in neighboring counties here. You happier here. You think, yeah, I'm more at peace here. It's like I'm back in my own culture, yeah and uh. So yeah, we're, we're doing really well.

Speaker 3: 4:13

It's gonna be good, yeah, and maybe eventually get training some horses down here well, I bought one this week from I don't know where you bought, I don't know. I bought a two-year-old from Steven this week. He'd just been started. He's a draft cross, little draft Spanish breed of some sort, cross Gentle, nice gentle little horse, kind of that shorter. He's going to be that shorter stockier type horse that I prefer.

Speaker 2: 4:39

I loved him. When I seen him. Yeah, I didn't think you'd buy him, though that shocked me more than anything. Yeah, you walked in there and looked at him and you're like I think I'll take that horse.

Speaker 3: 4:48

Yeah, most of my most successful horse deals have been like that. It's just been I see a horse and I'm like there's something about that horse I like.

Speaker 2: 4:57

You've got a plan for him, though.

Speaker 3: 4:59

I'm going to spend the summer turning them into just an excellent Dwayne-type, dwayne-approved trail horse. All around, all-around trail horse. Everything Just bomb-proof.

Speaker 2: 5:12

You've got some hills and hollers to ride in now instead of that prairie. That's right. So you'll have to get used to them and hollers and gullies and rivers.

Speaker 3: 5:19

I'll tell you what Kentucky has, one thing that the part of Wyoming we were in didn't have, and that's trees. Mom and I both missed the trees a lot. I love riding on trails through the woods and the trees and stuff, but yeah, so plan on using him this summer on videos and make videos, training videos, bringing him along so folks can see what it takes to turn a horse like that into the kind of horse that, in my opinion, is the perfect trail horse. I'm excited to see how it turns out. If he turns out good, then we'll sell him this fall or next spring or something.

Speaker 2: 5:59

Oh, he'll turn out good.

Speaker 3: 6:00

Yeah, he's going to be good. Well, I'm afraid he'll turn out too good and I won't want to let him go.

Speaker 2: 6:09

Or your wife won't let.

Speaker 3: 6:10

My wife won't let him go. She loves her horses. Yeah, you can tell. Yeah, I asked her when we got ready to leave the house. I'm like what's your plan today?

Speaker 3: 6:14

she said stand out in the pasture and brush horses hey, nothing wrong with that, yeah, we brought them down from from his place where they'd been for a little while until we got down and got the pasture fixed and they come in, and they were all muddy and cockle burrs and from you know, being out there in the in the woods and stuff, and she was like, nope, I got to brush horses today.

Speaker 2: 6:38

So she'll clean them up.

Speaker 3: 6:39

Yeah, she'll clean them up.

Speaker 2: 6:40

Yeah, that's good man, that's good. You got a nice herd though.

Speaker 3: 6:46

I love that gorilla.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Oh yeah, mouse, he's, he's, uh, he's our top chef, when he came off that trailer I was like that's a horse so that's another horse when I just see him immediately.

Speaker 3: 6:56

We had our first year of school in tennessee. We had a, a family of three come out from te Okay and they brought four horses and they brought him as a spare for the school in case one of their horses went lame or something happened. And so I'm standing there unloading the horses off the trailer and when they backed him out I said to myself self I bet that horse don't leave this farm. And when he come out of the trailer I'm like I'm going to buy that horse before they leave. And I did. You bought that horse, don't leave this farm. And when he come out of the trailer I'm like I'm going to buy that horse before they leave. And I did. You bought that horse, I bought that horse. That horse is one of those horses that I can put a two-year-old grandbaby on that horse or I can get on that horse and go move cattle.

Speaker 1: 7:39

You know do what?

Speaker 3: 7:40

anybody, whatever he's not a fast horse, he's not a real athletic. Anybody whatever he's not a fast horse.

Speaker 1: 7:46

He's not a real athletic.

Speaker 3: 7:46

He's only 10, 11 years old, I think, but as far as just solid and dependable, that's a priceless horse right there.

Speaker 2: 7:53

When I think of horses, though, and what they're supposed to be, that is a horse.

Speaker 3: 7:59

He's the size, the shape, the confirmation, the mentality, the mind, everything.

Speaker 2: 8:04

I'm talking too, though what you said. You can put a two-year-old on it. Yes, and it's that kind of horse you can turn around and go to the mountains, go roping just all around, just all around.

Speaker 3: 8:14

They were trying to turn him into a roping horse, the folks I bought him from. And he like a competition arena calf roping horse and he like a competition arena calf roping horse and he's like why? And he just wouldn't turn that extra thing of speed on to go get the calf. You know, he's kind of got that chilled, laid back. Look at life. It's like if we don't get it done tomorrow.

Speaker 3: 8:37

If we don't get it done today, we'll do it tomorrow. You know, yeah and so. But we've moved cattle, We've herded cattle on him and he actually we went up out of Lodgegrass, Montana, a couple months ago to help a rancher move a bunch of cattle.

Speaker 2: 8:52

They can actually watch that video on your channel.

