Western Life & Style Trailblazers
Western Life & Style Trailblazers
Ep 15: Interview with Cowgirl Cait: Saddle Up for Second Chances
The power of defying expectations runs throughout Cowgirl Cait's Oponski's blood. As a first-generation cowgirl who built a horse rescue from scratch, Cait demolishes the myth that you need generational knowledge to make an impact in the Western community.
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Welcome to the Western Life and Style Trailblazers podcast. I'm Allie D. With me is my co-host, nicole James, also the co-founder of Western Life and Style, and I was so excited to get to see you this week, nicole, in person.
Speaker 2:It's so fun. I know I'm like still like on a high from WESA right now, like trying to like calm my nerves.
Speaker 1:I know it's a lot, but today we're really excited to bring in a special guest for us. A 30 over 30 winner, an incredible woman in the Western community, does so much to impact everything and we're going to get into all of that. Miss cowgirl Kate is in the house. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you, ladies, and I am having Wessa FOMO, so I hope you both had an amazing time. It just has not worked out for me to get down to Dallas for Wessa, the biannual, but one of these days I'm going to make it so I can meet you girls in person.
Speaker 2:They know the hard like schedule, like I've noticed like for a lot, like a lot of people saying school starting for their kids. So they say like tons of people were like I can't go because of this, and then it's the middle of the week which I know most it works out for like us and like the store owners, because that's when they're not the busiest and then they have to get back to their stores, you know, like on the weekends. But like for like other people who are trying to go and you know the networking and like figuring out it's like really hard um to get those days and that exact dates you know caught on. And then, and then I saw also like I think um, a run for a million or something is going on during that time and like half of the people that usually would go were like at that. So the one in January, like everyone's there.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to put January on the schedule because the September, september we always do a low dollar auction to the Dallas, fort Worth area. So for me to get there in August and then again in September is usually too much. So I told my husband 2026,. I'm going to be there, putting it on the calendar, circling it in red, because we have so many great small businesses that are so great to the nonprofit that I would love to go and meet them in person. And, you know, put a face to a name, it's just, it always looks like it's a bunch of great fashion and girl power. So I love it. Oh, it is, it's like it's such girl power and it's.
Speaker 2:It is really good actually meeting them in the face. Like I know all of us do like staying with you, Like we've been talking on DMS for years now and so I feel like if we were to like meet in person, you know, it makes like that much more of a difference, like working together forward. You know? Um, also, I was going to say you have to still plan a trip to Texas because we are going to have our 30 over 30 events, so you have to make sure you're there for that as well during the women's rodeo.
Speaker 3:Oh, I just I feel like that's when you and I first connected. It just really stuck with me because I'm like man, women especially cowgirls in particular we just get better with age and I I hate the idea that at 30, we've we've reached our full potential, because for me, I bought my first business in my late twenties. I didn't figure it out till my early thirties and I just really appreciate that you girls are highlighting the seasoned women who are kicking ass. I just think it's something to be celebrated and I'm honored, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, and you were an incredible. I mean, so many people nominated you and you do so much for the community, and that's what I really want to get into at first is have you always been involved in like Western life, western community, a cowgirl has were you, did you grow up like this, or was it something that you just fell in love with?
Speaker 3:no-transcript. So I just really think that the social media space for the first generation cowgirls has been really cool to watch blossom, because there's so many seasoned people that we can learn from. But then there's also these other first generation cowgirls that keep inspiring the next generation. Um, and it's okay if you're not born into it, um, and I think that's where my love of rescue horses came from, because the first horse I could afford was a rescue horse and he's been great to me. We've had nine years together and I ultimately built a trail ride business off on his back, literally. Um, and he inspired the rescue of hundreds of other horses, and so I think for me, the first gen is cowgirl is kind of an underdog, and so are these rescue horses, so it's just been a really fun journey for me to champion them.
Speaker 1:For people that don't know your story and maybe are just hearing about you for the first time. So talk to us about what you do. You have Lucky Ranch Rescue right, Lucky Break.
