Mary White and Alicia Stickel - 84 year old Cowgirl Still Cowgirling/Horseback Riding at 80/Never Let Me Know My Last Ride
Jan 03, 2024
Mary White and Alicia Stickel
Wed, Aug 09, 2023 10:40AM • 59:36
SPEAKERS
Alicia Stickel, Brandy Von Holten, Mary White
Brandy Von Holten
Welcome back to Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten. Today I have two guests, and they are from West Virginia. Now I met these two ladies at one of my events. It's a big boss Mare production it is called Chix in the Sticks. So this right here, it's a an all-inclusive women's event. And we focus on trail riding, but I don't have to do them over the weekend, which is two nights and three days than I offer them for three nights and four days at no additional cost. Okay, so these ladies took me up on the offer. They found me on Facebook, and they made the drive from West Virginia to come do a Chix in the Sticks. That was a Monday through Thursday. And I don't know when you're tuning in right now it is 2022 I don't know what you're listening to this podcast interview. But I love whenever I find interesting people. Okay, so this, these two ladies, it is a lady and her daughter in law. Okay, so Mary White is with me. And then Alicia. And then it's Stickel and it spelled like nickel. But instead of an N It's got an S T. Is that correct? Yes. All right now Mary. Mary is the cowgirl that we all hope that we get to be because Mary drove here in her own truck and trailer Alicia drove her own truck and trailer. But Mary is 84 years old. She is a 1938 model. But she has one heck of a story. Now then Alicia is married to Mary's son. Now then. All right. So how many kids do you have? Let's figure out which kid she's married to.
Mary White
I have three sons. Alicia is married to my oldest son, Danny.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. And you said that you had three kids and three years and you had your last one when you were 20?
Mary White
Yes. Danny was born 12 days after I turned 18 which was I turned 18 on August 12. Danny was born on August 24.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. I'm an August 15. Girl. That's I'm a Leo. But so are you? Yes. Yeah. We have most definitely identified ourselves as Leo's Alicia, do you know what you are? Aries, Aries, Aries? A, what is that one? Is that the one with the balancing thing? Or the? What is that picture of the you know, Aries is? Because I don't know what the symbol is. I forget I don't even know either. It don't matter. Leo's are the only ones that matter. Right? According to sign up. That is the sign of the ramp. Yes. Oh, okay. All right. So, Mary. Now, here's some things here, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to do a data dump. Okay, because Mary is new in my life. And so I'm going to tell you everything that I've heard about Mary so far from the four days together, and then we're going to elaborate because this lady is getting on getting off of her own horse and she's riding and there's not one cow girl out there. That's not hoping that she's driving her own truck and trailer, and riding and doing different things when she's 84 years old. Okay, so Mary was an administrator, like a high school principal, Mary has been married twice. And the second husband was actually her divorce lawyer from the first marriage. So that's kind of funny, and then marry the husband. The second husband ended up becoming a senator. Is that correct? And a circuit judge? Yes. So whenever Mary starts telling me her stories, and then she tells me about this beautiful place where she lives that I just think about that fancy song, where she charmed the king, a congressman, occasional aristocrat. Anyways, Mary's told me several times how cute my husband is. How amazing he is. Yeah. So anyways, whenever I see Mary, it's Mary White, I guess some Betty White vibes from her because, you know, Betty White played some roles where, you know, she had a potty mouth and Mary's flipped me off once because I asked her. I asked her the other day, you know, I asked her if she had seen 1886 With that, you know, that, that side shoot of yellow stone and I asked her I was like, Well, how'd it feel to be alive whenever they 1886 was happening, just given her a hard time and she just looked at me and said, slipped me off. Anyways. And then we've had several conversations amongst our riders about their arthritis, and how much their butt hurts me in in the saddle. But then they share to hope that they just keep on getting to have those conversations. And then she's told me about her. Her husband, her second husband has been deceased for 16 years. And, and she talks about, it's just now at age four, where she doesn't think about him first thing in the morning, but she does think about him every day. So and I told her, I was like, Well, I hope that you're around for 26 years without him, or 36 years without him. Because, you know, we got to keep Mary Rodan So, and she tells me about all these places. They don't they don't travel more than six hours at a time and they've got their routes figured out. And she's got a pretty nice rig. She brings a little dog and she rides a rocky mountain. Yes. Used to be a lover of some Tennessee walkers. Yes. Okay, so Mary. That's, that's what I know about. About Mary Mary. quite contrary, that's what I know about you. So let's go back to the administrator. So you were 20 years old, had three kiddos, how long that first marriage last 20 years lasted 20 years? And then how long? Were you with your second husband before he passed away?
Mary White
We've worked together about 30 years. Okay. We were married 25.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. All right. So this first husband, is he still around? No. Okay. He's not still around. Did he remarry? Have more kids? Do you know?
Mary White
By the time I was out the door, you got married again?
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. It was like the door was shutting and then he was like, let's go get married to the second to his next wife. Yes. Okay. All right. You seem okay with this. Now, that might not have been okay with it back then. Yeah,
Mary White
it was fine.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay, so tell me about what came on to make you find love for becoming an administrator. So tell us about that where you're in.