Speaker 3: 8:54

Yes, it's on Deanna's channel.

Speaker 2: 8:57

Yes, dry Creek, mama Dry Creek.

Speaker 3: 8:58

Mama, and he got to the point where he would walk up to them, little fellas in the back, and pin his ears and reach out or he'd boop them with his nose. He started herding them and booping them. Hey, you know, he knew this was Exactly. Yeah, and that's what I like to turn this new one into a horse that I can put a grandbaby on, or I can go move cattle or go up in the mountains, whatever I want to do Drive him too.

Speaker 2: 9:23

He's supposed to be able to drive. I want to see you drive a cart. Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. Big cigar and driving a cart yeah, highway yeah, that'd be pretty neat.

Speaker 3: 9:32

I'll have to shave my beard, otherwise he'll think I'm think you're amish or something.

Speaker 2: 9:36

No, you got the mustache. Oh well, there you go. Amish have no mustache, so that'd be better. Tell them a little bit, for my subscribers and yours know, of course, but you've got your main channel, rock Creek Wrangler School. Tell them about your new thing you're doing, because some of my people may want to get on there and check that out.

Speaker 3: 9:55

Well, we started about I don't know, six months ago. We have a second channel, it's called Tack Room Bible Talk. We have a second channel, it's called Tac Room Bible Talk. It's just a simple. Some folks don't think it's a simple, but it's just the gospel Just talking about simple doctrines in the Bible and taking away all the noise, all the confusion, all the fluff, all the lack of common sense and just breaking it down and saying, look, this is what it is, this is what it says. It's the same approach and the same simplicity of everything I approach on Dry Creek Reindeer School, but it's faith-based, just real Bible study.

Speaker 2: 10:36

That's pretty much what it is. Yeah, and it's great, guys, I listen to it, I love it. It's just Dwayne absolutely breaking down the Bible how he sees it. Yeah, and you can make your judgment too. That's what it's about, so that's a super good channel. And then your wife has her channel.

Speaker 3: 10:49

Yep, she has her channel. She doesn't post very much, she's very shy. It's hard to get her in front of a camera. I think she does good, she does great, and I tell her she does great. Maybe she'll come around, well, maybe. Uh, I hope so, but yeah, so we've got those three, and then also you have your.

Speaker 3: 11:08

You're on all podcast platforms with your podcast yeah, and basically right now what the podcast is. I've got a, a company, and they just take the youtube videos and strip the audio and put it on the podcast um, that works, though, like people driving down the road, they want to put it on their car. I've had people say you know when they're working in the garage and cleaning the garage or whatever, and they can't watch it, they just listen to it. So it works out.

Speaker 2: 11:32

It's great, it's super good. Yeah, then of course, we got our youtube channel, haste draft horses and mules. Everybody subscribe to that if you like watching me and henry run around on horses and do things all around. So so we do have a lot of fun on there.

Speaker 3: 11:45

And then we'll be teaming up here in a couple months. I'm looking forward to that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:50

March 11th, 12th and 13th we're having a clinic at our place in Liberty at Haystraft, horses and Mules. It's a private clinic. Rural Heritage is sponsoring it. A lot of y'all may have heard of Rural Heritage Magazine. They used to be on RFD TV. They have a YouTube channel, rural Heritage Check them out. But they're sponsoring this clinic. They're actually going to be there and doing some filming, doing some editorial write-ups and things, and Dwayne is going to be there as a guest speaker on Thursday and that'll be Thursday afternoon or whenever Dwayne shows up.

Speaker 2: 12:24

So it is a private clinic clinic. It's not open to the public. We hope to do something open to the public at some point where everybody can come, but this is more of a private teamster clinic one-on-one learning everything about driving a horse and just basic horsemanship, holding the lines right. And I do have a couple spots left. We're recording this on what is today's date I don't even know january something, january 29th, 29th so we'll probably post this sometime here within the next week. So if you listen to this and you want to come to that clinic, you can give me a call, check the website, email me. Whatever, we do have two spots left and you can come be a part of it. Learn a lot and just live an everyday draft horse life. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Speaker 3: 13:05

Now my part's not driving, your part is going to be just, it's just basic a driving horse or a riding horse. It's a horse, it is. And I've ridden horses in africa. I've ridden horses um in china, ridden horse over the United States, and everywhere I go. A horse is a horse is a horse.

Speaker 3: 13:27

And the thing that you can't understand about the horse that you're trying to drive is the same things that a lot of people don't understand about a horse they're trying to ride. So, true, basic, foundational horsemanship crosses all boundaries, and so what I'll be doing is just talking about the horsemanship side of things itself with the horse, regardless of whether you're driving or riding and just talking about duane stuff.

Speaker 2: 13:54

What duane does dry creek? Stuff yeah so it's going to be good. It's going to be super good. Yeah, maybe we can con duane having a clinic somewhere this year on his own. I.

