Ranching, Rodeo, and the Power of Community | With Brett Monea

In this special episode, Amy Monea and Angie Payne welcome their first guest to the podcast: Brett Monea. Husband, father, rancher, journeyman carpenter, professional rodeo bullfighter, and the man behind much of the behind-the-scenes work that makes the ranch and Mindful Humanship possible.

Brett shares his journey growing up on a cattle farm in Alberta, finding his way into professional rodeo, and building a life rooted in agriculture, family, and community. From protecting bull riders in the arena to raising cattle on the ranch, Brett offers a unique perspective on resilience, responsibility, and what it means to care deeply for both people and animals.

The conversation explores the realities of rural life and mental health, including the challenges that come with farming, ranching, and a profession where injury is often a matter of "when, not if." Brett reflects on a recent rodeo injury, the importance of leaning on community, and how talking with others who share similar experiences has helped him navigate difficult seasons.

Amy, Angie, and Brett also dive into the growing disconnect between urban and rural communities. Together, they discuss the misconceptions many people have about farming, food production, and animal care, while highlighting the shared values that connect us all: caring for our families, supporting our communities, and creating meaningful lives.

At its heart, this episode is about community, connection, and the reminder that none of us are meant to carry life's challenges alone.

In This Episode, you'll explore:

• Life Behind the Ranch Gates: Brett's journey from growing up on a cattle farm to becoming a professional rodeo bullfighter.
• What a Rodeo Bullfighter Really Does: The teamwork, courage, and split-second decision-making required to protect riders in the arena.
• When Injury Becomes Part of the Job: Brett's reflections on recovery, resilience, and navigating uncertainty after a serious rodeo accident.
• The Mental Health Challenges of Agriculture: Understanding the unique stresses faced by farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.
• The Importance of Community: How neighbors, family, and fellow ranchers step in when life becomes overwhelming.
• Finding Joy Amid the Hard Work: Why moments with cattle, horses, family, and the land make the challenges worthwhile.
• Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide: Breaking down misconceptions about farming, food production, and animal welfare.
• The Reality of Raising Food: What it means to care deeply for animals while also understanding their role in feeding people.
• Why Shared Experience Matters: How talking with people who truly understand your struggles can be one of the most powerful forms of support.
• Living a Meaningful Life: The values that connect us, regardless of where we live or what work we do.

"When things get really hard, I talk to other ranchers and realize I'm not alone. That's a huge one for me."

May the horse always bring you home.

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Angie Payne

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Amy Monea

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Guest: Brett Monea

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When we don't like sit across from each other and have human-to-human conversations, like we can kind of lose touch of like the humanity behind all of it. And so, like at the end of the day, what do what do we want? We want to live a meaningful life. We want our children to be healthy and happy. And I would never feed your kids anything I wouldn't feed mine. In fact, like we eat the animal that we would like don't feel comfortable saying, sending to you. That's the animal that we harvest and keep for ourselves. And we all just want to live a meaningful life and for the people we love to be healthy and happy or um to be able to support them the best we can.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome to the Mindful Humanship Podcast with Amy Monier and Angie Payne. Is it possible that an animal, horses, can lead us to be mindfully human? Join us as we discuss the wisdom of the horse and the impact they can have on our everyday lives.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Our conversations are guided between the reins of connection and mental health. Welcome to episode number 10 of Mindful Humanship. I'm Angie Payne. I'm Amy Monia, and this is our guest. What's your name?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Brett Monia.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Brett Monia. So uh we decided today to invite who I call the boss. His name is Brett Mania, but I call him the boss. Um, he and Amy own the ranch that I work on, and that I've had the privilege to um work here and uh become friends with these two for the past almost 11 years. You've had to put up with me for 11 years, Brett.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

It's a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

It's a long time. If I step out of the line, I'm usually like, you better be careful because your horse will be running up the road and the gates will be locked.

