Harness Up! with Haste Draft Horses and Mules
🎙️ Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules — The #1 Podcast for Draft Horses, Mules, Ranch & Farm Life
Welcome to Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules, your trusted podcast for everything involving draft horses, draft mule teams, hitch driving, wagon training, and the rural Western lifestyle. Hosted by Steven Haste, lifelong teamster, mule man, and founder of Haste Draft Horses and Mules, this show brings you real, raw, unedited conversations with the folks who live and breathe this life every day.
We go beyond the barn to cover the ranch and farmer lifestyle, giving you authentic stories straight from the field, the farm, the arena, and the backroads of America. From Percherons and Belgians to John mules and Molly mules, from Amish farms to Western ranches, we shine a light on the hardworking people and animals who keep these traditions alive.
🔹 Discover tips on mule training, harness work, conditioning, horse-drawn farming, and wagon driving
🔹 Get behind-the-scenes insights on draft horse and mule sales, including teams currently available
🔹 Hear from horsemen, ranchers, farriers, vets, Amish families, and Western lifestyle legends
🔹 Recorded in-person and on the road, featuring raw and honest conversations—never over-edited or filtered
If you're searching for Draft Horse teams for sale, Draft Mule teams for sale, or just want to feel like you're part of the barn crew, saddle up with us. Every episode is packed with real voices, true stories, and down-to-earth wisdom.
🎧 New episodes monthly — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all major platforms.
🌐 Website: https://drafthorsesandmulesforsale.com
📺 YouTube Channel: Haste Draft Horses and Mules
📞 Call Steven at 606-303-5669 to ask about the current horse and mule teams available.
Subscribe now — Harness up, hit the trail, and enjoy the ride with us. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s the way it ought to be.
A Brand Is More Than Just a Mark — It’s a Legacy. In the world of horses, mules, and ranching, few things carry as much weight as a brand. At Haste Draft Horses and Mules, we understand that a brand is not just a physical stamp on hide or a logo on a hat—it’s a promise, a legacy, and a reputation built with every hoofbeat and handshake.
Harness Up! with Haste Draft Horses and Mules
When worlds collide: Horses, heritage, and leaving the Amish behind
What happens when curiosity leads you away from one of America's most restrictive religious communities? When Stephen Haste sits down with Enus Raber (known online as "The Amish Rebel"), we're treated to a fascinating glimpse into a journey few experience: leaving the ultra-conservative Schwarzentruber Amish at age 19 and building a new life in the modern world.
Enus shares captivating stories from his Minnesota childhood in a community where even using a hay baler in the field was considered too progressive. Now living in Texas with his wife (also former Amish) and five children, he navigates two worlds as both a successful construction business owner and a content creator with nearly 70 podcast episodes dedicated to authentic Amish education and supporting others who leave.
The conversation weaves through memorable horse stories, including Enus's favorite team that exemplified perfect teamwork by pulling together rather than against each other - a metaphor he now uses with his own children. Food memories bring both nostalgia and humor, from his mother's roadside baking business to the peculiar tradition of "coffee soup" (essentially a sweet latte with crackers) that horrified non-Amish visitors.
Most compelling is Enus's candid discussion of identity and purpose. After 15 years outside the Amish, he recently completed a challenging 40-day water-only fast seeking spiritual direction, which crystallized his mission to create resources for former Amish individuals. As both men reflect on how technology impacts genuine human connection, we're reminded that meaningful conversations like this one - bringing together seemingly different worlds - carry unexpected wisdom for all of us.
Subscribe to The Amish Rebel Podcast on YouTube under "The Amish Media Group" to hear more authentic stories about Amish life, traditions, and transitions.
Find us online at DraftHorsesAndMulesForSale.com
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:Good afternoon folks. Stephen Haste here Harness Up Podcast with Haste, draft Horses and Mules. How's everybody doing today? Hope you all are having a wonderful day. Today we're here in Liberty, kentucky, and Mr Enos is at his place and we're going to record a podcast with you. Guys, and a lot of you all may know Mr Enos as the Amish Rebel. If you've seen YouTube. He's got a channel on there. He does a lot of things and I'm super good youtube channel. We'll dig into that later, though, but as always, guys, um, if you're new here, check out our youtube. Harness up with haste, draft horses and mules. You can subscribe to our youtube channel and also find us on the worldwide web at wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. All right, guys, we're going to dig in. I've got the Amish Rebel here with me. How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 3:Hey, thank you, I'm doing really well. I appreciate you having me on today. I'm excited for today's episode and digging into what it is that you guys do, and hopefully we can add some value for your audience.
Speaker 2:It's kind of cool to me too, because you know we're on the road a lot delivering horses and we started listening to you through the truck about a year ago okay, and we listen to your, we listen to your podcast. We just put it on youtube, you know, and run it through the truck. Yeah, you, and like you and lavina yes, sir, and uh yeah we. We really enjoyed it and I thought it's just kind of cool to sit here and talk to you and dig into you and all about you now.
