May 16, 2025 • 60 mins
On this week's episode of The Rural Woman Podcast™, you'll meet Kailey Hood.
Kailey Hood, a Montana cowgirl, owns Hoods Western Adventures in Alberton, Montana. The ranch offers trail rides, horseback riding lessons, events, hay production, cattle raising, and a "horse hotel" for travelling horses. Kailey runs the ranch with her husband Owen and their two kids, surrounded by the stunning Lolo National Forest.
For full show notes, including links mentioned in the show, head over to wildrosefarmer.com/221
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:40):
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:04):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:27):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women, and
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey, everyone. Welcome
(01:57):
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Kailey Hood, a born andraised Montana cowgirl, passionate
rancher, and the owner ofHood's Western Adventures. Nestled
in Alberton, Montana. Kailey,alongside her husband and their two
kids, operate a diverseranching enterprise that offers everything
(02:18):
from guided trail rides,horseback riding lessons, and Dutch
oven cooking classes toweddings, hay production, cattle
raising, and even a cozy horsehotel for traveling riders. In our
conversation, Kailey sharesher incredible journey from navigating
the challenges of her youth tobecoming a successful entrepreneur
(02:39):
deeply rooted in a ranchinglifestyle. She opens up about the
pivotal moments that ignitedher lifelong love of horses, the
realities of building a ranchbusiness from the ground up, and
the importance.
Of community in overcomingobstacles and finding success.
Kailey's story is one ofresilience, determination, and a
(02:59):
whole lot of heart. Withoutfurther ado, my friends, let's get
to this week's interview withKailey. Kailey, welcome to the Rural
Woman Podcast.
How are you today?
Good. Thanks for having me.How are you doing?
I'm doing very well. I am soexcited to get to know your story
(03:21):
and hear about your life inMontana and all of the good horse
things and all of the goodstuff. So for our listeners who are
unfamiliar with you, give usyour background, tell us who you
are, where you're from, andhow you got your start in agriculture.
Well, my name is Kailey Hoodand my family and I own Hood's Western
(03:43):
Adventures. We're in Alberton,Montana, which is 30 miles west of
Missoula. Very small ruraltown. It's very similar to the town
I grew up in. I grew up, Itell people, mostly Great Falls,
because if I tell people Sims,nobody knows what I'm talking about.
So I'm from the Great Fallsarea, and my family has a ranch over
(04:08):
in Sun River. It's called TailFeather Angus Ranch. They raised
Black Angus, and I went toschool, graduated from Sims High
for tigers. Ended up movingthis way. Met my husband. My husband's
from this area. He worked forthe Forest Service for a while. And
(04:29):
when I met him, he wasactually working for Costco. So he
kind of made a big careershift there. But he really liked
working for the Forest Serviceand ended up leaving because his
grandpa was sick and in thehospital. And at the time, he was
on the trail crew doing trailmaintenance, and it would take him
out into the mountains forseveral weeks at a time. And so when
(04:50):
his grandpa fell sick, he kindof gave up on that and came home.
But he was at Costco for 15years when I met him and ended up
realizing I kind of like themountains a little bit better than
the flatlands. So here we areover here.
That's great. I want to talkabout, you know, you growing up and
(05:12):
growing up on a ranch. Can youshare with us some of your favorite
memories of growing up on yourfamily ranch, central Montana, and
how that really shaped yourlove of horses and ranching?
It's. It's actually quite along story, but I didn't initially
start growing up on a ranch.My mom and my stepdad always had
(05:35):
horses growing up. We alwayshad horses. And I ended up as a teenager,
kind of becoming a problemchild and ended up in trouble. And,
yeah, don't recommend that forkids, but what ended up happening
is I had met a guy in highschool and I was dating him for a
(05:57):
short while and startedworking for his folks. And that time
I was currently in and out of,like, a juvenile detention center
and kind of bouncing back andforth, and my mom didn't really know
what to do with me. And so atthe time, his parents had stepped
(06:19):
in and offered to take me in.And I wish I could say it was easy
and rainbows and whatnot, butit definitely was not. And so transitioning
to that, to the branch, it wasa good wake up call for me. And it
was really good for me ingeneral. And they really helped me
come into myself and figureout who I really was and Mr. You
(06:43):
know, helping on the ranch andmy dad. So. And I talk about my folks,
I talk about my adoptiveparents, but they, you know, really
stepped in to, you know, kindof take over, and it was great and
a really good Place for me tobe. And so growing up there, you
know, he had horses and I hada horse. And at the greatest horse
(07:07):
growing up, the kind of horseeverybody wants their kids to have.
