Angela Ammons: Never Let Your Disability Define You

SPEAKERS

Brandy Von Holten, Angela Ammons

Brandy Von Holten  00:04

Today's interview is with Angela Ammons, a friend and frequent trail guest at Von Holten Ranch. This is her story about her two-year journey to win the Country Tough Trail Versatility National Championship. Angela has a congenital birth defect called amniotic band syndrome. She is missing several fingers and toes. Angela's fiery spirit is sure to motivate and captivate you. I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did.

Hey everyone, this is Brandy Von Holten Big Boss Mare podcast, and today with me I have someone named Angela Ammons. Is that correct, Ammons? It's a m m o n s. I met her here at Von Holten Ranch. My husband and I own a horse trail riding facility and a wedding barn in Mora, Missouri. Mora is like a teeny tiny town. We're really close to Sedalia. She is an equine competitor. Okay, so whenever I met her, I noticed she rides something called a POA, not to be confused with a POS. POA stands for what does POA stand for?

Angela Ammons:  Pony of the Americas.

Brandy Von Holten: Pony of the Americas. Okay, so what is that horse's height requirement?

Angela Ammons  01:20

She has to be under 54.

Brandy Von Holten  01:23

54 inches? [angela: yes] Okay. She's not actually very short.

Angela Ammons  01:28

Actually, I lied. It’s 56. They can be 14 hands and under.

Brandy Von Holten  01:32

Okay 14 hands, and she's right there, right?

Angela Ammons:

She’s at 13 3.

Brandy Von Holten

 13 3. okay, so if her hooves were long, she would probably be right at 14 hands. And she's a little powerhouse. Her name is Roper. For anybody that's a horse owner, her horse is buckskin. [Correct] So, when I met Angela, she goes by Angie I think we had a clinic here, that was the first time I met her. And then I've always been infatuated, I guess maybe inspired would be a better terminology, because she can do anything. I mean, what all have you competed in with just your horse?

Angela Ammons  02:18

We do fun shows. We've done sorting. We've done your trail challenges. We've done versatility. We've done ranch horse. We've dabbled in a little bit of everything. And she is actually a rodeo horse so she can actually break away rope. I just don't hold up my end of it very well.

Brandy Von Holten  02:39

Okay. Angie, how old are you?

Angela Ammons  02:46

50

Brandy Von Holten:

50, the big 5-0

Angela Ammons: Yeah, COVID ruined my party.

Brandy Von Holten  02:51

Oh no. COVID.. so ready for that to be in the past. Okay, so here's the deal is last year, Angie actually competed in our Country Tough Trail Versatility, our national championship. In that there's three things you have to compete in. Ranch horsemanship, which is a pattern. You compete in actual trail riding, which we can't take anything out there that's manmade so she might have to back between trees, go up a hill, she might have to leave the herd of horses. That's the trail. A lot of times in horse competitions when you say trail, it's a whole bunch of trot poles or timbers that are in the arena in a certain pattern, but when we say trail, it's legit trail. Then you also have to compete in obstacles, and we try to make them very natural. You might have to drag something but it's in a confined area, like we have a mountain trail course, or we could set it up in the arena. So there's three different things for them to compete in, then we take the score out of each one out of 100. We'll say 100 percentage points. And then we add them up. So last year, it was Angie versus a lady from Nebraska, who had actually brought two horses, so there were two entries. So there were only three entries in her division last year and this year, her division is huge. I think we have like, I think nine people with the national championship and then throughout the year, that division has had all the way up to 12 entries. 12 to 15 entries. It's our largest one. With national championships, there's buckles for first and second place. Last year, you won first in, what, ranch horsemanship?

Angela Ammons:

I won first in ranch horsemanship and obstacles.

Brandy Von Holten

Okay, and obstacles, and then she ended up getting third in trail. Whenever we combined her scores from first place, first place, and third place, she ended up third overall, okay. Oh, it broke my heart.