Speaker 3:Well, likewise, thank you for reaching out. I've really been looking forward to doing this since the first time we talked and I knew it would happen at some point, just didn't know when, and so I'm glad it's happening now. It looks like I mean just from the stuff that I've seen from you guys very interesting as well, especially given my background and the way that I grew up, you know, dealing with horses. I don't deal with them as much anymore. More like the horses under the hood is what I deal with.
Speaker 2:Do you sometimes sit and miss the horses though?
Speaker 3:I actually do so here a few years back. Just a little background on myself, if you don't mind. Yeah, sure, I have five kids currently. Just had a little baby boy not long ago, and so that's breaking news online. Most people don't know it. Anyway, yeah, just with having kids, I didn't think I'd ever have horses again. I wasn't a huge horse person when I was growing up, although I really enjoyed working with broke horses. We trained horses and so I got caught up in helping train horses and I was a smaller kid so it was much fun for me. But, that being said, with my kids I've gotten them a pony and we've really enjoyed the pony. We since got rid of it, but we're talking about getting another horse just because we moved to a different property and we have a little bit more room for that. Where do you reside at now? We're in Texas. Yeah, so close to Dallas, fort Worth area.
Speaker 2:What made you go to Texas?
Speaker 3:Man, I'm a Minnesota boy. That's where I grew up. Yeah, southern Minnesota, northern Iowa, right close by the line. That's where I grew up, and I guess I moved from Minnesota to Ohio and I realized there is a different climate. That feels a little bit better than all that cold winter, and so when my wife and I met she's originally from Ohio we immediately started talking about why don't we go to a warmer climate? Because all these people complain about how cold it is, but they just keep living here, and so I know you're not familiar with that, being from up north.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been up north a lot, you know. I've been to minnesota, I've been to my wife's from montana wow, okay, it gets cold up there I know what cold is not cold in kentucky right now, but we get cold here, but nothing like brutal minnesota winters yeah, yeah it's just harsh yeah it, I mean it's.
Speaker 3:You know, especially I don't know if you experience this like I'm not old, old, but I'm. I'm a little older than I used to be and and the older your body gets, the more you feel that cold in the wintertime is your wife ex-amish too? She is actually okay. She is former amish? Yep, she is.
Speaker 2:She would be considered like the older came from the older community okay um so yeah, holmes county area, probably somewhere yes, berlin, berlin area she grew up we're in that area a lot. I go about every week. Okay, that's great, I actually got to go tomorrow and get horse-drawn mowers Wow In Fredericktown, and then I got to go on up north there into Millersburg and get to Weaver Wagons.
Speaker 3:Okay yeah, very familiar with that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've been out of the Amish how long?
Speaker 3:I have been out for, let's say, 15, 16 years. I mean time flies so fast. Once you have kids it's like it's hard to keep track. But yeah, I've been out for quite a while. I left when I was 19. Do you all still speak Dutch at home some we do yeah, I actually so a little side story on our family. Like we adopted our three oldest children and so I've been teaching them some Dutch and they love it. I mean, they think it's funny because they didn't grow up around it. But yeah, what's your?
Speaker 2:profession now up around it.
Speaker 3:What's your profession now? Well, I'm actually. I have a roofing company slash construction so I do do that, but then I'm also getting more serious about the podcasting space. I really want to make a difference when it comes to helping the young Amish folks that leave. That's what I'm currently. I guess it's kind of my way of like. I've been out long enough now. I see a lot of kids getting out. Some of them make good choices, but a lot of them don't, and so I'd love to be able to.
Speaker 2:It's just like any, just like any other person. There's good and bad. Whether you're amish or what you are, you know english whatever absolutely if you can make a difference in someone's life by doing something, little as anything, it it helps, you know yeah, yeah that's yeah I've.
Speaker 3:I've had a like just I mean just the way coming out of the swartz and trooper, and you probably know a decent amount about the Swartzen Troopers dealing with them. They're pretty hardcore when it comes to that and that's why I'm trying to educate people. You can't really just put all Amish in one group because it's not fair. One group because it's you know, it's not. It's not fair because it you know the Swarton troopers, they have their harsh set of rules and and they are a lot more strict, and so it's coming out of that and having, you know, learned what I've learned. It's a it's been a long journey, but I'd love to be able to help other kids come out of that as well.
Speaker 2:A lot of the Amish, some people talking about horses in general, a lot of people on my channel and stuff. Oh, amish are mean to horses, amish are bad to horses. And going back to what you said, not all Amish are the same.
Speaker 1:I tell them all the time.
Speaker 2:Listen. Amish or Amish, English or English, everybody's different. You can't judge one Amish by all of them. Some of the Amish I know are the nicest people to their horses you'll ever meet in your life yeah. And some of them not just like people like me, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah did a. We did an interesting title which I knew of a draw.