Mary White
I kept thinking, my kids are going to grow up, and they will be smarter than I am. And I wanted a better life for me. So I had to prepare myself for a vocation employment. So I put everything into college. I did undergraduate in three and a half years, my last semester of college, I carried 22 hours and did student teaching, which I had to have special permission from the dean to do that. And then I started on my masters at West Virginia University. And I completed my Masters and just about a year.
Brandy Von Holten
So that's around what 1960 to 1963.
Mary White
Yes. I taught I taught all grades. I have a specialization in early childhood. Also history and educate Educational Administration. Okay. And when I was in the, the administration program at West Virginia, I was one of three women out of 52 because women did not have administrative jobs at that time.
Brandy Von Holten
Right because we were supposed to lose mostly cooking and cleaning but you cooked and clean and became an administrator.
Mary White
Yes, I and I did horses and I bailed hay and threw hay in the barn during the summer, so I did everything. I've always written horses and had horses for my own kids and taught them to ride.
Brandy Von Holten
So Mary is a pretty smaller she's a smaller lady. I bet Mary back in those early 1960s I bet she could put a bandana around her waist and wear it as a belt.
Mary White
I had a 22 inch waist. Five, seven. When I got married, the second time I weighed 115 pounds.
Brandy Von Holten
Oh my gosh. And that was probably after you've been sprayed off with water hose. So so I'm getting to see your hair right now. Your hair right now is white. Okay, what color was your hair when it was Color. Blonde. Okay, so you were the female that we, we hate you because you're so beautiful.
Mary White
Back in those days,
Brandy Von Holten
just joking, ladies. All right,
Mary White
you should see the pictures. Oh, I
Brandy Von Holten
bet you were. But you were a bombshell.
Mary White
Well, back in those days when a woman had a position in administration, especially in the school system, you found that other women were actually jealous of you. Yeah, I always got along better with men than I did women.
Brandy Von Holten
Well, I can relate to that. Because I mean, that's the way my whole life has been. But now, I'm finding my women, I'm finding my tribe. You know, I joke around like with our boarding barn here at von Holten Ranch, I joke around that I want people to fill out an application. And question number one, have you started menopause? And if the answer is yes, then please continue with the application. Just feels like they get a little more mellower. The older they get. I'm finding my tribe and it's, it's an 40 Plus category a lot of time and then young people will are they come flocking towards me? If they're if they're gaining confidence, you know, so, alright, so tell me about this county where you? I think you had told me you were the only female administrator in the county that she lived in West Virginia. Where are you at in West Virginia?
Mary White
Well, I grew up in Doddridge. County, West Virginia, which is really out in the sticks. They they think this is chicks and sticks here. It was the real stick
Brandy Von Holten
when you know West Virginia's not exactly known for city town. Well, I grew
Mary White
I grew up in in a hollow called
Brandy Von Holten
was it butcher Hollow? It was Birch Run. Birch Run. Okay I was messing with you because that's that Coal Miner's Daughter line talking about She was raised in butcher Haller or Yeah. So West Virginia man, you know what I think about West Virginia, and you might have to tell me if I'm wrong or not. But man, I envision some people that if they wanted to be off the grid, they could be off the grid pretty quickly. And then I envision a bunch of stills, and alcohol being made. And I just envisioned a lot of people that love the Second Amendment. A lot of people that love the Second Amendment, I'm probably envision that and just some good old boys that are getting some stuff done like a little bit rough stock is what I envision a lot of people like strong, strong, very American Americans, is what I envisioned in West Virginia.
Mary White
I was the youngest of seven. My sister was almost 30 years older than I've when I was born, she had two children, boy and a girl. And I grew up with them as my brother and sister.
Brandy Von Holten
Wait, so you're the youngest out of seven. And there was a 30 year gap between number six and number seven. And
Mary White
my brother, my youngest brother next to me, was 10 years older than I. So I pretty much grew alone. Growing up alone. Hold
Brandy Von Holten
on a second, Mary, hold on. So you said there's a 30 year gap between number six and number seven. You're number seven, correct? Yes. Then you just told me there was one that's 10 years older than you?
Mary White
Yeah. My sister was the oldest,
Brandy Von Holten
okay. And then and her dad window, and
Mary White
I had five brothers. And the brother next to me, was almost 10 years older than I and he just passed away. Okay. He was in Savannah, Georgia. Okay. And I kind of grew up with five fathers. And you know, a lot of bosses Oh, so it, it wasn't easy to get away with anything.
Brandy Von Holten
So right now you are 84 years old, and your oldest sister would be 114? Because she's 30 years older than you? Yes. But she passed away several years ago. Well, I would expect that because if not I don't know what the oldest person alive is. But I bet 114 be getting close to it. I don't know. Well, hopefully we'll find out with Ms. Mary. Because you know, they say the good die young, but I think Mary's gonna live awhile. Okay, so there was a 30 year span that your parents had kids and then to the last from the first and you're the last and the one closest to you. So they had most of those kids, they had six of them within a 20 year span.