Speaker 3: 14:03

I might do one this year. A lot of folks are asking we're not doing the school this year because of relocation. We're not set up for the school logistically and physically and we learned from the last three years things that work, things that don't work. And so 2025, I've got a lot of irons in the fire and we've got a lot of um things that we've got to restructure for the school as far as logistically and so hopefully we'll be set up and we can just start over in the spring of 26, but there we're not doing anything physically for the school in 2025. I know I've gotten a lot of questions about that.

Speaker 2: 14:46

Also, dwayne may have needed a break too for a year, just to have some Dwayne time. You know what?

Speaker 3: 14:51

Dwayne's biggest problem was in school. What People If they would just send me their money, you know, and then I could just send them something, it would have been so great. No, but the people have been great. In three years we've had three problem students. That's all. Of course, part of it knows everybody who's come. 90% of them 99% are familiar with kind of who and what Dwayne is from the channel, so they know when they come. It's like we're not going to cause any trouble here.

Speaker 2: 15:25

How many people did you say you took through there in a year?

Speaker 3: 15:28

Over a hundred five a week every week, except for when we take breaks in between. For however many months we did it? For three years we did that and everybody lived in my house. I wound up moving out to the tax shed. I put a cot in the tax shed. I've been for a while down in the living quarters horse trailer because I just couldn't sleep, and so we're going to reset up. But there's going to be separate bunkhouses and stuff.

Speaker 2: 15:57

That would be nice. Yeah, it would Build, buy a new place, set it up where you got. Somebody can, somebody can't buy a new place and build these bunkhouses. I can see it. Yeah, big dry creek thing over a creek.

Speaker 3: 16:13

Oh, yeah, yeah they're pretty nice.

Speaker 2: 16:15

it would be nice because people need what you're doing. They just need it. Yeah, they want it right. You've got a way about your horsemanship, your mentality. They see it on your channel. Yeah, yeah, and you help people Like you talk about helping the young boys. He was talking about how people was taking TikTok. You don't even have a TikTok, no, and you're all over TikTok.

Speaker 3: 16:37

Yeah, and I let them do it because it's not about for me. I didn't start the channel to make money. I didn't know you could make money, are you serious? Oh man, I. I was up to 60 000 subscribers and my friend asked me like you're monetizing that right? What are you talking about? He said you can make money off your youtube channel.

Speaker 3: 17:02

I was like I had no idea. That's not why I started it. So I had probably 60,000 subscribers maybe not that many before I ever even found out about monetization. And so for me it's like you know, and that is simultaneously, it's my biggest asset and it's my biggest handicap. True, you know. It's like, yeah, I could if I had more of a business sense, if I had more, um, business minded. I know I could do so much more. You know getting land and all this stuff, but I just I can't find it in me to be willing to put in the effort to learn and to fuss with that stuff. I just can't find it in me to be willing to put in the effort to learn and to fuss with that stuff.

Speaker 2: 17:49

It's just not you just be you, I just be me. Well, it's working. Yeah, being you is working. Yeah, majorly. Yeah, I think it's. I don't want to say people's wanting to be like you, but I think people's really seeing a different side of somebody they've never seen before. Well, it's, but I think people's really seeing a different side of somebody they've never seen before. Well, it's a plain type person that has morals.

Speaker 3: 18:09

Well, I mean, that may be some of it, but I think it's there. They're seeing a side of an approach to life that's right. That could give them a bit of the you know the piece, Just because I've jettisoned the whole rat race. You know, and people have been told in this country and this culture for generations, not only can you not do that, but it's morally wrong. True, All right, and they say, well, this guy did it. You know, maybe I can Just kind of scale back a little bit, chill out a little bit, shift my priorities and maybe life doesn't have to be so crazy.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Yeah, it's a crazy lifestyle nowadays.

Speaker 3: 18:57

My grandmother, my dad's mom, here in Kentucky, her and my granddad. They passed years ago, but she was a tight person and my dad's told this story many times. She could not be still so in Kentucky back in their period, back in their time, whether you went to church or not, you did not work on Sunday, all right, it's the Lord's day. It was disrespectful, so she couldn't go to the fields. You know she couldn't go to the fields, she couldn't go do this stuff, and so on Sunday, instead of resting and relaxing, she would just walk the fields and walk the pastures. And she had four major heart attacks by the time she was 40 years old. Four she just could not relax, couldn't chill out. There's a lot of people like that today and there's yeah.

Speaker 3: 19:49

I know, you run like crazy, dude. I can't hang with you, man. It's like here's Steven. Steven's doing it. Well, I'll see him next week, but he's going to be running the roads and he's doing all this. His phone keeps ringing nonstop. I like it. I'm like I can't live like that.

Speaker 2: 20:05

It's vibrating the whole time we've been recording this podcast. Oh, I don't doubt it, it's stop on the drive over here to lexington. It's business. Yeah, I love my customers y'all. Yeah, he does. I'm not y'all call me anytime, but yeah, it's how we make a living you know that.

