Magen Warlick: Mental Mindset of a Champion

Magen Warlick

SPEAKERS

Brandy Von Holten, Magen Warlick, transcribed by Rhiannon Niemeier

Brandy Von Holten 00:07

This week's interview is with Megan Warlick. She has evolved as a horse woman from three-day eventing, to a world champion extreme cowboy racer. She has now set her sights on cow horse events. Megan discusses her road to victory and the mental mindset that helped her along the way. Welcome back to Big Boss Mare, this is Brandy Von Holten. I have Megan Warlick with me today. Now, Megan Warlick, it's not spelled M E G A N. It's M A G E N, and it looks like Megan, but it is Magen. Okay, so she's out a Stephenville, Texas, and she's an equestrian. Magen, I have your bio in front of me. It says that you rode English from three to 18 years old, and you competed in three day eventing. Okay, so tell us, why English?

Magen Warlick 01:09

When I was little, If lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, and my mom's best friend was from the United Kingdom. Through them being friends and me getting old enough to be able to ride, my mom took me out to do some lessons as a very young child. Tammy Hansen was her name, she worked for the Queen in England, and moved over to the states, married a guy. So she was my initial, first trainer, taught me how to do everything. She rode English, obviously, being from the UK, and that's who got me into three-day eventing. I did a little bit 100 jumper, obviously learned some dressage, and that was pretty much what we had. We did Pony Club. It was great. It was it was probably the best foundation I could have gotten.

Brandy Von Holten 02:06

Okay, so explain because I do not come from that world, and I'm sure other people did not also. So will you explain what three day eventing is?

Magen Warlick 02:19

Yeah, sure, three-day eventing is a three sport event where the horse has to be versatile enough to be able to complete a dressage test, which is a written pattern, so to say, that you complete in an arena. Then your next event is cross country. So on cross country, it's a long course, it's endurance, it's bravery, you have to jump solid jumps, and it's timed as well. You want to be within an optimum time. That's probably why everyone does three-day eventing, it's the most fun. Then your third event is show jumping, which is in an arena with jumps that can easily be knocked down. That is also timed. Okay, so, so for a horse to do all three of those is pretty challenging.

Brandy Von Holten 03:14

Okay. All right. That does sound very challenging. Did you like the one that was outdoors the most?

Magen Warlick 03:22

Oh, definitely. As a kid, I was like fearless. I just wanted to go gallop my horse and jump stuff.

Brandy Von Holten 03:30

Okay, so it says at 16 years old, you had a trainer named Cindy Berg. Was that the one that your mother was best friends with that got you into all of this?

Magen Warlick 03:45

No. So, we moved when I was 13 to Spokane, Washington. In that, of course, I had to find a new trainer, she three day eventing. I started taking lessons with her I guess when I was like 13 and we bought a horse up there in Washington, a Thoroughbred. I had been working for her in the summers. Mom would drop me off and I would stay you know a couple weeks at a time and ride my horse and do grunt work and clean stalls and feed in exchange for lessons. So, Cindy was an up-and-coming rider. She just imported a horse from England, and she took it to Kalispell Montana, for her first show on him. There was a freak accident on a cross country course. He was galloping down a hill and took a fall stumbled, rolled, crushed her, and ultimately killed her. That changed the course of my horsemanship journey drastically. You know, I was 16 and invincible I could ride anything. I was fearless. I just didn't ever think twice before I got on a horse and did anything with them, whether it was just riding around casually or going and jumping and competing. You don't realize how powerful those animals are and how even a freak thing like that can happen. So it was pivotal in my life for sure.

Brandy Von Holten 05:13

You have this huge experience in writing English and doing this three day eventing. I have a background in martial arts. Whenever I was probably around that age, one of my instructors was in a car accident. At that age, you're just different than what you are whenever you're grown up. Things mean a lot more. We take things so hard. I remember my first breakup with a boyfriend. I cried and cried and cried. That's just how we take those things. Being 16 and seeing this trainer that you see do something that you're doing and have passion about. I bet it was devastating. And even more devastating than what we realized. If something like that happened now, it would be crushing also, but whenever you're at that age in life, it's just so much harder. I see at 19 years old, you applied to be an apprentice with Clinton Anderson, and you trained to become a professional clinician level in two years’ time. So, by the time you were 21, you were a professional clinician, and you taught lessons and clinics for three additional years under Down Under Horsemanship. If you could sum up your experience, is there one thing that you brought with you whenever you formed Megan Warlick Horsemanship in 2013? Was it just confidence or believing in yourself? Was there any one thing that you're like, woah, that right, there's life changing.