Speaker 3:You know it would have a mixed, a mixed audience of of comments and you know the nasty ones and the good ones and all everything in between, but we just talked about the amish like animal abuse and is there animal abuse within the Amish, and I didn't see some of that growing up Amish and honestly I believe a lot of it was, at least in our community, was a lack of education, a lack of understanding and a lack of respect for animals, like we were just not taught you know, we didn't. We didn't know you should. You know, treat horses a certain way, you should treat animals a certain way, even though we were much more gentle than some of them were. And so there are some that that abuse their animals. But I feel like at the animals are taken care of very well. I mean, a lot of them have big, fancy, nice barns and you know beautiful stalls and stuff like that. So it's.
Speaker 2:Nowadays in the horse market, the horses cost so much they better take care of them. Yeah, A little different than probably what it used to be.
Speaker 3:For sure, like to look at what horses are bringing now. Actually, my nephew and I were just talking about this. I said it's ridiculous. Like I mean it's great, it's awesome that people love horses that much and that they want to spend that much money on them, especially for what you do. Like that's a great deal, but it's like completely different from what it used to be when we were kids. You know you pay $500 to $1,000 for a horse. If you paid $1,500 for a horse it was like, man, you got an expensive horse.
Speaker 3:And now they go, you know thousands and thousands of dollars. So like what kind of horses do you guys mostly deal in?
Speaker 2:Mainly just good, solid draft teams. That's our gig.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Persians, Belgians, crossbreds I've got a lot of Amish working for me, you know they train for us. We sell a lot of teams like for me. Oh, okay, they train for us. We sell a lot of teams, like 200, 300 teams a year. Wow, and my partner here, henry, he's a Joe Wenger Mennonite.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And he's my partner. We got Amish we trust all over Ohio, Indiana, different places, and they work horses for us and then we go back and get them.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And we work some here too, you know, but we're mainly in the business of finding good, solid teams to meet people's needs and guarantee and just honesty, guaranteeing them stand behind them with an honest recommendation and um it's, it works.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great, that is awesome.
Speaker 2:I got many friends, Amish friends, all over America, I mean when, I go to Ohio, I don't stay in a motel and I don't have to pay for food.
Speaker 3:Are you serious? That is great, that is awesome. I got a place.
Speaker 2:If I'm in Apple Creek, I know I'm going to LM Jonas'. Did you ever hear about LM Jonas'?
Speaker 3:I have not no. There's a lot of names that I'm sure you could throw out. I don't know. You probably know there's a lot of them. They leave and they try to separate themselves from the, and that was me for so many years. And look at me now. Now I do this all the time, talking about the.
Speaker 2:I'd say, if me and you really sat down and dug, though, we'd know a lot of the same people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I feel like we would and, honestly, my mom and dad grew up in Ohio and so my dad was very well-known in Ohio. What town, what's that?
Speaker 2:What town was you all in up there?
Speaker 3:They went to school in Mount Eden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my dad, what's that?
Speaker 2:Sullivan, Ashland County.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:All up in there.
Speaker 3:He was a like. I worked for an older Amish man when I first moved to Ohio, built and fenced, okay, and I would just mention my dad's name and it's like oh yeah, yeah, we knew your dad. They're always searching to see if I was shunned or not, you know, because if I was shunned, they didn't want me working on their fence, or you know.
Speaker 2:Was you shunned?
Speaker 3:I was not shunned, no, I got out before I joined church. So typically by 19, you would have like in the Schwarzenstuber I would have already joined the church. But since I was very much against the rules, I just I couldn't see myself like joining the church and so I waited an extra year and then that's when I finally left. I just got out.
Speaker 2:I was going to have something planned for today for this podcast, but I couldn't get it done in time.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:I've got an old man here. He's a mannequin, like a fake person. I took him to Miss Petershine over the road here and she's putting him in swarty clothes for me.
Speaker 3:No way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was going to. I was going to set him here behind me for this podcast but she didn't. She didn't have him down all the way yet, so I couldn't but, I was just going to say, I was just going to say your reaction when you come on the camera and see this old swarty sitting behind me, but it'd have been funny.
Speaker 3:I uh, You'd come on the camera and see this old swarty sitting behind me. But it would have been funny I hadn't worn my clothes and I bet you I hadn't worn them in close to 15 years. And because there's a lot of emotions, like I told people early on in the podcast, there's a lot of emotions attached to the clothes and judgments and all of the stuff, and so I didn't know if I wanted to ever, you know, put them back on. And then I did and I realized, you know, I've I've found freedom from all that stuff and I'm having a blast with wearing the clothes?
Speaker 3:because people, people are like. I thought you said you're not Amish. Why are you wearing the Amish clothes? Because I can. I guess I don't mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, every person's got a thing for their self, you know, and just because I mean you was Amish growing up, but it's not for everybody.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:And, like I tell people, if you're miserable in your life you can change it. You don't have to be there. Yeah, and I'm sure do you still get to go back and see your parents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my parents actually have since passed, but I used to go back and see them whenever they were still around.
