How Two Idaho Creators Built A Life With Mules

A lot of people think mules are just “harder horses” until they’ve had one look them in the eye, decide you’re worth trusting, and then follow you like a shadow. That’s where this conversation goes with Jason and Alyssa from Mountain Built, the Idaho creators who turned filming mules, Mustangs, and the backcountry into a full-time YouTube living.

We talk about how Mountain Built started as a simple way to document their life, then slowly grew into a business that now pays the mortgage. Jason and Alyssa share what it’s really like to create equine content, from hauling camera gear into rough country to the hours of editing and voiceover work that viewers never see. We get into the strange and wonderful moment when fans recognize you at mule sales, and how the YouTube community can feel like real-life family.

On the animal side, we dig into green-mule reality: bucking, bolting at cows, confidence building, and why clinics and miles in the saddle change everything. We also talk Mustang adoption and training with their horse Rooster, saddle-fit challenges, DNA test surprises, and what it means to pack out elk with young, learning animals. We finish with practical mule wisdom: toughness, easier care, donkey-leaning versus horse-leaning mules, and why choosing a horse or a mule depends on the individual animal and the rider’s experience.

Subscribe for more real conversations about mules, horses, driving, and the people living it, and if you enjoyed this one, share it with a mule friend and leave a review.

Check out MTN BUILT YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MTN_BUILT

Also, MTN BUILT HUNTS- https://www.youtube.com/@mtnbuilthunts

Buy MTN BUILT Merch HERE - https://mtnbuiltmerch.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoofMEdgHFCZR83vAcryewoB1QswmcNM1ib385Jv0kN2mcC7WLu_

Transcript

Meet Mountain Built

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey folks, Stephen Haste here with Harness Up Podcast with Haste Draft Horses and Mules. How's everybody doing today? Guys, we're sitting here. I'm in my truck and they're in their home, and we're going to do a podcast for y'all. And these two on the other side of the screen here, I'm super excited to have on here. Jason and Alyssa, how are you all doing? Doing great, Stephen. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Doing awesome.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

I'm doing good, man. I'm glad to have you all on. I wanted y'all to be on here for a while. I've been following you all for about a year now since the video came out. It was about your mule. And it was Josie, the little app mule, I think. Yep. And it showed up on my screen and I watched it and I said, hey, this is cool. I'm going to follow these guys. And I've been following ever since.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Heck yeah, man. But that's such an honor when when real true like horse and mule people like yourself follow us, it means a world to us. That's super cool.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Hey, y'all do a great job. Tell the folks about yourself a little bit, just about what you all do and everything.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, Alyssa, you want to start?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Oh, geez. Well, we we run a YouTube channel. We started off as a just kind of a way to journal our lives, but but yeah, we we've had horses. I've had horses my whole life. And Jason's had horses before we met, and then we ended up getting into mules because we love hunting and we love riding in the backcountry, and so mules just seem like the way to go. So we've really been enjoying the mules and then have gotten into um adopting a couple Mustangs and just general those, and that's been really fun too. So yeah, it's been a cool journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah, and our so our YouTube channel is called Mountain Built, like MTN Built, and it's basically just about our lives in the mountains with our horses and mules. So thankfully for me, Alyssa is really good at editing, and I'm starting to pick up filming. So when we go out on our rides and hunts and stuff like that, we just pack a camera and just kind of document what we're up to and then upload it on YouTube. So that's what we're doing actually full time now is packing a camera and running around with horses and mules. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

That's a huge blessing.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

It is. It is, it really is. It's it's mind blowing, Steven. When you think about it, it's like, what an honor.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Yeah, it really is. Which you're doing what you love, you know, you love the horses and mules, but if you're like me, you know, I've been doing it so long now. Like I took my first mule photo in 2007.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

And I never I never dreamed that I'd be doing this full time for a living, selling mules and horses. But it's so addictive. Like when I leave the barn to come home with my SD cards, I don't know. It's just the feeling of popping that card in and seeing those mules and horses on that screen. It's addictive. Like, how good a shot did I get? Do you feel that way?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And like we we kind of started with our our hunting channel more so than our horse channel. And and yeah, it's like nowadays, I don't know, we've we've filmed hunts way before we ever had a YouTube just because it was fun to look back on. And same with our horses and mules, just kind of filming the process and looking back, like, oh wow, look how far this one's come and stuff like that. So I don't we don't even know what would it would be like to not film at this point. Like it would feel weird to not have a camera and film because we enjoy that part of it and we enjoy looking back. So it's not that big of a deal to lug a camera around for us.

Filming Horses And Camera Gear

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, I'm kind of like you, Steven. We so when we sold our last house, we decided to invest some money, money in camera gear, and so we we bought some good cameras, and now I enjoy taking photos so much. The video is a little bit tougher for me, and I'm I'm learning and trying to capture those cool shots in video too. But with the photos, man, sometimes I feel like I've got a good one, and I'm like, you uh you get home and you want to pop it in and put it in Lightroom and get it touched up and see what you got. It's really fun.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

I love my camera. Yeah, I didn't get a camera until 2022. I just used my iPhone completely.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, yeah. Same.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

And I thought it was great. I bought a son well, my first one was a Sony A6400. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

And then I've now I've got one of the new A9 mirrorless Sony cameras. Heck yeah. That's what we have too is Sony mirrorless. Yep. I packed that thing with me everywhere I go. I love it. I just it's a it's an addiction.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

It's a good one to have.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, they're good cameras too. Like we've drug ours, I'm sure, same with you, you know, dust and dirt and rain and all that stuff. And man, it just keeps ticking away. So it seems like we really put them to the test, and that Sony brand seems to hold up really well for us.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

So well, if you ever watched our videos and see my partner Henry, yeah. He's he's destructive.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

That's like me, kind of.

unknown 4:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

That camera has fell off a wagon many times already.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah.