Speaker 3:Yep, so Lucky Break Rescue is our 501c3, but actually we owned an LLC, Corral West Horse Adventures that was a trail ride company here in Phoenix for about six or seven years, right until the end of COVID. So we were a for-profit business that was rescuing horses and taking trail rides with tourist guests and then eventually we became a 501c3. So now I just do my full-time job and rescue horses on the side.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, that's so incredible, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, and it's a testament to the horses because, like I said, I'm a first-generation horse girl, so I was blessed to surround myself with a couple old cowboys. That really helped me along the way learn, and we just kept rescuing great horses, which is a testament to the kind of horses that end up in bad situations. Because I'm certainly not an expert horse trainer, you know I was learning as I go too, and it you know that's just really emboldened me to speak for them because I owe them a lot. You know we built a six figure seasonal business on the backs of horses that people said were dangerous or deserved to end up where they did Um, and every day they took kids out that had never been on a horse before.
Speaker 2:So when you talk about like you were saying something about the trail right like I didn't I guess I didn't know that can you explain that so like people can come out and trail right?
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, I'm not a true carol.
Speaker 1:So it's a pistachio farmer. Okay, I mean, talk to her about farming. She's your girl.
Speaker 3:I, I love it because I love pistachios, so I did not know. So we actually closed the trail ride business. But we operated for five or six years and then, once my husband and I were ready to start a family, we decided we he works for APS here in Arizona, I have a full-time job and the side hustle was just a lot while trying to start a family. But we did have a trail ride company out in the Australia mountains in Goodyear and the white tanks in Waddell here in Arizona. And so we'd rescue horses, add them to the dude string, adopt some out at the end of the season, the rest of them we'd send to summer pasture. But that's actually how we started rescuing horses. We'd rescue great horses, rehab them, put them on the trail. People would fall in love. We'd adopt them out. We'd rescue great horses, rehab them, put them on the trail. People would fall in love. We'd adopt them out, we'd rescue more. So it was just a really cool. We're in this repeat rescue formula and now we just rescue full time.
Speaker 1:When you decided you were going to start a horse rescue and you, you know, as a first generation cowgirl which, by the way, a lot of the women that we interview on this podcast are same boat as you first generation Maybe they kind of had someone that liked horses, but for the most part it's been first generation Was there some like I don't know, fear, or like, oh, like I'm going to rescue horses? And then I mean, talk to me about what it was like to just come up with the idea and then actually start implementing it.
Speaker 3:I think and maybe your other guests feel this way too there's a huge imposter syndrome feeling, because even as a little girl I would go to shows and compete in Western Pleasure, appaloosa Horse Club, and I was competing against kids that own their own horses and, like my parents, didn't have a truck or trailer, we were leasing animals, borrowing trucks, you know. So I think that carried through into my adult life. But also at some point I realized, like man, if I don't speak up for these horses and I have probably dealt with more vet situations, behavioral situations run the gamut. You know, we've had 500 horses through here, then maybe some horse owners that have only had one or two horses at any given time.
Speaker 3:So actually, the cowgirl Kate moniker started as as a joke, I think, just because it's an alliteration and it sounded good. Um, my friend Boone, who's a heck of a team roper and a generational rancher in Idaho, he started calling me cowgirl Kate, I think is a joke. And then one day I was like I wish you would stop calling me that. I'm not a cowgirl, I don't have cows, I can't rope to save my life. And he's like yeah, you've owned more horses than probably most cowgirls though. So then it sort of stuck and then that led to the social media stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Speaking of the social media stuff. So you start the rescue and then almost like I don't know that I would say I guess you are a Western influencer, but not in necessarily a traditional way. You have, you definitely have your own spin. I think it helps, obviously not only your personal brand, but also your rescue and just bringing awareness. So was that part of the master plan or did it just kind of blow up on its own?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how I like began to like follow you too was like kind of more influencey, I guess you would say, because of the brands you work with and like the way you present yourself and dress yourself so well. So I'm like you're kind of covering both.
Speaker 3:So it actually just sort of fell in our laps. My best friend, celeste of the West, I think, started influencing before me and had some great relationships with some of these Western brands. I mean, as you girls know, back in the day, in the barnstormer days, there were none of these huge PR firms. It was building relationships with the actual brands and the owners. And so I feel like that's when I got started, when photo content was king and we were taking the horses to these beautiful pasture locations for the summer. We were a great spot in the winter.
