WEBVTT
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Welcome to The Long Ride Home.
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I'm your host, Alex Huisner.
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This show is about honoring where we come from, pursuing what still calls us forward, and trusting the power of timing in both life and in sport.
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Through honest conversations with riders, trainers, and leaders in the American saddlebred world, we'll explore the stories behind the horses and the people shaping the future of this industry.
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Come on this journey with me.
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Welcome back to the Long Ride Home.
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I'm your host, Alex Housner, and I'm joined today by Andrea Harry at Meraki Farm.
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Andrea, so good to see you.
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Good to see you.
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Thanks for having me.
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Thanks for coming.
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So this is a special episode because this is episode one.
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I got to talk a little bit about my journey and why I've come back here, but you've been a huge part of that journey, and this farm has been a huge part of it.
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So um really excited just to learn a little bit more and share your story with listeners about how you got into the saddlebrot industry and the barn that you've built here.
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That's just, I mean, literally where we are, where it's spectacular.
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Amazing.
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Amazed.
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So maybe take us back.
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How did you get into riding?
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So my grandfather bought a horse and he wanted my grandmother to learn to ride.
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And he signed her up for lessons, and it was at Marcia Springs Farm in Quentin, West Virginia.
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And I saw her lesson schedule on the refrigerator.
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And I was like, Your wrist and show.
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Oh wow.
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I was like, that's what going around Wednesday.
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I'm coming.
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And then she she signed me up.
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The rest is history.
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I grew up at Mocia Springs Farm, started my career there, worked most of my career there, and decided to hang my own banner.
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And wow.
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Here we are.
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It's so cool.
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And there's so many times I think in our history that we could have crossed paths also that I mean, you're just a little bit younger than I am, but we went to the same horse shows and I went and started riding at Smith Lindley's for a little bit in college.
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And like it's just it's crazy.
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But I'm sure we crossed paths at some point.
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Yeah, I have had to.
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Had to.
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It's uh it's definitely a a small world in in this industry for sure.
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Um, but so the decision to become a trainer, it's interesting because I've never I loved horses growing up and I love them now, but I've never had that inclination that I would want to train them.
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So, like what hit you that you wanted to do this for a profession?
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So in college, I started working for Smiths again.
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And I actually I spent a summer working for Rich Campbell and I loved, I loved working for them at Majestic Oats.
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We had so much fun, but it was a lot, like a lot of traveling, a lot of ponies, and I loved the horses.
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So I went back to work for Smith and I just I was riding a colt one day.
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I would go and just ride the things that no one else wanted to ride and or like the stuff that I was the the right size for.
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Yeah.
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And Sandy looks at me one day and she's like, You should do this professionally.
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And I was like, That's all I needed to hear.
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Sign me up.
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That's I mean, that's really I just like I always wanted to be, but I just didn't have that extra boost of confidence, yeah, that I needed from someone that I admire.
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Yeah.
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And she said that and I was like, see right, I should, you know, should and I'm not good at anything else, so I find that very hard to believe.
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Um and you went to Virginia Tech.
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So that also we could have possibly been around each other at the same time then, too.
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I went to Radford, which is right up the road.
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So another strange coincidence.
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It's crazy because you had the confidence now you were gonna do this.
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Like, what does that even look like to start your own barn?
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Like, did you just hang your flag and then hope some riders would show up?
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Or so I decided to open my business in May of 2019.
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And I told Smith, gave them a very large notice.
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Yeah.
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And we opened November 1st, 2019.
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And Smith sent he sent a horse that he owned with me and another customer at Smith's Natsi and Alialy, they sent a horse with me.
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And then they ended up sending another one just to like ease her into her retirement.
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And I just called, I I went out.
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I guess in the months leading up to leaving Smith's, I felt comfortable enough to go and tell people while leaving, please send me horses.
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Yeah.
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And, you know, it was all with their blessing, so it felt right.
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Yeah.
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And people respected that.
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And they also knew that I had a good foundation.
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And I worked a lot of young horses for Smith.
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I worked a lot of amateur horses.