Mustangs And Starting Rooster

SPEAKER_04 4:55

That's crazy. We but it just keeps lasting. It is good equipment. Yeah. I've really, really enjoyed your all's Mustang stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I I feel like a lot of times it can be kind of boring because it's a lot of the same thing over and over again, especially with this new one, because she's pretty touchy, and so it's gonna be a lot of repetition, and so we're we're trying to show the process without boring people too much. But I I appreciate you saying that because sometimes, you know, you're like, I don't know if this is gonna be interesting to people or helpful in any way or whatever, but we post it anyway and just hope that someone gets something out of it.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

So oh, Clyde's gonna help you, gentler, a little bit, I think.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, he's been in there helping out.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Yeah, Clyde's so how long have you had mules then?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Well, we so we've owned mules. Clyde was the first one we bought, and that was in 2021. I I ended up having a little experience with mules prior to that, and that's what got me interested in them. But yeah, so 2021 we bought Clyde. He was a super green three-year-old, he had 90 days on him, and then sat for like nine months before we bought him, and then we ended up buying Jason's mule Riotta and right after that, so like a month later.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we we're kind of new to the mule world, Steven. We uh like she was raised with horses. I didn't get my first horse till after grad school, so I was like 23 or something like that when I got my first horse, and uh it quickly became a passion. And then we we decided to both separately before we got married sell our horses and try and get squared away financially, paying off debt and stuff like that. And so then when we first got married, we didn't have any equines, no mules, no horses, nothing. And it felt like a big hole in our life, you know. And as you could imagine, you know, it's like that once you have them and they're kind of in your blood, it's hard to be without them. And so we were constantly working towards that was like the light at the end of the tunnel was getting horses again. We thought horses. And then when we were getting closer to having things set up and paid off, and we were looking at, you know, buying equines, we were thinking of horses first. But then thank goodness Alyssa was like, What do you think about maybe getting a mule and starting to look at mules? Since we, like she said, we enjoy hunting and being in the mountains here in Idaho. And she's like, What do you think about mules? So then we kind of got the mule bug. We started looking into like there's like the Jake Clark mule sale, and they have their sale on YouTube, so we watch that, you know, and just dream. We don't have that kind of money, but we just dream about those mules, and we got the bug. And so that's why we ended up getting Clyde and and then my mule Riata. We're and I'm really thankful. I just love the mules. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Those two mules y'all got they're excellent. I mean, you watch them on film and you guys listening, check them out and watch them. They're super cool. I loved watching you do the roping and stuff down there with Ty in Arizona with Clyde. That was cool.

Why Mules And How It Started

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Well, Clyde, he he had a little bit of buck to him when when we first bought him. He man, there for a while. I remember us going out on trail rides, and we're like, you know, his meal was scared to death because she was handled pretty rough before we got her, and she was so scared of people. And then Clyde, at some point in the ride, he was gonna fly up in the air, whether he was rearing or bucking or trying to bolt on you or something. And I remember us going on trail rides and be like, we gotta do this because they need exposure to all this. But we're like, it's not fun at this point. Like it was like, we hope we make it back to the truck, you know. And then after miles and miles and miles and a lot of work, they really, man, I feel like turn a corner just in the last couple years, they've both really become pretty darn dependable.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

They have now, now, Steven, we can go out and just enjoy the country, which for a couple of years, it was like you're very focused on like what your mule's up to, and you know, is there a steep hill coming up that you need to be set up for? And you know, stuff like that. But man, it is so nice to just go out and enjoy seeing the country, and we can pick spots a little more rugged and a little deeper on the map, you know, for hunting and looking for shed antlers and stuff like that. And it's it's finally coming to fruition, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah, and old Clyde used to bolt anytime we'd see cows, and of course we ride where there's summer leases everywhere, you know. So you just run into cows all over the place, and so that was always a lot of fun. You never knew when you were riding over the hill and all of a sudden you're just 180 the other way because there's a cow. So anyway, we've taken him to a couple of Ty Evans, you know, mulemanship, his cow working clinics, and man, that sure has helped him a lot. Just getting him exposure in that kind of situation, you know, where he can build his confidence. So and yeah, for him to step up in that rope box and go after a cow, like that was big for him because he's pretty timid about him still.

SPEAKER_04 9:54

So it was pretty cool, actually. I I thought it was awesome. I tell you, I'm real excited for you to get started on that Josie mule more. That is one sharp creature.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

She's really cool, she's smart and she's pretty chill. Like she's really a cool old mule. I wish she was a little taller. That's the only thing. Is she's just a little on the short side for us still, but she still has some growing to do, so I hope she gets big.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, we need her to get just a few more inches, would be great. We're just praying that she'll grow a little.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

If she don't, you'll just have to keep her and pack her.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

That's what we said. Yeah, we're like, well, we'll just pack her. She already she packed my elk out of the mountains this last fall. It was pretty cool. She did really good. Yeah, she did really just all not all of it. She just packed two shoulders and the antlers. Yeah. And yeah, she did great.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

I bet there ain't but one pack saddle in Casey County where I live, and that's in my barn. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah. Yeah. That's like where I came from too.

unknown 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Where where was you born and raised, Alyssa?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

I was uh in western Oregon, so the Willamette Valley of Oregon. And yeah, it's mostly sheep and grassy, and there's not a whole lot of mountains around. There's some little foothills, but man, I don't think I knew anyone that packed when I grew up and just never even thought about mules, honestly. I don't even know if I ever really saw a mule until I was in my mid-20s.