Speaker 2:How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Speaker 3:There's 13 total. There's 10 of us still around. How many brothers and sisters do you have? There's 13 total. There's 10 of us still living.
Speaker 2:Are you all still close?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's like a we're fairly close. Yeah, I mean, since my parents passed, we've become a lot closer just as a family, because my dad passed and then, like a year later, my mom passed, and so it's definitely brought us together.
Speaker 2:That's good. Do you have other family there in Texas with you?
Speaker 3:I have a niece and a nephew and their spouses are here, but I've been working on my siblings. I'm like, come on, you know, you got to get somebody else started moving down here.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 3:know where Mount Pleasant, know where Mount Pleasant, texas. Yeah, again, it sounds familiar, but I can't say right off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:Texas is huge. It is huge, yeah, it's just it'd be east of Dallas, about 30 miles on 30.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:And we did a podcast, not a podcast. We did a draft horse clinic there in Preford Manufacturing at their ranch. Wow, okay, that was cool, that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:I've actually got people on the way here from Texas right now.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right From Pilot Point.
Speaker 3:Yes, I know exactly where that is and that's actually Pilot Point is like a huge horse area, like Pilot Point. I'm trying to think what other towns close to there. But yeah, that area is like I've done some work over there. It's beautiful, a lot of big horse farms and expensive horses over there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's so expensive they're coming up to buy a team of halflingers from me. Did you ever drive a halflinger?
Speaker 3:wow, yes, yeah, I don't. I don't have any specific memories of a halflinger, except it was a good horse. It was a really good horse. But yeah, I think I believe he was my brother's primary rider, if I I remember correctly he had a job on a sawmill, and so he would ride them back and forth.
Speaker 2:All right. What's your most fond memories of a horse when you was at home? What's your main memory?
Speaker 3:Man, we had this team and I was trying to remember their names before I came on.
Speaker 3:I think it was jenny and chill I don't remember right and they were a team that, uh, our, our best team we ever had that I remember of fond memory of them was just like them working together. I try to teach my boys this now like work together as a team and don't pull against each other. But, just as you know, like a good team of horses is is a team that when the pulling gets hard, like they both lean in and work together. And that team of what's that they got through, yeah, well you know the, the why.
Speaker 3:I guess that's what makes them a team. But then you got, you got some that you try to put together as a team and one pulls and the other one flies back and the other one pulls, and you know, it's just they don't sync together. But uh, yeah, that team was they would. I mean they would pull the milk truck out in the middle of the winter, that whenever he couldn't get out, then we'd hook him up and they'd pull him out.
Speaker 2:Maybe he was on that maybe he was on one of those videos on youtube. You've seen that the amish, amish teams pulling the trucks out of the snow, oh man that is some good videos. I seen an Amish pull. I was up in a port Fairfield Maine, okay, east of Maine. There's a Amish community up there and a close friend of mine, yoder, moved from Sonora, kentucky to Fort Fairfield, maine and 20 in 2015. And I went up there to visit him.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I never seen so much snow. And they pulled a truck out of the ditch while I was up there with horses.
Speaker 3:Wow Okay.
Speaker 2:You ever been to Maine?
Speaker 3:I have. Yes, I've actually Beautiful. Yeah, it is, it is really beautiful. I had a question I've actually Beautiful. Yeah, it is, it is really beautiful.
Speaker 2:I had a question come to my mind. I was going to ask you and it slipped my mind totally. These podcasts sometimes are difficult to do because while the other person's talking, you're thinking of the question you're going to ask.
Speaker 3:I've gotten accused of interrupting people online. I'm like, well, I don't really know how else to do it. Like I remember I mean, yeah, there's a respectful way, but I don't know how those guys do it.
Speaker 2:That's just like everything just lines up, but yeah, I know what it is, I know what it is Explain this. Okay, I've asked a lot of people this. Now, you know people bail hay with horses. You all out there know A lot of people use power forecart and they hook the hay baler to the PTO forecart and drive the horses through the field and bale hay just like you would with a tractor.
Speaker 3:Okay, yes, the Schwarzengrubers they're not allowed to pull the baler. Yeah, that's correct. What, in fact? We were not allowed to take the baler out in the field, so we were supposed to. If I remember this right, we took the baler out in the field one time and we hauled the hay from, we loaded it and then we hauled it to the end of the field and that's where the baler sat, and then we unloaded it there and we ran it through the baler.
Speaker 3:If I remember correctly, that was like debated, whether that's like acceptable or not. And again it goes back to I wish I'd have a more, I'd have a better answer for you guys listening, because to me it's like yeah, I grew up that way and there's all these rules. But when you like sit down with the preacher and like, okay, why do we do some of these ridiculous rules? Like explain to me. The only definitive answer they can come back with is well, our forefathers did like. Well, so if your forefather leads you into the lake and you drown, you're just going to follow him there, like come on, let's be real.
