Scott Simms: Importance of Giving Back to Create the Next Generation of Cowboy

 SPEAKERS

Brandy Von Holten, Scott Simms, Transcribed by Rhiannon Neimeier

Brandy Von Holten  00:15

Welcome back to Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten. Today I have someone by the name of Scott Simms. Scott has known me since 2013 2014. Around that time. Whenever I had first started obstacle competition, I started with an association called The Ultimate Horseman's Challenge Association, which is UHCA. It's Kansas and in Missouri. And then I went to the EXCA, The Extreme Cowboy Association. Scott and I have since then done some American Stock Horse Association things here. We had a training was put on by the president of that association. Now, Scott is judging CT2V, which is Country Tough Trail Versatility. What town you live in what town do you live in? [Scott: Butler, Missouri.] Okay. Scott has done all sorts of things. I thought I'd bring him on here to give you insight to all sorts of different, obstacle, ranch horse, cattle farming, judging, all sorts of insight that Scott has. Scott, go ahead and tell them a little bit about you.

01:39

Yeah, I live in Butler, Missouri, I work for a company  North American Underwriters. We travel from one end of the country to the other dealing with large losses for mostly the Hartford, Shelter, sometimes Farmers Insurance, dealing with losses from floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, things like that. I've been in New York City for five weeks after Hurricane Sandy, and I have been in California. I love my job. My boss used to be in Holden, Missouri. They've since moved to Florida, but we travel anywhere in the United States dealing with large losses for the insurance companies.

Brandy Von Holten  02:18

Okay, and how long have you done that?

02:22

Since 2008.

Brandy Von Holten  02:23

Okay, what did you do before that? What made you get into insurance?

02:28

I was getting a little older. I raised cattle and I took care of cattle for other people. Eventually age starts to catch up with you. I like people, I like travel. This job involves both, it gives me a chance to help people that are going through some really hard times. One that comes to mind after the tornado hit in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, we met folks that had no insurance and we met people that, everything they had, was gone. I went to a claim in Moore, Oklahoma after the tornado hit there. When I pulled up there was a slab of concrete, and I thought I wase in the wrong place. The gentleman that was there seemed out of sorts, kind of hard to get along with. And his wife came up to me and said, “Please bear with him. This was our business. This was our life. Two months ago, our son died, three months ago, my husband was diagnosed with cancer.” We may think we're having problems, but you never know what the other person's going through. I've met some people that are really devastated by some of these losses and I have met people that bounce back, they are very resilient, and they come back and are determined to be successful again.

Brandy Von Holten  03:38

With doing this podcast, and with our facility, I've met people with stories that would, it would bring a tear to a glass eye. That is what my father would say, bring a tear to a glass eye. But, out of those hard stories, you can usually find inspiration for the people that dig out and come back from them.

04:05

You sure can. It's amazing. As you travel, and you deal with people and their different losses, whether it be flood, wind, whatever it happens to be, again, Brandy, to reiterate what you said, some people bounce back and come back stronger. Some people, it gets to be a load for them, and they have a little trouble dealing with it. Maybe they have to dig a little deeper to find their faith and rely on others, lean on some friends and family, to come back and get through some of these things.

Brandy Von Holten  04:32

All right. Scott, you said that you're getting a little bit older, I asked you what model you were and you said I'm a 1952.