Speaker 3: 20:19

Yeah, no, I think it's I. I'm not talking, I'm not talking down on it, I'm just saying I myself, you couldn't do it, I can't do it, don't want to do it, wouldn't do it. I'd rather pick up aluminum cans on the side of the road to buy a biscuit than to live like that and make all the half holes of money that you're making. I'm like I just can't.

Speaker 2: 20:39

I guess the good Lord made us all different for a reason, and it's a good thing, that's right.

Speaker 3: 20:42

It's a good thing. You know, if the world was a lot more people were like me, the world would be a boring place. Not, it'd be boring Pretty slow Because race it might. It'd be boring pretty slow because you'd have, like the entire human race would be spending most of the time sitting on the porch drinking coffee, smoking a cigar and looking off into space and thinking thoughts speaking of coffee, did you bring your coffee in? Uh, it's in that bag down there we got the coffee.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Now, speaking of coffee, I want to show you all this, what duane does. This is duane's coffee brand. I want him to tell you a little bit about it well.

Speaker 3: 21:13

So this company, this is juniper mountain coffee. Uh, they contacted me several months ago and said hey, we want to sponsor your channel. We like what you're doing. So I looked them up, I'm like, okay, they're, it's a small family operation, very um, they're, they're um, what's the word I want? Mine just went blank. Their convictions, the way they live, is very much in order with mine. And so we did, and we had a very good, a very good relationship. And then they called me again and said we want to come up with your own roast. And they said what do you want in a roast that has your name on it? And I said I want it dark and I want it rich, but I do not want it to taste burnt. If you want burnt tasting coffee, you can go get something with a mermaid on the front of it. And so they roasted 20, 20 different new roasts and sent me the three they thought was closest what I wanted. So we tried those three and we said this is what we want. And so this is not a uh, this is not a white tag, this isn't something they have, and they just put our name on it. This is a new, original roast for us um, it's wrangler roast, it's dark roast. The x is all the over here, to the far right as far as you can get. It's very, very rich and very dark, kind of molassesy, um and but, but without being burnt. And so here recently, deanna and I have just become uh, we've actually become part owners in this company, which we're extremely proud of. That's awesome, and so you can go on Juniper Mountain. They've got a website and coffee cups, but this is a coffee we drink at home. This is what we got, but this is something we've been working on. We're very pleased with. Now they also have a light roast too, don't they? They have several different roasts. Yeah, they have something a step down from this, a little more palatable.

Speaker 3: 23:18

I worked in Alaska Industrial Hardware in Alaska years ago and my boss a really good guy. He was a retired Navy officer and he drank his coffee really thin, really weak, and his wife, a wonderful lady. She was from Arizona or New Mexico and she was a delight. She was tough, and so I had made the coffee one when I got there before he did, and so I got in there first and made the coffee the way I like it, and he'd come out one day and he's like who made this coffee? It's too strong. And his wife was in business. She said Floyd, there ain't no such thing as strong coffee, there's only weak men. So we do have. There is light. They do have lighter rose coffee and they have special batch. Stuff comes in from around the world. That's just a one-shot, one-time deal. So there's a lot of good stuff their packaging is good looking.

Speaker 3: 24:20

Everything they do, they have we have spent. I'm going to say we we have spent a lot of extra money. All of the coffee roasters that we use, all of the grinders, everything is American-made. None of the equipment used to make this coffee's been shipped in from overseas.

Speaker 2: 24:36

It's all american made I like that right there and uh, yes, in god, we try very much it's nice. Yeah, where can they buy this?

Speaker 3: 24:46

um, you can go on juniper mountain uh caught the juniper mountain website and order it from them. Or if you go to our website, drycreekwranglerscom, we have a shopping section where you can buy the coffee you know, along with the wool vests and the denim shirts and everything that I wear all the time. That stuff's on there, and you've got T-shirts on there too. Yeah, there's T-shirts on there and canvas, wax, canvas, ball, canvas and I've seen a Zippo lighter on there too.

Speaker 2: 25:12

yeah, there's t-shirts on there and canvas wax canvas ball and I've seen a zippo lighter on there there are um zippos with the with the logo on it these cups.

Speaker 3: 25:20

Didn't intend to turn this into a big marketing thing, but yeah it's there yeah, we also just recently put merch on our website.

Speaker 2: 25:28

Right, we got a guy out of thermopolis wyoming laser's edge kenny. Yeah, he's doing our merch. You know, we got hats and cups and shirts and things. So if you're interested in any of that kind of thing for the podcast, we actually got podcast T-shirts on there. Harness Up Podcast with our logo. Go to wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. You click on Merchandise and find it all on there.

Speaker 3: 25:55

I'm going to balance this out on the other side. Okay, I just soon not do this really. I mean, I we're not making any money on it. It's not worth the headache and it's just something else I have to keep up with. Yeah, and we signed a contract with the merchants and merchandising company for two years, so I'm stuck but the coffee, though the coffee I like the coffee and and and uh, yeah, and the cups is part of the coffee, but I mean as far the coffee.

Speaker 3: 26:13

I like the coffee and, yeah, and the cups is part of the coffee, but I mean as far as the T-shirts and caps and stuff it just wears me out.