Turning Green Mules Into Partners

SPEAKER_04 11:19

So I actually recorded the podcast with a boy from Oregon coming out actually this coming Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Oh, cool. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

A young boy from Oregon from Bend.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Okay, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

Young PC P C R A Bronk Rider, 18 years old.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Nice. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Nice P R P R C A, that's what it is. Yep, yep. He's a cool kid. I've been to Oregon a lot. Mules have took me to Oregon many times.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

I've never felt so homesick in my whole life as what I was one time in Oregon. I was in the Dalles.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

And I stepped out of the motel one morning and looked. I wanted to go home.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

That that country by Portland will make anyone want to go home, Stephen.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Oh, it's the West is cool though. You know, it's if you've if you've lived East your whole life and you've never been to the West, you're just you're killing yourself. You gotta see it. But home is where you make it. And I couldn't I love going out west. My wife's from Montana. So we go a lot, you know. I know I love the West. I'm there a lot, but I crave to get back home.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

So it's different. It it really is. But um, and you know another thing I've also enjoyed on y'all's channel, Rooster come out good, didn't he?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Oh gosh, he's awesome. Yeah, he's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, that was me. He's a special Mustang. He's he's turning four this year. Why don't we want why don't you tell him a little about Rooster? Yeah, that'd be cool. He is a special one.

Josie’s First Packing Wins

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So we adopted Rooster actually one year ago, March 1st. I gotta get the paperwork filled out so we can get him titled. But but yeah, we adopted him from Lichfield, California. They have a facility there, and he came from the Twin Peaks herd management area, which is out of California. But man, they had like 900 horses available, and we narrowed it down to him. There's just something about him that we liked. And so we adopted him. And man, he he came along pretty fast. It was, I think, I don't know, day three, something like that. I had him haltered and he was leading around and stuff like that. So he's been really cool. And then yeah, he helped us pack out that bowl. He packed the two hindquarters out. And you know, he got a little tight a couple times, but he did really, really good. And him and Josie. So nothing like trying to pack green three-year-olds, you know. But it worked out all right. And and yeah, he's been pretty easy. I I took it pretty slow with him starting him under saddle just because he is only a three-year-old, and I wanted to make sure it was a good experience for him. And so, but man, now he's doing pretty good. He has quite a few breaks off when we're traveling with Ty and stuff like that, and just go out and get on him, and he so far has been really solid, so he's pretty awesome. We'll we'll definitely start riding him more in the mountains this summer as he he'll be for sometime probably in April, is what they estimated, you know. So he should be ready to to go. And we just got him a new saddle that fits him a little better. He started getting real wide and outgrew the other one, so we're like, well, we better get him one that fits him a little better.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

So he is a chunk, ain't he? He's he's nice.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

And those Mustangs are built, some of them are built just man, they're hard to fit. They're really hard to fit. So yeah, it's been a challenge trying to find a good saddle for him.

What Makes A Mustang A Mustang

SPEAKER_04 14:53

But you know what I thought would be cool? Mustangs they're mustangs, they're wild mustangs, but really they're just feral horses. They're a horse like any other horse.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

Yep. Have you ever thought about doing this? Pull hair out of that Mustang and send it into like Texas A and M to the lab and see what that see what it says.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, so we did that with Rooster. Okay. And yeah, there's a video on our on our channel there that with the results, but he was oh, he was Turkumen, which is like a call-to-key, you know, ancestor there. And I don't know how act you know how accurate these tests are, but that was his number three. His second one was quarter horse, which that makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

And then his top top breed was Galcinho Pony, which, you know, they're not really a pony, but a galcino, which is a very Spanish, you know, type horse, which has actually had a lot of influence on quarter horses too. So and he has a lot of that kind of Spanish look to him when he's loping around, especially when he's kind of feeling fresh, you know. And so I could see that uh in him for sure, but not what I was expecting with those results.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

He's a beautiful horse.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

To me, the only thing a horse ever done, though, was made a mule. That's just the way I'm building my mind. I like that. Yeah. I'm just a mule person. I mean, we sell a lot of horses and mules, you know, like I average like a team a day. And the horse teams, I don't have a connection. I just don't.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

I and the mules, I remember every one of them. I like to know where they go. I just I'm I love them. It's just an addiction. You get attacked attached to them, you know, quick. They're so personal over a horse.

Driving Teams And A Kentucky Invite

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yep. They really are. Yeah, there's a there's a huge difference. Like Rooster's actually more mule-like. He's very you know, he really wants to connect with you, he wants to hang out with you. He's really out of all the horses I've ever owned, he's the most as far as like affectionate and just want he's very mule-like. He likes the inside of his ears scratched, like he's yeah. But but yeah, there's something about mules. Like you go out there and stand in a field full of horses, and they might come up and check you out and whatever, and then they kind of do their own thing. And all those mules will just come over and they just want to like they just want to hang out with you. I've never had an equine leave food to come hang out with you, but you get a mule and they're like, I don't know, they just want to be with you. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

Have you all ever done any driving? Have you ever drove horses?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Nope. No, that's a big hole in our experience. We ain't none.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Don't get started, you'll get addicted. Really? Is it pretty addicting? Oh, it's fun. It's a blast. You need to come to our barbecue in October, we have every year. Fly really come and stay a week with us and ride horse. Bring you can bring your mules, whatever, and do we drive teams every day? It's just a blast.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Oh, that'd be so fun to go watch that. That would be awesome. Is it on your place? Yeah, it's right here at the barn.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

What it's kind of turned into, la I thought it would be a ride, like where we sold a lot of horses and stuff, but last year it was a YouTube gathering. No kidding. It was. Like we've had I had people fly in from California, drive in from Maine, New Hampshire, Canada to come visit. They watch us on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

And it was crazy, like they come up to you like they know you. That's the thing about this YouTube and these podcasts and stuff. People watch you from their end, but they feel like they're in your life and they know you.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

That's true. Today, Carson, he's Henry's little boy, he's four years old. The lady that came today and bought a team, her and her husband from Michigan, came in. She got out of the vehicle this morning. Carson walks up to the barn door. She says, Oh, Carson. He just looked at her and opened his arms up and running, give her a hug. Oh, that's awesome. She never even met him. She just seen him on the videos.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Yeah. It builds a major connection. It's yeah. Have y'all been spotted a lot when you go out yet?