Angela Ammons  05:00

Oh, it didn't do much for mine either.

Brandy Von Holten  05:03

Oh my gosh it was not a good day because the other competitor, Her name is Jolene.

Angela Ammons

We love Jolene by the way.

Brandy Von Holten:

Oh, we love Jolene. I mean, we really did. Yeah, we love her. She's a cool lady. She was like, “Oh, I don't have to win both of those buckles, I wanted her to win one.” Angie wanted to win one, and I wanted her to win one, and the judge wanted her to win one, and even our point calculator. Everybody was like, no. And the margin that she was out of that reserve champion buckle I think was less than a point.

Angela Ammons:

It was point 3.

Brandy Von Holten

Point 3. Out of 300 points, let’s put that into dollars. $300.30. A quarter and a nickel kept her from winning a buckle. So a lot of times whenever people are faced with things like that, I mean, it crushes your soul.

Angela Ammons  06:00

Oh yeah, for about 30 seconds.

Brandy Von Holten  06:02

Oh my gosh. Anyway, so that was last year. This year she has come back. And I think you have won first place in every versatility that you have competed in here. [Angie: correct]. We're at the national championship for 2020. I know that I'm going to play these, my podcasts, I'm trying to get like eight to 10. We're a little bit delayed on that. But have you had a good run so far this year?

Angela Ammons  06:29

I've had a very good run.

Brandy:

Well I meant this weekend for this event.

Angela Ammons

Yeah, this weekend has probably been my best competition to date. My pony, she's got it together this weekend.

Brandy Von Holten  06:39

Because it's a female. I mean, we have some up and down. Even horses are up and down with their personality and attitude and everything. So here's the deal, Angie is in the running for a national championship this year. Now, something that I have not mentioned about Angie, is Angie is actually missing a couple of fingers, right? [Angie: Correct.] Okay, so tell people what your hands look like, what do they look like?

Angela Ammons  07:08

So, on my left hand, I have an index finger and a thumb and then three nubs to go with it. On my right hand, I just have three nubs and a thumb. I was actually born with all 10 fingers. The doctors in Iowa City made the decision to cut out the middle finger on my right hand so that my index finger would grow longer. This was so that I had something to put my thumb up against because quite frankly, as long as you got a thumb and something to put it against, there's not much you can’t do with it. Then my feet match my hands. [Brandy: Exactly?] Yeah, so my left foot has a big toe, and then just nubs. My right foot just has a couple of nubs and then nothing else, so I don't have a big toe on my right foot. I was born without it. What caused all this was, when I was born, is called amniotic bands. It actually acts like rubber bands in the womb before you're even born. They start cutting your circulation off. It was cutting the circulation off to my fingers so I lost my fingers before I was born. The highest amniotic band that I had was on my right leg, and it was about three inches above my right ankle. So my right foot was actually in the process of dying off and I was in the process of losing my right foot. Thankfully it didn't develop soon enough before I was born to actually take the foot, but it ended up that I was born with a clubfoot. So I had to wear shoes with braces on them until I was probably four-ish, three, four-ish, and they just kept getting bigger shoes with the brace between them. I had to learn how to walk multiple times because every time I'd learned to walk, they'd put me in another brace.

Brandy Von Holten  09:05

Well, inquiring minds want to know. I always thought you had to have your big toe for balance, is that some bad science?

Angela Ammons  09:16

It’s some bad science. They're full of it. I've got three kids, and every single one of them got in a fight with their teacher in science class coming up through middle school because you do the whole “You don't have any balance without a big toe,” and they're like, “don't make me drag my mom in here.”

Brandy Von Holten  09:33

That’s something where you were like, I don't want to show my feet and go into your science class without some shoes on.

Angela Ammons  09:40

I don't want to do that. I don't mind about the whole hand things, but for some reason I don't like I don't like people looking at my feet. The feet kind of weirds me out. I can imagine what they do to other people.