Magen Warlick 07:06

The whole experience really was life changing. When I moved down to Texas to take that apprenticeship, I didn't know how to train a horse. I can ride, I could get on and stay in the middle of one, but I didn't know how to communicate and teach a horse how to do what I wanted. It was a struggle. I would pull and put leg on and hope that they would eventually get it. In those five years’ time, I really did two years in training and being exposed to horses, I was given the opportunity to handle hundreds of horses. Whether it was at a three-day clinic, whether it was a two, or whether it was at the ranch training horses. I got a level of experience with different animals. So many that most people couldn't gain that in 10 years. So, taking that away was huge. Like you said confidence, and just having a process to follow. It definitely catapulted me to a level of being able to then teach people and form my own business and go from there with it. Also really, after those five years, knowing what I wanted and what I didn't want, and how I wanted to run my business and how I didn't want to run my business. You see a lot in that amount of time at that level. It was super good at a young age to be able to go through that and learn what you want and what you don't want.

Brandy Von Holten 08:53

2013 is the year my husband and I also bought this land to turn it into Von Holten Ranch. Before that, I had one primary horse that I rode and now I have five. I know just the experience from riding a Tennessee Walker mule, a leopard Appaloosa mare that's super sassy, then a quarter horse mare that's like 14 hands and real cowy, having a Missouri Fox Trotter mule, and then having a paint horse like just a paint gelding. Those five personalities, sometimes I forget which worse I'm on and some, like my little cow horse, my little Palomino, I don't have to use very much leg on her, she'll get ticked off. Then my Missouri Foxtrotter mule, I have to use a lot of leg, a lot of leg. I could not imagine 100 Horses, the experience, because I'm over here like the five I have, they're all different, they have different personalities, they're at different levels in their training. Their bodies are different. But to have 100, man, I could see that in a two-year time period, hundreds of horses come through. Just the pure quantity, and then being able to have something to follow. I could really see how that is an experience that most people are not going to be set up for. So, 2013 You started Megan Warlick Horsemanship, and it's Warlick, W A R L I C K. You did that for a couple of years. In 2016, you had started extreme cowboy racing. You went to your first World Championship there and you got reserve in the Pro Division. Then you got an invitation to the Calgary Stampede for the following year. Explain to people cowboy racing.

Magen Warlick 11:09

So extreme cowboy racing is a timed and judge obstacle event. You take a single horse, and you ride through a course that the horse has never seen. You usually walked it on foot, you have to memorize it, typically 13 obstacles, and then you take your horse in there. When they say go, you go and complete that course as quickly and efficiently and pretty as possible. It's not just a speed event like barrel racing or team roping, it's also judged. So, you want to do things with a high level of horsemanship, showing willingness in your horse bravery control. It can be anything. They ask for lead changes and spins, to roping something, to dragging something, to jumping a jump, to maneuvering your horse's body through some type of maze. it's a neat event. It really tests the horse and rider team. Your horse has to trust you, you have to trust your horse. You never run out of things to work on for extreme cowboy racing because every single horse is different. No two runs are ever the same. You really don't know what obstacles are going to be asked of you to do until you show up at the show. You always have to be working on everything.

Brandy Von Holten 12:37

To go your first time into it and win the reserve World Championship in the Pro Division, there's some Big Boss Mayor material right there girl. You have a once in a lifetime horse, we love those. The following year, you won at that Calgary Stampede that you have the invitation for now. That's only 10 people. 10 people from the world are invited to that, correct? [Magen: Yeah.] Okay, so the Calgary Stampede is in Canada, correct? [Magen: Yeah.] All right. Try to explain the Calgary Stampede to somebody that's never heard of it.

