Abigail Hoffman: Clinton Anderson Ambassador/Wears the Roo/Female Clinician/Iowa Horsewoman/Professionalism/Clinton Anderson Clinician Academy

Abigail Hoffman: Clinton Anderson Clinician

Wed, Aug 09, 2023 10:47AM • 35:55

SPEAKERS

Brandy Von Holten, Abigail Hoffman

Brandy Von Holten  00:09

welcome back to Big Boss Mare with brandy von Holten. Today I have someone by the name of Abigail Hoffman, and she is a clinician at von Holten ranch. And I think she's number 42 for me or something like that. It's crazy the amount of clinicians that we have at von Holten ranch. Alright, so I do believe you are either the youngest or tied to the youngest that I have. I have a friend named Lauren McCain that she's she does country tough to versatility with me and she just won this. You'll makeover challenge and I think she might have been round your age and you are 21 Yes. So I'm 21 One. Okay. When do you turn 22?

Abigail Hoffman 00:51

I turned 22 in February.

Brandy Von Holten  00:53

Okay, so it's coming right out is all right. So, all right, Abigail, tell us a little bit about you. Like where are you from?

Abigail Hoffman 01:01

All right. I'm from Northern Iowa. And my hometown is a place called West Bend, Iowa. So that's where I'm from. I grew up there. I spent most of my life there. When I was 17. I actually graduated high school. I graduated high school a year early. And after high school, I went to a local community college for their equine management program. I did that program for a year, it was a great program. But it just wasn't the program for me. I found Clinton Anderson when I was 16 years old. His method really spoke to me i everything made sense. It made sense in my head and made sense in the barn made sense with the horse. So I knew since I was 16 years old that I wanted to go to Clinton school. But the whole reason I had gone to that little community college was because I was still 17 At the time, so I couldn't go to Clinton school. Yeah, had to be 18 for I went, so I went to that college, they can Oh, yeah, I'll just eat up two years. I'll get a degree while I'm at it, and then I'll go to Clinton school. Oh, and then I got to college. And it just wasn't really the program for me. There was nothing wrong with it. Okay. wasn't for me.

Brandy Von Holten  02:05

Okay. So, you know, there's a lot of pressure on high school students, there's a lot of pressure from society saying, you've got to go to college, gotta go to college. I, you know, what, I have three college degrees. And I just don't know if it is needed, you know, if I could go back in time, I would have changed things up. And like, I love seeing these entrepreneurs and these younger citizens that are seeing that they have value and another way other than just go into college. You know, there's just it's not, you know, oh my gosh, the debt. Okay, so you're 21 I am 43. Okay, so I'm double your age plus one, and I'm still paying on my college loans. So, you know, it's just, it just doesn't I love that you realize, like, like, hey, it wasn't for me. But here's where my passion is. Here's what I want to do. A lot of people just feel that they have to do what someone else has told them. So did you get any? Because your mom is a nurse? Yes. And your dad's a mechanic? Yep. Okay, so did you. Did you have any? Were they upset about you not going to college? Did you get any kind of slack? I don't know, Slack might be the wrong word. Yeah,

Abigail Hoffman 03:28

no, that's alright. Um, no, actually, my parents really supported my decision of leaving college. But that being said, I think it would have been different if I would have dropped out of college and not had a plan. Because when I dropped out, before I told my parents that yes, I'm for sure. Not going back. I told them, you know, here's the deal about I'll move back home, they were happy to have me back home anyways, you know, since I'd moved out a year early, so they're happy to have me back home. And I told them, okay, I'll move back home, I'll get a job. I worked for snap on tools I worked on the assembly line building toolboxes for a year and a half, while I live with them. And I saved up my tuition and cash to go to Clinton's Academy. So that's great. Yeah, yeah,

Brandy Von Holten  04:08

that's great. You know why? And I hate that you're like I dropped out of college dropout has such a negative term. I'm hoping that we can find help you find a different term for that, because I think you just eliminated it as the part of your path. Like you decided that wasn't your path. So you dropped out just sounds like rammer it implies that you're not smart. It implies that you couldn't cut it. And you just didn't want to do that. You see how..