04:38

 I used to think 70 was a number that I'd never see. Next June I'll be 70, so it changes a few of the things. When I was younger when I team roped, we were always happy to be in the fives and sixes now and happy to be in the sevens and eights. You slow down a little bit and to think that at 69 I'm as fast as the kids that you go compete against, it's not quite that way. I always like to think that maybe riding better horses or better broke horses along with your practice and your repetition can keep you on the same level of the playing field. So far it's done that, I enjoy still showing horses, I judge horses a lot through four different associations and a few that are open shows. We judge cattle, judge sheep, judge open show horses, and the association horse shows. I have been blessed that I seem to be in high demand and judge quite a bit. I also coached the 4-H Livestock Judging Team at home and horse judging team for Bates County. That’s been a blessing, I have a great set of kids that I coach with wonderful farm families. They're not afraid to work and put the effort in to be successful. I lay out that farm family park, and maybe that's where it comes from. You don't get many city kids doing this as a rule because they have no background or experience with livestock. The children that make better judges, per se, are people that have grown up around livestock, and they tend to have an idea what a good one is or what a poor one is. I think the biggest thing that we teach in coaching judging teams is we teach children how to communicate. Part of our contest is what they call oral reasons. A child has two minutes on certain classes to tell you why they placed them that way and defend their decisions. The ability to communicate as they go forward in life, I think is the biggest thing that we offer him. I have some children that have been extremely successful. I have one young man that was a state champion for me years ago, and now is a very successful lawyer in Kansas City. I've got a son that teaches in a huge program in Austin, Texas. Again, just a blessing and the ability to communicate, it never goes out of style. If you're applying for a job, whatever you do, we think it's important. People may get tired of people always wanting to win, but I tell my kids on my judging team, you'll never go for a job interview when they want to hire the second or third best person, they want to hire the best person that they can hire. Strive to be that way.

Brandy Von Holten  07:17

You just said something awhile ago about how sometimes city kids don't have the opportunity to be around some of these livestock. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about my horse day camps. I had someone negatively comment on one that was on a Facebook ad. I keep the kids from nine to four. We always do a service project, we do some kind of farm chore. The kids are excited to be able to help and have someone say oh, that looks great, or let me show you how to fork manure, or move a wheelbarrow or rake. They want to do a good job ending up water hoses. We have latching fences and gates and little chains. A lot of times they don't know how to do it, but as soon as I show them how to do it, then they want to show the next kid. So, we always do a service project. It's usually about 45 minutes long. Then we groom the horses. I teach them how to do something like pick up a hook or braid hair or do a rope halter. We talk about how to lead them. Then, we always ride the horses and mules. It’s usually lunchtime after riding, or around that time. We'll do some kind of activity after lunch. I've brought in a line dance instructor, we've painted before, we've done martial arts, we've shot some pellet rifles, we've done archery, we always do some kind of craft or learn a skill or exercise, something of that nature. Then we go play in the creek, talk about so much fun. “Look how many snails I caught,” or, “Look at this tadpole, look at this crawdad!” By then, after we play in the creek for a while, then we will come back up. I'll usually read something to them and we have ice cream on the porch and it's time to go home. That is a nine to four. I had one lady that was just like, “they get to ride horses just for a couple of hours and then fork manure They're $50, what?” They don't understand what I'm providing for them. One lady said I should just do this for free, they're just getting ride horses. I'm like, I just gave up a seventh of a week. Do you know how much time, I mean a day, [Scott: and what that's worth to you.] For sure. That's just the two comments that have ever come back. The rest of them are like, “Please Do more of these!” I have so many city kids that love my mule JoJo, and they love everything. They pick stuff up so fast when given the opportunity to be around these animals, these horses and mules, and they love their quirky personalities. The kids just need to be in have that opportunity.

10:23

That given the chance to be exposed thing. You know, two of the things that I grew up doing, that I have a hard time finding help for anymore, is there's nobody that knows how to milk a cow. There's nobody knows how to stack hay. They didn't grow up doing it. Both of those are important in my world. Occasionally a cow may have issues or problems with a calf, I may need to milk some colostrum out and put some in the freezer so I have it, or a cow may get mastitis, heaven forbid, but you need to milk it out. Some kids don't know how to work an udder, grab a teat, and milk them out. They don't know how to stack hay, and if you don't stack hay right, it doesn't ride in a pickup. It is a lost art anymore. It's like you said, if you take a child that wants to learn that has any kind of a positive attitude, they'll grasp that and appreciate it.