Mary White
My mother was 47. When I was born.
Brandy Von Holten
Man I bet you were like, I bet, she was like, oh, Lord, I gotta go through it again. And then she was like, surely I'm going through menopause. Surely I'm going through menopause. And then you were like, nope, here I am.
Mary White
Well, I always heard that if you have a child going through menopause, that there's a big chance of them being retarded. So I always thought there had to be something wrong with me. Because you weren't. Okay. That yeah, I had something really interesting. And this sounds like I'm bragging. But I had this male teacher. And he was also principal, the little scope grade school where I went. And he sent me word that he wanted to see me. And this was after I had married Sam, my second husband. So I went to his house. And he said, I always wanted to tell you, that you were the smartest kid I ever had in school. So
Brandy Von Holten
well, that's a big compliment. Yes. Okay. So tell us about whenever you were an administrator, I think you had told me that a lot of times, whenever there was something new in education, people would come to you because you were the only female administrator in your county, but you would be willing to try some things. So do you remember talking to him about them?
Mary White
Yes. Now, we're talking about several years back
Brandy Von Holten
Right, We know that it's completely different now.
Mary White
Yes. And you and you have different terminology for each.
Brandy Von Holten
acronyms, yes.
Mary White
But when they wanted to start a learning disability program, that this is not Dodries County, this was Richie County where I was a principal there for 10 years. So they wanted to start a learning disability program. And so they started that, in my school. Vocational was a big thing. The vocational education came on, it was the big thing at that point. And so I was the person they sent to Phoenix, Arizona for a seminar for training. So in a new programs that came along, the superintendent felt comfortable asking me to start the program. Okay. And I, I really felt, you know, special. He never made it an issue that I was a female, you know, that I couldn't do what the males did. But truly, back in those days, women had to do things 10 times better, to get the recognition that men get, and not and I found out over the years, that women are really great with the Manute organization of things.
Brandy Von Holten
Yeah, most definitely. Well, I understand about. Okay, so I'm a plus size cowgirl and a Cowboys world, girl I know all about, you know, a lot of people doubt you, but it's just not the same thing. Now it's men in the horse world. It's, it's tit for tat, you know, like now, people it doesn't doesn't matter your age, they do ask that you'd be a little bit older. It seems like more people are respected when they're at least 40. But now, there's younger people that are paving the way and just seems like what a what a different world but it used to just be a man's. You know, this is a man's world, you know, used to be all about that. And now, boy, things have changed. So when did you retire from the education? World?
Mary White
I retired when Sam and I decided to get married in 1983
Brandy Von Holten
- Okay,
Mary White
Sam continued working in the state. Politics, and then a governor Arch Moore appointed Sam as circuit judge of he had several counties, but we lived in Pleasance County at time of West Virginia. And so, Sam retired after a few years in the judgeship and went back into private practice and I worked as his secretary office manager for about 15 years and we did personal injury cases.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. And then he So became a Senator.
Mary White
Yes, he was State Senator. Yes. Okay.
Brandy Von Holten
Boy talking about having. I used to have a sign up in my house whenever my husband was staying home, being a cattle rancher. And then I was going into work to be a schoolteacher. And it said, behind every successful rancher is a wife that works in town. Well, it's not the same thing of what we're talking about here. But it sounds like your ability to be this strong, educated woman really made him you know how one plus one equals two and less one plus one equals three. Sounds like you and Sam being together. And with you being strong, and him being strong, made a made his business flourish because it was yours business flourish.
Mary White
Uh, he did a lot of courtroom work. And whenever he was starting a case in court, he would ask me to come and help him select a jury. Okay, because he felt that I had the ability to judge people quickly. Okay. Because I'd been in that field for a while.
Brandy Von Holten
Well, okay, well, with you being able to judge people quickly. Let's hear your synopsis of Brandy Von Holten. I love you. You're wild. I love that word. Nobody ever says wild. I love that word. Wow, you make me feel great.
Mary White
Yes. I thought she's this this gal. She has a worse mouth than I have.
Brandy Von Holten
That we do not use on this podcast and nobody knows. Okay.
Mary White
That I, I've done a lot of interesting things. When my kids were growing up. They were I encouraged them to be in everything. And my oldest son, he was extremely intelligent. And in fact, he was accepted at West Point. But he said, Oh, well, we're talking about Pop Warner Football. And he said, Oh, Ma Ma. I don't know if I could get in there and do that. And I said, why? No, you can and you won't know unless you try. So yes. All three of them did really well in sports or whatever. They were into they did their best. They broke courses when they were teenagers for people. We did a lot of trail riding together. We all had our own horses and we did a lot of trail riding of heaven. I had kids at my house. I never knew how many kids I was going to have to feed for dinner.
Brandy Von Holten
well, I know what high school those high school boys are like, garbage disposals. Yeah, just it's like they've got a hollow leg and they're trying to fill it up.
Mary White
Well, I've had kids sleeping on the floor all over the house.