Being Recognized And The YouTube Shift

SPEAKER_01 19:14

It's getting to be more and more. And first it was so it was really weird to be honest. Like the first time it really happened was at the Salmon Select sale. There's like a sale here in Salmon, Idaho, a mule sale. And uh we were there and we we've gone the last several years just to watch the whole thing. And so we were there and just in looking at mules and walking around, and we were filming it and stuff, but we had several people come up and we didn't know what to say because we didn't we're just had, you know, it's like we'd never had that experience, and it was so weird. But at the same time, it's such an honor that people actually feel like they know you and they take the time out of their day to sit down and like watch what you're up to and stuff. So it's really cool at first, so we didn't know how to take it.

SPEAKER_04 20:02

Well, you know, you're t you're the new TV stars now.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

It's so weird.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

YouTube. YouTube has took over live television. Yep. I think the old people here in our community, 70-year-old, yeah. They sit and watch YouTube. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

That's what they do. That's what my folks do too. They're they're pushing 70, and that's what they do too. That's kind of all they watch. I think it might be Oh, go ahead, Steven.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

My dad's 75. They watch you. They watch your channel every time you put on video.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

What an honor.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Mom and dad sit and watch horse and mule channels. They watch like y'all and us and a handful of others, and they'll sit and watch them.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

That's the coolest thing ever. When you said that, I thought you were gonna say they watch YouTube, but and but that's what an honor that they actually watch our channel.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

Well, a lot of people do. Like, our channels kind of run together, mine and yours. Like, I've got a thing called VidIQ. Have you ever heard of it?

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Oh, yeah, we do too.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

Yep. And they show who your people are, like in your niche. Yep. And like your your videos are recommending mine, and mine are recommending you because it's our titles are all mule, mule, mule, you know. Yeah. So they kind of run together in that same niche, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yep. We're a good company. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

I'm surprised we didn't meet at the Salmon sale because you know I sold there in 2021, 2022.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Oh, no kidding. Yeah, we were there. We were there both years. Both those years, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

We brought mules the 2021, we bought brought three mules, and 2023 we brought three mules and three horses.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Yep. That's awesome. Sure did.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

That's kind of a fun sale to go to. They I like watching like the mounted shooting and like the best of pen. And and then of course the race up there is kind of fun to watch. I wouldn't do that with my mule, but it's fun to watch other people do it with theirs.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

Well, we want we can we was in the race both times, lost, bad. But we had a mule. We had a mule named Matilda. We won the mounted shooting in 2022.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Oh, that's cool. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

I've actually got the buckle in the barn there.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

No way.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

That's awesome. Shout out to Mr. Fred Snook. Do you know Fred? Well, well, we know who he is. We've never met him, though. Nice guy.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

The only time I met him was just to pay my pen fee at the Thai clinic, and that's all I've ever got, you know.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

So yeah. Salmon's a cool little town.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

It is. We love it up there.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Yeah. I enjoy it. Idaho's a beautiful state altogether.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

It is. We love it here. We've been looking, we we want to buy a place that has a little more acreage, but man, we do not want to leave this country. We love like we're close enough to our family in Oregon, but we're right in the middle of like public land, mountain country, and like this is just our kind of country. So we're we kind of narrowed our search for property to sticking around here. Are you from Oregon too then, Jason? Yeah. So we actually didn't met didn't meet when we were both living in Oregon, but we were both raised in western Oregon. So I'm from a little south of her over there in the Willandon Valley as well.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

All right. So Oregon, folks, that's pretty cool. I I like Oregon, but I couldn't live there. I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, that's we like Oregon too. It's Oregon is interesting because it's kind of divided along the Cascade Mountain range, like west of the Cascades, the the weather is totally different. So you get a lot of like green and evergreens and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

A lot of rain.

Rescue Dreams And Property Reality

SPEAKER_01 23:34

And a lot of rain. But eastern Oregon's high desert, but the people are also different. Like there's good people on both sides, but we we looked a little bit in Oregon for a property and we only looked east of the Cascades. We're like, that's more our kind of country. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

Aren't you all wanting to start like maybe a rescue or something? I read or heard.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Yes. Yep. That would be our ultimate long-term goal, would be to have a property big enough that we can just adopt a handful of Mustangs and pick up a few mules and just work with them full time and then re-home them. I mean, if you had infinite property, it'd be great to just, you know, keep them all, I guess. But we would love to re-home them. So like take, you know, mules that maybe didn't get along with their owner, like my Riata mule, get them tuned up, trust in people and where they can have a good future, and then find them a good home. And then same thing with Mustangs. That's our long-term ultimate goal. It's hard to figure out the finances with that, but that's what we're we're moving towards.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

Yeah, property's so high now.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Yeah, it is. So high. Yeah, it is. We feel blessed that we squeaked in right before COVID with our first home purchase together. So, like, while we don't have our dream property, we barely squeaked into home ownership when it was still somewhat affordable, and then it just went through the roof and hasn't come back down. And so we were able to kind of leverage that first home purchase into this home purchase and then starting our mountain belt business. Yeah. And so we we lucked out while we're always like wanting to progress at the same time. We're like, thank goodness we got this place. Cause if we were just a year later, we wouldn't even be here.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, our our old home that we bought in 2020, it just sold for five times almost what we paid for it. Yeah. So and I mean we put some sweat equity into it and remodeled it a little bit. And I looked through the pictures and it didn't look like they had really done much with it. And I I just was like, there's no way, you know, there's no way.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

We couldn't have bought it now. Yep. Yeah.

