Episode 209 Heath Kizzier

At the Farm, Heath is otherwise known as “Kathleen’s husband.” He is the guy that floats around on the weekends lugging toolboxes, skill saw, sprinkler fittings, and plumbing implements – fixing this and that and trying to stay out of the boss-lady’s way. Heath grew up in the Colorado mountains, living the rural life. He worked with horses from an early age.

A big kid for his age, Heath spent the summer between 6th and 7th grade on a logging crew high up in the San Juan Mountains. His job was to section the felled logs into 8 ft lengths, and then run a team of gigantic draft horses to drag the logs out of the deep forest. He nicknamed the drafts Heckle and Jeckle due to their often caustic sense of humor.

At age 13, he spent the summer working at a Colorado dude ranch, wrangling horses (and people). He learned how to drink coffee during those 4:30 am mornings. Herding 30 horses out of a 100-acre pasture every morning required caffeine and patience. Heath moved to South Dakota at age 14. With his mom’s help, he his first business. He purchased 4 two-year-old colts, broke and trained them, and then sold them. The company was a bust, however, because he lost a quarter of his profits after falling in love and keeping “Good ol’ Sackett” (who was a not a so “good” Arabian roan) Sackett was a runner. If you gave him his head, he would bolt, ears back, eyes white and manic. Heath truly had to cowboy up to get him under control. Quickly he devised a plan to only let Sackett “run” when he was headed uphill. It had to be a big hill, though, because if Sackett wasn’t blown by the time he reached the top – the downhill white-eyed run was terrifying.

Heath left home at 17 and moved to Aspen, Colorado. There he met a photographer while busing tables. The woman asked him to sit for some fashion photos. They weren’t very good, but the experience began a new twisting trail in Heath’s life. He moved to Los Angeles, did some modeling while also training horses in Malibu for a Hollywood film mogul, and within a few months, he was invited to model in Paris. He stayed in Europe for a year. (Where, incidentally, he was struck by lightning during a solo camping trek up Mont Blanc, but that’s another story.)

Back in LA, Heath quickly moved from modeling to acting. He worked with top celebrities and directors in the industry with stints in Wyatt Earp, Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, and eventually as a series regular on The Young And the Restless. After 20 years, he transitioned again, from acting to writing, penning two novels and a memoir, and countless film and television scripts.

Finally, he met Kathleen. Except for the western movies he performed in, Heath had been away from his equine roots for most of his time in Hollywood, and he could notbelieve his luck when he found a “horsewoman” in the middle of LA!

In 2010,as he watched Kathleen working on her first variations of No Thrush powder and then saw how her colleagues kept begging her to make some more of her “Thrush Stuff,” Heath finally suggested,

“This is clearly something

that works, and people seem to want it. We should make a big batch and see if it will sell.”

That was the beginning. The husband and wife team worked in the garage into the late hours making powder and working out the logistics. There was a lot to learn! Internet sales went crazy right away, and they were up until midnight every night packing boxes. Soon No Thrush was in the local stores and then spreading outward in a ripple effect. Within a year, the product was sold nationally and had jumped the pond into the EU, Japan, AU, NZ, etc.

Heath now runs the Four Oaks Products production facility. Just as he does on the weekends at the farm, he wears many hats and carries many toolboxes.

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