Brandy Von Holten  09:52

Okay. So, you know, my dad's missing part of his index finger and he has used that to train so many little boys, he'll be like, “don't put your hand on that. Look what happened.” And then he'll hold his hand up and you can just see the terror in their eyes like “I’m never going to touch that again.” Or they'll be picking their nose or something and then he'll put his little nub to his nostril and then pull his hand down and be like, “ahhhh,” and the kids are like, “Oh my gosh,” He has used his cut off finger… My dad lost his finger because he was pushing a lawn mower out of a ditch when he was like five or six or seven, somewhere around that. The lawn mower rolled back on his hand and he lost a finger, well, part of a finger. Okay, so last year, the end of last year, you'd asked me to write a sponsorship letter, because you ride a pony and it's a business that has pony tack. [Yep.] I loved writing that letter for you. Did you get that sponsorship?

Angela Ammons  11:00

No. She went with more kids that year. And I'm, I'm okay with it. [Right.] She was pretty torn, but she had a bunch of kids. And I'm like, just let the kids do it.

Brandy Von Holten  11:09

I know, because most times pony’s… a lot of horses are very close to being defined as a pony because 14 1, 14 2, they are just over that pony height. And there's a lot of cattle working horses that are that height and she's at the top end of the pony range. So Angie has been very open about her hands and everything because it's good for other adults to see. It's good for children to see instead of hiding, I guess. Do you say deformity or do you say handicap? Or do you say things aren't what they're supposed to be? How would somebody say that?

Angela Ammons  11:52

I say you gotta work with what God gave you [Right?]I don't know. I guess I've never referred to it as a disability because I was never allowed to. I come from a pretty strong family. And I know that they took it rough. My grandparents took it rough because I come from farm families, you know, and I was never allowed to say I can't. And my grandma, God bless her, she didn't like left-handed. She didn't want me to write left-handed. That's why I write right-handed with no index finger. I'm actually ambidextrous thanks to that I can write with both hands. But the left hand gets a little janky.

Brandy Von Holten  12:40

My left hand looks like a chicken made it on paper with pencils tied to its feet, it’s awful.

Angela Ammons  12:46

 I guess we never really referred to it as any word. It was like, “Yeah, you mean the one that's missing some fingers?” Yeah, that was me.

Brandy Von Holten  12:59

 It seems like a lot of times people are really quick to feel sorry for themselves,. Or want something different. Saying I can't do this, I can't do that. As me being a competition host, you've never asked me to modify anything.

Angela Ammons  13:22

And I won't. I asked sometimes to clarify the rules. The only question I ever ask is does it matter which hand I use? Because if it's going to ask for a specific hand, then I have to have a different plan going into the obstacle. I'm not going to ask to do it differently. In my mind, I have to figure out how to do it. But I'm not going to ask you to modify it for me. That's just me.

Brandy Von Holten  13:53

You know what it reminds me of? I'm not very tall. if I've got to get something on the top shelf, I just got to figure it out how to do it, you know, and then you've just got to have a game plan. You can't be in there like, oh, that didn't work out. Yesterday, bless one of my competitors, one of the obstacles was to be off of your horse, and then you had to walk up to this other person's horse while it's mounted. It was our trail competition, and I try to put things into that I've had to do. I've had to get off of my horse when I was on trail and get something out of a horse's hoof of a person that can't get off of their horse. We recreated that scenario. Angie couldn't get the other horse’s leg picked up. It was leaning on her and she's like, “Oh my gosh.” She's not used to picking up that horse's leg. One of our other competitors, she’s an older competitor, she says, “Just use your fingernail. I just use my fingernail and I go right up the horses hoof.” She said it twice and the other competitor was unaware that Angie doesn't have any fingernails because she doesn’t have any fingers. I mean she's got one good index finger, and you do have a fingernail on that one.