But, you know, we did thingsthat, you know, these days just don't
do. And even my own kids,like, I would take that horse bareback
and we rode to the store. Andback in that day, they had a hitch
and rail actually outside thelittle Sinclair gas station. And
(07:30):
so you could ride and youcould leave your horse there and
go inside and get some candyand a pop or whatever and right back
home. And it was a few milesand had a really good friend that
had lived on the other side ofthe plateau from our place. And we
used to ride our horses upthere and pretend we were camping
out on the prairie with therattlesnakes and all. And, I mean,
(07:53):
never tied our horses toanything. I don't know what we were
thinking. If our folks foundout, they'd probably kill us. But,
you know, we rolled out abedroll and spent the night up there.
And God only knows why ourhorses didn't leave us high and dry.
Maybe our horses knew betterthat, gosh, these kids would probably
die if we live them out here.But, you know, and I would just hop
(08:13):
on my horse and be gone forhours and hours, just wandering.
And you get to know theneighbors really well and ask for
permission. You know, hey, isit okay if I ride out here? And most
of them guys are like, sure,as long as you leave the gate how
you found it, that's okay.Always the golden rule and don't
let the cows out. And. Yeah.And so, you know, I ended up staying
(08:38):
on with them and ended upgraduating high school, which wasn't
easy because I had messedaround a lot my first two years.
So I made up four years ofhigh school my junior and senior
year to graduate and get myhigh school diploma. And I would
not have been able to do thatwithout my folks pushing me and being
(09:00):
behind me every step of theway and let me know I could do it.
And I don't know if theyreally gave me much of a choice,
but helped me along the wayand moving over here and getting
married and as. Especiallywith starting up our business. I
mean, they've been there. Andso we do big Christmas events. So
we just had our first oneSunday where we do Christmas on the
(09:24):
ranch and we do horsebackrides with Santa, and my dad is Santa,
and so they come over.Unfortunately, wasn't able to make
it this year. So my husbandStepped in. But normally my dad comes
over every year and is ourSanta Claus and rides with the kids
and my mom kind of takes careof coffee and things like that, making
(09:44):
sure things are going well.
I love that. And these areyour adoptive parents you're speaking
of, correct? Yeah. It soundslike the ranch was probably the best
thing that could have happenedto you as, as a young kid.
Yeah, for sure. I reallyneeded a good kick in the butt, that's
(10:04):
for sure. When I was ateenager and I got that many times,
you know, you see these memesor videos and stuff where kids talk
about, you know, oh, you know,you can't hurt my feelings because
I used to work house with mydad, like, yep, this could be.
(10:25):
You know, something that wecould look into later in life. And
I'm sure there are programssuch as, like, you know, for troubled
youth. Come make them workcows and then they will learn their
lesson.
Oh, 100%. I mean, it's, yeah,and it's, you know, we, we kind of
do a little bit of that. Imean, it boils over into just regular
(10:46):
kids with their lessons andstuff. But it really makes you step
outside of yourself,especially when you get into a pen
with a 1200 pound animal andsuddenly it's not about you anymore.
Yeah, absolutely. You hadmentioned growing up you always had
horses. Was this an initiallove for you or did you kind of have
to work your way into liking horses?
(11:08):
Oh, no, I had always likedhorses. I don't know where it started.
I, you know, we always hadsomething. I remember the first horse
we had that I rode was alittle poa pony named Shorty. And
he was an unreterd. And Ithink every kid should have a pony
at least once in their lifebecause it totally. It turns them
(11:31):
into good horsemen, I tell youwhat. But, you know, when my real
mom had met my stepdad, he wasreally big into horses. So I think
a lot of me learning to rideproperly and stuff came from him.