Speaker 2: 26:20

That's why I give all mine to Kenny. Yeah, he does it all. I don't do nothing. Yeah, it's kind of peaceful. I can't keep up with all the horse calls.

Speaker 3: 26:37

I've got to keep up with them. First, you know, that's what mattered horse and mule calls. Well, that's it. I think sometimes this other stuff, when we try to expand, it just becomes a distraction. You know, I think it's just a distraction. We tried it. We had some guys come through, stay with us Really good guys, good friends, and all they went on and on and on Because we were wanting to buy land. They're like man, if you start merchandising you'll just blow up. You'll have so much money come in because your channel is so big. And then that's how you finance getting land to build the school. It ain't hardly even paying for itself.

Speaker 2: 27:09

It's so much easier just to put a YouTube video on and let it take care of itself. That's what I do. Yeah, it works so easy. I'm just in my. I'm in my schedule, yeah yeah video.

Speaker 2: 27:20

I go home, I edit, I put it on. We sell horses and mules and, yeah, I don't have time to fool with this stuff. Yeah, I dropped the bomb on this podcast. Sorry to everybody that's watched this and listened to it. I didn't record a podcast from September until now. Oh, because we just got so busy. You got people coming every day buying horses, looking at horses, mules, shipping them out, vet work with Coggins. I mean, it's just, we sell harness. Yeah, we sell wagons. It's sometimes more work than it's worth. Yeah, like you're saying, all the extra add-ons, but it helps.

Speaker 3: 27:56

When we sell a team to somebody, they can buy everything from us, right, and it just works well, I just I for me, I just flap my gums, I just talk and, if it helps, I had a guy call yesterday. He called me, he'd been a student the first year and we talked a couple times and he was having trouble with a horse and he had my number and he called and so I talked and kind of pointed out, helped him through it, and for me that's just what I want to do. If I, you know, if a duffel bag fell out of the sky with a bunch of $100 bills in it, I'd demonetize everything and just do what I want to do. I just don't care about it.

Speaker 2: 28:37

I noticed something yesterday major about you. We was in that paddock getting that cold out. Yeah, the cold you bought Mm-hmm. You was talking to that cold like you was teaching him. Like you was teaching a student. You was trying to get him to come through the gate. Yeah, he was teaching him like he was teaching a student. He was trying to get him to come through the gate. Yeah, and he was pressure releasing him. Yeah, he was telling him. He was talking it while he was doing it. Yeah, I don't know if he's trying to teach us or the cult, yeah, but it was so smooth how he just he give into you yeah, it was something to see yeah, he just pressure release and he finally just dropped that head right through, followed you right around, right into that trailer yeah, well, it's become a habit.

Speaker 3: 29:17

Yeah, um, because, uh, you know, when I'm teaching the classes and or I'm doing the videos, it's you know, I I can't, and it's it's difficult to do.

Speaker 3: 29:29

It's really difficult to split your mind up like that to concentrate on what you're doing, to verbalize it, you know and whatnot. But that's I had last year in the school. I had the students out at the arena and I was on a horse and I was talking through it, but I was also doing kind of like I do on the on the channel. I was kind of relating it you know what the horse is going through to what people are going through in life. And I had two students break down in tears. Why? Because they're like this is where they were in their life. It's like all of a sudden they related so much to what the horse was going through and the answer that the horse was getting from that problem, the answer I was giving the horse, and just a calm, gentle, direct, simplistic way. It just applied and so much that they were going through it. Just it just opened everything up.

Speaker 2: 30:33

That's pretty special.

Speaker 3: 30:34

Really'm to see. That's just what. That's what I, you know, when I have those special moments in the class, when something like that, or when a horse, you know, you see that light, come on, I tell deanna I'm like I'd rather do this than eat. I mean sleep and breathe those moments and I do everything else so that while I'm doing all this other stuff, those moments happen.

Speaker 2: 30:59

It's a rush, ain't it? For me, it's addictive. Yeah, it's like you crave, feel that moment yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:08

Well, I just you know, I love it when people find the answers that they need.

Speaker 2: 31:12

When we do those clinics it's amazing how people come together. You'll see it yeah, we've did several of them. The people that's at that clinic, you see them, they're still best friends. Yeah, like they comment back and forth on all the videos and they talk privately. They're just, they get so close in those three or four days, like when you bring common people together with common interests, good things happen and it always just turns out to be the best time at our clinics.

Speaker 3: 31:38

We've had students you know we'd have five at a time and they're strangers from all over spend the week together and they get done. They're like let's book a week next year for just us. The same five together, same five together. Yeah, absolutely. Us, the same five, same five together. Yeah, absolutely. And horses are a fantastic medium for people to come together and for people to get answers in themselves.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Have you ever done a clinic where people bring their own horse to your clinic?