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So, you know, it was people saw that I was capable over the years, and they decided to serve me a bun, which was awesome.
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And some of them are still here.
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Yeah, that's incredible.
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And I mean, that's one thing I've noticed just getting back into this too.
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It seems like there's actually a lot more women trainers than there used to be, which is really cool.
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Yeah, it's it's awesome.
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You know, a bunch of women just getting out there with a guy.
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Yeah.
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I mean, because it back in the day it was always husband and wife, or you know, and and there's still a lot of those barms out there too.
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But I think it's it's cool to see how many more women trainers there are.
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And at your barn, it's an all women trainer blogger.
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So yeah, all girls.
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Yeah.
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All girls crew.
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It's great.
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Yeah.
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And honestly, like all of my customers are females too.
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I mean, yeah, with their husbands, but like yeah.
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Okay, all the customers that come and ride.
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I do work for some men that just own horse.
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Yeah, like all of my riders are female.
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Yeah.
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Parker comes, but he doesn't have a horse here, so he doesn't count right here.
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Yeah.
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He can count later.
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Well, that's awesome.
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So training the young horses, wanted to ask you more about that.
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I I I remember, I mean, this is only three months into this, but like when I first got into it, again, had asked people about you, and and the one thing that kept coming up was that Ender is really good with the younger horses.
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Like, I know you had the experience with Smith, but is there anything in particular about like why you feel that you're really good with the young horses?
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I think it's very amount-level patience.
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The young horses are so spongy and you can make them.
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Yeah.
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You can literally create something.
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Yeah.
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I love that.
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Like, if you do it right, it's something that someone else is impressed by.
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Right.
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And they'd like to follow you because you're easy to follow and they they're impressed by the skill set that you put on your horses.
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So I just think like it is such a good representation of you as a horseman.
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And I just love the young horses because they transform.
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It's a transformation.
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It's so much fun to be a part of and to teach them something.
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I mean, they can learn something new every single day.
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Yeah, and that keeps it exciting for me too.
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Yeah.
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Because I'm I'm always teaching them something.
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And yeah, they have the all three five days of horses, but it's it's just fun to mold them and then watch them transform, you know, get their tail up, get them in the curfew, watch their shoeing change and their, you know, their athleticism changes and they get stronger.
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And it's just it's so rewarding.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's almost like it's like a blank canvas, you know, to start with.
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Yeah.
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Um, yeah, it's great to get a beautiful finished horse, but in a lot of cases, you can get a horse that now you've got to also correct things that maybe are not right.
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Yeah, and that that can be a struggle.
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But no, that's really cool.
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And we're definitely getting to put that to the test now with chapstick.
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We love chapstick.
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Which has been really, I mean, that that aspect of it of uh buying a a young, unfinished horse has been fascinating for me and for my husband Michael to just understand it because that I had never done that before.
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The horses that I showed in New Hampshire, they were one was young, but he but she was finished, and the other one was older and he was finished.
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And uh it was just about okay, we got this horse.
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Now it's about horse and rider coming together and you know, really polishing the picture.
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It's going to be about that, but not yet.
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You know, it's like we've got he's got to get trained, I've got to get trained, and it's it really is such a process.
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And I think uh for Michael to see this, I think to see it from somebody that's not in this industry and his interpretation, it's even more fascinating because he's seeing like this really is, it takes so much just dedication to it, and but also an eye to know, like, you know, you believe in this horse and you believe in the young horses that you have, and like you can see their potential before a rider or an owner probably can get it.
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Mm-hmm.
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It takes experience just and also knowing like their family helps a lot.
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Yeah.
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And happen to know Top Six family pretty well.
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So I just I think there are certain parts of memories you have to look at.
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You have to look at their attitude, where their neck comes out of their shoulders, where their legs, where they're I mean, honestly the angle of the slope of their shoulder.
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And, you know, what does their back end do?
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Yeah.
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And, you know, if it's all positives, great.
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But if you know, some of them aren't gonna be the whole right picture.
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But you can get them stronger, you know.
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Can out can I live with this?
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Yes, great, let's do it.