Magen Warlick 13:35

Yeah, sure. So, the Calgary Stampede has been going on for a very, very long time. It was initially a rodeo event. Through the years, this two-week process of the rodeo has started including a bunch of other events. There's cutting, there's reining cow horse, there's an extreme cowboy race. They have a draft show, they have cart pulling. It's like a big fair and rodeo, but it's actually the largest in the world. So Calgary Stampede is amazing. I've never been to anything like it in my life. People come from all over the world to come watch this event in the summer. It's in July usually in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It's amazing. So, cowboy challenge is just a very small portion of the Calgary Stampede. But it's the largest event in the cowboy racing world to be invited. You're competing for $10,000, and it's a 10-person competition, invitation only. It's a very prestigious event for the sport of cowboy racing. Calgary Stampede is amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone if you have any interest in the Western way of life and any sport, any animal event. There's something for everyone.

Brandy Von Holten 15:02

I've never been to it, but I've watched a bunch of videos and what I've seen of it, it looks like a combination of a rodeo and Vegas. There are lights, and cameras, and there are shows, and there are people being dropped down from the ceiling, and then they have those big guns that shoot T shirts into the crowd. It looks like the blue man crew or something like that in a rodeo. It looks like the stands are full, and not a little bit full. FULL

Magen Warlick 15:42

Yeah, there is something to do all day.

Brandy Von Holten 15:43

Well, your first time there, you’re like, “Hey, I’m Magen.” Magen, you’re about 5’ 5”, 5’ 6”? [Magen:Yeah, yeah.] Okay, so here she is. We need to back up and say there's not a men's and a women's division. These are no age groups either. It is cowgirls versus cowboys. You could be 20 years old, you could be 80 years old. Only 10 people in the world are invited, and then in in the extreme cowboy racing, there is open as well. At Calgary Stampede, she ended up winning reserve champion, then she went back to the EXCA World Championship, and she not only won the Pro Division in 2017, her second year doing it, but she also won the futurity. So I remember this because I have a picture of it. I've had Megan come and teach at our trail facility and do a clinic here. She went to a competition and entered with two horses and won, I think, five buckles. I've never seen somebody go to a competition with two horses and win five buckles. So in extreme cowboy racing at the World Championship, they have where you have to compete two days, and then they add your scores up and then the top 10 get to come to the finals. She went there, and won day one, she won day too, and it made her the top person to go in for finals. Then she also won finals. She won that on her pro horse each day, and she won that on her futurity horse each day. She won a buckle for the best two day run on both horses, and then for winning the world championship in two different divisions on two different horses. Then, the EXCA, the Extreme Cowboy Racing Association, gives out a buckle for the best extreme rider in the world, and they said, That's Megan Warlick. I bet you ate a steak dinner that night.

Magen Warlick 18:13

The day went on so long, so by the end of all those awards, I walked back to the trailer with my horses by myself, cried my eyes out, loaded them in the trailer, and drove home. It was only an hour from home. It was unbelievable. It was one of those moments in time where you're like, wow, did that really just happen to me and just experience that? It was incredible.

Brandy Von Holten 18:41

Well, the fact the biggest thing to me is that it was two different horses. The common thread is this little girl, about 5’ 6” with dark hair. You weren't even 30 years old yet, and here you are like, I'll take that, I'll take that, and I'll take that. I mean, there have been cowboys that have been doing this for 10 years. And you're like, “Hey, y'all.” Well, this is cool. [Megan: Thank you.] And she's so nice, Magen is so nice. I've never met anybody that has a bad word to say about you. I will tell you, with me being in the horse industry, I hear everything. Oh my gosh, I hear everything. I've never heard one bad thing said about her. They're just like, she's a good rider. Wow, Magen. Well, she really came on the scenes with guns a blazing. So the next year, 2018, you went and competed in the next. There’s a national championship in the EMCA and you won the national championship and pro futurity, and then you went back to Calgary. This time, you did not take reserve. You took the championship. You won the Calgary Stampede. Did you have to go back to your trailer and cry that time by yourself, stop and get some Cheetos at a gas station or something? Or what did you do afterwards to celebrate?

Magen Warlick 20:17

After that we did go out to a good steak dinner. I had my family there. I had friends at it. Yeah, that was a bit different. That was a great, great experience as well, it was a lot of pressure. After that first-year winning reserve, I had gotten lost in the finals round. I was locked on the course for a total of seven seconds. That's probably what threw it off, and so I was bound and determined that next year I was going to get it right. I still had a bobble in the finals, I sent my horse out to do a send around and lunge around me, and he accidentally jumped out of it because I let my rein out too long. So it was like, Oh, it was emotional to, but everything kind of came together. It was it was an amazing experience as well.