SPEAKER_04 1:49

And it'll just be tied at the end of the driveway. Yeah. So the shut gate.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

So I try my best to um behave myself. Um, but what what we thought we'd do is interview Brett. Um Brett has like really supported the work that Amy and I uh do at the ranch. He is the one that wrote the foreword in our book, Mindful Humanship. And so he has a little bit of a unique perspective on the work that we do. Also, um I kind of want to touch on a little bit of like farmer mental health and also if you're comfortable with it, talking about like rodeo mental health as well. So uh that's kind of where we're gonna go today. Do you want to tell our guests a little bit about who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_04 2:41

I grew up west of Watasqua in Alberta on a seed stalk farm, which raises uh purebred animals for other either purebred breeders or commercial cow, calf breeders. Um, grew up team roping, then yeah, eventually fell into became a rodeo bullfighter, went to school in 2001, and I've been pursuing that ever since. So that's a long time. That's about 25 years. I've been in the rodeo industry and uh PBR professional bull riders, kind of part of that association. Um, Amy and I, we moved here to RAF 27 Ranch and Wellness Center 2015.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yeah, you got it.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

And uh we run a cow calf operation, put a hundred head, give or take. Um, got some mini cows that I'm pretty proud of. Then our friend Angie here, she just kind of knocked on her door and hasn't left. I've been trying to get her to leave, but she just take a bad rat. I'm joking.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Love me, admit to these people that you love me, even though I annoy the shit out of you.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

We have lots of laughs when we go on our rants. So this to me, that's kind of uh yeah, involved with rodeo agriculture. I'm a journeyman carpenter when I have time. I've a few years ago I had time, but I don't have time any of that now.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Well, you might maybe perhaps in the future, someday the near future. You know that story how like the shoemakers' children have like their shoes are terrible. Um, yeah, so married to a journeyman carpenter. We have shingles on our our stuff is at the bottom of the list, so we need shingles fixed on our room. We have a deck that needs to be replaced, all that kind of stuff. So we're getting a really healthy list when you do get time of all the stuff that that we can do.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

Time that I'm dealing with an injury in May 9th. I got in a wreck, I had a PBR and cameras, had a bowl stepped on my ribs and it deflected to my ass and uh tore a strip out of it. So yeah, I've been yeah, mending ever since.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Ass jokes are flying free now, aren't they?

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Pretty cheeky, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 4:55

That was your second crack. That's what the kids always say. That was your second crack, Dad. So for those out there that might watch this that aren't rural people or rodeo people, do you want to tell them like what a rodeo bullfighter is? Because I think that a lot of people believe that that's like the rodeo clown that jumps out of the barrels with the funny faces, and that that's not what you do, right? Because you're not that funny.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

No, I'm not funny at all.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

No, rodeo bullfighter, and I'm sure whoever edits this video can probably put clips of what I do in here. That'd be kind of cool. Okay. I mean, here bullfighter, people always go to matadors in Spain or Mexico that kill the bull. That's not what we do in North America. It's during the bull riding event. Our job is to once the bull rider either dismounts or gets bucked off, is to run distraction, give that bull rider an opportunity to get to safety, and hopefully that bull will chase us instead of him and working together with another bullfighter. We can do that sometimes safely and sometimes um you hit your ass ripped apart. Get your ass ripped apart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

So that's fun. Yeah, that sounds like a great bull riding. That's bull riding. And it's like it sounds like just like a bunch of um hard-headed, tough guys running in circles. Um, but that's not it. There's a lot of like psychology, bovine psychology, stuff that goes into it, um, teamwork, um, first responder type things, like running into the wreck when everyone else is running away, um, and mastering those self-preservation instincts to be able to stay active and moving. Um, so yeah, it's been kind of neat. Having a front row seat, kind of neat. That's a very simple way to say it.

SPEAKER_04 6:42

Yeah, tell how neat it was last year. Yeah. How many emergency businesses did you have in the last zero?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I've been married to that for like ever. Not forever, a long time.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Like forever.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

We yeah, I can't remember how long. Um, but for the majority of our marriage, he or the time we've been together, he's had zero emergency room visits where it was like to fix the tip of his finger, like stuff that he would just like get bandaged up and go back to right back into it. And over the last year, there have been four ER visits and uh one hospitalization. The most recent one was a hospitalization with a major surgery. Um, so that has kind of not shifted, but this last year, it's just been a lot harder than it has been. So I think like being really lucky that you got to enjoy, we got to enjoy it as a family too, for so long. Um, but the reality of how dangerous this profession is has been um front and center. And yeah, super proud of you for persevering and doing all this stuff. Um but yeah, it's been a lot of deep conversations and a lot of gut check times, and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