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No, nice.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Let's talk about Johnny Boy a little bit because I think that's like such a great story.
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And Johnny Boy was Chapsux or is Chapsix brother, but um, tell us a little bit about your journey with him.
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So Johnny Boy was bred by Justin Calley and Damie De Or.
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And Justin and I used to be so tight.
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He would send me videos of the school literally as a yearling, two-year-old, early two-year-old year, and I was just like, he's so cool, like, yay, good for you.
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What up?
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Like, and then I would say, Comes.
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It was she we watched, it was 2020.
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We watched School Together here because I didn't go that year.
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COVID, yeah, just no reason.
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Did they have it that year?
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They did.
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Okay.
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They did wow.
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Uh-huh.
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So after that, she texted me the next week and she's like, I kind of want to have a horse in North Carolina.
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Do you have room for me in your barn?
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And I was like, Well, yeah.
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Yeah, I do.
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So I knew that because he was at Daryl Cruise's at the time, and I knew he was getting ready to go back to Kentucky to Tammy's.
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And so I just started harassing Tammy.
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He'd be like, I want to come see Chubbs.
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I want to come see Chubbs.
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And she was like, Well, I'm not home and he's not here yet.
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I was like, Okay, well, let me know when he gets there.
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And so, like, the next wake up, like, is he there?
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Don't forget about me.
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Oh, I think.
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Don't let anybody and so we went and so on, and then we looked at so many nice weapons that day.
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And he was the first thing we looked at.
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Yeah.
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And it was not fair to any of the others.
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Yeah, I'd be he he was a two-year-old, he was still weak, but he gave me chills, just going up and down straightaway.
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And we sat down at dinner that evening.
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I was like, Well, what do you think?
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She was like, I can't stop thinking about chubbs.
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Yeah, like me neither.
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Thank God, we're on the same page.
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And then he we called me.
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Wow.
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And Tammy cried.
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She was like, I didn't think you would buy it.
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And she said to me, She said, Andrew, I hope he makes all of your dreams come true.
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Oh and I'm getting chilled.
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Yeah, I just got chills.
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Yeah, because he did, he made all my dreams come true.
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And it was just like the most wonderful creature.
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And everyone's like, Oh, he mark with stagens.
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I had a really good stallion.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So never gonna turn down an opportunity, but like, yeah, he was an anomaly, he was an angel.
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That was so cool.
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And you guys went on to win at Louisville in was that the following year, 2021?
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Yeah, we actually so we went to like there's a lot of hypernominums I posted pictures of I'm like I know that.
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Like, yeah, I'm all about social media, yeah.
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So we went, our first show was Shiny Doah, and I think we were four to five, and he did all of his gates, he just wasn't really, he kind of just like cleaned up.
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Yeah, he went in there and he bup, and then he kind of just was like this.
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And so I actually I went to Bert Haneker after the class and I was like, What can I do to help them?
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Because Burt you know Bert owns his dad and knows the family and the edge at home too, and said he was like, you know what, what Andrea?
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I think you need to back off.
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Really?
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He said, You he wears a bridle, he does his gates, he needs to like himself more.
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Oh, wow.
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So go home and turn him around on Mondays, let him play.
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Wow.
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And so that's what we did.
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And then we went to the little Astral show before Blue Rage and won.
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I don't think there's anyone in the class.
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There may have been one.
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Actually, there's one other horse in the class, and we won that.
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And Peter Thyrot came up to me and he's like, What did you do different?
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What did you change?
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I was like, I just let him start playing.
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Wow.
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And I was like, Really?
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Yeah, yeah.
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And then we went on and on unanimously crowned favorite.
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It was just like the coolest experience.
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That's a really short time, really, to I mean, to have made that much progress and to think just turning him out in the ring one day a week to just be a horse, you know, wouldn't make that much of a difference.
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Yeah, he needed that first experience.
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I would much rather have laid an egg on the first experience.
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Yeah, oh for sure.
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Yeah, because he figured it out.
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He'd say and I figured out how to warm him up, how to because he was different.
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Like he would play him up in a warm up ring.
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You had to just be patient with him.