Brandy Von Holten  11:12

 I don't know if you follow us on social media, but we have Peppercorn, my husband's leopard Appaloosa, and that horse has milk. Oh my gosh, she's probably up to about 300 kids that have milked her, and she's a-okay with that. She doesn't care. That's just who she is. The kids think that so much fun. Just to learn there are two teats underneath there, they’re amazed. Peppercorn is maybe 14 two. 14 three, you know, she might be 15 hands, I don’t know with her long sway back. So, right beside her, I've got my mule that's 16 one. She has the smallest little bitty teats and they come show me that Coco's are smaller, and she's bigger. I’ll tell them, Yeah, that happens. But, just that exploratory-ness of them is innocent, and they're learning, and it's just a wonderful experience.

12:21

If they hadn't come out to see that, they’d go through life and never know what that is or understand the differences. We have to give them the opportunity to learn.

Brandy Von Holten  12:31

Yeah. So, Scott does all sorts of things. He is also a cattle farmer. And you have Simmental?

12:40

Yes, we mostly black face Simmentals. We have some, a few commercial cows also, and from the teamwork roping world I also keep a few Corriente cows around to raise some roping calves.

Brandy Von Holten  12:52

So, what made you choose, or did they choose you? What made you choose that specific breed, the Simmentals?

12:59

I started out in life with polled Hereford’s, grew up in the polled Herford world in Illinois, worked for some people that had world class polled Hereford’s. We traveled all over the United States showing, my dad had worked for them when he got out of college, and I worked for them to high school. I thought they were it. I moved around a little bit, started working with some black cattle, Angus cattle, and I enjoyed them. I saw what I thought were some of the advantages for me. Everybody likes black cattle; we talk about certified Angus beef and the black hided effect on cattle. With the Angus, there are a few things I'd like to change. I stumbled on some black face Simmentals. I like a little more bone, a little heavier structure. I thought the cows as a rule melt a little better, and that's why I gravitated towards them. I even like my first calf heifers. I think they have great udders. They're excellent mothers. I think they're thrifty, hearty. They do well. When you raise livestock, it doesn't make a difference what kind, if it's dogs, sheep, cattle, or horses, even people. Think about this: you're a good cowboy if you have good mothers. A great cow, or a great mare, a great dog, or a great woman, raises great babies. Those of us men that struggle around the world, we'd be nowhere without good mothers. I put a high emphasis on good mothers, two legged or four.

Brandy Von Holten  14:25

Shout out to all the ladies. Let's talk about your lady for a little bit. Her name is Sherry.

14:32

Sherry is my wife. We've been married 20 years. Second marriage for both of us. Sherry has two girls that are both adults and they've blessed us with seven grandchildren. I've got a boy that lives in Austin, Texas, and teaches ag down there in a big program in Austin. Sherry runs a daycare in Butler, Missouri. She has 32 kids at the daycare which keeps her hopping, and she can come home pretty tired at night. She's blessed right now. She has a great staff helping her/ In Butler, there are two things that are always full are daycares and rental units. The daycares are busy because a lot of young mothers have to go back to work so there are two incomes for the houses, and everybody needs a storage unit.

Brandy Von Holten  15:13

My husband's always thought, “How could a storage unit make money?” He's never believed in it. I’ve thought, man, you have to be wrong here. Now David's 47, and he admits he was so wrong on the storage units because they're everywhere. [Scott: everywhere and full.] Yeah, and full. I've had to use them a couple of times, such as when college would be over and I’d move into an apartment, but I’d have a hiccup in timing and had to use them before. David was all like, “who would need a storage building?” Well, I was elected to the health board. Heck, the health department has storage buildings because they have large items, and they have files that needed an area for them. I never realized how much storage people needed.

16:06

I have several friends in Butler that have storage units. One man that has quite a few. Every unit he has is full, you get in line to get one. It's amazing the amount of money, not just the money he makes, but the service he offers. I know when my mom and dad moved, I needed to store some furniture for them, I called Richard, put it in there, that took care of it for six months, and you don't have to worry about it.