Abigail Hoffman 04:35

Yeah, I see what you mean there. Yeah,

Brandy Von Holten  04:37

I mean, I don't know. We've got words, man. People say Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Bull crap. If words can define your life. They can make people commit suicide. They can. They can destroy people, or they can build them up and make them believe in themselves. So like, I hope you divorce First, the word dropout.

Abigail Hoffman 05:01

I will make that a part of my goal to force the word dropout because I agree there's so many people. I hate that saying that sticks and stones may break bones, but words will never hurt me. Words are very powerful. I completely agree with you people. People take that they throw that saying around way too often. Well, and

Brandy Von Holten  05:17

it's just not true. Yeah, I mean, like, Girl, I can tell you things that people have said to me that crushed my soul. I mean, and I can tell you the exact I mean, like there's been words that dictated like a path change in my life. So yep, I completely choose your words better because you don't deserve the word. college dropout. Okay, because you chose not to go back. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, if you choose then, yeah, it's a positive thing. So okay, snap on. Did you like that mean? Did you? Was that weird being in a factory job?

Abigail Hoffman 05:54

It was, um, it was it really made me. It set me on the straight and narrow path. It made me realize what I didn't want in life.

Brandy Von Holten  06:04

That's just as important as knowing what you want.

Abigail Hoffman 06:06

Yep. Yep. It was it was a very labor. His job is very hard. We worked 10 hour days, I was on second shift. So I worked from 3pm to 11am. That's second shift in general. But I read pm to 11:11pm. Oh, sorry. Did I say?

Brandy Von Holten  06:23

I was just like,

Abigail Hoffman 06:24

yeah, oh, yeah, that's late. Yeah, no, no, no. But ya know, so I worked three to 11. That's but snap on. We were working 10 hour days. So most of the time, I actually was working three to 1am, sometimes two or three, even if I wanted extra overtime.

Brandy Von Holten  06:39

So So you were like, okay, the money's Great. Yes. And you know what? Oh my gosh, I see some of my friends that work. They work in a factory and oh my gosh, if they stay the long haul and do it, they have they're retiring early and stuff like that. So like man, the security of having insurance and the security of having a paycheck. Man that right there that my husband and I are changing up our entire lives right now for a little piece of security. So like nothing wrong with working in a factory at all because you have got to have a steady income a steady time, you know, and then the ability to work overtime is wonderful. But then benefits Yes. Oh my gosh, in the fact that you were able to work on it snap on to be able to afford to go to the Clinton Anderson methods. School. Yeah. I mean, like, man, maybe you should one these days, whenever you've got this huge name and all these people are trying to you can you could ask snap on to be a sponsor because they paid for the school with your hard earned. Yeah, yeah. That would be people would be like, Why snap on her sponsor, you'd be like, well, here we go. So tell us about the program.

Abigail Hoffman 07:57

Okay. Yeah. So Clintons Academy? Well, it's the Clinton Anderson clinician Academy. It is a seven week long program. Students. Tuition is now $20,000 When I went it was only 15,000. But anyways, seven week long program students bring to personally owned horses, they cannot have any previous method training. So anything that you see Clinton doing on his videos, the fundamentals, anything like that horses cannot know that before going into the program. Because while you're there at school, the instructors are going to teach you and instruct you to train those horses. So it's it's a very strenuous program. As I said, it's only seven weeks and it is a pass or fail program there is you are not guaranteed to graduate by any means. 10 students are accepted in each class and usually about eight will graduate if it's a good class. Clinton does not have any he doesn't care if all 10 Pass or if only to pass. That's not what matters to him. He matters it what he cares about is that he's putting that ru logo on the best of the best. He doesn't want anybody wearing that route that cannot teach a horse his method to a very, very high

Brandy Von Holten  09:18

level. So that Rue What are you What do you what is ruining the route?

Abigail Hoffman 09:22

So the route was Clinton's logo. It's Clinton is originally from Australia. Kangaroo. The kangaroo. Yeah, so his logo is a kangaroo with kind of a circle around it. Well, we call it the route the route Okay, so

Brandy Von Holten  09:36

I'm glad that I asked that because I had already spelled it as are you and I was like, What is she talking about? Yeah, I'm searching my databank in my head like okay, come on, Brandy, you're gonna pull this out and then did not know it. Yeah. So how long did you whenever you graduated, did all 10 graduate in your class?