And bull riding is not if, it's when and how bad. And uh I remember one time I broke my leg just before the Calgary Stampede. I was gonna fight all 10 days at Calgary, and I went to a Cody Snyder bull business deal at the Agrium in Calgary, and uh protecting a bull rider, Ty Posibon, the late Thai Posibon, and uh I got stepped on, broke my leg down low, and uh I was devastated. I'm like, man, my this is terrible. I can't go to Pinocchio, can't go to Calgary. I phoned Cody to turn out and um not expecting sympathy, but like, oh yeah, Brett, that sucked. And all he said was that's bull riding, and honestly, that put into perspective for me, like that is it's bull riding. So you gotta be able to uh just when you're flying high, the sport can humble you and put you back down low and figure out how badly you want it, and that's kind of what I'm dealing with right now is uh how badly do I want to come back? So we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

So um I have watched this family, as I said in the beginning, for the past 11 years. I had no idea what a rodeo bull fighter did either. And then when Brett explained it to me, I'm like, are you freaking crazy? Why would you do that? But he loves it, and I grew to understand that over the years. So not only does he do that, but in April, Brett and Amy calve out all of these cows. They also have, you know, a lot of land, they seed, they do like all the farming things, which I didn't understand. And you know, when I I guess what I want to say is I've seen like an evolution of how you move through all of the things that you do. Um, at first I thought he's pretty chippy, and and so am I. So that's probably why we bonded at the beginning. Maybe fight with each other. It's great. We might have. Which is great because I don't like to fight or be chippy so much. Do that because we get to be chippy together. Um, but I've also seen uh a change every year in the way you move through um like the pretty big intensity of the work you do plus calving out, all these, you know, like I have no idea, but they don't sleep for the whole month really, because you're checking cows and all that. We have a camera now, so it's not as bad, but still like it's a 24-7 kind of job.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

I would compare it to like postpartum after you have a baby. Like that's what it feels like. Yeah, having a hundred babies, you're not pushing them out, but you're midwifing them out.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, and like worried about them. So um, Brett, what would what would you say has been like helpful for you as you have um shifted maybe your mindset? Is that what it is? Or like how have you come to a place where like it looked like the both of you moved to your cabbing a little bit less intense this year? Would that be right? Or is that just my imagination?

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Could be your imagination.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Could be it's what I saw from the outside.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

So I think during cabbing time it's well having a good partner, um, cabbing, good community um around us is very helpful. Can I say get easier? No, I just gotta try to figure out how to simplify my life a little bit. Um, because um, you know, maybe my quiet time would be after the finals, usually November. So I got December, January, but we start feeding cows. Then this year we had a group of heifers come in. My partner um bought some cat young heifers and they started cabbing like February. So it's been busy, kind of non-stop. And actually, this time of year I dislike more than any because you know, calving's done, but you got now keep calves alive, or you got some late calvers that should have been called, but we kept them because of cattle prices. Um, you know, either they can cab out in the pasture at home at the ranch, so we're still dealing a little with them. Then you got um weather, bad weather comes in. Then we're trying to navigate that when scours gets in the herd, trying to keep calves alive. Amy and I have two kids we need to take care of with school and bad concerts in 4 H. So we're dealing with that. Then all of a sudden, oh, C has to get into the ground. We need to start planning with that. Cows need to get to pasture. We got to start navigating what cows go with what pasture to what bulls, getting up checking fence, like it's just kind of non-stop.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And normally, um, you would have a rodeo every weekend, anywhere from like three days to five days. So Brett would be home for four days, and he would be like the Tasmanian devil, just like zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, doing everything, and then he'd be gone. Um then the kids and I, with the help of um people around, would try to do all those things, keep everybody alive and fed and all that kind of stuff in between and well running the business and trying to keep the kids in school and up with their orthodontist appointments and all that kind of stuff. So um that's normally what it looks like with Brett being home. It's it's different.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Um bad ass now.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

So yeah, so really I was home and I can't I couldn't drive for the first well. I just finally, so May 9th, last week I seen the doctor said you can finally start sitting on your right cheek and start driving slowly. So I've been doing that, trying to take it as easy as I can in a busy time.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Brett does not take it easy, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

For insurance pol uh purposes, I take it easy. I've been taking it down.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

You've you have done what really well, I would say. Yeah, like relatively, you have been kind of you've been following the doctor's orders as close as you can. Um, and then you are definitely better at saying like I have to sit down. And instead of feeling guilty if I'm like still doing dishes or whatever, like you're like, I have to sit down, I am not okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