Yellowstone Effects On Western Markets

SPEAKER_04 25:42

So we were we're fortunate for sure. COVID helped a lot of things. And it it seriously helped the equine industry.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

It did.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

It did.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, for sure. Like people see the value of, you know, I think getting outside. And also there's a little piece of maybe self-sufficiency, like for you, probably with driving and being able to work the fields without using a ton of diesel, or if you just enjoy that lifestyle, I think it opened people's eyes to that.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Oh, it sure did. And one other thing changed the horse industry too. Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah, it really did. It changed like all the western industry in total, you know. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yellowstone actually drove the beaver market up. So for people who trap beavers, like cowboy hat sales went up so much that the beaver market came up also. So it's kind of crazy the trickle down from the Yellowstone effect.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

I was at Road to the Horse over the last weekend. Oh cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

Yeah. And I just sat back and kind of watched and stuff. Do you know how much money was spent there on Western clothing?

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Oh man, I can imagine. It wasn't a lot.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

It's unreal the money people spend for that stuff. Yeah, gotta look the part. I watched a guy pay, I don't know how much he paid. He bought all kinds of stuff, but the hats, you know, beaver, you said beaver going up, the hat prices have gone up majorly, too. Yeah. I bet. I think I'll speak. I need to get you all one of my new hats. I'm gonna have to send you all one.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Heck yeah, we would represent that all day.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

This is the mule, the official mule hat.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

I love it. I would rock that all the time.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

When I was young, I always seen old men growing up around here. And all the old men, they wore a hat that said mule on it with a mule head.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Kind of like the same color hat you got an old tan hat with a mule head.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

And it said mule. And I thought to myself, I'm gonna recreate that hat and bring it back out.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah, I like it.

Working With Ty Evans On The Road

SPEAKER_04 27:58

And I did. And since then I've we've had a lot of them sold. They're doing really good. So good. Awesome. I'll have to get you all's mailing. I'm gonna send you some hats for sure. We would appreciate that. That'd be great. You can wear one. I may send one for Ty. You give him one too for me.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah, we'll give it good.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

Heck yeah. So you all worked for him how long now doing his editing and videoing?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Almost a year. I I started kind of a little before Alyssa. She was still doing taxidermy when I hit the road and started taking photos and video with Ty. And yeah, for the last year we were full time on the road. I don't know when this comes out, but we'll like on our channel, we're gonna talk about this a little bit more in depth. But we just switched from going full-time on the road with TS Mules to doing piecework for them. So our channel was definitely taking a hit. It was just a huge time commitment to be on the road, and then when we get home, be editing videos for another channel. So we had to take a little step back from that full time with TS Mules. But yeah, it was just about a year of full time traveling with them, and what an honor, man. He his family's amazing. And you'll know this more than anyone. The mule community is like the best people. And to get plugged into that community and get to travel around and meet people kind of all over the West that love their mules and want to work better with their mules, it was the coolest thing ever. And thankfully we still get to do some of it, but we will be just going to select things now. We won't be going 100% all year with TS mules.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

A lot of people think like running a YouTube channel and doing what you do is not a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Oh Lord, just ask her. She does all her editing, it's like endless work.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

Well, you're all voiceovers are excellent.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

That's all her. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

It sounds like something on National Geographic TV or something. Like they're really good. And that is a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

It is. And it's really like when people meet me in person, I'm I'm very shy. Like I am very much an introvert. I'm very shy. I like hanging out with my horses and my animals, being up in the mountains, you know, and like being around large groups of people is just not my thing. I'm getting better. Going with Ty helped out a lot too. But but yeah, and I also had to go to like speech therapy when I was in elementary school. And so, yeah, if you would have told me that I was gonna do voiceovers for like in front of basically thousands of people, I would have been like, no way, you know. So so that was definitely out of my comfort zone, and it's gotten easier as it's gone on. But going back and listening to some of my earlier ones, I'm like, yeah, that was not great.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

So hey, it's w it works. It's working, something's working.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

That's great. I my YouTube channel, I'm not I use it for one thing. I use it as a platform to sell mules and horses to show people a video.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

And I've tried to make it better. I wanted to start trying to get more consistent on uploads, but it's impossible because I got six horses I want to put on at one time. I want to sell them. I just dump them and put them on, you know. But a lot of people don't understand that YouTube stuff. There's a lot more to it than just posting videos.