Speaker 3: 32:08

Our first year of school people brought their own horse. They were welcome to do so and a lot more people brought their own horses. A lot of people wanted to bring the horses to Wyoming but the distance wouldn't let them. They were afraid to. It's kind of it's a little overpowering, a little intimidating, if you're not real experienced, to trailer up a couple of horses and go from Michigan to Wyoming. So I didn't have very many in Wyoming, I had very few. They were welcome to under certain guidelines.

Speaker 2: 32:44

But I didn't. Did you have a lot of international people come to the school?

Speaker 3: 32:47

I did A lot of from the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria. Wow yeah, we had a lot of folks flying from overseas. This year our Canadian business has went up so much, we had several Canadians come through too. Lots of.

Speaker 2: 33:07

Canadians are buying. We're shipping a lot up there, right? If they ever get that exchange fixed, we'd ship a whole lot more up there. Yeah, right now it's so far apart. Sure, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 33:17

Really unreal.

Speaker 2: 33:18

Right, the amount of money Right, which I try to give them a break and help them because they do have to pay so much to get them there with fees and international health papers, and there's a lot that goes into it Right. And there's a lot that goes into it Right. Sold my first team to Mexico in December. Wow, mexico City. Shout out to you all down there. They bought a team. We shipped them down to Mexico City. I'd like to go down there sometime and visit. Yeah, I've spent time down there.

Speaker 3: 33:45

I love it. You've been everywhere. My wife and I looked at a big ranch down there. We thought about buying it, Really yeah, and we could have afforded it. But I'm like I can't move all this down there and then we've got to start all over again.

Speaker 2: 34:00

Out of all the places you've lived, what's your favorite place?

Speaker 3: 34:04

Africa. Well, I didn't live in Africa. I spent a month there, but all the places I've ever been, africa was my—Botswana, south Africa, botsw been africa was my botswana, south africa.

Speaker 2: 34:20

Botswana is a country north of south africa, okay, and east of namibia.

Speaker 3: 34:23

I loved it how long was you there? A month. He's in mongolia too, no, somewhere. No, I was in china. China, uh, right there where china, north korea and r Russia all meet at that point. Spent a month there. The people were wonderful, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Speaker 2: 34:37

Out of all the horse things you've done. You've been in this your whole life.

Speaker 3: 34:44

No, but since I was in my 20s, I wasn't raised in this, really no.

Speaker 2: 34:45

I was not. You would think you was.

Speaker 3: 34:48

Yeah, it's what I always wanted to do, but I had to wait until I was grown and left home and go pursue it. I was not raised in this. What was your first horse? My first horse was a little quarter horse, red Dunmare, named Baby. I bought out of Emporia, kansas. My cowboy friend told me when I was looking at the horse. He said don't ever buy a horse from a woman. He was a crusty old guy. He said never buy a horse from a woman and never buy a horse named Baby or Pumpkin or Sweetie or Sweetheart. Well, I bought this horse from a woman named Baby. She was two-year-old, wasn't broke and she was snaky. Yeah, she was a mare. But yeah, that was my first horse. You think she learned you a lot. Oh, she taught me. She taught me so much. She taught me how not to buy horses.

Speaker 2: 35:46

And that's something you need to know. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:49

She broke my thumb. The day I bought her. I went to load her in a horse trailer and she wouldn't load up and I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I had been cowboying I wasn't when I bought my first horse I had been wrangling, I had been packing in the mountains, I had worked on a cattle ranch, but always using their horses. This is the first horse I bought, so I wasn't completely green and ignorant the horses. But I didn't know and so I went to load her in the trailer. She broke my thumb and and I got so mad I was furious, I had that's back when I had a bad temper and so I went in bang. I dropped the trailer off my truck and and I went and banked on the door of the house that people had bought the horse. I said the horse is right there and the trailer is right there. I said if the horse goes in the trailer, you call me and I'll come back and get her. I was mad and I drove away. I left the horse, I left the $2,000 I'd paid for the horse and I drove away. I went home.

Speaker 3: 36:52

About an hour later she called me. She said well. The hour later she called me. She said well, the mayor's in the trailer come back. So that, yeah, so yeah, she taught me a lot. Because I'm like this is not how this is supposed to work. I've got to, I got to figure this out and by the time I got done with her, I lead her up with the lead rope, open the back door, throw the lead rope over back and say get in the trailer. And she and she'd walk in and go. I mean, I learned, but she taught me A lot, yeah, a lot.

Speaker 2: 37:20

Who's been your biggest inspiration in your training? Buck Brandman, really.

Speaker 3: 37:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:25

All the way.

Speaker 3: 37:27

I started out with others and I gained from everybody as I went, all right. But when it came, when I finally discovered him and he don't, I'm not dropping names, he don't know me, I don't know him All right, it's just watching his stuff and his his, the philosophical approach of the relationship and the mind of the horse, and understanding the instinct of the horse and working within the horse's instinct and how they feel and how they think, everything just began to click and fall into place and he has had more influence um on on my horsemanship than anybody.

Speaker 2: 38:06

That's good. I like watching him too. I used to watch him a lot.