Brandy Von Holten
All right. So how many how many, you know your number of grandkids or great grandkids or anything like that?
Mary White
No. Whole bunch.counted them for a while. Okay.
Brandy Von Holten
Do you know the youngest or the oldest age of any of your grandbabies? offhand.
Mary White
My youngest is in his 30s. He's in the Navy. He's with the Navy SEAL team. He's in communication. And he's had the offer of being in with a special team for the President. Okay. And we, I'm not quite sure he said a sturdy so.
Brandy Von Holten
That's okay. 30 something works great for me. You know, it was so good. It was a name of a TV show back in the day. So 30 Somethings good for me. That's old enough to not be in your 20s. But you feel like they probably need another 10 years for they really know something, right?
Mary White
Yes. But Alicia has two daughters that are also like my grandkids. In fact, her youngest kind of grew up in in the house with Sam and me. And we taught her to ride into swim. And yes, she was part of our family.
Brandy Von Holten
So Alicia told me a story about one of the first times that she had Was it one of the first times she had been around Mary and y'all were dressed up in formals All right, so tell us this story. Alicia, tell us a story about Mary.
Alicia Stickel
Oh my goodness. Barry and Sam would always goes to these country clubs for New Year's Eve special dinners. And of course we had dressed up in gowns and big fancy dinner and out there dance and she and Sam always out drinking out dance. Dale and I always.
Brandy Von Holten
So did you get to see how did you get to see Mary with the 22 inch waist and the blonde hair? Were you around for all that?
Alicia Stickel
Of course she was smaller when I when I met her. That was 20 years ago. Well, Mary's not big right now. Mary. Oh, no worries. Not big.
Brandy Von Holten
She's fun size still. Yeah, yeah.
Alicia Stickel
No, just pictures. She can take your man away from you. Oh, she used to say that. I could take your man from you. Oh my God. Look at my days. I could take your man from you.
Brandy Von Holten
Me sure your name is not Jolene. All right. So you were into Tennessee walkers?
Mary White
Yes. Well, there's a there's a funny story with Alicia. She said the first time you made breakfast for me, she said you've made eggs benedict. But now there's even more now why do I have a bowl of cereal?
Alicia Stickel
Bowl cereal. And I still get it camping is just the bowl cereal. So she Benedick what happened to it?
Brandy Von Holten
Oh my gosh. You know what my mom when my mom used to throw down in the kitchen and do these massive like she would take three days off to do Thanksgiving stuff. And now I'm like, do y'all want to go to Perkins or like Charlie's?
Alicia Stickel
That's what Mary does. She would do these ducks and all this stuff. Now she gets the rotisseries from Walmart.
Brandy Von Holten
Mary, Lord gets you. You know, those rotisseries Walmart are pretty good.
Alicia Stickel
There's nothing like her duck.
Mary White
There. It's funny story about my cooking too. When I was in high school. My girlfriend's said I couldn't boil water. And when I was married to Sam, I would do dinners for sit down dinners for like 50 people and start with appetizers through dessert. So I ended up that I could cook pretty well. And my kids, you still did that first couple years.
Alicia Stickel
years. Of me meeting you. You still you still did almost a seven course.
Brandy Von Holten
Dinner? Yeah. So I'll tell you something about these two, his you know, whenever I'm a pretty good judge of character and I, I just leap into friendships and relationships. And then, you know, kind of dumb on my part, because, boy I've been I've been tore down to the bone by that stuff before because I, oh, I openly love people, right? And then like, I'll find out they're just using me or something like that. But I'm pretty. I've gotten a lot better if figuring people out. So, you know, there's only been two people, two people that have ever talked about wanting to travel with me and go horseback riding because everybody always assumes that I won't. And I'm over here like, Man, I miss these. You know, like people come to us now. But I would like to go with them to other places. And you're like, you want to go to Utah? And I'm like, Yeah, I wanted to go to Utah. I wanted to go to you right here. I'm like, yeah, so already looked at my calendar for one year from now about what we're going to be because we're our life is in a transition. Right now we're trying to move things around are short enough and got some other businesses we're wanting to, like slingshot forward. So we don't really, we're kind of everything's up in the air. And we're waiting for all the dust to settle to see which path we end up taking. But um, I've already talked to my husband last night about like, well, you know, we want to go this homeschool conference that's in California. And when my husband's just like California, and I'm like, Yeah, we want to go to California. And then you were like, well, you know, Utah is close to California. So last night I had and my husband does not like to ride or hardly at all, you know, so it's uncomfortable for him with all those motorcycle knee surgeries that he's had and his horse is kind of stank. So whatever. But I want to I want to ride it peekaboo. What is it? Where is that at? Bryce? Can I just can yep, I want to go there so bad. I want to go there for the photos and it just looks like something that I would want to do over and over again. So if somebody has invited me to Utah, actually, Okay, oops. There's been three people invite me to one person wanted me to go do all this stuff. And I'm like, hold on. I can't, but I will but I've got to be very calculated. With my time like nothing, yeah, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Alicia Stickel
you make it happen overnight swing by her by here and get her and
Brandy Von Holten
She probably gonna get a big tall mule named Coco sorry. Coco's a Tennessee Walker. And so tell us, how did you get this love for Tennessee walkers?