Abigail Hoffman 09:56

So in my class, I actually was the last class to go on Corten steel. Even Ville Ranch, so there were 16 in my class. Because we just had the facilities now that Clint is moved to Arkansas, there's only 10 allowed in per class. But my class was the last class with 16 people in it. And out of those 1612 graduated,

Brandy Von Holten  10:15

okay? Did y'all have a class rank?

Abigail Hoffman 10:17

We do. And we don't, it's not really like high school, you can kind of tell who's towards the top of the class and who's towards the bottom. But we don't rank ourselves as Oh, she was top of the class. She was second, third, fourth, etc.

Brandy Von Holten  10:31

All right. Okay, so tell us what your your day was like it, like a standard day. Yeah.

Abigail Hoffman 10:37

So my standard day at the Academy was I stayed in my living quarters trailer on the ranch. So I was on site very close to my horses is great, I would get up every day at 6am, I'd go outside, I'd feed my horses, their hay and their grain. So they got fed around 630. And then I'd go back to my trailer, I'd eat some breakfast and head back outside to the horses around 730 or so I'd get horses tacked up. And then I'd be in the arena ready for class to start by 8am. Yep, and class ran from eight to eight to noon each day. And that was that was four hours of one of instruction. So our instructors were there, they were helping us through instructing us what to do with the horses this day, helping us with our technique. And then after class ended at 12, I would take about an hour break or so I'd eat lunch, and then I'd go back in, I'd work my second horse. But that second horse, you were on your own. So the morning was class time for you to get help. And then in the afternoon, you were on your own to apply the knowledge you just learned in class to that second horse without instruction.

Brandy Von Holten  11:43

Okay, so my thoughts are, if I had one horse that was more difficult, and then one horse that was easier, I would probably choose the harder horse to do by myself. Is that the way people would do that? Or would they take the harder horse to get the help with you would

Abigail Hoffman 12:00

typically take your harder horse to class to get the help with Now that being said you wanted to kind of alternate your horses? So I didn't realize you could do that. Yeah, yep. So you take two horses, just in case, it's a very strenuous program. So you have to have two there just in case one goes lame or so. So that way you have a horse to test on and graduate with. But they tell you very specifically, make sure you're alternating your horse, which one you take the class. So if you've got a horse that you're having more struggles with, maybe take that one to class Monday through Wednesday, and then Thursday, and Friday, take your other one that you've had been having less problems with.

Brandy Von Holten  12:35

So after these horses go through this training program with you, were you able to sell your horses you keep them yeah,

Abigail Hoffman 12:41

uh, yeah. Um, so I sold one of mine, I sold him to a little, just four year old lady in the Chicago area, and he's having a great life out there with her taken her down trails, I actually chose to keep my other one. Now I could sell them if I want, he's very valuable, I could very easily sell him, but I chose to keep him and just to have a nice horse that I can continue my education on, instead of just repeating the exact same stuff that I already know, I want a horse that's knowledgeable and has the foundation worked on already, so I can improve and start working towards things, you know, like more advanced maneuvers, side passing lead changes, getting him show ready, that kind of stuff. Right?

Brandy Von Holten  13:24

So okay, so you're you had lunch, then you would come back for another four hour session? Is that what you do?

Abigail Hoffman 13:30

So class typically took four hours. But that was more because it was a group setting. So it took longer, just because there's so many of us to instruct on your own time, that second horse should have only taken about two and a half hours. So yep. And then we actually were lucky enough. So I would always work my horse starting again at like one o'clock. And it takes me about two and a half to three hours to get through that second horse. And then our instructor would actually come back at 4pm. And she'd do a one hour extra help session. So that was for if you had a specific issue with your second horse or something that day, you could bring that horse back. And you could ask those specific questions and get like one on one help with those issues.

Brandy Von Holten  14:14

Okay. All right. So tell me about an aha moment for something like a little detail that you learned that you were like, wow, that right there is just money in my pocket. Like that is like the like a great thing that you were unaware of until you went to school?