Good. Because in reality, okay, here's K come May 9th. My rodeo schedule would have been cameras. That's where I got hurt. Then I go would have flown to Cloverdale for the long weekend. Then I might have got home for a few days, then I would have been in Red Deer.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Grand Prairie.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Then I would have been in Grand Prairie for almost a week. Then I'm home for a couple, maybe that weekend, I would have been home, then I would have been gone to Innispale, right to Wayne, right? Right to Pinoca. Then finally after Pinoca's stampede, I'd have a little bit of a break before Kelona PBR. So yeah, that's a hectic schedule. And like I say, when I did get home, I'd try to ram everything as fast as I could because the work has to get done. Nobody's doing it for us, other than like I say, got uh neighbors that come help put seed in the ground. Um, you know, we had a 4-H steer die, for example, community. I'm sure we're big on community here. Neighbors, um, when we had a wreck with that, uh text the neighbor, phone the neighbor, we're in a panic, come help us. They were here within seconds helping us. And when I was in the hospital, um, neighbors came and my brother helped uh feed cows for a day. My nephew's been here, my sister, sister.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Everybody's been helping and just kind of handling horses and they try to help, but of course, I don't know anything about farming, can't drive a tractor, can't even get out of a tractor.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

No, no, she cannot.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

I've got a lot. I've got a lot of help when it comes to like the actual farming stuff, but I try to do what I can.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

And she's in a timeo, we lock her in the track because you can't figure out how to get out.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

So um, because we focus a lot on mental health here at the ranch. Um, how do you take care of your mental health when you know things like this most recent injury and the busyness of the season? How have you sort of coped with your mental health? How have you taken care of yourself mentally?

SPEAKER_04 16:02

Working out um definitely helps with my mental health. The better I feel physically, it what do you call it, transcends into mentally? Is that the right word? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

That's a good word, transcends, then honestly, like which you haven't been able to do these last, like that's been taken away from you too. So so how have you taken care of your mental health?

SPEAKER_04 16:25

That you haven't been able to work out with your arse, I haven't been able to actually taking the time for me, kind of taking a break. I I like watching movies um to shut down the world, all the moving parts to silence that I like taking a break that way. Um usually rodeos never work for me, so the non-sleep I had from the ranching, from calving to everything, I'd go to rodeo. Well, it seems bad. Well, I'd sleep in the hotel and work out and sleep and eat and fight bulls for maybe a bit bull riding two and a half hours, or rodeo it's 20 minutes. Go back, I'd catch up on sleep on the road so I could get home and carry on with things. Um, the busyness of running a ranch. So that's kind of how I did that. But without that, now is um yeah, having a mental health therapist uh as a partner definitely helps with my mental health. Um, I've seen Angie in the past when I'm hard uh coping with things. I'll go see Angie. I've seen her in the round pen with a horse. We've done some soundbull therapy in the office here. Um yeah, when things get bad.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

And then I lick him on the forehead if I have to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Then honestly, when things get bad, say calves are dying, or how to put a cow down the other day. Like when it gets really hard, I don't know. I talk to other ranchers and we share our stories and realize I'm not alone. And to me, that's a huge one. Um, I know there's a big thing about rural mental health right now. How do we um what are the stats?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Amy and Angie, you guys know the stats of rural mental health and how um I can't remember, but it's like 35% deal with high anxiety. Like it's so the normal stats are like one in four or one in five um by the WHO. Um so it was one in five, and then as soon as COVID hit, it changed to one in four, so it jumped by five percent like immediately. Um but ranchers, it's much higher, or like people in agriculture, it's much higher. Um, and like when they measured for high levels of stress, some of the research out of the University of Guelph, um, most ranchers experience high, or most people in agriculture experience high levels of stress and are living with high levels of stress. And then the isolation, real isolation and perceived isolation with um um social or cultural um differences between urban and rural people or or beliefs or assumptions um contributes to a feeling of isolation as well. So that is a big deal. Um, and then the research also shows it's bad for people in A as a total, and then it's even worse for women in agriculture, but it's like it's not good. We are not we are not okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