Mary White
Well, after my first marriage with kids were growing up, I was the only one that had a gaited horse. And when you do 50 miles a day, you're you want something easy to ride. So anyway, after Sam and I got married, he always liked to ride and he always had horses. But he had gone through a divorce and, and he didn't have his horse anymore. But anyway, I said, let's buy some horses. And so okay, we did. And the horse that I got was Tennessee Walker. It was a big, black and white, racking horse, but oh, he was he was spooky. So I didn't keep him too long. I called him Satan. If you blow your nose, or you were on its back, you'd end up in a tree top. So
Brandy Von Holten
I've got a horse that about put me on the ground over some tic tac, so I know exactly what you're talking about. One of my friends had to fart train her horse because she, she tooted in the saddle. And then she's like, Oh my gosh. And she was like, Okay, I've never had a horse that I'm like, Oh, I've got to do it now.
Mary White
Okay, so I sold. I sold this black horse. I sold Satan. And I bought a little mare that was a Tennessee Walker and she had a foal on her and, and the foal woods of filly. And I called the foal nuisance. Well, my little mare did go blind. And, and we had to put her down she got injured, we had to put her down so I cried a lot over it and Sam woke up one night in the middle of the night when I was crying. He said, If you quit crying, I'll buy you a good horse.
Brandy Von Holten
And you were like Mission accomplished.
Mary White
So we went to the after Christmas sale Tatar saw in Lexington, Kentucky. And he bought me this Tennessee Walker gelding they had him in harness when they came in and showed him and they took the harness off and put a and the bridle and put a baler twine in his mouth and showed him that way. So anyway, Sam bought this horse for me and his name was midnight countdown. And he was about five years old at that time. And I kept him until he died. He in fact he died after Sam died. And he was 30 years old. So it's a good investment. So Sam really got into the walking horses after I got the count. And we went all over Tennessee and Kentucky if he had in his mind that he wanted a Black Stallion with four whites in a bluff white Blaze. And we found in and his name was he was out of a hacksaw force. And so his name was hack. And we then bought a mare that had been in pads. They called those big lick horses, and we took her off the pads and made a broodmare out of her. So I then the little mare that I got, I started breeding her two we're on Grand Champion, and I got a show mare and I started showing her around in Kentucky and we were doing really, really well with the big boys. I just kind of proud because I was the only person that had written her and trained her and I worked a lot with the carts wells at Seventh Heaven in Morehead, Kentucky and I really got into writing out of disciplines there, the big rat courses and in the heavy shod that the mayor we did really well we did even went to the Greater St. Louis celebration Walkenhorst celebration, and we did a second place in country pleasure there. So I was really proud of her.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay, so, okay, tell me about you said when you were I think it was 2011. So this is 2020 So 11 years ago so it would put you at 73 You were on a trail ride and came off the horse. Is that correct timing and it stepped right on your chest.
Mary White
I had bred my Merrigan to the same stallion in Kentucky and this little filly was born the day after Sam's funeral, and I called her a dandy finale. And I was training her she was two years old. And I always let Alicia ride my show mare. She loved her. She called her the Cadillac ride. So anyway, I was trained this two year old and we made the trip to Custer, South Dakota. And we were doing really well. Her gait was coming along really well and we could ride out alone. But I forced her down into a small stream. And she stumbled and her head went underwater. And I got off and she knocked me down. And I couldn't get back up and she stepped in my chest. And I was in the hospital five days stare with I had Gosh, what all did I have wrong with? Some ribs broke?
Alicia Stickel
Oh, yeah. Back up. She when she when she got up out of the water. She said hey, there's like, like, 16 of us. And then a lady stopped when she'd seen what happened and got out to check on her. And she said, hey, if anybody gets any has any dry clothes, she said, I'll put them on and I'll keep on rod and then the ambulance finally comes unlisted. Look, Mary, they're sending you an animal had buffaloes all over to know. Yeah. And M animal ambulance. So they take her in to local they're at Custer. And they couldn't do anything for their they had to send her on. They didn't have surgeons for years. Something didn't right.
Mary White
They sent her to Rapid City where they had a search. I was still in blood then or did you collapse along? I had a collapsed lung and I had a crush sternum and threw out broken ribs. Yeah, yeah. And my whole child had three broken ribs. Three broken ribs that all baits were broken. Okay, right there.
Brandy Von Holten
On her lower left side. Yeah, she's showing me. So What'd the doctor say to you after, you know, and they'd find out. Here's the 73 year old lady. This run in South Dakota got her chest stepped on in the creek. Did he?
Mary White
We had he was a young, really young, good looking surgeon and he came in and he sat down on my bed and he said, I have this horse. I need you to terrain. And then they said when he got ready to leave, he said Is there anything you want? And I said yes, a bottle of wine. And he said girls, you're here get her some wine.