Abigail Hoffman 14:33

That's a good question. Oh, yeah. Oh, and by

Brandy Von Holten  14:35

the way, you know, on my podcast interviews, I do not give the person that I'm interviewing. I don't give them a list of questions because I don't know them until I'm going through the interview. Because I like for people to hear something that's authentic. So do you think in the groundwork or

Abigail Hoffman 14:52

you know, I think I loose learned a lot about the industry as a whole and I guess The biggest aha moment I had while I was going through that program is that in the clinician business, horses are only kind of a small part of the of your job honestly. Because there's so much more that goes into being a clinician, you have to have people skills, you have to have business skills. So I think that was probably one of my biggest aha takeaways is like, wow, okay, I wanted to be a clinician, because I love horses, and I love training. But I'm going to have to learn all these different skills in order to be a successful clinician, I'm going to learn have to learn how to keep my books straight, how to talk to people and find all these wonderful venues to host clinics. I just, I guess I learned that it wasn't quite a straight and narrow path, as I thought it would be being a clinician,

Brandy Von Holten  15:49

you know. So I will tell you with, with booking you as a clinician, so here's my experience in the past with other clinicians, okay, is some of them want me to book it? And then maybe on the hook to make their their numbers, okay, that puts a lot of stress on me, because I'm like, Oh, my gosh, what if I don't make it? And then some people do not want to pay for our facility? They are just like, well, you get to take the clinic, like, I'm over here, like, well, what if I don't? What if I don't care? You know, I mean, like, I'm not a pole Bender, I'm not a barrel racer. I'm not. I'm, there's things that I don't I don't want to do you know, or I don't have the animal for it. You know, so then I have other clinicians that want to just pay us the spectator fee. And I was like, Well, what if they would if the spectators don't come? And so whenever you booked, you were like, how much is your facility, and you get the arena, and then you sent your deposit in? And then you filled your clinic. I made a Facebook event for it. But I didn't even know the start and stop time. And you already had it filled. You actually said your clinic here at von Holten ranch filled within 24 hours. Yes. So I was all like, I had people. And then whenever you sent your check, a lot of times people don't have their LLC set up. They don't have fictitious name filings done. They are not taking care of business behind the scenes. Okay, they're running a business through a personal account, which is a Oh, that's a nightmare. Okay. So for me, I had a couple of people that called and said, Well, hey, what do you know about Abigail? I'm like, absolutely nothing. But I can tell you, she has her stuff together. I was like, she rented my facility. She booked her clinic. She paid with a check that was written out. And it was a business check. And I was just like, she's called a couple of times just to verify stuff. And I was in there like, okay, so she's got her stuff together. And I was like, yeah, that already puts her ahead of about 85% of the clinicians that I deal with, that don't have their stuff together. So I will tell you that right there from host standpoint is nice. And then something that I learned here was something that I'm I actually took away from you and I didn't even have enough. I didn't have enough time to be able to go and partake or watch a lot of your when I went took some pictures yesterday was I love the fact that you only allow six people into your clinic. But then your clinic was more expensive than what most of the time are. But most of the time I have 10 or 12 people in a clinic, I'm going to offer a smaller Clinic and I'm going to increase my price for those smaller clinics because it is such more valuable instruction. Yeah, I mean, quality over quantity. Yes, I am going to I'm taking that away and being like, Okay, that was that was that's wonderful for me to learn from a 21 year old you know, but a lot of people I will tell you in the horse industry this was something cool that I took away from you also is man so many of the females in the last like 10 years. They've told me that people didn't respect them because of them being younger so I've actually like sought after a younger judges and clinicians just to help them get started but you said that you've not run into that and I think that's because you took the time to go through an education process, but either that or ladies pay pave the way in the past. Yeah, you know, so. I don't know what are your what's your take on that because you you said that your clinic filled within 24 hours. And one lady, I don't think any of your clinic participants had actually been here before, I don't believe

Abigail Hoffman 20:03

so either. But yeah, that being said, with all that, so as far as you know, having my LLC set up, I have to credit that a lot to down under Clinton did a phenomenal job, he does a great job teaching us to have our crap together. business wise, you have to, if you want to be an ambassador, anybody that is an ambassador with Clinton, we are going to have an LLC, we're going to have a business account, we're going to have liability insurance, we're going to have our stuff together. So I really have to credit that to Clinton, because he taught me all that. And as far as you know, being respected as a young woman, being a clinician and everything like that, I credit that a lot to my instructor at down under Clinton doesn't actually teach the academy himself. He has a woman named Kristen Hammacher teach it. She's a professional clinician with Clinton, which means she's learned everything that Clinton knows she knows that Justice well. And she is an extremely strong, independent, very inspiring individual. And she was my instructor and mentor at the academy. So I credit a lot a lot to her, I really look up to her. And she's the one that's given me the confidence to if I really haven't had anybody for I felt like is disrespecting me specifically because I'm young, or a woman. But if I even smell it, I just nip it in the bud right away. I just all call them out on it. Oh,