Angela Ammons  15:10

I do. But that's not very much

Brandy Von Holten  15:11

It's not enough. Yeah, she just tried to poke me with it and I didn't feel anything. It’s like she poked me with a stick of butter. Anyway, she's got two thumbnails and one on the index finger. Whenever she held up her hand, she said, “I don't have any fingernails.” The competitor felt so bad because she just felt like she just offended someone. She was like, “oh my.” Later my judge is telling me about this because she's pretty close with Angie, and we know that Angie is okay. Angie is very, “I can do whatever you can do. I've been married, I’ve got kids, I work,” she's in to all this stuff, right? She was like, Oh, don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact. We didn't feel sorry for Angie. We felt sorry for the lady that didn’t know.

Angela Ammons  16:00

I did too, I did too. Because, you know, I can joke about it. There's no reason to get down about something that makes you different from somebody else. So I actually make jokes about it and kind of poke at people with it a little bit. We were joking in the office here on Friday night, and I said something about, “well, we could "use sign language, but I'd have a speech impediment.” You know, just things like that. I kind of felt bad for her too after I said, “I don't have any,”  and kind of held them up and looked at her. And I know she felt bad. But she didn't need to. I mean, I wasn't offended. [She tried to help.] She was trying to help me. Bless her heart. She really was trying to help me.

Brandy Von Holten  16:45

She was just like “Girl, if you just use your fingernail that horse will pick its leg up for you.” That person actually is in the advanced division, and won the advanced division yesterday. She's awesome. I mean, she’s awesome at 76. I'm actually going to have an interview with her. Also, because she is amazing. She rides her horse with a bareback pad, a halter, and a lead rope and she's 76! And she won the advanced division yesterday.. She was totally trying to help you yesterday.

 People with excuses. I have a lot of people in my life that say things like I'm too old to go back to school, I'm too big to do this, I'm too small to do that. All sorts of things. Then I see you over here. It’s like you literally take your earrings out and you put black underneath your eyes and you're like, “Oh, heck nah. I am not going to come to this competition and not win a buckle.” You get motivated and I don't ever see you not doing something. Whenever I see you on Facebook, I'm like, “What is she doing? Where is she at, like, this girl is doing some stuff!” What can you say to someone out there to make them stop with the excuses? Because it'd be really easy for you to pull that card of “oh, I can't do that. I don't have any fingers. I can't rope. I can't ride my horse right. I can't hold my reins like everybody else.” But then you're killing it. [yeah]. How do you get somebody past that?

Angela Ammons  18:35

People have got to find it within themselves to want to. Like I said, I was raised that the excuses weren't allowed. If I wanted to be able to do something, I had to figure it out how to do it for myself. My parents didn't wait on me. My grandparents didn't wait on me. There have been some times that I just really wanted to quit. Last year being one of them. When I ended up third last year because of point three points, I kind of had to step back and say, “okay, how are you going to handle this? You can either go home and never come back, or you can come back next year and try to take some names on a notebook and buckle them down. What's going to make me feel better? Going home and hiding from it isn't going to make me feel any better.” You always have to try to find the positive. I don't have some sort of magic elixir to tell you how to battle your demons. There are people out there that will help you battle your demons if that's what you need. I've actually been going through a rough time professionally here in the last little bit, and I've got to figure it out. I've been fighting that. I've went and talked to somebody because I'm not going to let things get me down. How you get that right in your own mind is whatever you must do. You find a hobby, you get a dog, you talk to somebody. If you have to, there's no shame in taking some medication to even out for a little while. [right]. There's no shame in asking for help. It took me until I was probably almost 45 years old to figure that out. The faster you figure that out, the better off your life is going to be. There are people out here that will help you. There are people out here that won't make fun of you. You've just got to find them. If the people that you're with are making fun of you, or not willing to help you, you don't have the right people. You keep looking for those people because you're better off by yourself and keeping your bootstraps up than you are being surrounded by a bunch of downers. I think there's a lot to be said for what you surround yourself with.