So, as an urban person, um, I've had horses my entire life, but I've always boarded them out, and so I would go ride my horse and leave. And that was fun. And then uh when I moved here, I I bored my horse, but I also work here, and somehow uh I got involved in just asking questions because I was like, what the actual F is going on here? Because, you know, as an urban person, you go to work and when you're done, typically you go home and you don't think about it much until you go back to work the next day. And so I was like watching these two people, and I'm like, what is going on here? What why are you doing this? Number one, that was my first question. Why on earth are you doing this? Because I'm not a person that wants to fill my day with as much as I can fit into it because it freaks me out and it stresses me out, and so um, that is their life. Like, and it's not even that you want to fit as much in, it's that you have to fit as much in in a day. And so for me, that stresses me out. I remember one day I went on a road trip, I've been on a couple road trips, but it's like, oh, we're here anyway, let's go do this. I'm like, oh my god, we're gonna put in something else. We have like half an hour, we're gonna, you know, slam something else in here to get done. So, like, if that's that's like actually makes my heart pump and I get really stressed out and I get really anxious about it. How do you like how do you fit it in? How do you do it all without like just dropping?

SPEAKER_04 21:13

I guess uh awakening for me. Well, like I say, I could do it at home when rodeo was a relief. Like I say, I could catch up on rest when I got hurt, so I didn't even know I ripped my ass open, my ribs hurt the most, and uh um Canadian professional sports medicine team, they're there with the paramedics, and they're bread, are you okay? What's wrong? And I'm laying on the fence, and they're like, Your ass is bleeding. Like, what? My ass is bleeding. Look at my cleats, and sure enough, blood's there. And a chunk of fat, he said. And a chunk of fat on my cleat. But um, all I like, I told sports medicine Brooke from sports medicine, I just told her, I'm just tired, I just want to sleep. Like, so realizing, man, I was pretty burnt out as well. Um, because, like I say, ranching and farming, nobody's parenting. Nobody's going to do it for you. Like, um, this lifestyle is not for everybody, and I don't blame them, but um you got to do the work, or the seed doesn't get in, or like you know, if you're not checking your cows during calving, calves are dying. And I don't like seeing animal welfare point of view. I don't like seeing calves die anyway. But at the end, when we sell them, well, calves are gonna be worth well. Last year, say we averaged $3,600 a calf. Well that's $3,600 we're not making at the end of the year for every calf you lose. And so those are kind of the stresses. Plus, I'm kind of going a rant here, but we're always we're not guaranteed a price either. We could do all this work, say, oh, the war in Iran's why the cost of living so much. Yeah, it could be true, it could be just uh policies, perhaps. I'm not getting political right now. Sounds like you are.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

That's what he and I thought.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

See, that's the way I see it. But um, something could happen where you know, $3,600 we got last year, this year it could be less.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Well, there's a there's uh the New World's uh screw worm is an is a parasite that is causing a lot of fear and and really um affecting people's livelihoods instantly overnight. Drought affects livelihoods, like like there's a lot that happens, extreme weather. Um, so yeah, we're there's so much out of control for people in agriculture. It's like trying to ride a tidal wave and stay in the middle of it and you don't know it. Are there sharks? Like, what's happening? What's gonna happen? Um, but the I find like the moments where we're at the top where like even just watching calves play this morning, like that's a break, and that reminds me why, even if it's just 10 seconds watching some calves play is uh like that's a filler for me.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Yeah, and like say with the stress, there's lots of joy um for me, like calving time, you know, watching a new mother liquor calf, the calf gets up, like these calves are up within five minutes trying to drink already. Then just nature that way is kind of uh pretty amazing to me to see that. Um, you know, what do we get? Rain, another thing out of control is our weather, and finally we got rain because it was looking terrible for pastures. Pastures are finally, what are we, June 9th right now? Um, just starting to take off, like say, just starting to get cows, and that's out of our control. If we didn't get that rain, oh my gosh, everybody would have been in a terrible situation, especially around our area, mostly Alberta. And like say things are such out of our control, um it's hard to very stressful. We'll put it that way. Very stressful, things are out of control.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

And I I kind of like I'm I'm I'm coming from an urban perspective. So any urban people that are watching, I want to say, like, when you go to the grocery store and buy your food, the judging farmers has to stop. So um, you hear people that go to the grocery store and have no idea where their food comes from, but what they do know or what they think they know is that you know, farmers are out there making millions of dollars and they don't care about their animals and they send them and they or the environment, or the environment, they don't care about any of that. But the truth is, is that like I've seen Brett do mouth-to-mouth recitation on a camera. So, how do you guys square that? Because the truth is you are raising them to slaughter to feed people, um, all people, and we get to benefit from that, but how do you square that? Because I know by I've watched the care that you actually do take in your animals. You guys know every single one of them. That's numbered, da-da-da, and that came from there, and that had to be this baby last year, blah blah blah. Like you know your animals, so how do you square it? Like if you're talking to an urban person that has a judgment about that you just raise these animals to kill them to make all this money because you're enjoying a steak, yeah, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Yeah, or the ground beef. Oh, we need uh some ground beef in how do we what do you mean? How do we square?