Alicia Stickel
But she did send me off to get some
Brandy Von Holten
Oh, she did send you out to get you off to get some Are you a red or a white wine kind of person?
Mary White
I like a German Riesling. Okay. Not the real sweet. Oh, medium dry, I guess. Yeah. Riesling, German Riesling wine. Yes.
Brandy Von Holten
So there's more to this story because there was something like all of your people that were riding with you had gotten cigars, but then here you are with the collapse lung. You were mad when you were telling me that you did not get to smoke this cigar with them.
Mary White
We were in Deadwood and the girls have bought a bunch of guards for all of us. And so on our way back we had one stop and the girls build a fire and they were sitting around smoking their cigars. But I since I had a collapsed lung and I was on oxygen. I couldn't smoke my cigar so it stayed in my horse trailer for a few years and when I looked at it was all dried and crumbly. So I never did get smoked that.
Brandy Von Holten
Yeah, Mary and I got Talking about how much we enjoyed smoking before I love smoking cigarettes. And got into a little bit of some Switzer sweets for a little bit. And that's smoke cloves for a while. I don't know if you ever smoke cloves. Those right there would make you cough your entire lung out the next day. But they were so sweet when you're smoking them. I'm not telling you ever smoke. If I make it to 90 Till until David, I'm going to load a harmonica up and just smoke like four or five of them at one time. Just because just be like, All right. Nobody ever tells you how much they love smoking. I mean, it's rough on me now and you know, I think it's a year for a year for healing of the lungs. That's what I'd heard.
Mary White
Well, I love smoking I smoked for 30 some years, but I quit in 1986. And Sam bought me a sports car. Oh, that's a good job. Yeah. And if I started smoking again, he would give the car to one of his kids.
Brandy Von Holten
So let me get this straight as Sam was like, if you'll stop crying, I'll buy you a fancy horse. And if you stop smoking, I'll buy you a sports car. Yes. What else? What else goes in that category of things that Sam bought you to get you to do something?
Mary White
I had pretty much anything that I've wanted.
Brandy Von Holten
Yeah. Yeah. Sam. Sam, like one heck of a guy?
Mary White
Yes. Yes. He was to everyone. I had three boys and Sam had three boys. No, we're like the freakin Brady Bunch. Yes. No Sam's, youngest. He was kind of like mine because he was eight years old when Sam and I got together. And he I've raised him pretty much. And he was in high school. And so they wouldn't know who who's the richest person in Pleasance County. Somebody said Sam White, and Mike or Max speaks up and says, No, we got Bruce and Fred. Bruce and Fred were Sam's older, two older boys.
Brandy Von Holten
So we're all of your boys and all of his boys still alive.
Mary White
Sam? Yes. Sam street boys are all attorneys. Okay, they're all Tirana in Atlanta, Georgia and one in Kaiser, West Virginia and one in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay. And then your three boys are still around.
Mary White
Yes. Retired. Okay. If you can believe that.
Brandy Von Holten
You got anybody that still ride besides this daughter in law that's with you.
Mary White
Danny, my oldest still rides.
Brandy Von Holten
and that's Alicia's husband? Yes. Okay,so you ride a Tennessee Walker?
Alicia Stickel
And he rides a Rackin horse. Yeah,
Mary White
I think it's a walker and standard bred Mix. Okay, but it's a racking horse. Rod. Yeah, really nice.
Brandy Von Holten
Do you know Okay, so it's always kind of weird about other people's experiences. Okay, so around here for von Holten ranch. I've had three racking horses that belong to people, just random like one from Illinois, one firm around Kansas City, and the other ones in South Missouri. Okay. But then I have a large group of African American cowgirls and cowboys, and they are all on racking horses. So I have this massive group of people that have racking horses. And then I'm over here and from these two girls from West Virginia backshells Tennessee walkers and you're racking horses, and I'm over here like, my head's over here like wow, okay, they that group would love you and all your rocking horse knowledge, you know, just kind of weird how the world you know how you find little pods of people and they end up with like the same group of horses. Not a lot of people have rocking horses that come here. I don't know why. But you've got a horse Alicia, you're writing a What are you riding? Rocky, Rocky? Boy, Rocky Mountain horses are there's a lot of people I'm beginning to see more of them. I didn't see as many when we first started. It was like an oddity to see a rocky mountain horse. And now I'm seeing them at least a couple of times a month.
Mary White
For the most part. Rocky Mountains have a very even temper and they're really nice horses to work with.
Brandy Von Holten
You know, I haven't seen a rocky mule yet. A rocky mountain mule? Have you? Have you seen one? Yeah. Well, if you're listening this podcast and you got to Rocky Mountain merely bear show me a picture because I haven't seen one yet. You've been
Alicia Stickel
around. We've been around a lot. Lot of states, new friends. Everywhere we go. Yeah.
Brandy Von Holten
So tell me about some of these places that y'all have traveled. And done. Tell me some places like different states and places that y'all rode.