Brandy Von Holten 21:15

So Magen I, I tried to go to the Olympics as a fighter. We always had mental coaches come in and help us because it is so much more mental game than it is a physical game, which people don't understand that a lot of times you have to get your head right. The fact that you came back the next year, and you had what kept you from being champion right there, you were able to talk about it. Now, here it is 2020, and you're like, “Seven seconds.” You remember those details, because you're like, ahhh. And being lost on the course, for the people that don't understand cowboy racing, if you do an obstacle out of order, you're done. You're done. You’re not going to win. Everything has to be perfect because somebody else is going to do it perfect. It usually comes down to time. Time and precision are being added up. It's easier to become a champion than it is to remain a champion. The fact that you went from reserve champion to champion, that speaks so highly to your mental strength. Let's talk about that for just a second. What did your training look like, different from the year that you won reserve champion to the year that you won champion? How did your training differ?

Magen Warlick 22:46

That's an awesome question. The first year, I was still just trying to figure things out. I still got, super nervous before the run and was worried about remembering where I was going, then still forgot where I was going. But I knew my horse was good. Kohli and I have a bond like nothing else. I'll be lucky if I have another one like him in my lifetime. So, I trusted my horses, everything. In order to come back the next year, I knew I needed to take care of my horse first, because I wanted to make sure he was sound. That he was mentally happy, he was healthy, he was fed good, he was comfortable. Without him, none of it would be possible. He was my number one priority, making sure that he was in shape and feeling good and everything was right. Then for myself, I think that experience that year prior was enough motivation to just try to get lucky and get control of my own brain. I started watching some Fallon Taylor video, I think it was probably on Instagram or something, and she talked about how nervous energy and excited energy are actually the same feeling in your body. So, when I would get really nervous before a run and be anxious and like, “Oh, I want to get it over with,” I would tell myself I was excited. I would smile. I'm excited. I can't wait to go do this. That little mental shift took just enough pressure off of myself, and I would remind myself that all the time when somebody asks if you get nervous. And I say well, yeah, but really, I'm just excited. I'm excited to go out and feel my horse and show what we can do as a team. That was huge, and then trying to remain calm, trying to do what was right for me, preparing for those events. I would ride when I wanted to, I wouldn't go ride just because everyone else was riding. I made sure that I felt good, that I ate good, that I slept well. I might not have gone and done all the fun things during Calgary that some people would because I want to make sure I slept enough hours, got up at a good time, and took care of my horse. I had a routine. It was a little bit of a maturing process, but really that nervous and excited correlation was probably the biggest thing that I remember doing, and it was life changing.

Brandy Von Holten 25:39

So I have a mentor that I look up to, her name is Terry Gautreaux, she won a bronze medal in the ‘92 Olympics. She had talked about what it took for her to get her mind right for the Olympics. One statement that she said to me, just hit home with everything that you're saying. She told me if anything matters, everything matters. So if it matters to you to try to win this Calgary Stampede, where it's only 10 people in the world invited to it, then everything matters. For example, if your shirt needs to be ironed so you feel better whenever you look good. If you have good food in you. If you have crap in you from like, two days ago, eating a bunch of like Zebra Cakes or something, and you're eating too much. But then if you know, I've ate well, you mentally feel stronger. If you say, “I'm going to go to bed tonight early so I'm fresh,” you're going to feel fresher. If you pass on the alcohol and pass on getting to see everybody and party a little bit, and drink some water, chill out, don't do anything dumb. If anything matters, everything matters. I sell personal planners, and that is like the biggest statement at the bottom. The largest section in my planner says “master of the mundane.” To me, running a trail riding facility, that means I can't do a good job if I don't have food in the refrigerator, if I don't have my clothes washed, all that little stuff. It adds up to make you feel prepared. I know whenever I used to fight, and now I compete in mounted archery, if I believed in my training, and I knew that I did what I thought I needed to do, then I felt prepared. Hearing you say that you rode whenever you wanted to instead of watching other people, you fought your fight basically is what you did. You fought your fight instead of comparing yourself to other people. You did what you knew you needed to do. I love hearing that you got your mind right. The shift of nervousness to excited. A lot of times people tell me how busy I am. I'm like, I'm not busy. I'm passionate. I’m having to market things, then I have horses that are here for training, and we have events that go on each weekend. I have to stay a year ahead on our stuff. I’m not busy. I will make time for whatever I want to make time for. I am passionate. That mental shift really helps me out a lot. Nervousness sounds like there's doubt. Excitement sounds like you're like yeah, let's go, instead of, am I going to mess up? That excitement is like, man, we can do this, I know we can do that, I've trained for this, I'm ready. There’s most definitely a difference between nervous and excitement. Alright, so let's talk about Kohli. Okay, so Kohli’s real name is TSU, Hickory Cash, and you got Kohli from that. And Kohli is, how old is Kohli this year?