YouTube Editing And Creative Pressure

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Yeah, there is. It adds like we film projects around the house and stuff, and it adds a lot of like just general friction when you have to like make sure your SD cards are cleared and not to get into the weeds, but it it is definitely challenging. But for us, it has been super rewarding, like not only financially, but also like my nieces live over in Western Oregon and they get to watch Auntie Alyssa and Uncle Jason, and we get to look back and see how far Clyde and Riotta have come. So it's for us, it's been worth it. But yeah, it definitely is a lot of work too.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah, and well, and you know, like having vidIQ, it's like you're you're constantly thinking about like, so how do we get better, or why didn't this work, or and then you have a video that's a 10 of 10, and you're like, oh man, like why did no one watch that one? And and so yeah, it's like always continually trying to get better and figure out how to improve stuff, but yeah, it's always on your mind.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

The ones that you think won't do any good are the blow up ones.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

It's true, it's so true, it's true, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, and the ones you put like your heart and soul into, and you're like, this one's gonna be amazing. It's like sometimes they're middle of the road, whatever, you know, and I'm like, oh man, like I really tried hard on that one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Yeah, it's just you just gotta keep posting and keep doing it.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Yeah, that's that's where it's at.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

That's where it's at, just consistency.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

And we're gonna oh, sorry, go ahead, Steven. So your plans for now moving forward, you're still gonna do some Ty Evans stuff, but you're really gonna focus on your channel and your business at home and rock and roll.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah, that's exactly right. We're like training wheels are off, and it's like we just gotta hit the ground running now, because it's like we've always had, I mean, we haven't had a YouTube very long, but for a few years, we've always had another income that was kind of our main income. And so the Mountain Built YouTube channel was like kind of fun money, bonus money. And we've been so blessed and it's grown, but now it's all of it. That's like we're paying the mortgage with it, we're paying for hay with it, like everything. So it's like you feel a little weight with that. You're like, we better, like, I hope people keep watching because you know, this is paying our bills. So, but it's like a very privileged place to be to where we can even, you know, take a swing at it and go for it. So, and this is like brand new. We haven't even announced it on our channel or anything, we haven't talked to anyone. It's like training wheels are off and it's all on us now. So here we go.

unknown 34:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

Now you have a second channel too.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

We'll talk about that a little bit.

Going All In On Mountain Built

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah. So the second channel is called Mountain Built Hunts. So Mountain MTN Built Hunts. And that's just it started off as ways to share our adventures, specifically with like my dad and my brother back home in Oregon, you know. And so anyway, we started filming our hunts, and that that channel has actually done pretty well, also, and it's become a passion. It's like really fun to try to piece together like a Western hunting experience and like tell the whole story through the camera, yeah, and then have something good on the back end to look at. And so it's kind of, I would say that's kind of like a passion project type thing for us. And thankfully, Alyssa's good at editing. So that's just basically hunting and like, you know, shooting guns, archery, stuff like that. And actually, to rewind a little bit, it started off everything was on one channel, but we thought it would be wise to separate the gun and hunting content on YouTube into its own silo in case there were like restrictions in the future. But we wanted to still share that side of our lives. So we just kind of siloed it off into the mountain built hunts and then our more lifestyle and equine channel with just mountain built.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

So I don't know if I hit it all.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah. I mean, hunting's a a big part of why we got mules and you know, why we have equines, because that was kind of the dream to use them to help us get into places that maybe were, you know, not too far to walk, but you know, it takes a lot of time and energy to get up there. And so that was part of that dream. And we also we like we we really do live off all the wild game. Like thankfully our freezer's full of elk and deer right now, but we don't really buy any meat from the grocery store other than some bacon and some chicken every once in a while.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

So I have my bacon.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

We just butchered a hog today.

Hunting Channel And Living Off Game

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Nice, yeah. Yeah, that's the way to do it. I've raised one. We've thought about it, but we don't, I don't know, spaced here. We have neighbors pretty close, so but maybe in the future.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

The thing about them is they'll eat any junk scraps you got.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Yep. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

Yep. One other question I want to ask you all. Have you noticed how much easier mule care is than horse care?

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah, it's it's way easier. Like, I don't know. I'm sure mules can get like ulcers and all kinds of things, but man, they don't seem to to need all the stuff like horses do. I uh Clyde's coliced on us a couple times. He's also got eye ulcer that we had to take him in for. Um he just thankfully gas colic the times he did. But other than that, knock on wood, I don't think we've had any bet calls for our mules.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

No, they're hardy, man. Especially like I I don't know, you're more of an expert on this than we are for sure. But I feel like the ones that like lean a little more towards the donkey side, like my Riotta mule and our Josie Appaloosa mule, I feel like they're just like the toughest critters out there. They got hard hooves, they got strong guts. It's like, I don't know, they're just like they're cool animals, and I think they're just tougher, you know. It it really seems like it.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

And and also, like they're as far as our toughness goes, but just being kind of gritty, like Clyde, he ended up, so we did a Tyvin's mule week, and he had a huge abscess blow out of his foot. And I like I noticed he was a little sore during, but he also didn't have shoes on and walking across the gravel, he was a little ouchy, but he had a huge abscess blow out of his foot. And I mean, he'd still performed, he still tried his best. He never and I've had horses in the past that they would have just been done, you know. There's no way they would have gone out there and done that. And so I just feel like they have an extra little bit of just that toughness and that grittiness to them that than horses do, a lot of horses anyway.

Mule Care Toughness And Donkey Lean

SPEAKER_04 37:58

I'm glad you said that, Jason, because a lot of people don't understand. A mule is a mule, but there is a difference. There are more donkey mules and there's more horse cap mules. Yeah. Majorly.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

I'm glad you said that because um we always wonder it like it feels like it, even down to like their hair feels a little more donkey-like. But it's like we we kind of thought that, but we don't have the numbers of mules that you've gone through. So that's interesting that you you feel the same way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Have you run across any hennies yet?

SPEAKER_04 38:32

No, we haven't actually. Do you deal with them at all? No. No. I don't want none of them. But some people swear by 'em. Like if you get a good henny, you got a good one. But some of you some of you folks may not know, so I'll tell you, but a mule is a male donkey and a female horse cross. A henny is a stud horse and a donkey female cross. It's backwards, so that's not a mule, that's a henny. But um no, I've not, but you know, I can spot one.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Yeah. I've never seen one.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

The only one I've seen was when I was younger, and it was a mini henny, you know, a miniature donkey mini horse stud. And yes, it was a little mini henny, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:17

You ever seen a you ever seen a mule have a baby?