Speaker 3:So Celeste, who has a marketing background herself, sort of roped me in, and then what ended up happening was we started leading with our why Not only are these horses beautiful and our photographer friends talented in these locations are incredible, it's also a win-win situation. So when you're paying us for content, you're actually making a tax-deductible donation to our 501c3 and you're getting UGC in return. So definitely it's been a way for us to fundraise. So it's definitely influencer. Second, rescue first, but it kind of, you know, is a catch 22. We make the content to fuel the rescue. That's actually where most of our donations come from. So instead of begging for money, it sort of creates a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship.
Speaker 1:Are you still pretty connected with a lot of brand owners or now has it changed, like now are you? Are you working with a PR firm Like, give us the tea on how this works now?
Speaker 3:You know I don't know if you guys are seeing this there's a part of me that's really sad, because I feel like we build relationships with these small brands and then they get bigger and then they're ready for a PR firm and it almost loses its magic. But on the flip side, as a former business owner, I'm excited for those business owners that they're now ready for the next stage. But the sweet spot for me is working with the other small businesses, the bigger brands of the PR firms. I feel like it's a little more disingenuous and not as authentic as we like, um. So I don't know if you guys have seen that transformation I've been doing this for and it's. It's become a little less personal, which which kills me, um. But that's okay. I think it's a byproduct of the TikTok generation and era and I hope it comes back to beautiful photos, real relationships and real, authentic, beautiful images.
Speaker 2:Yes, no, you could have said it better. That's exactly what's happening. I mean you're kind of losing that relationship and starting to talk to. I mean I'm a social media manager, so it's crazy because they're starting to talk to me. I mean I'm a social media manager, so it's crazy because they're like starting to talk to me now too about this stuff, and so it's like trying to figure out like what you know, what you're supposed to like put in your working. You know life and then the personal level of what you had with them, and like kind of separate that out.
Speaker 2:So I'm seeing it more with us with Western Life and Style working with other brands that we used to work with at the beginning as well, and how that has like changed, because you kind of came up the same time. Like Western Life and Style was like kind of growing. So I've seen your page grow as well and you're doing such a great job. Like you have a ton of followers and your page is amazing in the way it flows. I was telling Allie not too long ago. I was like oh my gosh, you chat with, and you talk a lot with, miranda Lambert.
Speaker 3:What Miranda is amazing. She's one of us. She's a first generation cowgirl.
Speaker 3:I actually was in the dog rescue space before I started the horse rescue, so she's just always been a kindred spirit, because I love the work that she's done with Mutt Nation and I think it's one thing to be famous or a celebrity and it's another to use your platform to make the world a better place, and so I've just always admired her and I think we were just operating in similar spheres and she actually reached out one day and I thought I was getting I thought I was just a bot or one of those fake fan accounts and my husband and I were headed out to a hike and I was like no, I think it's really Miranda Lambert, and she bought a place here in Phoenix for the winters and she's actually learning to be a mounted shooter, which I think is so not only is it badass from Kenda, who's an Arizona cowgirl, one of the best in the world.
Speaker 3:I think it takes a lot of courage and it's a testament to her character to learn something new in your thirties and 40s, as a first generation cowgirl, while you're famous and under the scrutiny of the public eye all the time. And so I've just been really inspired by her personally and you know her following her passion, even if it's starting from scratch with something new.
Speaker 2:I know what a dream, what a blessing to have like Miranda Lambert in your inbox and saying let's work together. That is, that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1:What kind of stuff have you done together? What is the relationship, the working relationship like, if there is one?
Speaker 3:So we were very blessed with a generous grant from Mutt Nation last year at the end of the year. So we'll be using that for our low dollar auction trip that we're taking here in a couple of weeks. We go to Texas and we outbid the kill buyers for these horses that have sort of ended up in a bad spot. We've also gone. She practices what she preaches Every time she's in a new city for a show she goes to the shelter and surprises the shelter staff, drops off toys. We were actually really blessed.