Brandy Von Holten  20:56

I have heard that the five people you spend the most time with, you become a reflection of those five people. If you are around people that are depressed and sad. There is nothing wrong about being depressed. You know what I mean?

Angela Ammons  21:14

You got to dig yourself out of it. Don't wallow in it. You aren’t a hog, don't wallow.. You’re not a hog, you’re a human . [get up out of it.]  You get up on them two feet, and you keep walking forward. Even if it's only one step today. As long as it's a forward step, you did better than you did yesterday.

Brandy Von Holten  21:34

Talking about reaching out for help,I'm trying to expose myself here to help people. Whenever my husband and I bought this family farm that hadn't been lived on in 40 years, we cashed in my retirement. And we spent it in 24 hours. [you were probably terrified]. I went to a therapist for almost two months, once a week. I just talked, like what I'm doing right now. I just needed someone to listen, and I was scared. A lot of my immediate family is not financially ready for retirement, and the fact that I got rid of mine, and spent every dime…. Actually, I spent more than that. I had to get a loan. Oh girl, it gave me acid reflux, I cried. But I went to a therapist. Also, right now, I, I have gained weight. I have gained almost 10 pounds a year. I feel sexy still, and I feel I am loved by people. I know that, but I'm not trying to check out early. I am trying to get it. So I have a personal trainer. I have about three people that I make phone calls to every now and then just to be like, “Hey, what are you doing?” It just helps me. You've gotten some phone calls from me, I’ll just be like, “Hey, girl, guess what I'm doing,” you know what I mean? I reach out to people. Our facility is packed on the weekends, but during the week, it's empty. I'm used to being around a lot of people. I deal with loneliness a lot of times. People think, “Oh, you're having so much fun,” and I'm over here thinking, “Where’s my cat, I need somebody around me.”

I have always had a coach.  I tried to go to the Olympics. As a heavyweight fighter, I had a coach. I did powerlifting and I had a coach. I have my horsemanship trainer. Now that I'm kind of here a lot, I make sure that he comes here because I need a horsemanship coach. I take lessons. I have someone that I had hired to help me with marketing. I reach out to other people. I'm not over here like  “look at me doing this all by myself.” I have help.

Angela Ammons  24:13

Nobody does it completely by themselves. I got hurt four years ago. I have ridden horses since before I could walk. Horses have always been my thing, and then four years ago I got hurt really bad. I ended up in the hospital for a week. It took everything I had to even ride again, let alone to be sitting here competing in things like this this weekend. I ended up having to go to a confidence clinic and met a gentleman named Raymond Hellmouth. I actually had a mental breakdown in his arena. I was sobbing, I was crying, I was carrying on. I wasn't getting on that horse. He just stood there with me and let me work through it. That was probably the biggest thing that I've ever done, is let myself have that break down, because I was trying to be so strong about it that I'd never actually healed from it. I came down here and I took a clinic. I took Lee Hart's clinic down here for a week, his week long one. Then I took lessons with you and I've taken lessons with Lauren. I was probably 45-46 years old before I actually had a professional horseback lesson. Before that, you taught yourself how to ride like a wild Indian, you know. So it's never too late, you're never too old, you're never too damaged.[right.] “Never” is too quantitative for people to just give up. You got to just find what makes you tick, or find somebody that can help you figure it out.

Brandy Von Holten  25:48

What was that gentleman's name? And where was he at?

Angela Ammons  25:50

Raymond Hellmouth. [Okay.] And he's an Iowa, he's up by Ames. He does a lot of English showing actually and a lot of driving. He does training, but he was absolutely amazing. And I would recommend him to anybody. Kim Blanton's another one that can help you if you're afraid. If you're afraid, don't be ashamed to say it [right.] Because getting it out in front of you will help you address it. Just like if somebody is trying to label you with having a disability or telling you you can't. Get rid of those people. Nobody needs that crap. [No] Find somebody that can help you get through it. I know we had one this weekend. She's scared. She needs to find somebody to help her. I'm probably going to talk to her before I leave.