Speaker 2:I understand a lot of their rules. Like they're trying to be conservative. They want to stay. They want to keep the same traditions over and over, which I respect it, I mean. The thing to me is, though they agree to it, you don't have to agree to it. You don't have to agree to it. You don't have to be there and you don't have to be with them.
Speaker 2:If you don't like the way they are, you can leave. Look at you. You didn't join church. You didn't like it, so you went your separate way. Yes, and you look like you're living a good life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we really enjoy our life. I mean, I just couldn't see myself being you know. I guess I was too curious. That's why I'm not Amish anymore. I was too curious about it, I'd be the same way.
Speaker 2:I'd be the same way, I couldn't do it. You know, I didn't leave home much when I was young. When I was a young man, my dad milked cows, you know.
Speaker 2:And when, when I was real little, we had an egg farm. We sold eggs and raised tobacco and my dad never drove a vehicle, he never got a license. Wow, okay, my mom worked, so daddy stayed home and worked on the farm all the time. So I was home with daddy. I went to the beach maybe one time when I was growing up in like eighth grade, and until I graduated high school I never left the state.
Speaker 3:Wow, we just didn't go nowhere.
Speaker 2:We stayed home and worked. And I tell people they say was you raised Amish? No, I wasn't. But I was raised a real simple life yeah. We stayed home and milked cows and we didn't have satellite tv until I was like 15. No, way yeah, we stayed home and worked. Each other was our entertainment. You know we talked and all of our family would come over and visit and I do kind of respect that. About the amish and the plain people. Yeah, it's all about a cell phone now.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The face-to-face conversations is done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:That's one of the reasons why the Mennonites here and some of the Amish and things I think that's one of the reasons why they don't like the Mennonites here and some of the Amish and things. I think that's one of the reasons why they don't want people getting like cell phones and texting and stuff they don't want to take away that face-to-face communication.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I understand that if it's done in a healthy way. Yeah, if you know, I think we're again going back to the sports and trooper communities. There's a lot of really good sports and trooper communities, but there's also a lot of them that are really controlling and it's, like you know, I feel like the old order. You know my wife's old order and I spent a decent amount of time in the older community and I feel really welcome there, even though I I'm not amish, which is not the case with the swords and troopers.
Speaker 3:A lot of them, they, they just they don't want you hanging out with their kids or whatever, and so but yeah, I think it's. I think it's, I think it's great, because I'm all about like we don't have a tv in our house. You, I'm not Amish, but I'm also not ignorant to the fact that too much technology is not a good thing.
Speaker 2:I know what you're talking about. We live right here with the Schwarzenegger community a huge one here. We have to work close with them and deal with them every day. We see them. I'm friends with a lot of them and some of my real close best friends are Schwarzenegger Amish men.
Speaker 3:That's great.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're good friends of mine and some of their things I've learned over the years. I just don't understand, like I'm like, but you just got to go on about it. You know, I know, I know their, but you just got to go on about it. You know, I know, I know the rules and I know how it is.
Speaker 3:I know how it's going to be and I just respect it and go on.
Speaker 2:It's all what you do, you know, and yeah my, my best friend growing up.
Speaker 3:He's still sports. True promise, it's really. I mean it, he's just the way that we grew up, you know, and and he complains about the rules probably almost every day, but he's still Amish. To me, it just yeah, I think you're absolutely right and I think that's the way that they choose. A lot of them choose to live that way, like they decide. Well, I'm here, you know, I've agreed to follow the rules. I'm just going to go along with them. I have a brother that's still Swartz and Trooper Amish as well. He talks about the same thing. I respect that. Stay Amish. If you're enjoying your life, you don't need to leave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't do business with a Swarty, leave like it's. Yeah, I can't do business with a swarty, I can't do it, it's impossible. You can't get a hold of them, you can't, it's totally impossible. Yeah, we don't buy horses from you because you just can't, I mean, and we don't send horses to them because I gotta be able to get a hold of somebody you. You know if I need to.
Speaker 3:You can send them a letter. They'll respond in about three weeks.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, it's rough, but yeah, there's so many differences though in the churches Like a lot of people don't understand. In Holmes County there's I don't know how many different types in one county.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, they're all split off of each other because they don't like what the other one like you know it's yeah, I like to eat, though, amish food.
Speaker 2:What's your, what's your favorite memory at home of the good cooking? Oh, I'm gonna tell you what mine is when you tell me you're okay, go ahead, tell me.
Speaker 3:tell me what yours is. I, you, tell me yours. Okay, go ahead, tell me what yours is. I'd love to hear yours.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm talking like eating with Amish people. I'm going to surprise you here Dutch and dagley tomatoes.
Speaker 3:Wow, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Not even coffee soup?
Speaker 3:huh, no, I tell you what I will say, that I'll tell you a funny story about the coffee soup situation.
Speaker 2:Okay, you tell yours and I've got a funny coffee soup story for you after that. Okay All right.