SPEAKER_01 39:21

Huh. No. Well, only on the internet. I saw pictures, but that's it.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

It can happen.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

If you Google Mule Baby, Danville, Kentucky, that's the town north of me about 30 miles. Back ten years ago or something, a little mini horse or mini mule had a baby.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

No way. I'm gonna look it up. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 39:44

The news channel came out and reported it and did a story on it and everything. It was pretty wild. But they can ever it can happen.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Yeah. We we did a little short on I don't remember that Molly's name.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

I don't either if it was from Colorado though.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

And she had a she she ended up breeding with a jack and had a a baby, and it ended up, I think it slipped on the ice and they had to put it down or something, but but they genetically tested it and it was her full. You know, they came out in the morning and there's this baby next to this Molly. And but we did a little short on that story, and this was from like 2007 or something like that. It was a long time ago, but yeah, but anyway, a bunch of people told us that in like college, some genetic class, they had heard anywhere from like one in ten thousand to one in thirteen thousand or something like that, can have a full. But how many are really exposed, you know, and so who knows, but it's crazy what yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:41

It's crazy how mules are and the difference in horses. I I see it every day and I notice it like I just bought a donkey for my son. He's three year old. Yeah, and one of my good friends, John, customer, or his friend, all our customers are our friends now.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

He had a little twelve-hand riding donkey named Lewis, and he's a cool dude. He's a he's gilded, and his son kind of outgrew it, and he called me and said, Would you want to buy Lewis for your son, maybe? And I said, Well, yeah, I'll take him. So we had him shipped in and I unloaded him off the trailer last night and put him in a stall down here in the barn by the house. And there was old alfalfa laying in there the horses didn't eat, laying all over the stall. So I went out and got a new flake of alfalfa and threw it in there for him, filled his water. He would not touch that new alfalfa. Green and beautiful. We just got the just got the load from Montana on the semi. Fresh and nice. He was eating all that old alfalfa. Really? Yes. They'll eat anything a horse won't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

That's handy.

SPEAKER_04 41:51

And like in a pasture here in Kentucky, we get weeds like you wouldn't believe. Them donkeys and mules will clean up what a horse won't eat.

SPEAKER_03 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

That's cool. They sure will. They're tough. I mean, they're just tough. Tougher than nails. But yeah. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

We were just down in Wickenburg, Arizona, and you know, there's burrows that run around out there, and I don't know what the heck they eat out there, but there's not much of anything out there, and they're just fat and happy and doing great. So it's pretty amazing.

Horses Versus Mules For Buyers

SPEAKER_01 42:25

It's impressive. It really is impressive. Yeah. I got a question for you, Steven, if you don't mind before we move on. So you you sell horses and mules. Like if someone, if if customer came to you and they're like, like, which is better for me? Like, what situation is a horse better that you're selling, and what situation is a mule better that you're selling? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 42:51

I get that question every day.

unknown 42:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 42:55

Customers call, should I buy a horse or should I buy a mule? Yeah. And here's the answer. This is the best way to put it. It depends on the horse or mule you're trying to buy.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Yeah. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 43:07

And your level of experience.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:11

You know, there's good people and there's bad people. There's good mules and there's bad mules, there's good horses and there's bad horses. A good one's a good one and always be a good one. And like if I got beginners wanting to buy and they want to buy a mule, I'll encourage it. If I've got if I've got the right mule for a beginner. And same way with a horse. You know, it's the same. I mean, it don't really matter which one they which one's better. It's what's going to work for that person.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Yeah, gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Yep. It's down comes down to the individual person and the individual equine.

SPEAKER_04 43:53

But if you got a mule person and they love mules, you ain't gonna get on to buy no horse. No matter what. It's true. They get in your blood.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Like the mules versus horses. So if you have a horse that's been through something tough or is you know, whatever, been handled roughly, had a hard time with something. I feel like it's it's pretty hard to get them over that. And they can fall back into it a lot easier than a mule that's been through something traumatic. It seems like you get them with a new person and you start working through it, and they just they're just good.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Like as long as the person knows what they're doing.

Bonding Stories And Mule Trust

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Yeah, as long as the person that gets them knows what they're doing, you can help them through it. I feel like they just and they don't end up falling back into that as easy, and they just seem like they overcome those kind of things a lot easier than a lot of horses do.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

I sold a mule to a young lady in Brevard, North Carolina a month ago. She's I don't know how old the girl is. She's a young girl. She runs a trail riding business down there in the Appalachian Mountains.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

Oh, cool. Cool.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

She always wanted a mule. Well, I didn't have a riding mule for her that was trained to ride. But I had an older 14-year-old Molly mule that was pretty gentle. She drove real good, but she was standoffish, like we couldn't catch her.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

And the reason we couldn't is we didn't take time to spend time with her and bond with her because we're so busy.

unknown 45:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

And we we ain't got time to go out there and rub a mule's neck all day and you know, take we just don't we don't have the time to put into it and we can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

So I sold her to her for a real cheap price and I said, Ree, you take this mule home, you become its friend. I said, You bond with it, you keep it up and you bond with it. And I said, You spend time with her, you show her who loves her, I said, You'll get away with anything with that mule.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:49

She listened to me. She sent me a video one day, about two weeks ago, of her out there rubbing on her and her neck in the pasture and feeding her hay out of her hand. She spent time with it every day, multiple times a day. And yesterday she or day before or something, she sent me a video with a big smile on her face with that mule walking right behind her every step she made.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:13