Brandy Von Holten  16:30

We've started, with our RV campsite over winter, we've started storing a few people's RV's. We charge $100 a month, and then they're able to keep it setting at a certain temperature. It doesn't freeze in there, but we're not trying to heat it. We're just trying not to burst anything, like bursting pipes. It's also not covered. We've had several people take us up on that. We never thought about that when we opened up this facility. We never thought about winter storage because we thought, well, it’s not covered. But, then at least is plugged in. So, in addition to working in insurance, and being a cattle farmer, you also raise Quarter Horses.

17:17

We've been blessed over the years to raise some pretty nice horses. I had a friend that lived at Rich Hill, Missouri, Gary Jennings, got us started. Gary used to run 100 mares. He and I got to be friends; I bought some mares from him. We've had a stallion or two over the years.  It's getting to the point where for us, at my age, we will taper off on the raising. It's almost easier for me to go buy a colt that I know the pedigree, the sex, and the color. It's everything I want. So, we're probably going to taper off on that. At 69, I probably won't ride a lot more colts. I've been lucky. I had open heart surgery six years ago and recovery from that went great. I've replaced my left knee, I had surgery on my left foot, and I tore my rotator cuff on the left side last year. I’m probably going to put a new knee in on the right side, maybe this fall. Hopefully everything holds up until I'm done. As you get older and your body starts to fail, you do some things a little easier. I don't need to break many colts anymore, and I haven't had a lot of wrecks, but you get to this the point at my age, you don't need any wrecks.

Brandy Von Holten  18:26

No wrecks. Yeah, I know the statistics on breaking a hip over the age of 70. Those are not good statistics.

18:35

Both of my grandmother's, when they broke their hips, they went to the nursing home. Neither one ever came home. It just doesn't bode well. I felt like that was the onset of their dementia and Alzheimer's. But again, once they broke that hip, they never came home.

Brandy Von Holten  18:53

You know, my clients, this is going to sound goofy to say, my clients are getting older, but everybody's getting older. I have so many 70-year old’s that are riding, and I have 80-year old’s that are riding. It’s simply because they're being smarter. They're being more cautious and making better decisions. What they love about coming here is that, with David and I living here, they always know we're going to make sure and see them. Or they can tell us, “Hey, I'm by myself,” and we'll make sure that we see them at night. We have so many clients in their 70s, and I always joke with them. I'm like, “well how the heck did that happen?” They're like, “I don't know, I just woke up and I was 70,”

19:43

In this association that I just judged for you here today, there was a lady that I met that was 70, Susan she rides a nice horse. In almost every association that I deal with, I have friends that are in their late 60s or early 70s that are still very active and have been very successful competitors. But again, I think they’re taking better care of themselves as they age. Maybe do some exercises, maybe some yoga, but we try and be careful about what we do. I think we're all riding better, broke horses. Our lines are a little rockier than others, but we try and ride good, quiet horses and not have those wrecks anymore.

Brandy Von Holten  20:24

How much has the availability of clinics helped with that, and the availability of people understanding horses? Like next weekend, I have mounted police training here. That’s a lot to throw at a horse, but they do it gradually. I'm going to ride my goofy mule JoJo in it and get him ready for some more parades and stuff. I've also trained with Lee Hart, I've got to train with John and Michael Lyons that came here before, and I got to watch a presentation from Guy McLean. There's so much good knowledge out there. Speaking of that good knowledge, you're also a roping clinician. Do you know how hard it is to find a roping clinician?

21:22

One of the things that we specialize in at roping clinicians, as beginning ropers, a lot of people want to get on that horse and go chase that steer. They've had no experience handling a rope, or dealing with a horse that's handled a rope, and then they go rope a steer that doesn't want you to catch him, but we start out with the very basics. We teach people how to coil and uncoil their rope, we teach them how to build a loop, how to swing that loop, bring it up, and swing it correctly, and deliver it. I've been blessed with the ability to watch people and make corrections to whatever they're fighting, whether it's getting their elbow up, rotating the wrist more, whatever they need to be more successful. I've been blessed to do that for almost 20 years now. I enjoy working with people and getting them started laying a good foundation. I think it's like anything we do. If we lay the foundation, it gets better for us as we go forward. The church that I go to in Nevada, Riverside Cowboy Church, puts on a rodeo bible camp every summer. We have 80 kids. The ground roping is one of the bigger segments there that we get kids started. I've had some children come through there that have never picked up a rope before, and by the time they get done, they maybe spend a year or two with us. They're just they become roping demons. They love it, and they enjoy doing it and we enjoy having them. It's a niche for me to keep meeting new people, and maybe help people advance a basic part of their horsemanship.