Speaker 3:One of my personal dogs. We got from a shelter in Flagstaff and we were actually able to take them a Mutt Nation $5,000 grant and surprise them and have Yeti go back. He was a little traumatized. I was like we're not recording you, we're saying hello and we're dropping a check, but just, there's a lot of things that she does to help animal rescue in the background, in addition to being just a badass boss babe. You know running Idlewind, she's on tour with Morgan Wallen right now. Whenever I'm having one of those days where I can't even finish my coffee because I have a baby, I'm like, okay, I need to put my big girl pants on because my friends are doing badass shit and I'm like struggling to get a coffee or put real pants on.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I know Mom, so you did your your new mom, correct?
Speaker 3:Bam. Yeah, he's seven months so out of the newborn trenches, so I really don't have an excuse anymore. I just do we still use the excuse all the time please.
Speaker 1:I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old in the club two and four and it does get a lot easier, though you know like they can go to the bathroom by themselves. They can like mill around. It gets so much easier he just started crawling.
Speaker 3:So it is a new level of well, are all the light sockets cover? Or all the electrical outlets covered? Like what can he get into? I'm crawling around on the ground to make sure there's nothing he can get into, you know, while I'm trying to pour said coffee. So I know I'm in good company with two moms.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, what is that like? So you said, you work a full-time job as well. What is your full-time gig?
Speaker 3:So I work for a political nonprofit that's based in DC, so my days usually start pretty early on East Coast time. So my days usually start pretty early on East Coast time and then I'm able to knock out a lot of the social media influencing rescue stuff in the second half of the day. Also, our horses go to pasture all summer because it's hot as heck here, as Nicole knows. So I do get to catch up on life a little bit when the horses are gone half the year and then they come back September, october when it starts to cool down and then we dive right back into full-time rescue. You know, I did promise my husband while we were in our like last trimester and newborn stage that I would slow down on the horses a little bit. And my husband is a saint, he is the treasurer of the nonprofit. He sort of reigns me in a little bit. But he also knows when I say no more horses that usually means like one or two more, not really anymore.
Speaker 3:They were all said my piece. That's all I can do. What's?
Speaker 1:been one of your favorite moments that you've had in you know, running this rescue and or even like, as an influencer, what's something that just stands out. That was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible.
Speaker 3:You know it sounds cheesy, but we we touched on the friendships that I've made. Truly, some of my closest, most inspiring girlfriends that have come into my life have come into my life through Instagram and I think that's a testament to when you're authentic and you're yourself, the right people find you. You know, I'm not in my twenties, not even in my early thirties anymore. I really don't care about hitting a hundred K. For me it's more important that I'm putting out there what the rescue means to me. I also operate in kind of a gray area where in the animal rescue space I'm a little too rodeo and too Western for the PETA types, but then for a lot of the hardened, seasoned Western lifestyle people I'm a little too PETA, I'm a little too animal rights-y for them, and that's okay. We all exist in our own lane. So I think the older I get, the more I'm okay with being where I'm at and I'm grateful for the people that have come into our life and blessed me, blessed the rescue.
Speaker 3:But I would say I remember my first big brand deal and it was with Wrangler back when I, you know, I don't even know who our contact was at wrangler back then um, but zane, my very first rescue, my very first horse was on the cover of cowgirl. What was? What magazine was it? I think he was a full page ad in cowgirl magazine and I just remember, like tears welled up because that was my 700 horse that the vet told me to just put down. Um, and we built a business together and so I think seeing that for the first time in print, I was like holy shit, this is bigger than me. Um, because sometimes I'm like I'm sick of it being my face or my voice, or. But I also realized the horses can't speak for themselves and when someone opens a magazine and sees that beautiful picture, they probably have no idea where that horse came from. So the before and afters for me are probably the highlight of doing all of this.
Speaker 2:My gosh, that's so beautiful, that's like so, so amazing. I get emotional because that's the thing I know, that is so special, that's so I mean, and then you're going to always have that, forever like that memory there, and that's like that's your baby too, your horse.