Magen Warlick 29:25

He is 14 right now.

Brandy Von Holten 29:27

He’s a gelding. What color is he? Everybody wants to know what your horse looks like.

Magen Warlick 29:38

Well, I think beautiful. I think he's registered brown, but he oftentimes looks black. He has a teeny tiny white star and a white snip on his nose. So he's almost like a jet blackboard. He has a pretty face. Everyone mistake him for a mare. They go, “Oh, she’s so pretty!”

Brandy Von Holten 30:08

Oh my gosh, my horse KTM gets confused as a mare all the time. I had some 4-H kids come out here and measure his face and everything for a confirmation class, and he had so many feminine characteristics. And I'm like, alright, there's probably why he's gotten confused. I guess it’s because he's beautiful. Men can't be beautiful. I've seen some beautiful men before. All the beautiful horses aren't always girls. He won the Triple Crown of cowboy racing because he held titles in World, Nationals, and Calgary in the same season. I wonder how many other horses have held that title.

Magen Warlick 30:56

I'm not sure. I don't believe there have been any. I'm pretty sure I was told that he was the first one.

Brandy Von Holten 31:07

Not bad for brown/black horse with a little star on his head. 2019. So, it's 2020 right now while we're recording this, and thank the Lord 2020 is almost over with. I'm so ready for 2021. 2020 has just been a nightmare. Whenever people mention 2020, we will all put our hands on our head and be like, “Oh Lord, oh Lord.” Anyways, right now it's 2019, or last year was 2019. Sorry. It says that you led a team of seven international riders to the EXCA World Championships, so that extreme cowboy race, and you had seven international riders, and five of those riders made it to the finals in their divisions. It's just the top 10 in each division that gets to go to finals. You had seven out of the five people that you were coaching make it to the finals. So not only can Little Miss Megan walk the walk and talk the talk, but then she can help other people walk the walk and talk the talk. The fact that you had five out of seven people, that is that speaks like so highly of you. We're talking about seven different horses. Seven different breedings. My baggage is different than other people's baggage. I have a little fear of this and all of our fears and all of our things that we're good at, but then to be able to take all seven different horses, seven different people, and five of them make it to the finals. Girl, your name has sounded pretty good to me right now. How does it feel to have other people be successful from things that you're helping them with?

Magen Warlick 33:26

So, I didn't go at all last year any. I had young horses coming up and I had retired colleagues from Cowboy racing. I put all my focus into finding them horses and coaching them and helping them through the whole process. I absolutely loved it. I screamed my head off every single run they made. I was the obnoxious mother standing behind the gate helping them warm up, and in the alleyway. Granted, some of these riders were very advanced, I mean, a shear call. Danielle, definitely, from Israel, their pro riders say I was just moral support for them and provided them horses. But the other riders that needed some coaching and were there by themselves in a foreign country, it was unreal to see them succeed, it made my heart happy. I was more excited for them than I was for myself when I won anything. Just to be able to watch them succeed and how they grew in the month or two weeks that they were here was way more satisfying than me winning anything.

Brandy Von Holten 34:43

Girl. I hear you, and I feel what you're saying. I have a student, she's probably eight or nine years older than me, and she cantered for the first time. I think it was probably for about 12 feet. I felt the tingle in my nose. I've won some stuff and competed internationally and been on magazines. I'm over here like, I am so proud of you. And she's like, I peed my pants a little bit. And I'm like, That's okay. That's okay. I love you. I'm so proud of you. So here I am, like there’s a tingle in my in my right nostril right now just thinking about how much joy I had for her. You're over here like, yeah, I took five people internationally to the EXP World Championship. I just couldn't imagine it. I'm just thinking about that TV show where it has the moms, like Dance Moms or something like that. I would have been that annoying.