Brandy Von Holten  22:47

I have big dreams of being more, punchy is probably not the right word, but more authentic. I want to learn how to be a better roper. I can do some very, very basic stuff. I will tell you so many ropers are missing fingers, and I am so scared of getting a finger caught around the horn and losing a finger or something. I have a little bit of fear towards that. What do you think causes those fingers to get squeezed off?

23:24

I think in anything we do in life, especially when we're competitive, whether it's showing horses here, competing as an athlete, team roping, I think that sometimes our adrenaline or anxiety maybe gets the best of us. Jake Barnes lost thumb at the national finals, and Jake Barnes has roped more cattle than I'll ever see, a seven-time world champion. He still lost his thumb. A half a second lapse in your attention span will cost you something like that. He's a man that it shouldn’t have cost, but it did. We try and teach everything slow. Kids learn to dally, to handle the rope, and one of the things I fussed about a lot is teaching them how to handle rope and do it correctly. When we teach them to Dally, it's a slow motion. You have to keep that thumb up. Then, we have somebody run with the rope so that they've got some pressure on the rope. You don't just go to a steer. You'll have a child, or another person, run with that rope out there. So, they have the pressure on the rope, we dally slow. If you have a rubber wrapped horn, as soon as you start to make the first dally, first rotation, you'll start to slow. The brake comes on, slows that rope down, and you make the second rotation. That will stop whatever's out there at the end.

Brandy Von Holten  24:48

You said that, whenever people are ready to rope, they think they’re going to rope a steer and are ready to jump out there. Okay, mounted archery. Whenever people come in for mounted archery, they tell me, “I've been riding my horse without holding on to the reins,” or, “I've been working on running without my hands on the reins.” I'm like, okay, we'll get to that next year. Okay? I always think, okay, let's go through just moving, keeping both eyes open, let's work on increasing the speed, and grabbing your arrow at the right place. I don't even know how many steps it is if I broke it down, but there are so many steps that you have to do with your hand to get your arrow put onto the correct spot of your bow string and onto your bow. People are like, “Ah, this is a lot harder than I thought.” And I'm like, Yeah, this is an actual bow. This is an actual arrow, that's a real tip on it, and we're going to project it. There is so much groundwork in it. I brought in a world champion, and I brought in a person that was the president of the National Association. We spent so much time on the ground. The world champion, after he left, I didn't shoot off my mule for three months, because I'm like, oh, I need to back it up. So, I kind of feel like roping, you probably get that same person, just really ready, and you’re like, okay, we need to bring it back.

26:32

Just like you said, when you're sitting in the saddle, the things that we do on the ground, they need to learn. Such as to keep enough rope in between their hands so that as they launch a loop, it can start to go. One of the things that almost everybody makes a mistake when they're first starting, is they don't let the coils loose. So, they throw the rope out there, and suddenly, the brakes run. It doesn't go any farther. Why didn't it go any farther? Well, you didn't let the coils loose. Little things that, that those of us that have done it forever take for granted. Somebody that's just starting out, as you say with your mounted archery, a lot of little steps that go into being successful. When you translate that into getting on a horse, try not to hit the horse with the loop, trying to hold the reins and the coils, it becomes a lot more complicated than what people think,

Brandy Von Holten  27:13

Oh, yeah, because you have both hands that are having to do something, and then you're having to move it. In addition to your hands, now you've got your shoulder, and then you have an animal underneath you that can be afraid of a Walmart bag. If it's one of my mules, one of my mules freaked out the other day when she moved her own ear, and it made her shadow move. There are a lot of things going on. Then you're trying to catch another animal.