Speaker 3:You guys know, as a mom, like now, I'm like man, that's going to be the first horse that my son rides and what does this look like for my son? You know, because now, as a mom, it's not just about you anymore. It's about is this next horse I rescue going to be my son's first junior rodeo horse? Like that. Those are the stories that now I'm thinking about. Beyond. What are Kate and her horses going to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my gosh, I'm over here like having an emotional moment with you. It is.
Speaker 3:That is an emotional moment and that is something that you should be so like a whole dear to your heart, like and be proud of, like that really is a very, very beautiful moment sure you girls feel like this too, with what you've built with western life and style and ality brand and and all these things and zona real nava, um, like at the time when you're in it, you don't, you're just grinding it out right and now, and now I look back and I'm like holy crap. You know, seven, eight years ago, when I rescued that horse, I would have never thought that I could use rescue horses in my business. I would have never thought that we'd be building this influencing space. I would have never dreamt of the amazing, incredible women that I've met along the way.
Speaker 3:And you know it's, it's a pretty big motivator when someone tells you you can't do something, because a lot of people told me you can't put guests on rescue horses, you can't tell your insurance company that you're putting guests on kill pen horses, you can't do this, you can't do that. And now it's like, well, let's just do it and take pictures. And that's sort of how the social media started, you know, as kind of a nice middle finger to those people.
Speaker 2:That's so well said. Like Allie and I literally just had this moment Like it was on was it Friday or something when we're like, oh my God, we're over here, like our kids are like being crazy and we're like trying to like mom life and work and we're on the phone and like Wessa's going on and like this huge brand that we have built like is going on there while we're like mommy and like trying to work from there and like it's one of those moments and Ali's the one that like said it was like can you like we did that, like we put that together, we're running it from here. And it's like sometimes you just have to like sit back and have those surreal moments where you're like like that's special, like no one gets, how special that is that, that that is going on and, like you, we did it from nothing, you know so easy and I'm sure it's like a duck right, like it looks great on the surface and then below you're just paddling and then you you can.
Speaker 3:you can take a step back and go Holy crap, we did this, we built this. And, like my friend, jess um, if you guys ever have the chance, she built an event in Springdale, washington, which is only a few thousand people, called Market in the Mountains, and she and I met online. She invited me to come keynote speak at her very first one, where there were just a couple hundred people and like 30 women the first night. And now she's got 10,000 people, vendors that come from all over the states. Vendors that are saying they make more money at her little Market in the Mountains than at Pendleton Rodeo. Vendors that are saying they make more money at her little market in the mountains than at Pendleton Rodeo. Um, same thing. Like as a friend, I'm like, holy shit, girl, did you have? Like you guys might have to blur me out, but I'm like, did you have any idea that you were going, this was going to happen? And as a friend, I'm like I knew she could do it, but I don't know if she realized that she could do it.
Speaker 2:I think I've heard of this. Actually, like I know what you're talking about. I've seen it on social media.
Speaker 3:We actually so she's able to get a special use liquor license by using our 501c3. So we go, we bartend, all the proceeds go to the rescue, but all of the vendors are small, Western small businesses. You girls would love it. It's right up your alley. And what time of Late September.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I think a couple of my clients actually go, went there to be a vendor, so I know exactly because I was like wait, I had to like promote this on their pages somehow, Like I feel like this sounds familiar.
Speaker 3:It's like a full circle moment Circle and it's like, of course, when you're watching your girlfriends kick ass, you are not surprised, but then I'm sure when you sit down and talk to them they're like I cannot believe how well this is going, Because sometimes I feel like we're harder on ourselves as women than other people are on us.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, a hundred percent. I think Nicole and I have that conversation, I think more recently, because, yeah, you're exactly right. When you're in the grind, when you're just getting started, you're, in those first few years, like you don't take a minute to celebrate anything. It's just kind of like, well, I'm trying to get here, I'm trying to get here, I'm trying to get here, and now, you know, as I'm older, I've been doing this like 12 years now and I'm starting to look back and like, look at old like Nicole was great she's been, we've been working together for almost 10 years now and she was so good at taking pictures and videos and so she'll send me like old stuff and I just go, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Not only is it so like like emotional and cute Cause, you're like God, I'm so naive and I was just trucking along and I had no clue what I was doing. And this is for anyone that's out there listening. That's like trying to start a business or has a passion project. You don't know what you're doing in the beginning and you just you're just moving. But now, like once, you're just moving, but now, like once, you're more established and you can look back and you can go oh my gosh, not only was I so naive, but like the guts that I had and you go. Oh my gosh, I cannot believe that I, you know, with no experience, jumped into this whole new arena essentially, and just paved the way for myself, and so it's crazy. Yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 3:And again, no-transcript and I holy crap, how is this?