Speaker 3:First I'll tell you what my favorite food, my favorite memory about food, is. My mom baked and every Saturday we would take the horse and buggy the Surrey full of baked goods out beside the busy highway.
Speaker 3:It's about seven miles away and we would sit there all day long with quilts hanging on the clothesline and baked goods, and you know we'd have these big buses and whatnot. Stop in and buy stuff. That's my favorite memory about food, because she'd bake. And then you know, of course, all the imperfection, the imperfect cookies and pies and stuff got left behind and we got to eat them. Yeah, that's right. But coffee soup.
Speaker 3:We had some non-Amish people over and they wanted to try this coffee soup we were talking about all the time and we had for breakfast almost every morning and basically it's a glorified latte with way too much sugar in it and then you put the sody crackers on it and some people make it with bread, but we always had crackers and if we were really poor we had bread, because mom can make that at home, we wouldn't have to buy it. And so they wanted to try this stuff and they it was a couple and they both tried it and they're like no, never again. We won't eat coffee soup ever again. We thought that was pretty comical.
Speaker 2:My first coffee soup experience was in Navarre, Ohio.
Speaker 3:Wow Okay.
Speaker 2:I went up there and I was helping some people and I went to look at something. It was a buggy or something at a guy's house. He wanted me to come and look at it and they said do you want breakfast? I said, well, yeah, I ain't going to turn it down, I always eat. So I went in there with them and they was eating coffee soup and you know what they put in it sausage, yeah, and the crackers. They must have had a good week because they had crackers that week. Yeah, and I kid you not, anus, they was filling it full of mustard man, no, and that mustard was floating in that coffee soup.
Speaker 2:No, I lost it.
Speaker 3:I couldn't eat it never again, yeah, okay, so let me ask you this from an outsider's perspective then. Like what caused you to keep asking for food after that?
Speaker 2:Because Well, I had a lot of it and, uh, I knew it was good. I knew their cooking was good. Every time I I used to go to Sullivan, ohio, on cam lives there His wife, esther. She passed away a couple, two, three years ago. I could go up John Combs house. He's a good friend of mine. He's an old dog. He's like 65, something like that 70. Okay, and some of his kids live here close to me in Liberty. Okay, so I'm close to the family. And even over in Sonora, kentucky and different places, esther, every time I went up there she knew what I wanted. She would have me a cherry pie made with cream cheese.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, that's good I could sit there and just eat, and eat and eat. It was so good and uh, have you ever heard of something? They make a lot, they just it's leftovers.
Speaker 3:All through together it's like yeah I'm gonna call it a haystack yeah, yeah, we, yeah, we would have that quite a bit at our house because, again, when you're poor, that becomes more of a normal thing, where you're throwing everything together, and so I felt like mom was always doing that and sometimes it was really good and sometimes it was horrible.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you something, though that Schwarzenegger bologna recipe is the best there ever was.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And then the smoked alfonsino. I love it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we still buy it to this day.
Speaker 2:I love their canned meat too. I got to eating their canned chicken and their canned hamburger meat and it's got a different taste. That canned meat has a different taste than frozen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does. That is we actually started canning, because there's a certain taste and flavor that comes with canned stuff there sure is, and it's good I miss canned peaches. Have you ever had canned peaches?
Speaker 2:with chocolate meat, with the white icing. Every Amish house I go to Whoopie pies and, oh yeah, the molasses cookies. There's always fruit, but usually every Amish they're going to have Swarties and that peanut butter on the table and jellies and some kind of pickles guaranteed. You know what I like the church soup. I can eat the church soup can you eat? It.
Speaker 3:It was you, though that's what I was not out of the same bowl either I had a friend of mine asked me to go to go to you know like we've been. I've been talking to him about it and he's like super curious and he wants to go experience the Amish. And I said you know one thing you got to know about the Schwarzenstrup bro, I'm like we're all going to be eating out of the same bowl Whenever it comes to lunchtime at church and he's like I'm not doing that, like okay, I understand I don't want to do it either.
Speaker 3:It disgusts me anymore. I'm like I do not want to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't do it either, but no, I've got so many good memories with them and I'll always remember them and some of my best friends I've had in my life are from that church, good people, good, some of them's like you, though.
Speaker 2:Like you're saying, they just complain about the rules. That's what they do, but they stay in it. Yeah, I don't understand it, but it's not for me to understand. I just respect them. It's all I can do. You know, yeah, I got to live here with them. We got to live beside them. Yeah, that's how it goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I feel like they are like the Swartzentruber older, not as much, but the Swartzentruber are one of the few groups that still that they still do like barn raisings and they get. You know, they get together and they do like rebuild a house if somebody's house burns down, stuff like that. They have some very unique things that they do. That just makes them stand out as well and also makes them like I don't know, like stick together as a community, even though a lot of the rules are stricter.
Speaker 2:I can tell one apart from another Amish, a mile away the hair, the look.