Alicia Stickel
We, let's see, we left April the 14th for five weeks, and I pick out a route where we travel about five, six hours a day. We don't like travel at nighttime but so I pick camps that I find every like I found brandy von Holten on Facebook, find camps that we can camp out for three or four or five days and move on to another place. So we completely from West Virginia, started out in Tennessee all the way around down Georgia that it was some friends from Michigan border at the end, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky.
Brandy Von Holten
So tell me a couple of things that's made Jambi so successful at traveling around by ourselves. What are some things that you always make sure that you have with you what some tips to give people?
Mary White
Well, I've had some flat tires. So I now have two spares for my horse trailer. I had a flat tire and we didn't have a compressor to air it eras a tire. So in Tennessee, we bought one.
Alicia Stickel
So now we have 150 pounds or 150 psi pancake air compressor that by the way, your husband David put our air hose together. So we've traveled without the arrows. But yes, and now we were equipped to take care so we don't have to depend on any any one.
Brandy Von Holten
Y'all can take care of us. Yeah. Okay. And you and we
Alicia Stickel
also get our trailers faithfully serviced. Before we leave. We're talking about bearings. We're talking our RV their energy in Jane Lu, about less than 10 minutes or five minutes from us, opened up an RV place and so they checked us out they do an MPI inspection head to toe. Okay, hearing so we have at faithfully done and tires. Everything is faithfully so we got to depend on each other. I don't want to depend on anybody else, right? If needed. So I don't even care. We don't even carry tools. We're not mechanics. Right? The one thing we can do is change your own tire one time last year, she had two flat tires, two flat tires in the same day, like in a couple of hours
Mary White
on I 64 and six right out of Lexington. So you can imagine the traffic? Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I had, of course, roadside
Alicia Stickel
assistance, which was a joke. Yeah. I was there for hours before I even as women just take care of yourself. I mean, we were not afraid on of our own our own. We're not, right. I mean, we're just actually love to be on her own. And we're always meeting up with her friends.
Brandy Von Holten
Right? So everybody's expecting you. Absolutely. We're about six hours away for each time when you travel shorter distances. Okay.
Alicia Stickel
Some places that we just rode for the five weeks was within three hours to our next stop. We made it quickly.
Mary White
We stop pretty often at lecturing at Lexington, Kentucky, at the Horse Park, Kentucky Horse Park. That's really good. They only charge like $30 a night for you. So we just pull into a hallway and put her horses right next to her trailer and log into the electric so we're really electric motor.
Alicia Stickel
Yeah, they're perfect. Not for our trailers but electric for trailers.
Brandy Von Holten
So telling me Okay, so you're already for tell me something that you could tell someone that is 64. About how to continue to run like what is your what do you think your secret is? What do you think it is? That's mainly because here's what I find. I have a lot of people that get into horses later in life, or they have a gap without horses because they did kids and they stop, they get back into it. And then the 60s hit turning 60 is sometimes rough is sometimes rough is what I have experience with my clients. And then 6160 To make this gets easier, and then they're just like, Oh, look at what I can do. Okay, but then some people have that. It's like, it's hard to get them to keep going. And then some people just they just stop they, they sell the trucks and trailers they, I mean, and then it just seems like there's this inner like this phase that's in their 60s Where it's like so difficult to do things and they're like, do I really want to do this, but they love horses and they love riding. But then I just see people that say saw instead of doing these so how do you get them to not? How could if you can talk to your 64 year old self? What was something that you remember that just like, hey, I'm gonna do this?
Mary White
my when I was 64 Gosh, I could run up a hill it's really, really, really strong. I've always been really, really strong because I would go to a fitness center and workout at least three days a week at and I would go in the morning at five o'clock, and work out and go home, take a shower and go to the office. I also rode my bike back and forth to we lived in town and our farm was five miles out of town so I'd ride my bike to the farm and back. I've always written with the grandkids I taught the grandkids to swim I taught the grandkids to ride so I had I had people family and friends to do things with me all the time and about always surrounded myself with good friends. People make things the key people seem to like me, I don't know why. To know
Brandy Von Holten
because you're a firecracker.
Alicia Stickel
It's the friends because we she used to ride with what 3040 People Yes, but there's just too many. There's too much anyway and up. And it doesn't matter what age you're like yes, it does. But even I don't like somebody cowboy and through me, and it leads to dangerous
Brandy Von Holten
right Alicia's 61 and born in 1960 while
Alicia Stickel
I'm 29 and sticking to it the 29th Yes, I mean no. Can you ask me about majorly and I really was stunned. I'm like, Wait,
Mary White
that's my story. And I'm sticking to so
Brandy Von Holten
I will tell you the fact that you're saying that. Yeah, the larger groups I don't dig large groups.
Alicia Stickel
It's dangerous. Yeah. But find friends we have found our friends through camping like here we've traded numbers right and we'll stay in contact but I don't think they travel as much as Mary and I do I think that they well some of your girls here just recently got back into it right you recently got back into it yeah back into truly believe
Mary White
the secret to life in and long life is not to sit around and feel sorry for yourself. Everybody has issues that they have to work through too
Alicia Stickel
few of them that were here was the same as myself. And which were very well, like the one was she wasn't a bodybuilder with did oh, she
Brandy Von Holten
used to come? Um, she competed. peatiness fitness.