And my aunt as well could ridereally well. And she really pushed
me to ride a lot and alwayshad horses too. And, and so that
(11:55):
was actually who had taught mehow to rope was my stepdad originally.
He could rope quite well. Andso we didn't have a lot of money
growing up. So a lot of ourhorses were. You know, they call
them res ponies. It's usuallycome real cheap off the reservation.
They're gray, they're notpaper, they're not the best confirmation
(12:16):
and they're cheap. A lot ofthe times they're not that great.
And sometimes they make thebest horses in the world. And so
I'm a big fan. You know, a lotof our horses we have here are just
grade non registered horses,and they're amazing. And one of them
that we have is one that I gotwhen I was a kid, and I still have
her to this day. And she's aunregistered little Appaloosa mustang
(12:42):
that we got off thereservation and I bought her when
she was two months old, andshe's 21 this year, so. And she's
one of my top lesson horses.And so I like to tell people, you
know, sometimes in the horseindustry, people get real caught
up on papers and lineages, andthat doesn't matter so much to me
(13:02):
because I've come acrossenough horses that some of the best
ones, you know, the. You can'tput a price tag on them, and they're
free. And I've ridden horsesthat have the best of papers and
they're complete nut jobs,like. And somebody spent thousands
of dollars on that horse. Andso, you know. Yeah, I like to teach
(13:24):
people to kind of just ridethe horse that they have and not
worry so much about thebackground or where it came from
or how much you spent on it.Just. Just write what you have.
Yeah, absolutely. Talk to usabout the transition.
You know, you had met your husband.
You'D move to the Missoulaarea. What was that transition like
for you, moving from, I guess,one small town to another?
(13:49):
Well, when I first moved here,my husband actually lived in Missoula.
We had a little apartment, andit was pretty lonely at first because
I knew nobody here besides myhusband. I left kind of everything
behind. So it was kind of hardat first. And we got married and
we had our first daughter, andshe's, gosh, turning 15 this year
(14:14):
and, you know, go througheverything that young couples do.
And bought our first house,which was just a small house in Alberton.
So that's when we officiallymoved to Alberton, and we actually
lived in the town. And I.Gosh, I should have looked it up
before this, but I want to saythe population's less than a thousand
within a town. It's prettysmall. I think the vast majority
(14:38):
of your population comes fromoutside of the city limits, if you
will. But it's, you know, oneroad through the town. There's post
office, two bars, a bookstore,school, gas station, coffee shop.
And then, you know, we got toyour point. My husband and I had
both worked for an outfitterwho is not too far from us now, but
(15:01):
it was called Hole in the WallLodge. And my husband worked up there
as a guide and a ranch handand did all sorts of things up there.
And I ended up going up thereas well and worked in the kitchen
and was cooking, bartender,server, you know, groundskeeper,
whatever they needed, youknow. And it was such a fun place
(15:23):
to work until it shut down.The owner had passed away and they
decided to donate it to IowaState University. So now it's a conservation
camp for the college. Andunfortunately, I mean, it's great.
It's great for the collegekids to go up there and they do a
job of keeping the trailsclear. But now it's closed down to
the public, so you can't evengo in there anymore. And that was
(15:46):
actually where we ended upgetting married. And so it was always
a special place for us. Andit's kind of a bummer now that you
can just drive by it. And thenI went on to work for a couple other
big ranches nearby. And guestranches is what they are. And there's
just not, you know, growingup, you so much agriculture on the
(16:09):
east side of the mountains andbig ranch and there's just not that
here. And, you know, I used tobe able to go get hired on to go
gather cows and do brandingsand sortings. I mean, like that.
And they just don't do thatover here. There's not the space.