SPEAKER_02 26:22

How do you square that part of like caring so much for your animals and then putting them on a liner and and knowing that they're going to slaughter? Obviously, it sounds like you know they're going to feed people, which is why you do it, it sounds like. And knowing why do you do it?

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Knowing that uh beef is one of the most essential proteins um people can get on this planet. Um, so there's a need for that. If we can be a steward of the land of these animals, and knowing that when they these cows are on our place, we take care of them the best uh possible way we can. And knowing um low stress, really working on that. Um so when they're here, they have uh I like to say a pretty good life. And uh till the end of the life, like say once they leave here, that's not on me. I know the whole system keeps on working better to get better, low stress. Um, when they get to kill plants, you know, they're known they're not going there to get killed, it's just they run in the chute and they get stunned or however they euthanize them and they go in. But yeah, knowing that we're raising healthy animals to um hopefully have healthy people, it makes it worthwhile. And for me, a lot of it's I was raised around cattle, I love cows, they're my favorite animal. And seeing their our kids um in 4-H actively showing cattle, raising cattle, and it's you know, at a 4-H deal, after all the cow kids sell their calves and they're all crying in the back because you you do get a relationship with these animals, they all have personalities. Um, it's hard, but that's life, and uh, you live and die, and I think people forget that. Like at the end of this soul fall or so-called life, it's death. And uh, if people can't handle that, guess what? You're gonna fucking die. No shit.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

All right, a slam down by Brett Manya.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Yeah, but people, I think some people, but if you're not raised around it or don't understand it, when there's a family death member, it floors a lot of people because they've never been around it. Yeah, so to me, being exposed and exposing my kids, so something does happen, you can grieve, you can mourn, yeah, but maybe you can move through it quickly. And um, because guess what? When we've all had loved ones die, and does the world stop turning? No, it fucking keeps going. Life doesn't stop for nobody.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Um, I wanna, yeah, on that note, Brett, I want to say like it's been a real like eye-opening experience for me to um be on this land to be able to be part of what you guys do in any way I can. Like I try to help out where I can. But to say to people that have not been on a farm, not had the opportunity to talk to a farmer, um, to not have a better understanding of the industry. All industries have their yuck, right? Like oil and gas industry, people have their judgments about that and fair, like we all have a right to do that. But I would encourage somebody to, you know, make a phone call. Call Brett, because if you want to come out and you want to find out more about what they do, why they do it, I think you'd be more than happy to do that, right? We're really uh something that's really important to us here is bridging that gap between urban and rural so that there's not so much isolation on your side and also more understanding on the urban side. That, you know, what I've discovered is that we're not really that far apart. It's just a matter of uh misconceptions or misunderstandings of what we hear, and then we just believe that that's the case. When it may be, but maybe it's not. And the only way we get to find out is by talking to somebody that knows this guy knows so much about farming, so much about cattle, so much about the land. Um, and for the most part, you're pretty patient about teaching and talking about it most of the time. Um, that yeah, like call Brad, you know, go to our website rafterview7.ca. And I'd be happy to.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

Yeah, and I think um, sorry to interrupt, but um, the government who runs uh open farm days?

SPEAKER_01 31:05

So yeah, in August, there's a provincial-wide program in Alberta called Alberta Open Farm Days, where farmers life us on our farm um can sign up and open the doors to the public. So you can book tours and go to all different kinds of farms. Like we're on there for the Saturday. Um, there are farms like you can go to like a bee farm or like a honey farm or a wool farm or like anything, and it's all over the province. So you get to like look farmers in the eyes and ask them questions because even though there is so much judgment, there is uh still a lot of trust in farmers when you look at it from a research perspective. But when we don't like sit across from each other and have human-to-human conversations, we don't like we can kind of lose touch of like the humanity behind all of it. And so we talk about that last that point you said a lot at our house, like how we're not that different. Like at the end of the day, what what do what do we want? We want to live a meaningful life, we want our children to be healthy and happy. And I would never feed your kids anything I wouldn't feed mine. In fact, like we eat the animal that we would like don't feel comfortable saying, sending to you. That's the animal that we harvest and keep for ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

The only problem is that there's no tenderloin in the mine as bee.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

No, for some reason.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

So for some reason, there's never any tenderloin in the freezer, so I don't understand that.