27:38

That doesn't want to be part of the equation and isn't going to do anything to cooperate with you. It's a slow process. You get people, as in any endeavor, that are gifted and maybe move through faster than others. This is a deal where the safer you're going to be, is the slower you go, the better you learn and follow the steps.

Brandy Von Holten  27:59

Well, I will tell you from roping, you're at 100% I'm at like 12%. Whenever I think about roping, everybody sees these cowboys and that rope is just humming, but then they can't hold on it tight with their hand or it will pinch their hand. So, I always think there's a lot of sexiness that comes with a roper, because here they are, they have to be firm, but then they have to be delicate or they're going to hurt themselves. Then, they have all the coils in the other hand, but if they hold on too tight and be too firm, they choke it and it doesn't go out. So, they have to do something so firm so fast, but yet be soft at the same time. That is sexy.

28:48

We'll try and teach that the next one.

Brandy Von Holten  28:51

All right, guys, we're going to teach you how to be sexy. Okay, we're going to teach you how to rope, and then you're extra sexy if you want to throw in some mounted archery. Okay, as soon as you put a quiver on and it's got some arrows and you're holding a bow, people are like “Who's that?” [Scott: Oh, Robin Hood?] Oh, yeah. Okay, so I want to talk to you about this. It says that you judge equine, you judge cattle, you judge livestock. I had some 4-H kids come out here one time. They had to practice judging my horses. They told me that KTM, my gelding that I love, they said that he had a lot of feminine characteristics. I would like to know what makes a horse have feminine characteristics.

29:36

You know, horses are like people like, like cattle. A bull should look like a bull and a heifer should look like heifers. Geldings, we want to say they look more masculine and don't have feminine traits. Normally, a mare is a little finer through the neck and the jawline, maybe a little lighter made. You don't see many mares that are heavy structure. They should be – 

Brandy Von Holten  30:01

You’re talking about horses, right?

30:03

Yes, ma'am. You know, they're not quite as heavy boned, maybe not quite as big footed. That's a term we would call ‘coarse,’ and we want our mares a little more refined. It sounds simple when I'm saying it, but we want our gils to look like girls and our boys to look like boys. I'm blessed. My dad judged livestock in college, I judged livestock in college, and my son judged livestock in college. It's kind of in our DNA. It's what we do. My dad and I both went to the University of Illinois; my son went to Southern Missouri State down in Springfield. We all had a lot of success, because after we got out, we've all judged a lot of livestock, and I still judge a lot and still enjoy it. I enjoy meeting people. The one thing when you judge any event, or any species, all they’re getting is one man's opinion. I'm not God, you're getting my opinion, what I like. You might find somebody down the road the next day that has a different opinion, a different mindset, looks for different traits, that would use a different animal. We try and have industry standards, that we call ideals. This is what we're looking for. But we may find different ways to get there and have different animals that suit us that day. Soundness, how an animal moves, whether it's a pig, a cow, or a horse, they need to be able to move, and soundness is something that I put a lot of emphasis on. Again, maybe because I ride, I trim feet on show steers. They've got to walk. If they can't walk, in any species, they're not going to get you very far.

Brandy Von Holten  31:34

Okay. I've always wanted to know what those 4-H girls meant when they said he has a lot of feminine characteristics. He's been confused for a mare about nine out of 10 times. When they start talking about KTM, first they think his name is Kim, because that T looks like a capital i. And they're like, “is this Kim?” And I was like, “No, it's KTM. It's a brand of motorcycle.” I named him after a dirt bike, and it's a boy. Well, what's your next thing? What do you want to do? It sounds like you’re red, white, and blue through and through. You deal with cattle, and you're my third person to interview so far with cattle, and all three of you are in love with a different breed of cattle.