Brandy Von Holten  26:46

It’s funny that you say that. Something that's going on that you all don't know is that we had one of our competitors, who already had some confidence issues, she came off of her horse yesterday on trail. Then she got back on at each obstacle and did the competition. What she doesn't know, because the competition is going on right now, I called her instructor that lives a couple of hours away. She's on her way up here to talk to her because I knew that she needed that. I knew she didn't want it from me. She reached out to that lady that I called yesterday, her name is Teresa. Whenever I called her that this lady came off her horse. I don't want to out her and I'm not going to. Teresa said, “she messaged me like three times, and then I wasn't able to call her back. Then she sent me a different form of a message.” I knew she already needed her. She's one of my mounted archers so we have a relationship, and I knew that she's really tight with that lady. So, you know, she's on her way. That's your tribe, you know what I mean? Your vibe creates your tribe. And if your tribe is bringing you down, and you're the only one that's putting energy into it, then you've got to update your five people you spend a lot of time with. You have got to upgrade, and sometimes that's rough. I've had to cut some relationships with some family members that were bringing me down. My five needed to be positive and supportive, and sometimes that is and sometimes is “not family.

Angela Ammons  28:30

That is absolutely correct. I've had to do the same thing because I always got the “you can't do that,” or ‘you're not good enough to do that,’ or ‘what do you think you're doing,’ kind of thing. They are on the very fringe of my life right now. [Right] You can stay on the fringe, but you're not coming into the fold and participating if that's how you're going to act. [Yeah, you don't get part of my soul.] Right, if you're going to act like a turd, go lay in the yard. You're not going to be in the house.

Brandy Von Holten  29:01

Oh girl, there are so many t-shirts I can make with these sayings from you.

Angela Ammons  29:05

Yeah, I'm going to start writing t-shirts for Brandy. That's going to be my retirement plan.

Brandy Von Holten  29:11

You know, I've had people all my life tell me that, especially with the full-contact fighting. I'm not five foot seven. I'm five foot six something. Most heavyweight fighters are at least six foot tall. Okay, most heavyweight fighters fight somewhere between 200 to 225, and I usually fought about 240 to 250 pounds. I was short and thick. But what they didn't know is that I had more grit than what they had. Never judge a book by its cover. I know that is so over relayed, but it’s true. [It is very true. Like the lady that is 76, our oldest competitor, I am looking forward to giving that blue ribbon out to her in a couple of hours whenever we do our award ceremony, and people love it. We have another competitor here that is 70, so we have a 70 and a 76-year-old. I made them take a picture together and they're like, “Oh, we had to take a picture together because we're the oldest.”

Angela Ammons  30:19

But they’re the oldest. They should be celebrating that.

Brandy Von Holten  30:23

I know people that are 40 that aren’t getting around as good as those ladies are. and I'm over here like, “Okay, well, you're riding in a bareback pad, and you're riding a Paso Fino that's kind of nuts about being outside of the arena.

Angela Ammons  30:35

 Yeah, he’s a bit of a firecracker. She has got some guts.

Brandy Von Holten  30:39

And she is handling him perfectly. Yet here they are saying oh, man, we're the oldest. We're thinking, man, I want to be you whenever I'm 70 and 76. I’m 41 and I’m not riding in a bareback pad.