All the big ranches that arehere privately owned and are usually
(16:34):
a guest ranch. And I workedfor a few of those and it was okay,
but we really struggled with,you know, you go work out there and
it's owned and ran by somebodythat doesn't even live here. You
know, they live in Vegas orwherever, and they just come on the
weekends to play cowboysometimes. And so you end up feel
(16:59):
like you're running the placehow you think. And then the owner
would come in and, you know,they want all their buddies loaded
up with beer and taken up themountain, and it's just chaos. And
we were like, there's gotta bea better way to do this. Especially
since we had worked for areally good outfit before. And we
(17:21):
were just like, why not juststart our own company? And at the
time, we had had just a, youknow, a handful of horses, and we
were getting by random people,and we were getting contacted by
people who knew us and knew werode and had horses. And they were
like, hey, we got friendscoming in. And we know some family
(17:43):
coming in. They would love toride a horse. Would you Be able to
take them on a ride. And so,you know, before we officially started
our business, we had startedour business, you know, and we were
like, why don't we just dothis? And, you know, we went through.
It was a process of getting towhere we are now, especially, I mean,
(18:07):
just buying the ranch andselling our home was a huge leap.
And it's crazy to see how Godreally worked through everything
for us and where we were. Andbefore we even moved into our home,
we had decided, let's do this.Let's sell our house, and we're going
(18:28):
to move and we're going to buysomething better, and we're going
to go full blown with this.And at the time, we lived in a modular
in town, and we rented pasturefrom a friend across the river. And
so our house literally sold,like, two weeks before we were going
(18:49):
to list it. And we werefrantic, like, oh, my gosh, what
are we gonna do? Where are wegonna live? Like, at the time we
were operating, we had juststarted our first official year operating
out of a place just east ofAlbertan. And they had someone that
had come in and they weregoing to build this big resort and
(19:11):
had contacted us about doinghorseback rides for this resort.
And we said, sure, we couldsign on as a vendor. And so we were
operating out of there andthen come to find out they were subdividing
the whole thing. And we werelike, oh, well, this is not going
to work for us. So we decided,you know, we really needed to move
(19:32):
and find our own place. And wewere going through the process with
the forest service of gettinglicensed to guy and doing all that
stuff. And we ended up movinginto our horse trailer for, gosh,
a couple months. We had itparked at my husband's parents's
house, and we were living inour horse trailer for several months
(19:53):
with the horses. And we endedup finding the place we live in now.
I was just cruising through,and our realtor, I mean, she was
amazing. She is the best. AndI found this place. It had been on
the market for an hour. And Iwas like, jamie, we. I want to go
(20:13):
see this right now. And she'slike, I just enlisted. Like, I don't
even think the guy's ready toshow it. And I'm like, right now,
Jamie, we have to go. Andshe's like, okay, let me call the
guy. And he was a littlefrazzled. Like, I have nothing ready.
We. I literally today justdecided to sell my house, like. And
(20:34):
we came out, he wasn't evenhome. He was out of town. And we
looked at the property, and Iwas like, we have got to make this
happen. What do we do? And shewas like, well, you know, I just
don't know if it's in yourbudget. And it really wasn't. We
were. We were so strapped.Like, just to make the numbers work
(20:54):
in itself was crazy. And therewas others who threw in offers that
were way higher than ours. Andwe were like, this is as high as
we can go. And the guy whoowned the property, his name is Bill.
And we ended up becomingpretty good friends with Bill, but
we wrote him a letter and justsaid, hi, this is us. We would love
(21:19):
to buy this home. This is whatwe would do with it. This is what
it means to us and our family.And then our realtor, you know, sent
it over, and he called usback, I think, a few days later.
And she's like, you are notgoing to believe this. And I'm like,
what? And she goes, billaccepted your offer? And I was like,
no way. And she's like, youwant to know what he said? And I'm
(21:39):
like, what? And he says, well,he had a couple other offers that
were higher than yours. AndBill looked at those offers, and
then he read your letter, andhe read their letter, and he was
like, nope, I will take theiroffer because I'll be damned if some
out of stater from Californiabuys my property. And I was like,
thank God, Bill. And so we,you know, we ended up doing a good
(22:04):
friendship with him. He had alot of livestock, and so since we
bought the place and he endedup in the same situation that we
did, he now all of a suddenwas like, crap, I don't have any
place to live. And he ended upbuying bare land up in St. Ignatius
and had nothing on it. And so,you know, he did so many good things
(22:25):
helping us out. So we werelike, bill, let's help you out. Like,
what do you need? The horses,the cows, everything could stay here
as long as you need to getyour fence up, like. And so we did.