Speaker 3:Once you point that out, it's like you're not.
Speaker 3:I mean you gotta be yeah and that's what I'm trying to help people understand is like there's so many different groups and I feel like people are slowly catching on from listening to the podcast is like they, you know the one group, like the Trooper, and one day, when I get a little bit more technical, I'll start putting pictures up so people can really see. It's just like you said the hair. Once you see it and you know it, it's like, yeah, you definitely tell the difference between the groups.
Speaker 2:I'll put a picture up on this podcast. I can do it on this program. I think it gives me an option to anyway. I'm new on this program. I think it gives me an option to, anyway.
Speaker 3:I'm new to this program but I'm learning it.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, you're doing great. Maybe good for you to get on.
Speaker 3:You too, you can record with a lot more people yeah, I, uh, I have thought about doing the virtual stuff and I may switch at some point, I don't know. Know, I love relationships and I value relationships, and so part of my heart is to get to know the person. Not that we don't get to know each other here, but I love when people come in. I get to spend time with them, sit down with them, have a meal together. I suppose that's part of my upbringing.
Speaker 2:I love your studio, though how you've got it set up for your podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:It looks good really good.
Speaker 3:We've been working on it for a while and we're trying to get it to the look that we're going for, and hopefully it'll be that way for a while.
Speaker 2:Everybody go check his YouTube channel out. Tell him all about your socials, your YouTube and everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can find us on YouTube. It's under the Amish Media Group, the Amish Rebel Podcast, and then also we're on TikTok Instagram. I don't post much on Instagram or Facebook right now, but most of our episodes, all of our episodes are on YouTube and you can check them out there. Some funny videos, entertaining stuff on TikTok, if you want to check that out.
Speaker 2:You know what you need to do. You need to order you a beard on Amazon and some hair.
Speaker 3:You haven't seen that episode, have you?
Speaker 2:Yes, I didn't. Did you do it already?
Speaker 3:So if you search in there, a Schwarzenegger trooper haircut, so I bought and people thought I grew my hair out, but I guess they just didn't catch on because I went from one episode to that shirt.
Speaker 2:I've seen it. Lavonna was on it with you yeah, she cut my hair yeah, that was funny.
Speaker 3:I was trying to point out the haircut to people, so I don't know if they got it.
Speaker 2:I wonder why you took that break and didn't post nothing for a while.
Speaker 3:It's because you had that new baby coming it was actually during the same time, but it was actually not. So I had a, I had a. It took a 40-day food fest, and so I just felt like I needed to take a break from all social medias. And I didn't take the complete 40 days off, but most of it I was off, just producing anything you mentioned it.
Speaker 2:Now you got to explain this 40 day no food fest to us because you mentioned it yeah, that's quite the opposite of what I was raised with.
Speaker 3:We were, I mean, food was everywhere all the time, and so I, just for spiritual reasons, I felt like I needed to do a 40 day. No, I'd never done anything, you know, to anywhere close to that extent before, but there was a lot of really good things that came out of it, you know closer relationship with God, more direction on what I'm, what I'm here for, and so that's what I was hoping for. He's gone.
Speaker 2:That's not good. We lost Janus.
Speaker 3:Are you still there? Can you hear me? He's gone. Can you hear me? He's gone. Can you hear me? I can still hear you there. You are Okay. Can you hear me again?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we cut off right there, we'll cut that out of the episode. I'll fix that. You said a closer relationship with God and then we cut off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I felt led to take that time and I've really been seeking some answers on my direction as far as what I'm here for on the earth a deeper understanding, I guess, and so part of that birthing of wanting to help other people that have gone through a similar situation, that I have meaning leaving the Amish came out of that fast, and so that's what we're pursuing going forward, Cause I started the podcast, you know really want to educate people on the Amish communities, but, more importantly than that, I want to have a platform where other former Amish can go on to and share their stories, and so that's that's good that you're doing that.
Speaker 2:That's good. I respect you for that and a lot of the Amish around here. They come out. You know how it is in the Amish. If it was in the busy beaver, it means business and if it wasn't, it's kind of like the Amish it's so funny to me. It's kind of like you know around local here with the English people. If it wasn't on Facebook, it didn't happen. Yeah, they've got an Amish Facebook. The budget, the Shaft, busy Beaver all those magazines and they're keeping up with each other, just like people do on Facebook.
Speaker 3:They are.
Speaker 2:They had a 40-day thing in there lemon juice and maple syrup and water diet and all these Amish started doing that for 40 days.
Speaker 3:No way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lemon juice and water and maple syrup. That's crazy, they've done it. What did you do for 40 days? No way, yeah, lemon juice and water and maple syrup.
Speaker 3:That's crazy. They've done it.
Speaker 2:What did you do for 40 days? Just drank water.
Speaker 3:So I drank water.
Speaker 2:Shoot.
Speaker 3:He cut out again.