Angela Ammons  30:53

Right? There's no way I'm riding what I'm riding in a bareback pad. That's what I'm telling you. That's something else people need to remember, you never know who's watching you. You don't know what they think because probably, more often than not, they're thinking admirable thoughts and not negative thoughts. The negative is more in your head than there's. So when they tell you it's really not your business what other people think of you, it's kind of correct. But just know, they're probably thinking more positive, maybe more borderline envious than negative. All that negative is in your own head. Just get rid of it. You can be so damaging to yourself. I've kind of went through that here the last few months, I've been damaging to myself. That's why I've kept up with my horse activity and coming down here. I've spent more time at Von Holten Ranch this year than I've spent at home for crying out loud. It's a happy place for me. I can come down here and kind of hide out. It's just my zen place. If you have to do that, find a zen place. It's not always home. Sometimes home isn’t as zen-ful as it should be.

Brandy Von Holten  32:09

We go on vacations and stuff, and whenever we come back, we appreciate our own bed more. I appreciate having my coffeemaker with my coffee creamer It just makes me appreciate my home a little bit more whenever I'm gone from it a little bit. I also appreciate my husband more whenever I'm away from him a couple of days. You know what I mean? I come back and then all of a sudden these little arguments that I thought were important are dumb, you realize how dumb they were. Like, oh, Lord, I have wasted part of my life on some dumb conflict.

Angela Ammons  32:53

Times going to pass by whether you're happy or you're not, so you might as well pass the time being happy and finding some joy in life. We're only going to get one go around. Except me, I'm probably coming back as an alligator or some crap.

Brandy Von Holten  33:09

Now they're going to think you're a weirdo. I've got people probably crying, listening to this podcast, and now they're like, oh, wait, she's a weirdo.

Angela Ammons  33:18

No, I’m not a weirdo. I just think it's a shame if we really only get one go around.

Brandy Von Holten  33:26

Man, if I ever get to come back, I want to come back as somebody's lap cat. I just want to lay around, eat, sleep and then do what I want.

Angela Ammons  33:34

If I ever got to come back, I want to come back as one of my animals because man, they live like kings.

Brandy Von Holten  33:38

Oh, yeah. No, they're all fat.

Angela Ammons

 Hey. They got feelings.

Brandy Von Holten

 Her dog is fat, her pony’s fat.

Angela Ammons  33:45

Yeah, my pony is. And my dog is fat, too. My dogs got a dimple over her tail she's so fat. [Oh my gosh.] She's an old shelter dog though. Mama has a hard time telling her no.

Brandy Von Holten  33:58

Oh my gosh. So I will tell you things that I've seen Angie do whenever she has decided to do something, is she will make a reservation. She'll make a reservation and she'll be like, hey, I'm coming to that. I want to sign up for the clinic the day before. She has taken so many clinics with me. Oh, man, but, you've improved.

Angela Ammons  34:18

I have improved, and I've learned a lot from you. I've learned a lot from Lauren. You have to be open to learning. You know, some people get in their mind, “Well, you're younger than me. You can't teach me anything.”

Brandy Von Holten  34:32

We're close in age. [We are.] Lauren, she's 23, Lauren is Lauren McCain. She trains mules and she's wanting to do this mule breeding program. So she's got her a Jack. She's young, but I respect Lauren. This year, Lauren has been the judge that I've used the most. You've taken lessons and clinics with her and Lauren actually helps me. She's 23. Do you know how many people don't respect trainers when they're young? Which is dumb.

Angela Ammons  35:07

It's too bad because she's very helpful.

Brandy Von Holten  35:10

And she's nice.

Angela Ammons  35:12

Right. I don't want anybody to listen this and think these people are easy on me and that we're all happy pants and stuff over here because that is not the truth. They chew me up one side and down the other. But I got to be open to that, because they're only doing that because they want to help me, and they have helped me. Like I said, I just had the best weekend with my horse I've probably had in... well, I can't even remember. And it's been because I have worked hard this year. I have taken the lessons I have listened. I've put in the work.

Brandy Von Holten  35:44

You know, whenever somebody knows they put in the work, then if it didn't work out, then you would be like, Man, I put in the work and it just didn't work out. But man, I have so many people in my life, they don't put in the work and then if they don't win, it's, “the judge didn't like me,” “that other girl she bought a nice fancy horse,” and I am so turned off by that stuff. Now with us having this trial facility and hosting so many competitions, if I hear “the judge doesn’t like me,” no, the judge doesn't care. They're up there like I need to use the bathroom, I'm thirsty, I'm hungry.