Magen Warlick 35:57

I was riding every step with them behind the gate. I was like, sitting down when they needed to, pitting their leg on and leaning over. I was probably obnoxious to everyone else around me, and they probably thought I was an idiot. But I was so invested and wanted them to succeed. It was awesome.

Brandy Von Holten 36:19

Here are things that I've experienced in the past, sometimes people will cheer for you until you have the chance to be better than them. I've had that before in the horse world. I've had it in the fighting world. I've had that in everything. They’re like, go fight, win, go fight, win until you could achieve something better. I love hearing like, here's Megan, who is very decorated in extreme cowboy racing. The fact that I'm over here giving you some major props, and then you're like, “No, some of these people were advanced, I was just there for moral support.” How humbling is that for you to just step back and give that glory all back to them? You know what I mean? Instead of being like, yeah, they're good because of this. Oh, I hate that. I love that I don't hear that from you. What I envision is you looking like, a dog at a tennis match, following them around.

Magen Warlick 37:39

I was ready to shine horses and brush tails. I mucked stalled and I'm like, if you need me, I'm here. But just being in that supportive role. I always joke that if I had done nothing else in my life, I would have loved to have been a full-time groom for some high-level rider because I love all that everyday stuff. All the nonsense, mindless work. It was another experience to support those high-level riders. Just to be there in case they needed anything. If I needed to walk a horse and pull them out or they both Danielle and someone else brought two horses to feed. So you know, just to be that person for them was just as satisfying, you know, and the other ones that needed my coaching.

Brandy Von Holten 38:29

Oh my gosh, I bet they were just like, sure your highness, if you would like to brush a horse's tail. I bet it was an awkward situation for them too, just because you're the number one, you know what I mean? You’re the comeback queen, and you didn't even really have to come back. I mean, you went from reserve to champion and were so decorated in those years before. You just came out and like win, win, win, win, win. Then here you are, “Do you want me to cool your horse down?” It just seems like you have your masters to go teach second grade math or something. You know what I mean? It just kind of seems like yes, you can brush my horse's tail, put a little Mojo on it. This year, there was something called the World's Greatest Horse Woman. Okay, so this is completely different than the extreme racing. You've went from this three day eventing into cowboy racing and was highly successful. Then you got an invite for the World's Greatest Horse Woman. It says this was your first time ever competing in reined cow horse, which is cutting, reining, fencing, and steer stopping. You finished 22nd in a field of over 70 competitors. Tell us about that experience.

Magen Warlick 39:59

How this all came about was I recently retired Kohli from Cowboy racing had actually considered retiring him from showing just because I wanted to do right by him. I wanted to make sure he was happy, sound, everything was good. I didn't want to over work him or overstress him, those trips to Canada and back were hard on him. I had been wavering for about a year like, what can I do with Kohli? I love him, and I'll have until the day dies. But you know, could we get better at something? Oh, yeah, he could get better broken, I could be a better rider. So when this Art of the Cowgirl announced the World's Greatest Horse Woman, and they were going to open it up initially to only 25 competitors. I thought, Oh, what's that? I've heard of reining cow horse. I knew what it was. I had heard of World's Greatest Horseman, which is the one of the most prestigious events that anyone in the western horse world can compete in. I was like, yep, I'm going to enter it, having had no experience in showing in any of those disciplines, at any high level. I had done all those disciplines, but never shown in them. So it came out, I set my alarm to apply, and got in, and the first 25, they ended up opening it up to as many as would enter because it was so popular, which is great for women to be able to go compete and set a stage that set us apart from competing against the men because reining cow horse is heavily dominated by men because it's very difficult. It's not an easy sport to do. I signed up, got in and I thought, “Oh, I better get some like help and practice this. We don't have any experience. Kohli had sort of done these things in separate times in his life, but never over a two-day period done for drastically different events. So I thought, okay, I need to go to the best. I need to find somebody that can educate me and my horse on how to successfully show in this sport. I thought out there is Austin, who's about an hour and a half north of me here in Texas, and I watched her ride and thought man, I want to ride like her. I want my horses to look like hers. I want whatever mojo she's got going on, I want a piece of it. I started taking some lessons with her when I could, and it helped tremendously. She helped me on cattle, confirmed with me that my reining was pretty good, and then I practiced my cutting with her and fence work with her. When I was at home here, I called in my partner we would rope, and he helped me with my steer stopping. It really revamped my desire to compete because I'm not going to lie after competing that heavily for those couple of years in the EXCA, I was a little bit like, Man, I don't know that I want to keep going down the road and going to these big shows. I felt a little done with it personally, so to have this new sport and new things to learn really just sparked my desire to get my horse better, get my horsemanship better, and my show skills better. We went in, it was a great event, I was hoping for around top 20, which 22nd was brilliant, because there were ladies there. Annie Reynolds. I'd never heard of her before, is a million-dollar rider for NRCHA, which is National Reining Cow Horse Association. There were very highly competitive women there that have been doing this for years and years and years. I was just happy to get a score in all four events, not get disqualified, not mess anything up. We had a starting place to go from there.