Brandy Von Holten  21:25

girl, I will tell you, man with me having if somebody ever says Oh, honey, that right there is at the red flag. Oh, that's they are swinging that red flag? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Somebody ever says, Oh, honey, or bless your heart. You need to be like,

21:42

Abigail Hoffman oh, yeah, yep. And a lot of times, I think why don't have that many issues is that a lot of times in the clinic, if I'm demonstrating a new exercise that I'm gonna have my participants do, I'm going to take one of their horses, and I'm going to demonstrate it myself. And a lot of the times the horses that come to my clinic aren't trained. So I'm going to have to make a correction with that horse and show them and I basically prove that I know what I'm doing. And I know how to handle a horse. Before the peep, my participants even started. So I guess that kind of takes away like they've already seen me prove that I know how to work a horse. So they don't question me as much they don't question my ability. Right.

Brandy Von Holten  22:22

I love that. That is such a positive thing for me to hear. So, okay, I something that was odd to me. Okay, things that stood out at your clinic. Okay. You had two other people that had went through the clinician Academy, and they just came here to assist you or just to help you? Yeah, what a what a family. Yeah, you know, yeah,

Abigail Hoffman 22:43

that's one of the reasons I love being a part of downunder is there's about 50 method ambassadors now certified with Clinton. And I've probably only met maybe 15 of them personally, and like, really, truly know them. But I mean, I have, there's no doubt in my mind that if I'm ever in Utah, there's an ambassador in Utah, if I ever needed something, and I was new to I could probably call her up. And she could, she would help me in any way she could. I mean, we really are very close knit very family. Like, it's definitely one of the best parts of being a method ambassador is that you have so many people supporting you so many people you can call ask for advice and help. It's It's amazing.

Brandy Von Holten  23:25

Okay, the other thing, okay, so this is going to be a little bit odd. But, you know, if you just heard something, I have my new dog in here with me, her name is Lady, but I'm okay. Back in the day whenever people used to ride on airplanes, okay, now people go on, like pajama pants. Just regular clothes. Girl back in the day, whenever people were going to fly. It was full on rolled hair, very fancy suits, all this stuff, right. I know, this seems odd. In your clinic, you have so many people that have dressed up. I mean, they're in starched shirts, they had the hats on, and I was like, oh my goodness, I'm not used to most of the time. Whenever I see clinic participants, they're just in like a T shirt or whatever, you know, every now and then there'll be a few people dressed up and it's just a clinician not but yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you get all these people all dressed up to your clinic. Yeah,

24:18

you know, that's kind of this clinic. Yeah, a lot of my participants do look very nice put together but I think part of that might be is you know, we as ambassadors we have our uniform, we wear our starched buttoned down shirt starts jeans, and we always wear our western hat and our buckle so we kind of have an our ambassador uniform, which is very polished and put together. Um, and I think sometimes the participants just kind of feed into that, like, Oh, my, my instructor looks really polished, really professional. Like, maybe I should just, you know, put on a nice buttoned down in a vest or something, you know,

Brandy Von Holten  24:50

you know, they say people say that you are a reflection of the five people you spend the most time with. Okay, so, and people adjourn Just as they move those people around in their life, okay, so I think we've seen you have you as the clinician this weekend, you have two other people that went through the clinician Academy. It's brought up other people made them be more professional, which the people that you're in your clinic, they look like they're professional all the time. So, okay, let's talk about the horses that you have in this clinic this week. I know there's a Haflinger there is. Yeah. And what else did you have that showed up? Well, we got to Haflinger.