Speaker 3: 38:09

He's really really good and I, you know, I get something from all of them except one we won't go into that we don't have to. No, we won't. You can tell me later. I'll tell you later. I'd like to know who it is.

Speaker 3: 38:20

But, yeah, no, I've picked bits and pieces because I'm Dwayne. Yeah, I'm not Buck Branaman. I'm not Pat Pirelli. I'm not Warwick Schiller, I'm not Chris Cox, I'm not Chris Cox, I'm not any of these guys. Part of the reason why what they do works for them is because it's within the confines of who they are and I'm not them. But I can take the part of them that they do that fits within the box of who I am, and take that piece and that piece and that piece and this piece and create the horsemanship that works for who Dwayne that's so true.

Speaker 2: 38:59

Um, that's why I tell people all the time they're like why do you do this this way? Why don't you do it this way, like putting collars on? Yeah or anything on putting the harness on a horse, right? I tell them there's no right or wrong way, right, if it works for you, right, and it works for that horse, that's the right way to do it.

Speaker 3: 39:15

Well, you, you know, I've been doing this for three years and one thing you'll never see you'll never see anything that says Dwayne Noel horsemanship. There is no such thing. There's only Dwayne Noel horsemanship for Dwayne Noel. True, okay, buck Branaman horsemanship works for Buck Branaman, all right. But John Smith cannot just pick up Buck Branaman horsemanship and turn it into his and be 100% successful because he's John Smith. He needs to develop John Smith horsemanship Now. He can use as much of Branaman stuff that works for him. But if you take one person and you see them all right, you see people who have a particular horse clinician. They've got all the, the conchos on the bridles with the initials and the and the flags and all the special things that come along and it's like that's their guru. You know and and I've never met one yet that was 100% successful these followers of these guys, because when they hit a particular character and personality wall that they can't get through, that this person can, they can't turn around and develop their own part of that. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:33

Pat Pirelli's horsemanship only works 100% successfully for Pat Pirelli. All right, and it works. It works, it does. But we, as horsemen, we have to develop the horsemanship that works for us, based on who we are and the amount of sensitivity towards the horse that we have, the amount of experience that we have, what we have. We have to develop what works for us. That's true, that's so true. So that was a long answer to a short question. It was a good answer.

Speaker 2: 41:10

That's the truth. You have to develop. Even growing up, I played a lot of music Played banjo and mandolin. You know you mentor a lot of music, right, played banjo and mandolin. You know you mentor after all these people. Right, you want to sound like them, play like them, right. Ultimately, though, you've got to have your own style and put your own way into what they're doing. Same thing, yeah, and that's just a very true statement. Right, very true. Yeah, very true. So you're glad to be back in Kentucky.

Speaker 3: 41:35

I am. We're down there on that creek and just on that farm and just peaceful. It's just back home. Back home, yeah, is mama happy? Mama's just delighted. She went yesterday. She took the truck and went into the neighboring town and spent the day with my mom and with our daughter. Now, I was talking about your mom, oh, my mom, my mom's ecstatic To have you back home. Yeah, I'm the only boy.

Speaker 2: 42:02

Okay.

Speaker 3: 42:03

I'm the oldest so I'm her baby boy and don't tell the others, but I think I'm her favorite kid. I'm the baby boy too. We won't tell my younger sisters. But no, no, my mom's ecstatic, she's very happy, that's good.

Speaker 2: 42:16

Well, I'm excited to see how you do with that colt. I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 3: 42:20

I am too. I like him. I think he's got a good mind and a good temperament and I think we can do something with him.

Speaker 2: 42:24

You're going to have to do a whole series on your YouTube channel of this colt. That's what I'm going to do how he turns. Anything else you want to say in closing, Dwayne?

Speaker 3: 42:37

No, I'm going to mention we've got our own Dry Creek Wrangler signature saddles. Yes, that is true, made by Ben Geisler and my design, and so you can if you're interested in that, you can contact us through the channel or something. But each one's made custom by hand, one at a time, by Ben and uh, so it's a Wade saddle, it's all rough out and it's got the things on it that I have found over all my years that what I wanted the perfect, all round saddle If you're cowboying, if you're packing, if you're just trail riding, if you're cowboying, if you're packing, if you're just trail riding, if you're wrangling dudes the saddle has what you need to do it and and it's like, and it's high quality, is the best out there. You know it's made here in the states, uh, with us material and by one of the top saddle makers in the business.

Speaker 2: 43:35

You need to start teaching these boys back east what packing is. That's not a thing around here. No, it's not Nothing around here. Nobody packs. Yeah, you should get a bunch of mules together in a string and haul everybody's deer out. This kind of deer season Pack deer out, yeah.

Speaker 3: 43:50

Teach them how to do it. Yeah, you know, out west there's actually guys who they have that business.

Speaker 2: 43:56

Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3: 43:57

You could do it.

Speaker 2: 43:57

Yeah, Because here these hollers and hills, somebody shoots a big buck and it goes way down. Yeah, I don't know why they don't think of it. Put it on a mule and pack it out Bring it out. Yeah, it'd be so much better. They winch it out the hill with the dozer. You know who he is too. Okay, you do too. The guy behind the camera. He's done it before. But yeah, it's um. Yeah, it's just a different world.