Brandy Von Holten 44:14

Well, I can tell you switching sports is extremely hard. To go from basically the golden girl to somebody being like, who are you? Magan, Magan? Instead of Magen. you know, people don’t even know you.

Magen Warlick 44:35

Oh, I would rather have that.

Brandy Von Holten 44:39

Yeah, because then they don't have any expectations, it’s easier when they don't know you. My last fight, I qualified for nationals. This was 2013, I qualified to go to nationals in two different divisions and as an Olympic level fighter. Then the next weekend I went to my first extreme cowboy race, and I competed in novice and intermediate. I got dead last and disqualified. It was really weird to be in a sport where people wanted your autograph, or be like, oh, my kid looks up to you and watches you at every fight, to go to another sport where they're like, nice to meet you. That’s the way it feels for me right now in mounted archery. I want to do well, but then I'm over here, like, okay, all right. Time to put in some work, and work is universal. It doesn't matter what you do. Work ethic always trump's talent.

Okay, so work ethic always will be talent when talent doesn't have work ethic. So, I know a lot of times I don't have talent in something, but I have work ethic. It sounds like you have work ethic and talent. So that's huge.

Magen Warlick 46:32

I don't know, but I'm going to keep trying.

Brandy Von Holten 46:35

Oh my gosh, I'm going to keep trying. Okay, so you have goals for next year. You want to compete in cow horse events on Kohli in the open bridle division. So, what does that mean, “open bridle division?”

Magen Warlick 46:49

In cow horse, they have aged events, which are for a certain age of horse, then that open bridle, they can pretty much any age. Most horses aren't going to be under six years old riding in a bridle, which is a solid mouthpiece bit, and romal reins that you can only hold with one hand. Because he's 14, he has to show in the bridle. I think he's aged out of all the other divisions. I'm not actually 100% sure on that. I still need to do some research on all the rules and formalities. That’s what we showed in Arizona at the World’s Greatest Horsewoman, it was in the bridle, so I know he's capable of it. I know I'm capable of it. And that's where we'll be.

Brandy Von Holten 47:38

So you have Kohli, then you have another horse, Platinum in Cash Only. This is Kohli's maternal sister’s name. Punkin. Not Pumpkin, it is pumpkin. P U N K I N.

Magen Warlick 47:57

Sometimes, she is a punk, so she’s Punkin. It could go either way.

Brandy Von Holten 48:02

I was thinking with Punkin that she's just going to be sweet and kind of fat and happy. But no, sometimes she's a punk. So you're wanting to compete with her in the snaffle bit futurity for 2021

Magen Warlick 48:20

Yes. I bought Punkin as a weanlings, and she is the last sibling to Kohli. The mare died last year, and Kohli’s sire died years ago. She was my last little bit of Kohli, unless clone him. So, Kohli is the end of Kohli. I wanted his genetics and bought her as a baby.