32:23

That's one of the beauties of our world. You know, some people drive a Chevy, some people drive a Ford, some people drive a Cadillac. The different needs we have as producers, our different likes and dislikes, are in very different areas. The geography we deal with, the climate that we deal with, you know, if you go to the southeast, you're going to have more Brahman influence of cattle because they're heat tolerant and more insect tolerant. As you move to the southwest, you maybe won't see as many black cattle. Again, it's drier there. You need cattle with bone and substance that will travel to graze and to drink, but you don't need the black hide absorbing sun. Again, you flip that coin over, you get to Montana, you're not going to see many Brahman influence up there because of the winters. They'll stand there and just shake, it’s almost mean to put them in that kind of climate.

Brandy Von Holten  33:17

We had an Angus bull one time, and we had some long horns. Those Longhorns had him huffing and puffing because they traveled so much more, and they traveled quickly. He was just trying to catch them. He’s thinking, “it's time to make these babies, y'all are in heat.” I mean, he about passed out on us, and we were like, man, we're going to have to put up a smaller pasture for him because it was not working out for him. So, your ambition right now, you might slow down with raising horses and you're talking about it's easier to buy one so you already know exactly what you have.

34:03

With the sales now, whether you're buying weanlings, yearlings, whatever age animal you want and whatever breed you want. You can pick out a pedigree that you like that works for your program, you can get the sex you want, whether it's a stallion, gelding or filly, and you can get the color you want. It takes a lot of the guesswork out; it takes a lot of the decision making out. There's what you want. There are a lot of sales around the country. You and I were visiting earlier, horse sales are crazy high right now. The market for good broke horses is over the top.

Brandy Von Holten  34:37

it is over. Alright, so my husband surprised me and a couple of our trail guests. I'm always so bummed because whenever they come here, they come here for an event. I would actually like to spend time with them. ride horses with them, maybe eat a meal with them. Well, he surprised me, and they surprised me. They came in last Sunday and they stayed all week. I didn't know that. We get home at nighttime, and they're unloading a horse and he's like, “I've got a surprise for you.” The first thing I thought was, “Oh no, David picked a horse out for me. Good God.” Then I was trying to be like, “Oh, you got me a horse.” It turns out it was their horses, and they were here. Anyways, I was trying to be excited because if I got to choose a horse, guess what I would choose? I'd like to hear what you would think I'd want. [Scott: not a mule.] Not a meal.

35:36

 Maybe a gaited horse Quarter Horse.

Brandy Von Holten  35:41

Yeah, I'd probably choose Quarter Horse. Do you think I would want a mare or gelding?

35:49

Most everybody wants a gelding.

Brandy Von Holten  35:51

I love mares. I love the meanness. I love their attitude. I think they have more heart. [Scott: I have one that fits that that bill almost all the way around]. I like them mean a little bit, but not dangerous. But mean. There's a difference between useful, and just evil. I kind of liked the in the middle of that, a bit of useful is nice.

36:08

Evil. My ex-wife haha.

Brandy Von Holten  36:12

Oh my gosh. What color do you think I would go for if I got to choose a color? [Scott: Yellow.] Yellow. Whenever I got my Palomino right now, it came out of a sorrel mare, and I bred her to like a tri colored paint. [Scott: I'll be darned] It came out with a Palomino with four white stockings and a blaze, it was amazing. But if I ever got to choose, it'd be liver chestnut. Liver chestnut mare, that's probably not 16 hands, but she could be 16 hands, a little bit bigger. And just a little bit of attitude, and Quarter Horse. I want her to have the biggest butt in the world, on a bigger Quarter Horse, and I want her to go. I don't want a lazy 16-year-old, 16 hand. I want a beefcake that can pull Optimus Prime out of a ditch. That's what I want.

37:04

I think you should shoot for that.

Brandy Von Holten  37:08

Nobody would ever put that combination. I love that color, liver chestnut. As soon as I see one, I'm like, is that a liver chestnut? You know, like some girls are like, “Oh, is that a nice four door truck?” And I'm like, “Oh, you have a liver chestnut?” If you got to choose everything that you want in a horse, what would it be?