Abigail Hoffman 25:31

And we've got a I believe he's probably around 16 year old quarter horse. I think the rest of them are quarter horses, but they range in age, we've got a two year old and a five year old or so. They've all been they've all been good, good mind and little horses. Now, not too many big red flags. I mean, obviously, the the participants are learning a lot, which it's really easy to get everybody learning when we don't have any, you know, major problems to run into. Those are the clinics where people are going to learn the most if you already have a decent relationship with your horse. You've got a higher starting point, I guess, rather than you know, none of the participants horses, we're trying to run them over or Bytom or anything like that. So we could just progress a lot faster.

Brandy Von Holten  26:18

You know, right. So you don't have any outlaws you just have idiots for horse. Well, not idiots, but you know, you know the difference between an outlaw on and yeah, because I would I love idiots. I hate the outlaws, the ones that are going to hurt you. Yeah. Hey, so do you allow mules into your clinics?

Abigail Hoffman 26:36

Um, I have not. We typically with down under it's kind of a Down Under policy that we don't allow the mules or donkeys. It's nothing against the animals. I've written mules and work for them. They're just different than horses. And in downunder, we don't we take horses through the academy. We're not certified with mules or donkeys like that we don't work with them. So it's nothing against the animal. It's just that's not part of our expertise.

Brandy Von Holten  27:01

Okay. Well, and that's perfectly fine. I will tell you out of my clinicians that we've had here, I've had several that did not allow meals. Well, uh, nobody. Nobody thinks about bringing a donkey typically. Yeah, but Well, it's just a smaller population, I guess some people that are going to attend clinics, but I have several clinicians that don't allow meals or donkeys into their stuff. And then I have some meal trainers that it's only it's meal lonely. Yeah,

Abigail Hoffman 27:28

yeah. They're just they're different animals. Like they're there. Every each one is good meals, great horses. Great, you know, but they're just they're just different psychological Oh,

Brandy Von Holten  27:36

yeah. Whenever I rolled up the other day, and I was on cocoa, you were like, Oh, I love your girl. And then the other clinician that was with you. Her name is Sara fields, Sara fields. She was like, Oh, this is Coco. I've seen her all over Facebook. So I know that y'all love meals. But that's, you know, it's good to know, whatever your trainings in that's what you're trained for. You know, I don't want to have someone doing surgery on my brain that is supposed to be dyeing my hair. Yes. You know, I mean, like, I want somebody that's an expert in that field. So I love the parameters. All right, so tell me what are some of your personal goals.

Abigail Hoffman 28:13

So my personal goals I really moving into Ranch, the ranch horse versatility stuff. My other Academy horse that I ended up keeping, I'm working towards him, getting him show ready. I'd like to get him showing at the breed level soon in the ranch riding in the ranch rail, that kind of stuff. So that's kind of my horsemanship goal is to just, you know, keep improving get to be the best I can be. Another avenue in life that I'm pursuing is I'm actually going to a dog training school here in Missouri in January, and I'm going to complete a six month dog training program to become a dog trainer as well. So that's something I'm really looking forward to adding to my resume.

Brandy Von Holten  28:57

Okay, and do you think that you'll ever combine the two where you could command the dog from the horse? Ah, yeah, I

Abigail Hoffman 29:03

definitely hope to get to that pet obedience kind of level. So I can have off off leash train dogs, and you know, yeah, combine them with the horse is I think an avenue that I'd really like to get good at with the dogs is the working the herding dogs. Oh, yeah. Because that's something that a lot of horse people need, you know, especially cow horse trainers. They've got all these cows to work. You need a dog to help you move all those cows.

Brandy Von Holten  29:27

Oh my gosh, we've some of my clients that have come here from like chicks in the sticks or that's one of our all inclusive women's events. That is just every time I open one of those up, it is full immediately. I have several people that have massive massive farm. I mean, we're talking over 20,000 acres and they're having to check cattle. So like having a a functioning cattle dog is it's not an option to not have one Yeah. Okay.

29:59

It's a game changer. Are you? Yeah, I

Brandy Von Holten  30:00

mean, well, and I love herding dogs, but a lot of times my herding dogs try to hurt me. Yep, every dog needs some obedience training. Yeah, for sure. So, okay, um, how do people get in touch with you?

Abigail Hoffman 30:14

So one of the easiest ways to get in touch in like, stay updated with me is by liking my Facebook page. It's Abigail Hoffman, dash, Clinton Anderson method ambassador, I post pretty regularly up there, I would say a couple times a week at minimum. On there is all my contact information. One of the easiest ways to get in contact with me is honestly emailing me at a Hoffman at downunder horsemanship.com. Or you can call or text me at 515-320-5167

Brandy Von Holten  30:48

Okay, so mostly Facebook Do you don't have a website yet?