And I said, I told you.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

Yeah, heck yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

I mean, they they sense it and they know it.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:22

And once you buddy up with a mule and you become a mule's friend, you got a friend.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Yeah. That's so true. That is I think that is one thing that separates them from horses, is once they do connect with you. I guess a lot of horses do too, but for me, when when you connect with that mule, it is like a deep relationship that you can build with them.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

And also it's just a mule think.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

It takes a mule to own a mule.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

You gotta you gotta think a little muley.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:58

And it works, it works. And you know, I just got it's beat into my head that a mule's the only thing that I mean, that's all I I don't even care about a horse. I mean, I sell them and I I you know we have to, you know, I sell horses to people and horses are cool. You know, I like 'em, but mules are my preference. And when new horses come in, I just don't get excited.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:23

It's just another horse.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

When an every time a new mule I'm getting comes in, I'm fired up. I can't handle it. I love it. I just I love mules, and that's just the way I am. But some people hate them.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Yeah, I know. It's interesting. I d I don't get people that hate mules. I get people that want to like go fast or enjoy cutting horses and stuff, but people that are like, I don't like those nasty mules. I'm like, what's wrong with you? Why don't you like I I judge the person?

SPEAKER_04 47:54

Well, there's good and bad in all.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_04 47:58

A horse can kick your head just like a mule can kick your head.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 48:02

A mule may kick a little bit harder.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

And more accurate.

SPEAKER_04 48:06

Yeah, a lot more accurate, but it's oh an old man down the road here, about forty, fifty mile. Kenny Thompson, shout out to you, Kenny, if you're listening. I don't know if you are or not, but he may be. You can't never tell. A mule kicked him in the head. Really? It put his eye out. Oh dang. Yikes. But a horse could have done it too.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Exactly.

Mule Vision Driving Blinders

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Clyde, when I when we first got Clyde, I was picking up a front foot and I bent over, you know, picking it out, and I just feel something come up and tap me right in the bill of the hat. And he was picking up the same back leg, same side. His back leg, and he was just going tunk, tunk, chunk on my hat with that back foot. And I was like, buddy. I was like, I don't even think a horse could do that. You know, he's balancing two legs on the same side, and he he didn't want to be mean because he could have, but he didn't. So yeah, I don't know what he was doing.

SPEAKER_04 49:01

A lot of people don't understand a mule can see directly behind him.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:06

That's why the mule blinders on driving have to be that big pigeon wing to come all the way around, versus a horse just needs a flap. Okay. That's why the blinders are built different. Sure is. All right, guys. I'm gonna go to bed, I think. I'm pretty tired.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

I don't blame you, Steven. It's late back there.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

That's the only time I get to record them. We're just so busy, I have to fit it in when I can. And I'm trying my best to have this podcast every Saturday at 11 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

You're doing let me tell you before you go, you're doing a great job. I looked at your podcasts today, and you can tell you're putting in the effort, you're consistent, and I mean this just shows I don't know what time it is back there, but it's probably, you know, very late, 10.30 or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

1046.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Yeah, after working all day and your hard work is showing. So keep it up, Steven. Like it's an honor to be on here, and it's an honor to get to kind of meet you. Hopefully, we'll meet you in real life one of these days.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Oh, yeah, we got y'all got to get out to our barbecue. You know, come out and come out and hang out and ride horses and mules and see Kentucky. Have you ever been to Kentucky?

SPEAKER_00 50:15

No, I've never been. No, I don't think I've ever been. Maybe at an airport once. That was it.

SPEAKER_04 50:22

You know, this is the horse capital of the world.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:27

They say that like that. The horse capital of the world. That's what they say. But it is. It's Road to the Horse is awesome. You all would love that too, to come to that. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

We should be a blast.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

Fly into Lexington and go. Yeah. The horse races here are awesome too.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Yeah, that'd be fun to watch.

SPEAKER_04 50:50

And the mule races in Lynchburg, Tennessee are fun too.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:54

They have a circle. They got a mile-long track, circle track, and they race mules around it.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

At the fair. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun. There's there's a lot of mules here too. You would love it. So you'd be awesome. If you come here though, you may want to bring a trailer. You may buy some.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

I know. That's what I'm worried about. Yeah. That we can buy them mules. We thought about that, you know, going and buying some mules and bringing them back, but I don't know. Not here. We need bigger property, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

Yeah. All right. Tell them one more time all of your contacts, social media if you have on YouTube and how they find you.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Yeah. So it's just mountain built, but it's MTN. Mountain built. And that's on Instagram, Facebook now. YouTube is where we spend most of our time and effort and try to respond to the most comments and stuff like that. YouTube is kind of our home base, and then we spread out from there. But yep, just mountain built. Or if you like hunting, then mountain built hunts. And y'all do sell some merch too. Yeah, we just got back into it. So yeah, our what is our website called?

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Mountain Built Merch.com. Yep. So yeah, pretty simple and same mtn built merch.com. So yeah, we have some stuff. We'll have some new designs coming out. We're we're working with a new company. We're trying that out. So hopefully we'll get some stuff back in stock and and sell that.

SPEAKER_04 52:19

So all right, guys. Get on there and reach out to them and tell them you heard them on Harness Up Podcast, and they I'm sure they'll be happy to hear from you. Thank you all for coming on. I appreciate it. We appreciate you, Steven.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 52:33

God bless both of y'all and thank you all for listening because without the listeners out there, we'd have no reason to even do this. So we appreciate each and every one of you. Check us out on the World Wide Web at www.drafthorsesandmulesforsale.com. Also, we're all across all social media under Haste Draft Horses and Mules. Thank you all. Until the next one, God bless you, and we'll see you soon.