Speaker 2:I'll edit it out.
Speaker 3:Are you still there? Are you still there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it keeps cutting out for some reason. Are you still there, are you?
Speaker 3:still there. Yeah, it keeps cutting out for some reason, prayerfully, you know. If someone felt compelled to do it, I'd highly encourage a lot of good things that came out of it, I think a lot of people might, should do that.
Speaker 2:Maybe I should, who knows? You may have inspired me to do it on this podcast.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, you let me know I'll be your accountability.
Speaker 2:All right, man, that sounds good. Guy, I try to keep these under an hour, but I want him to come on and tell us about all his social media and make sure everybody knows to follow him and support him, because we support him, we listen to him, we enjoy him and I want everybody to check him out.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for having me on today. It was great to not have it scripted. I love that.
Speaker 2:I do too.
Speaker 3:And to just share. You know you helped me to dig back into some of my old memories and pull out some of those old stories. So I appreciate that very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we appreciate you and guys. You can find him on YouTube. It's Amish Media Group. He's got a lot of good podcasts on there. If you're interested in Amish and learning more about the Amish, he's your guy to go to. He's got I don't know how many episodes do you have now.
Speaker 3:We're at almost 70 episodes on YouTube A lot, A lot.
Speaker 2:You can go back and dig LaVonna's on there and then LaVonna's husband. I enjoyed his podcast too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of good ones on there.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, thank you, and I really enjoyed the stuff that I've seen from you guys. I've watched some. Like I said, I watched your interview with Peter. I really enjoyed that. I think you didn't quite pick up with that.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get him on the podcast here really soon.
Speaker 3:Wow, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:He said he'd do one with me, so that'll be good. I still talk to Peter about every other week. He's so positive and so uplifting. You know he helped me on this YouTube journey. January of 2024, we had 5,000 subscribers Wow. And he told me. He said, stephen, show that face and talk. See, we didn't talk, we just showed the horses and that's all we done. So I took what he told me to heart show my face and made an image. I guess I don't know if it's a good one or not, but when I took his advice, we started slowly climbing 7,000, 8,000, 10,000. And I called him and I said something's working. He said get your titles right, get your thumbnails pretty and keep showing that face.
Speaker 2:And you'll see what happened. Well, I went to bed one night and woke up and it went from 20,000 to 40,000. Wow, and now we're like 65, 66,000.
Speaker 3:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I want to get to 100,000 by the end of the year. That's my goal.
Speaker 3:All right, so I'm hoping that'll work. I think you'll get past that. You're doing great. Let's hope.
Speaker 2:I want that plaque to put on my wall.
Speaker 3:Do you hear that people Make sure you share his podcast?
Speaker 1:That's right. Make sure you share his channel.
Speaker 3:If you're into horses at all.
Speaker 2:Honestly, if you're not into horses, it's very entertaining to watch what you guys do you know, I think I think we have more people that's not into horses watch than is I'm serious?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm not surprised. You guys do an amazing job filming and I know there's a lot of work that people don't see, that goes in behind the scenes to make those videos A lot of tore up cameras. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We tear up a lot of drones and we tear up a lot of cameras. I just tore up another one. Today. My new DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is no more. Are you serious? Yeah, I broke the gimbal out of it. It won't work, man, I didn't even do nothing to it. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 3:Do you run the Mini? Do you run a Mini at all? Have you gotten one of those?
Speaker 2:The Mini drone.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got a DJI Air 2 mini. Okay, but this DJI recorder I use is the Osmo Pocket 3.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:It's like you hold it in your hand and it's got a gimbal on it and it turns. It works great. It's the best camera we've had. But we use GoPro a lot too. I got a couple ofpros I use. Okay, and also, just my main camera is my sony, my xlr mirrorless camera, which it works super good, but you have to have a tripod because the lens is a foot long. Yeah, yeah, and I can't hold it. Still, I get videos like looking like this all over the place. Well, next time I'm I'm coming through Texas down 30, I'm going to call you.
Speaker 3:Yes, please do.
Speaker 2:You are welcome and I'm going to me and you will go out and eat or sit down and talk and have a coffee, and I'd really enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Yes, please, please do. Yeah, I'd love that as well.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I got to meet you all here. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad I got to meet y'all here. Yeah, all right, buddy guys, thank y'all for listening to this podcast. We got a lot more coming up. Anus is just one of a lot that I'm going to be doing here pretty soon. One of the coming up episodes sunday night I'm recording with a nice guy from australia, a horse trainer there out of australia, and we got people we're going to be recording with in germany, canada, all over the world. A lot of good podcasts are coming. Stay tuned. Check us out on YouTube Harness Up Podcast. It's on YouTube. You can watch these videos on there if you're just listening on the audio platform and if you're on YouTube watching the video if you want to listen to it. On the podcast platforms we're on Amazon, spotify, apple, all across everything. Check out our website, wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. Until the next podcast, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you all and God bless you 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.