30:52

Abigail Hoffman I don't have like a personal website. So being an ambassador, it's kind of like you're a part of a franchise. So if you go to certified clinician.com there will actually be a website with all of the ambassadors and a profile for each ambassador. So we've got kind of like a our own page on a website that's ran by down under for us, but no, I don't have like a personal website

Brandy Von Holten  31:16

yet. Well, it seems like you You're doing fine with the other one. Yes. So tell me what was your what made you choose more Missouri? What? What made you choose von Holten ranch to make that phone call?

31:28

Abigail Hoffman Yeah, you know, honestly, I was I was looking to do a clinic and I look for facilities that have a nice arena with good footing and stalls that my participants can overnight in and ideally camping too. And I found I just stumbled upon your guys's website at von Holten ranch and I saw it I was like, Oh my gosh, this is perfect. I mean, the arenas. It's a great size. The stalls are great, there's camping, and then even a bonus you guys have got that obstacle course and trails. So it is it's a perfect facility for my clinics. I

Brandy Von Holten  32:01

love it. Okay, you know, and I love our our mountain trail course that's that obstacle course. And I was talking to Sarah about it while ago because there's the the one with a fire truck in the large bridges. And though I mean, there's smaller bridges, there's all sorts of things to practice on. But we're actually doubling the size of that. And it's actually going to be in the woods. We've already got it fenced off. We've just added our our newest obstacle, which is an antique school Bale is like one of those one room school bales it was actually donated to me by one of our clients named Jay jolly. Jay jolly is 70 years old. And he just won his first buckle in our country tough trail, versatility national championship, but that bale belong to his mother. Oh, wow, that's Oh, we have so many clients that we just love. And you know, the bulk of our clients are 55 and over, and a lot of them are female, and they come here. And so I think they feel safe because we live on site. And this is a family owned farm we've been this family farm has actually been in the same family since 1906. And we bought it in 2013. But it was never a trail facility. And before that it was just a functioning farm where they had they had some row crops. And then they also had livestock, but they just took care of themselves basically. But when we bought this family farm in 2013, it had not been lived on since 1979. So everything that we've built you we have built it since we bought it in 2013 with just my husband and I oh my gosh, yeah, our wedding venue just one Missouri's best place to get married. We want it two years in a row. And then this podcast that you're on one Missouri's best podcast for the last two years.

Abigail Hoffman 34:01

Yeah, that's awesome. And then you don't crazy. It's awesome. And you know, I pulled up into this place. I was like, Man, I just stumbled on a goldmine for clinics. I mean, it's amaze, a very well kept facility. It's very clean the arena safe and big like this is by far the best facility I've ever hosted a clinic app.

Brandy Von Holten  34:17

Well thank you very much. All right, if you'd like to get in touch with us, you can go to von Holten ranch.com. Or if you'd like to look up this podcast, it's just Big Boss mayer.com Or you can look at me as brandy von holten.com and that last name von Holten. Okay, there's no a in it. And it's vo n and the second word is Holt n so All right, I think this is the beginning of a relationship between Abigail Hoffman and brandy von Holten and von Holten ranch and like what a wonderful, I'm so glad you made that phone call. Yeah, I am to see initiative. Yes. So many people are like Oh, I wish I wish And you're in lists like Ring ring. And I was like, Yeah, you can rent our facility. We want clinicians to rent our facility and host clinics instead of us having to be the ones that host them and be on the hook for all the I don't I don't like that. Yeah,

Abigail Hoffman 35:14

you know, and it's so much easier just in from my standpoint, I think it's just so much easier for me to have it on my my book that I rented the facility and it's my responsibility to get clinics and honestly, there's there was so much demand in this in this area. I told Brandi early when I first met her. I was like, I could have filled this clinic three times over. Yeah, it was so easy. It filled within less than 24 hours. It was crazy. See, that's

Brandy Von Holten  35:38

wonderful. I just, I think there's a need for quality clinicians and they love that the fact that you have educated yourself, so All right, well, hey, thank you for tuning into big boss Mare with brandy von Holten