Speaker 2:kid, you should be so proud seriously. And then, like what comes with it too, unfortunately, is like when we're doing this from like an idea and you're building it up like you did, there is that long line of people like waiting for you to fail and like waiting, and so that's like kind of what lingers and kind of hovers. And that's when the people are like I better stop and not continue, because there is that like that long line of people waiting for you to like not make it happen, you know, waiting for it to drop. So the fact that like there's certain people who just get past that and like, no, screw it, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3:Like, just keep going. That's a testament to the 30 over 30. And, like the older I get. You know, when I was younger I feel like when we're younger we're more in our people pleasing stage. And now it's like I don't care, I'm not pizza, I'm not going to make everybody happy, it is what it is Like take it or leave it, and that's fine.
Speaker 3:You know, I had a woman where we're giving away an NFR experience to benefit the rescue and another 501 C3. That is actually a social media client of mine, Um, and I had a woman upset that we were giving away rodeo tickets in the animal welfare space and I just said you know, I respect the work you do in cat rescue or whatever. We should celebrate where we overlap. But also I love rodeo, I love the Western way of life. I think it's important.
Speaker 3:I think that you are misinformed about what rodeo is, what flank straps are. Um, I'm never going to change your mind. You're never going to change my mind. This is a great opportunity for the rescue to to raise funds. Nfr has been great to us because a lot of our small business brands and big brand partners are there at Cowboy Christmas and so for me, I just said. If you don't like rodeo, that's okay, but you've also never donated a dime to my 501c3. And at the end of the day, I answer to my family, my donors, my board, and if you're not one of those people and you're not helping us with the horse rescue situation, then I don't really owe you an explanation you know, respectfully.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love that. Don't buy. Don't buy a ticket, I guess.
Speaker 2:I don't touch base on that more what you're talking about. If you want to tell our listeners more about, um, what you're going to do at, NFR.
Speaker 3:So we had the opportunity to purchase two tickets for opening Saturday night of NFR weekend and that's in section 104, row A, so basically gold buckle tickets for the opening Saturday. We also have the terrace suite at the Cosmopolitan, so it overlooks the Bellagio Fountains. For the opening Friday and Saturday night we have $1,500 of shopping that was donated by Burns Hats, so $1,000 for a custom felt hat, $500 for a boot barn at Cowboy Christmas round trip airfare for two people. So our winner plus one guest, and it all benefits our rescue and also a race against blindness, which is a nonprofit also based in the East Valley here in Phoenix.
Speaker 3:Their son was diagnosed with a rare disease and he's going blind. The father is a physician and he was basically told there's no cure. You just have to watch your son lose his sight gradually, which for all of us as parents I can't imagine. And so Dr Johnston, steve and his and Luke's mom, christina. They basically said we're not accepting no as an answer. They found a clinical trial in the UK and they are funding. So far they've granted $3 million in less than a year and it looks like they may save his site and the site of thousands of other kids with the same diagnosis.
Speaker 3:So talk about when someone tells you no and you refuse to accept that. So we've worked together for a while. I helped them out with social media and I just said, hey, if I can secure this opportunity, which you guys want to join forces on it, so that's available through November, then we'll draw a winner and someone will have a pretty I'm going to have FOMO, not going to lie. I was like, how can I win this? But like, someone is going to win a pretty epic NFR experience and that's on their website a race against blindnessorg.
Speaker 1:Wow, Is that the best place to enter the for the giveaway?