SPEAKER_04 32:27

Well it's in my freezer, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

The the neighbor down the road, she told me, come to my farm because we have tenderloin. It's weird.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

It's weird, very weird.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Um but yeah, I think that that's really an important piece, like the humanity behind it. And we all just want to live, yeah, live a meaningful life and for the people we love to be healthy and happy or um to be able to support them the best we can.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

So yeah, you pretty much nailed what I was going to touch on is like values, like what I value for my family is probably what most people value in the urban population. Um, yeah, you just said it all. So you touched on it.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

And open farm days is so fun because we get to meet the coolest people and like all different types of people who are curious about farm, the farm and cows, and all that kind of stuff. And they come, I came for the mini cows, but I learned so much about everything else. So we got we get to talk about equine therapy and yeah, all the stuff we do here.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Um, it's I do get to show off my miniature calves because I am a cattle baron now and own some half of some.

SPEAKER_04 33:29

But for some reason, she doesn't like last year. I think you did some night checks, didn't you? Stay with yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

She didn't do any night checks.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

She did like her in her two work. She slept on the couch in the barn and just like swamp up and out she.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

I went to Mexico instead, so yeah. We're in calving time. Yeah, so I'm not, you know, sometimes I'm a really good farmer in training, and other times I'm not. Uh, sometimes I feel like I'm in the way, and I'm probably not, but that's that's my own shit to deal with.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Um, but uh yeah, it is kind of fun having uh a farmer and training or a rubanite around because it like keeps things fresh. Like, why do you do that? What is this about? And it slows us down to think about like why do we actually do that or what's the purpose of this process, or like through experience, sometimes you don't talk or think about what you do and why you do it. Um so that part and it really kind of I think invigorates us again, like open farm based talking to people and and being excited and proud of the farm and the work that we do and and the community that we're a part of.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

Yeah, because um to experience agriculture, um urban population, unless you're born on a farm or have friends that live on a farm, very little people get to experience it. And to me, I'm like you can watch videos all about agriculture, but until you get to actually get to a place and experience cattle um hands-on or the land, it's hard to have appreciation or fall in love with it, and to and that's what our one of our passions is that and Angie mentioned earlier is like bridging that urban urban rural gap, is trying to get more people out here. We do a lot of youth groups, uh, corporate team building, and getting people that hands-on experience to maybe have a better appreciation of what uh ranchers and farmers do for the world, actually. So, but I don't want people like, oh, that Brett, that poor farmer, oh my gosh, he's so busy. That's my choice. I decide this. Um, it's our choice to do this. And some days, oh, it might be easier to go live in town and work nine to five. Yes, but for my kids is just to jump on a bike and cruise around, peddling around the farm, or go for a walk in the coolie, or just let's jump on a horse.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yeah, and name all the bottle calves, and they all have their personalities and like they know all the cows and they have their little cow herds, like just stuff they get to do.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

That yeah, I'm trying to get 4-H to have a seniors, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

We talked about that, yeah. So that I can like raise a so 4-H Albert, if you're out there, there should be a senior division division where I got mini cows or whatever you want to show.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Seniors that have no experience. I don't I don't want to be doing it with seniors that have been far.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Whoa, whoa, whoa. But just new you can do like a senior urban division, yes, yes, you could do that.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Um any last words, Brett, for you before we sign off of this awesome episode.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

Time is it?

SPEAKER_02 36:33

We're too much time.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

Oh, I'm sure they can cut lots of stuff out of there.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Um, yeah, any other thoughts like working with like seeing the mental health side of things. I mean, this podcast is actually started about our book, so we usually talked about with the book and things in the book.