Speaker 3: 44:32

Yeah, I've seen it traveling back and forth well, now there's this big hurricane went through and wiped out North Carolina. Their packers went in there with mules and were packing supplies in and rescuing people with mules in those mountains and all that stuff, but they couldn't get anything else in there.

Speaker 2: 44:51

I've seen that yeah absolutely. They probably come from the west, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 44:55

I don't know either. That would have been neat, though. Yeah, probably come from the West.

Speaker 2: 44:57

I don't know. I don't know either that would have been neat though. Yeah, well, that was tragic down there. Yeah, golly, we took a load of stuff down there to Irwin, tennessee and that was something to see. I've never seen damage like that in my life.

Speaker 3: 45:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:10

From a flood?

Speaker 3: 45:11

Yeah, but pack strings and pack mules. They're not obsolete. No, they're not, no. And the skill as a packer is not obsolete.

Speaker 2: 45:22

It's hard to find anybody back here that does it. Yeah, it is an art. It's not just throwing something on a mule and packing it. You've got to know what you're doing. It's definitely an art. Yep, are you Sawbuck?

Speaker 3: 45:36

or Decker, either one. I started out with Decker, but for me tying a Manny usually is not worth the effort. Yeah, and to just hook, if you're just doing simple stuff, if you're just not doing complex loads, just putting soft-sided panniers on Sawbuck is way easier.

Speaker 2: 45:56

I got a Decker I bought in Salmon Idaho. Yeah, still got it. We don't ever use it hardly though. Yeah, I wanted to get into pack mules and selling them for so long. Yeah, because there's a huge market for it. Yeah, but it's just not something anybody around here does.

Speaker 3: 46:13

No, they don't, but I can help you get into it out west. I no, they don't, but I can help you get into it out west.

Speaker 2: 46:17

I know people I'd say you can. Yeah, I used to sell a lot of mules out west when I was young, driving out and selling them, peddling them. Yeah, the mule market though now has shifted. Yeah, I do think there's more mules in the west now than east. Oh, there are, I rode a paint?

Speaker 3: 46:31

I don't think it was gated. It A paint? I don't think it was gated. It was in the mountains. It's hard to tell. A mule up there out of Salmon, Idaho, a couple years ago and they called it a reigning mule. Maybe it would if it's hard to know in the mountains, but they had paid $25,000 for that riding mule.

Speaker 2: 46:53

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:53

Yeah, but I enjoyed the heck out of riding her.

Speaker 2: 47:05

I rode her all over the all over. We went to the salmon sale two years. We went in 21, 22 and 21. We had the second highest seller yeah, 20 000 22. We sold three mules for really good money in the 20s but some of them went in the 40s 60 yeah, yeah, unreal.

Speaker 2: 47:17

There was one guy there I can't remember his name, super cool guy. He had a mule. He took his dodge truck in the cell ring and loped that mule and jumped it up into the bed of that truck, did spins and jumped it right back out. Yeah, that thing went crazy. Yeah it was. He worked hard on that mule. Yeah, what'd you ever do? Did you ever finish your mule? Or did you sell her?

Speaker 3: 47:40

I sold her sold her yeah yeah, I sold her just before we moved back okay, down here.

Speaker 2: 47:45

I remember you had that mule when I was out there.

Speaker 3: 47:47

Yeah, I rode her. I rode her quite a bit. She was in the mountains, she packed and everything. Yeah, she was the perfect size. Yeah she was. She was a nice mule. It's just I had to consolidate a bunch of stuff. I sold a bunch of horses before we moved back out here. Then, like a dummy, I went and started buying them again.

Speaker 2: 48:05

You'll probably buy more. Probably it's addictive. Yeah, all right, dwayne, anything else you want?

Speaker 3: 48:11

to say I don't think so.

Speaker 2: 48:12

I think we've covered what we wanted to talk about a little more. Yeah, if anybody has any questions about the clinic, like I said, call me my number's on the website. It's all over the place wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. Check that out. Subscribe to my YouTube Haste Draft Horses and Mules if you want to follow me and what we do. Subscribe to Dwayne's Dry Creek Wrangler School Tackering, bible Talk all that good stuff and you can watch Dwayne. He does some really good things on there. I enjoy watching it myself. And if there's anything we can help anybody with, give me a call. We're here to help you. Thank you all, god bless and we'll see you on the next one.

Speaker 1: 48:49

As another captivating episode of Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules draws to a close, we extend our sincere gratitude to our listeners for joining us on this enlightening journey. We hope today's discussions have deepened your appreciation and understanding of these magnificent creatures. Remember, the adventure continues beyond this podcast. Stay connected with us on social media and share your stories. For more information and to explore further, visit DraftHorsesAndMulesForSalecom. Thank you for being part of our community. Until next time, keep harnessing your curiosity and passion for these God-given creatures. Farewell for now.