Speaker 3:Yes, it is Um, and right now too, um Misty at spoiled cow girls. The, the incredible jewelry maker from Southern Arizona. Yes, I worked with her a bit Amazing. She threw in a necklace. So for anyone who is entering this week, they can also enter to win one of her necklaces, but still be put in for the big giveaway. Blessed with the best community.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, my goodness. Well, more crying is good.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this has been so much fun talking to you, so what? The best way for people to follow along your journey or make donations? How do we get involved? Like I'm sure there's a lot of people listening going. This girl is amazing and I just I want to help.
Speaker 3:And I apologize for the word vomit. I have been drinking coffee since early. Um, our rescue website is lucky break rescueorg. My personal Instagram is at cowgirlkateC A I T, but we also have a rescue account where a lot of our transformations are, and that's Lucky Break Rescue on Instagram. You know I try I mean, you girls are branding experts I try to post a little rescue stuff on the personal page, but really I want to funnel people to the rescue page that's dedicated to the transformations, the before and afters the story, just because it's kind of difficult to look at sometimes and you lose your faith in humanity that these animals that are being slaughtered for human consumption are not treated ethically or humanely the way beef or pork is, um. So I do try to, you know, be a gateway to the actual rescue page, that way folks don't just get hit over the head with skinny horses and and sad.
Speaker 2:I bet that's so. I know that is is hard. Oh my goodness, you're so like. You're like what a blessing. You're like an angel, like helping them, like this is like you're like you, like you said earlier, like they can't speak and you doing that is something so special, like seriously, that is so amazing.
Speaker 3:I'm from Iowa, I am passionate about agriculture, I love that the Midwest feeds the world, but that gave me a really unique perspective that animals, especially for consumption, should be treated with dignity and respect. And I know the rules that all my friends that are beef producers have to follow. And when these horses are sent abroad to Mexico and Canada, they're not having to follow those same restrictions through the USDA and stuff that pork producers and beef producers or even you know, poultry have to follow, which is just insane to me, because all we specialize in been there, done that seniors. So all of the horses that we pull from the pipeline are already broke to ride.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, we we actually rescued two that had gone to NFR in their younger days. Um, and so it's just, it's been quite quite the journey. Um, that's sort of our, our special lane. Once the baby got here, I told my husband I will only help the really sweet seniors so that when I'm out in the stalls you're not worried about us. Back in my younger days we would rescue unhandled ex Bronx stuff, like a little bit that Kind of point it down a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, this has just been so much fun getting to know more about you and your rescue. I mean, I knew you know a lot about you, but this is just a whole new level of understanding, all the intricacies that goes into it and it's just, it's so impressive. So congratulations on all your success. You know Nicole and I are here in any way that you guys need. Please reach out to us.
Speaker 3:We'd love to be a part of anything you girls are just such an inspiration and we're always cheering you on and thank you for giving Western businesses women that are over 30, a platform, because I think it's so important, because it's never too late to start and it's never too late to chase your dreams. And like you girls said for me, like you just leap and the net will appear. And if you hustle and grind it out, failure isn't an option. So, whatever people are listening to, no matter what the naysayers are saying like, just go for it, just do it. Find your own little little corner of the world to make better, and we will all be cheering you on. I think that's what's so amazing about this Western space.
Speaker 2:I want to hug you.
Speaker 3:I know Can we do this over drinks next time. Here in Texas we are meeting up Force me to go to WESA in January so we can have drinks and we'll just hire some babysitters. I truly like you, girls are kicking ass. It's really inspiring to see. I look at you guys, I'm like I don't know how they're doing it with two kids. I can barely do it with one kid and he's not even doing it.
Speaker 1:You, just you, just you just figure it out as you go. It's like business, you know. It's just learning skill every single day about being a mom and how to make them, you know, survive.
Speaker 3:I think like I just mastered crawling and then he started pulling up just this morning and I was like no, I am not mentally prepared for this.
Speaker 1:So you got it Okay. We have loved talking to you again. Thank you so much. You guys, please follow cowgirl Kate, her incredible rescue, lucky break, rescue. We're, again, just so happy that we got to speak with you today. I know the listeners are going to jump on board and help and support in any way that they can and congratulations on all your success.