Angela Ammons  36:23

Yeah, they're not thinking anything personal. And I know Brandy and Lauren both worry about that because they don't want to show any favoritism or anything. So, they're actually harder on those of us that have taken lessons and clinics with them, because they hold us to a higher expectation. I don't know what I'm doing hanging out with these people, because my score probably would come a little easier if I would just back off but they've taught me so much I can't say that. But they do work hard at it and it's been a good experience. Just find your people, keep moving forward kind of thing because you you're not a hog. Don't wallow.

Brandy Von Holten  37:06

 Angie is she's here at von Holten ranch. She does CT2V, Country Tough Trail Versatility. She's also at Farmington sometimes they're doing some conditions. So she's around, about she lives in Iowa so, I'm sorry.

Angela Ammons  37:27

It's southern Iowa.

Brandy Von Holten  37:29

 She comes down and she knows what restaurants are the best. like yesterday I was like wow, where did you get this catfish? And it's in my hometown, I didn't know they had catfish.

Angela Ammons  37:43

Katie's Barbecue in Sedalia, Missouri has the best catfish you're ever going to eat. You can sit on a train like your Sheldon while you're eating it if you so choose.

Brandy Von Holten  37:53

 Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, because he loved trains. But last night I had a piece of catfish, and I kind of try to avoid fish sometimes if it's in a landlocked state. [Oh, it's delicious.] I was wrong, I admit it. I cannot wait to go eat a half a pound of catfish in Sedalia, Missouri. Alright guys, whatever you're thinking, you've got something missing man, I've seen women with scars on their faces, and they're just devastated. I'm just like, what? It's a piece of you, but it's not you. It's one little bitty thing.I know, it feels like the biggest thing to you. My weight it feels like a big thing to me. But people compliment me, they love me. [We don't see that] I know. In the beginning I feel that way because I hear it enough. Yesterday, I was thinking oh I don't want to post this picture. Then I started thinking, that's stupid. My mule stepped up on a rock, she wouldn't do that before. And now that mule, trust me. I got a picture. I'm laughing so my mouth is open. My belly is squashed up to the horn. I was like, Dude, I know that there's a whole bunch of people that needs to see that needs to see somebody going forward. And people are inspired. They don't even realize. Like yesterday, the little girl that's been taking pictures, she didn't even know that Angie was missing fingers.

Angela Ammons  39:27

No, she didn’t. She's taken pictures of me for two years.

Brandy Von Holten  39:32

Well, she thought, oh, she looks so good on this horse. She never thought to look at flaws. You know what I mean? And I know she's probably gotten a glimpse but just didn't register it.

Angela Ammons  39:43

Didn’t put it together. And that's okay. My godmother always used to buy me gloves for Christmas and I'm like Oh, thank you what the hell am I going to do with these?

Brandy Von Holten  39:53

Gloves? Great. Yeah I didn’t think about that. You know right now the he press on a sticker finger nails

Angela Ammons  40:00

Oh, yeah, Color Street. Oh yeah, I can make them last a long time.

Brandy Von Holten  40:05

You only use three instead of 10. Well you're getting like triple the amount. Yeah, you don't have to buy very many sets better like a color when you get it.

 Angela Ammons  40:14

Like I said, got to work with what God gave you.

Brandy Von Holten  40:16

Alright guys, so this right here is Brandy Von Holten. I love introducing you to other people that I view as Big Boss Mares. We are also going to have some interviews with some guys because we can’t have Big Boss Mares without Big Boss Men, and we love them, right? [We do.] Alright guys, until next time, y'all stay safe and I hope to see you on the trail. Reach out and create a better group that helps you.