Brandy Von Holten 48:51

Okay. At our at our ranch, nothing compared to your horses, we have KTM. One of my other horses is related to him, Glamour with the Hammer, we just call her Glamour. I got KTM’s mom when I was eight, and she died when I was 32. KTM is her last foal, and now he's 15. Then Glamour has one grandparent basically the same. So, I know all about trying to keep them. You fall in love with them, and you're just like, oh, I want something related. I want to stay in the family with those horses. I mean, these horses are our family. My dog is my family, I love my animals. They are extensions of me. I had two cats for like 14 years and whenever they passed away, my husband made custom caskets for them. I couldn't imagine this highly decorated horse that’s a once in a lifetime horse. Now you have Punkin that sometimes is a pumpkin and is sometimes a punk. The girls are always a little bit harder, but they sure do work for you. So if somebody wanted to train or take a clinic with you, where can they find your information?

Magen Warlick 50:14

The best way is probably going to be on Facebook. Just find Megan Warlick or Megan Warlick Horsemanship, I have two pages, a personal and a business, they kind of coexist. On either one of them you can get a hold of me. E-mail or phone, which is all on Facebook is fine. This next year, I have most of my returning clinics all coming back. Those areas are usually established groups that I've been going to for years. So really, if it's an individual, that's like, “Man, I just really want to join somebody's group,” just get in touch with me, because there may be somewhere in their area that they could join in on an already existing clinic or private lessons.

Brandy Von Holten 51:01

Just to sum this up, it looks like you have changed, and a lot of people change careers in their lifetimes. It looks like you've changed direction with your horses. You've went from English and three-day eventing to extreme cowboy racing, but you did an apprenticeship where you got to work with so many horses, and now you're going into cow horse stuff. I wonder where you're going to be five years from now. You're going to be like, “And now I'm sure jousting.” Who knows, you're going to be like Kohli, and now it's Punpkin, and Punkin and I are jousting. Who knows where you're going to end up? With training all of these people and seeing so many things, can you think of a few things that, in general, people struggle with? For me, I see my clients make the same mistake where they want to do good, but I can tell them something, and they don't put the time in on their own. They'll take a lesson, take a clinic, but then they don't take what I teach them and apply it. They keep taking lessons and clinics, and I'm like, put the stuff into action. That's something that I see a lot of. Is there anything that you see, in general?

Magen Warlick 52:37

Oh, you hit the nail on the head. The one thing I see people struggle with is the level of dedication to fix the problem they have, and the amount of commitment to make that happen. There is no quick fix in anything in life. Lifestyle changes, if you want your horse to be better, it needs to be a lifestyle change, you need to change what you're doing. I can't make anybody want something for themselves, they have to want it more to make that change. It used to bother me a little bit when I was teaching, I would want it more for the people than they wanted it for themselves. I just realized they might have a problem that is annoying, and they would like it to be fixed, but they're not willing to go to the level of change to fix it or to get themselves better. It's more just a hobby mentality, and just, “Ah, we'll just deal with it.” And that's okay. That's totally okay. As long as they're not in a terrible, dangerous situation with their horse, then I'm like, “Okay, I'll just leave you alone. Here's some tidbits, here's what you could try to do. Here's some things to help,” but not getting so caught up in well, why aren't they doing this? Why didn't they work on this? Everybody comes to those moments in their own time, in their own way, and you find your own path. Just because I tell you to do it a certain way doesn't mean that you have to do it that way, and you don't have to do it right now. That's been huge in my teaching regime, to just accept that and be okay with it. If somebody is in danger, then I make a bigger deal of it, but if they're not, then that's cool, that's on them. I can try to help them with whatever I can.

Brandy Von Holten 54:44

Not everybody's like you, where you want to be the best, and you want to grow, and you want to do things. Not everybody that comes to your clinics has that same ambition about that. Some people are just, “Hey, I’d like to canter,” or, “Hey, I'd like to be able to trot or turn.” Sometimes they just want to be in a clinic and see if they learn anything at all. They don't really have a goal, so I could see that. A lot of my friends are highly motivated. We read books, we like to write down goals and do all this stuff and check them off, but other people are not like that. I've had issues with that as well. I can see that, because my level of commitment is almost annoying. Other people, I have to be like okay, they don't have the same path that I have, which is great, because that's what makes everybody different. Okay, so Magen Warlick, M A G E N, then Warlick, W A R L I C K. Find her on Facebook and thank you very much.

Magen Warlick 55:53

Thank you, Brandy.