37:29

This is going to really upset you. I have a gorgeous liver chestnut gelding I'm riding right now. I like quality. Color doesn't mean as much. I've never had a dirty Palomino, and I'd love to have dirty Palomino. I've had several greys, I can sign in the sales. One of them, a good friend of mine, was riding for me. I had open heart surgery and he was riding a colt for a little bit. He was going to the sale, and he says Scott, I'm not too sure you shouldn't keep this one. I took him up to Nebraska and sold him, and I've had thoughts since he left. But, I like greys, I like palominos, I ride some sorrels. I've got a beautiful buckskin mare at home, she belongs to my wife. I got delivered a chestnut gelding that has four socks, a star, stripe, and a snip, a real eye catcher. I never get tired of looking at him. So as long as they're good, I'm not quite as fussy, but if I could call the doctor and order one, I might get a grey with a two tone tail, white and gray. Oh, I love those. I never had one, but they are cool looking.

Brandy Von Holten  38:27

 I have glamour, she's just a little refrigerator of a horse. She's basically like a small deep freeze. She's muscled, a quarter horse, but I'm probably going to breed her and get a sport horse. I'm bigger, and we have big jobs to do here. I'm thinking about a sport horse, half draft, half Quarter Horse and they're some beef cakes, they can pull some stuff.

38:56

That cross is wildly popular now. That market is so strong. I know at the sales, the Boone County sales in Sedalia, that's one of the more popular crosses. That cross, even out west, you see a lot of people are using them as rodeo pickup horses. They'll pack on some of the Cowboys that are going a long way and having to rope bulls a lot. That's what they want, something that big and stout.

Brandy Von Holten  39:23

Yeah, I want something big and stout, but don't want it to be a full draft horse. They still want the Quarter Horse but then it's like, that's what I'm going for. I'm excited. I don't care about color, anything like that. Glamour is everything that I want. I just wish she was a little bit bigger. But she doesn’t have any problems with anything. I mean, I can ride her for as many days as I want to, and she's really stoic. That's one of my loves of a mare.

39:54

Several of my friends that have Quarter Horse mares, that aren't doing much with them now, riding them. Several of those are getting bred to draft horses this year.

Brandy Von Holten  40:04

You've talked about coaching, and you've talked about how you've got four state champions of children that you've coached that are judging livestock.

40:20

It's something that's near and dear to me. I like working with kids that are interested, that have the enthusiasm. Maybe because I'm dealing mostly with farm kids that have grown up with livestock. I'm blessed to have great kids, and I tell the kids this all time, great families. I've got mom and dad's that will haul their kids halfway around the state if we go to a contest, they never fuss about them coming to practice. If we run late at practice, it's okay. I had a mother come up to me at our county fair, just this last week, I have two of her children, a boy is going to be a senior in high school and the girl is going to be a freshman high school, both outstanding young people, both good judges. More important than the good judges, they're great kids. I told her that, you and your husband have done a great job, given me two outstanding children to work with. She says, “You don't know what it means to us that they still want to come to practice, and how much they enjoy coming.” Those are what makes my job easy. As a coach and a teacher. When you have children that want to learn, they will and these kids strive to be good. I feel like my junior team, this is really sticking my neck out to get chopped off, I told them a while back, I'm sure they're going to be state champions as they become seniors. I think there'll be the state champion juniors this year and that's throwing a lot out there. There's a lot of people that do this all around the state, but I do have a little bit of a history of success. These are the best kids I've ever had.

Brandy Von Holten  41:51

Well, yeah, you have 1952, you have some experience right there. Well, okay, guys, we are about to get out of here. If they wanted to get in touch with you, how do they find you?

42:12

You can call me at 660-679-1833 My email is [email protected]. We're pretty easy to get hold of.

Brandy Von Holten  42:29

If you are having trouble, you can always get in touch with me. Then I can help you get in touch with Scott.Thank you for tuning in to Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten, with our guest, Scott Simms.