We ended up keeping a few ofhis horses, mules, and cows while
he got his property fenced.And we offered him our horse trailer.
And. Which was funny becausehe ended up just living in his wall
tent up there until he got hishouse built. But, yeah, it was just
(22:50):
crazy the way it worked out.And even our realtor was like, I
mean, just things with thebank and stuff. And it really kind
of showed us where, like, Godhad a hand in it, because our realtor
was like, this Deal should nothave happened. I don't even know
what to think. This is weird.And so we really felt like this was
meant to be and this is wherewe were meant to be and we had to
(23:11):
work really hard for it. And Imean, we were like hot dogs and ramen
noodles for a long time.
Right, well. And like yousaid, it was meant to be somehow.
And you finding that ad anhour after it was posted and Bill
being the person that he was.Right. So that's amazing. What year
(23:32):
did you buy your ranch?
We bought it in 2020.
Okay. So. And you know, duringjust a unprecedented time in the
world's history, anyway, it.
Was definitely the time tobuy. Crazy. Yeah.
So talk to me about growingthe ranch and back from 2020 to where
(23:53):
it is today.
Yeah. So, I mean, gosh, whenwe. When we first started, we had.
Trying to think. We had 1, 2,3. We had 3 usable horses when we
first started that were bombproof, safe for anyone enemy. And
then we had picked up a couplecolts. Mine was, that I purchased.
(24:17):
He was only like, you know,eight months old, so he was kind
of just a lawn ornament for awhile. And then we picked up this
two year old that we wereleading rides on. And he's actually
turned out to be a reallygreat horse now. But so we just had
a couple and we would take,you know, two to three people out
for a ride. And that was kindof before we bought the place. And
(24:38):
then when we bought our place,we. I mean, it just, you know, crazy
how our horses ended up withus. And I mean, each one of us or
one of them has a really coolstory and how we came to acquire
them. And, you know, we endedup finding just the craziest of deals.
(24:59):
And then a lot of the peoplethat we got horses from ended up
becoming good friends with us.And, you know, we had a couple that
right off the bat, I ended upbuying these two horses in one day.
And I bought them each for 500bucks. And one was a just old retired
ranch horse, and he was huge.He used 17 hands. His name was Itty
(25:20):
Bitty. And just the best ofhorses. He was such a good boy. And
we bought another little marenamed Pumpkin, and she was also great.
And we actually bred her thislast year. And so she has a baby
now and. And they're doingjust great. Her baby's huge. He looks
like a Twinkie. He's just alittle fat butterball. But, you know,
(25:41):
and then each one, it was kindof funny how randomly I would put
out an ad, like, hey, this iskind of what I'm looking for. And
I like, I always like to tellpeople I kind of have a sense, like
I can tell when I go up to ahorse and I can just feel it, like
how they are and how they'regonna be. And so each, you know,
(26:02):
horse that we went to look at,we were like, yeah, this is the one.
And, and they all came at justthe right time. And, you know, we
went and looked at quite a fewthat, you know, my husband and I
took our horse trailer and wejust went across Montana and went
and just responded to ad afterad and it was kind of a nice road
trip and rode some fantastichorses, rode some not so great horses
(26:26):
and, you know, came back andso now we're at 13 now, just over
the course of four years. Andwe've gotten quite a few from a ranch
over in Augusta that are just,you know, just good retired ranch
horses that there's nothingreally wrong with them. It's just
they've sustained an injury atone point in their career or they're
(26:49):
getting a little older andthey just cannot do 30 miles a day
on the ranch. They can't beout there from sun up to sundown.
They can't be dragging cowsand roping and. But they're certainly
not done. And so we've got afew, you know, we've got a really
great horse right now. Hisname's Boone, who got a shoulder
(27:11):
injury at some point. And he'snot even old, he's about 12 years
old. And he just couldn'thandle, you know, going in the mountains
to gather cows. And so they,you know, offered him to us and we
got him kind of fixed up andhe's doing great now. And he's also
one of my top lesson horsesand he's also an amazing guest horse.