SPEAKER_04 36:47

But so Brent, like the foreword is row by me, and I've had a lot of feedback saying that's the best part of the book. Oh gosh. So thank you for all the people that have reached out to me and say that was an amazing foreword.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Uh I just opened it. This is your foreword, I think. Yes. Yeah, uh, something that I'm just opened it, so I want to read that paragraph. Amy and Angie are the subject and stars of this book. Thank you, Brett. But they'd have to think the horse, but they'd have you think the horses are. Though I'm never involved in the private sessions of others, those are absolutely confidential, nor do I hear any details after. I am regularly volunteered to work with the horses during group work as a horse handler or just generally being part of the team. Correction. I am the team that deals with the messes they've made. Think shit, or dropping off hay and making sure the water supply does not freeze. So it's funny that I picked that up to read that. Because, yes, without Brett kind of doing all of the behind the scenes, uh, making sure the horses have enough food. And yeah, in the wintertime, the water sometimes freeze, and Brett has to get out there and either fix them or whatever. We could not do the work that we do if we were always worried about everything else, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:11

So um there was a recent story, actually, because we always are like, uh, Brett, do you mind? And he's like, You can get that, see that look in his face. So he acts really angry and grumpy, but he's not. Um, so he, yeah, the wind was blowing, and we were supposed to have riding lessons, and the horses were crazy, and there's a piece of tin flap banging on the roof. I'm like, Oh Brett, so do you think sometimes we could just like climb up there and like screw that piece in? And he just gave us that look, and then the bites, I'm not getting up on the hate roofs. Um, and then a little while later it just stopped and he yeah, you never say what you do, and then you did it, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 38:55

And uh yeah, or I'll just say, I'm gonna die in there if that thing keeps betting around. Yeah, so I'm yeah, we appreciate you so appreciate. Um, can I tell? I just want to tell another just quick story. We had a group a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, before your arse was injured, and uh we had a group of kids here, and we do ultimate bullfighting and the horses, and at the end, the um the bullfighters put on like a little show for the kids. And you know, I've seen Brett kind of at work from a distance or on the television or whatever, but um, this day his nephew was the bullfighter that was gonna get in there and fight the bull. And Brett was up on the fence, and something happened, the barrel rolled, the bullfighter fell, and the bull went after that bullfighter. And I was blown away by the quick reflex that you had off the fence in front of that bull. Like to me, it was it was yes, that that was your job, and you got in there and saved somebody. But it also gave me comfort that if you were ever around and I was in trouble, that there was no doubt in my mind that you would maybe save me.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

But just wait, so Angie's a cattle baron during calming time. If she ever gets hooked by a mini, I'd probably let the mini hook her for just a little bit, you know, just to give them the cow a little bit of confidence. And um, but I'd I'd save you eventually.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Well, you just it just and she fell off a sidewalk and you were there like super fast.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Are you okay?

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Oh gosh, we should do another episode of all of the weeks or two of the whole episode spill off of Romeo, and I was busy taking care of your horse, and he took takes his hat off and his coat, he's taking care of you, and I'm like, Oh my god, get this horse saddle off.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

I'll get the horse saddle off. We could do a whole other episode of um the the funny and heartwarming things that have happened uh with the three of us. Um, and I just want to close by saying, like, I'm so grateful to be here, to have you both as friends and um also to continue to learn from you and feel kind of that confidence of knowing that if anything were to happen, that you're there and you just kind of take care of stuff. So I really appreciate that about you. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

I want to close on other uh what's really helped me, like say, talk going back to the mental health. I want to emphasize again is talking with people, other farmers, ranchers with the lived experience, other bullfighters, people in the other bullfighters that might have that's what really when things are like say happening and life gets stressful when I talk to somebody and realize I'm not alone, they've been through it too. That makes me feel a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Helps for sure. I think that would be the case with all of us, right? And we find out that maybe our experience is not unique.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Awesome. I mean, I don't know how many people have their ass ripped open up.

SPEAKER_04 42:11

But I'm sure they're out there.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Actually, now that I say that, I'm like, I actually do. You are not alone. You are not alone. So thank you so much for joining us on this episode uh where we it's our first interview. And so yeah, thank you for volunteering. Voluntold again volunty. We do give him some outs. He's like, are you still in? I guess so.

SPEAKER_04 42:37

That's funny before this interview. What time? Okay, you guys got so much time because guess what? I gotta go down to the coolie, check fence, I gotta vaccinate mini cows, get them the grass, then uh list a million other things I need to.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

There's a million things that Brett has got on his list today. Thank you. Please uh subscribe. I don't know, it's down here or down there. I'm not sure. If you like our uh podcast, subscribe, comment if you have any ideas of what you'd like us to talk about. That would be great. Or any comment in general, uh, we would appreciate it. Um, yeah, and tune in for episode 11. We might have another guest. Who knows?

SPEAKER_04 43:18

RaftorU7.ca to find out more information about what we do here.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

All right. Okay, take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Mindful Humanship podcast. May the horse always bring you home.