Alicia Stickel
Yes. My gosh, she's a brick house. Yeah, a brick house. But now she she's getting back in. So it's meeting people, we've if you're going to say I think somebody at 60 Plus is find some good friends. And you don't know, like I was so excited to meet Brandi from Facebook following her. And I have fell in love. We both Mary and I have fell in love with her from the time that I think she opened up her mouth. You know, truly, that and David her husband, but and I do believe that we will have a long relationship. We don't have to be together every day. Right? And it's like our really good friends. We have a group of six, six friends that we meet, we work our schedule around, we'll say okay, I found I found von Holten which I did. Volunteer von Holten ranch in Missouri. You all want to go so we have this group of about eight of us on on as a text. And we'll you know, I'll give you the date you want to go you go. So most do and some don't. But, you know, they're all within several hours of each other but we meet up at least what five, six times a year Mary Yes and right. And we're from several states that that's the key is find those people because they'll push it and we stay we keep in contact with with our life daily life. It's not every day. It's not every week. But even if it's something making a silly comment or a comment was congratulations, you know when you're, you know, new arrivals of your grandchild. Yes. Anything like that. And if you get some good friends and more than likely it's going to be friends you've met away. Right? It don't have to be at home. They don't have to be right there at home with you.
Mary White
I've made a lot of adjustments as I get older. I like the weight of my saddle, the type of saddle that I use until I was at years old, I wish really strong, I could still jump up in in my stirrup and get on. Now I have to have a mounting block, I do two, nine, my legs are gone, my legs are not strong anymore, but I still have great balance in the satellite don't worry about falling off and I can do anything anybody else can do. If they want to ride 20 miles, I can do 20 miles. I prefer to do 15. But whatever they can do, I can do so
Brandy Von Holten
well. We had some ladies on some green or horses and stuff that was having difficulty going through some ditches and Mary would turn around and help them get through there and have her horse go back through it and just be there close by to help coach them through the ditch. So but you know, whenever I ask you like what you're doing is 64. And you're telling me you could run up hill and you were riding your bike and exercising.
Mary White
In fact, there was a on our farm, we had a cabin. And I remember my grandson was there and he wanted and the cabin was up on a bank and so he wanted to race me up the bank and I could still run faster up to the bank than he could. So well, I guess I've always kept a younger attitude. I don't have a no attacked at my age maybe.
Brandy Von Holten
Okay, so it just sounds like you're just active and now you've got your next where's your next place to camp and ride at? Do you know who in Illinois? Okay, so well so you know your next adventure and then your next adventure? And it sounds like you've got a group of people that you go and ride with and you don't do big groups and you stay active. And boy, how nice is it man to be able to do this with Alicia.
Mary White
Oh, it it's it's great. Alicia sits in for anything. We'll be driving along and we call each other. Hey, you see, you see that shop? Do you want to stop there? And yeah, sure.
Alicia Stickel
If we want to.
Mary White
If we can find a place to park these trailers. We both have three horse trailers with living quarters. Courts. Alicia's is much larger than mine. But they're pretty big trailers if it were
Alicia Stickel
Mine's 48 and yours is mine sporting yours is 28. Our rigs alone not count our trucks. Yeah, you're still pulling a
Mary White
Yeah. But I love it. And I've always been a very independent person have never listened to what I was told. So,
Brandy Von Holten
still doesn't. Is that what you said? Okay. All right. Well, Mary slash Betty White. Okay. Oh my gosh. You know, I think if I think me and you could have gotten into some trouble together. Yeah. Well, I'm planning on trying to get in trouble with you next year. I've always wanted to go to Utah.
Mary White
You got problems. You put two Leos together.
Alicia Stickel
I can handle it.
Brandy Von Holten
Oh my gosh. You know, typically two Leos we either love each other and would give each other the shirt off your back or you hate each other. Yeah, yeah. Like, well, that's the way it's typically.
Alicia Stickel
you'd already known that about her then. Oh, then yeah, you'd already figured that out. This whole week being with you.
Brandy Von Holten
Oh, yeah. I was like, Oh, she's strong. She's strong. I love strong women. And you know, the older I get the I love being around strong, strong women. I want other people to be strong. So all right, well, hey, how did they how to if they wanted to try to meet with you and ride with you. How could they find you just on Facebook? And then yeah, and so A L I C I A is Alicia. And then her last name is Stickel and it's S T I c k E L? Yeah, but no weirdos, because if some weirdo contacts are you gonna have to deal with me? Okay, are you gonna have to deal with Mary.
Mary White
you can also reach Alicia Red, Red Angus or Cedar Hill Cedar Hill Red Angus. Cedar Hill Red Angus Red Angus Yearh 'cause Alicia and her husband are big time cattle farmers in West Virginia. All right, well, hey, thank you for tuning into Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten.
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