(27:34):
And a lot of our, you know,horses are probably have a little
arthritis, so they all get ona joint supplement and keep them
going. And we don't doanything hardcore. We just offer
one to two hour rides. Andthat kind of seems to be what people
can handle. You know, the onehour rides are certainly the most
(27:56):
popular. I would say 90% ofour guests are guests that have never
been on a horse before ever.And so that's great for them, just
being in the saddle for onehour. It's funny to see them come
off and they're all bow leggedand a lot of the ones that are like,
we're having such a greattime, let's go for Two hours. And
then they can't walk when theyget off. Or they. You know, we always
(28:19):
try to tell people, let ushelp you down, because you're gonna
be sore. And you get, youknow, people that are like, oh, I'm
fine. I can do it. And they goto step off, and they hit the ground,
and they're like, I'm notfine. You're like, y. We know. So,
you know, it just. It's just agreat place for these horses to land,
to keep them going and givethem, you know, just a nice place
(28:40):
to go and. And they love theirjob. All of our horses love their
jobs, and they like thepeople. They love the attention,
and they've got it pretty goodhere. You know, they get lots of
hay, and they got lots ofacreage out here to run around and
play. And I always like totell people, too, that, you know,
I. I don't like to callourselves a dude ranch because I've
(29:03):
worked for a lot of those, anda lot of them don't really take the
best care of their horses.And, you know, a lot I feel like
dude ranches get a bad rep,and I've heard some horror stories.
And, you know, we get peoplewho will come into our place, and
they think that we just keepthe horses tied to the hitch and
(29:23):
rail all day, that we saddlethem up first thing in the morning,
and I stay there just waitingfor somebody to show up to go for
a ride. And that's just notthe case. You know, they are out
there in the pasture livingtheir best life until someone books
a ride and then they getpulled in and saddled up and they
go for their ride, and theyget turned back out to be their fat,
happy selves at the end of theday. And they don't do multiple rides
(29:47):
a day. We. We try not to. Youknow, if we have to, we'll do maybe
a ride in the morning, ride inthe evening on some of our younger
horses. But our older horses,they don't go out twice a day. You
know, they go and they work,and they've done their job, and there's
a lot of people that will keepthose horses that open, tied, and
they just do rides around.Around the clock, three to four rides
(30:10):
a day. And I just don't agreewith that. And our horses get chiropractic
care. We also have a bodyworker. We have a great body worker
in our area that will comeout. And then my sister also is a
body worker in the Great fallsarea. So when she comes to, she works
on our horses, and we do ourbest to keep them feeling good because,
(30:33):
you know, I hate horses and Iwant ours to last because they're
great. And losing one is. It'snot just financially hard. It's.
It's emotionally hard to loseone because you get attached and
your. Your guests get attachedto them, so it's really hard to replace
that, you know. And so, yeah,we try to do everything we can keep
(30:56):
them going and lasting andfeeling good. And they got to deal
with, you know, guests gettingon and hanging on the side and, you
know, you'll look backsometimes and guests are leaning
over on the saddle and theyget tired and. And so we always make
sure their backs feel goodbeginning and end of the season,
(31:17):
and they're just good to go.
It sounds like your horses getbetter taken care of than most humans.
Probably riding those h. Oh, absolutely.
I've never been to thechiropractor. Mine go twice a year.
Right. Never gone.
That sounds really nice, right?
Oh, yeah.
(31:38):
So besides the trail riding,what other offerings do you have
at Hood's Western Adventures?
So we, we do the trail ridesand then we do, you know, and even
our trail rides arecustomizable. We, we've taken girls
out for a birthday party andwe've packed some cake and things
(31:58):
like champagne for them, andwe set up a little picnic down by
the creek. And we've doneproposals out here where we took
the. Took a couple out for aride while their family stayed behind
secretly and set up, like,purposeful table for the guy and
super cute. And we did a lotof photo shoots. We've done engagement
(32:19):
pictures. We've done. We dounicorn photo shoots. Those are a
big hit with the kids. My mommade all these super cute unicorn
horns, so we can customizeeach one per horse which one matches
the horse better, you know,and the kids can pick out which unicorn
they want to take a picturewith. And we do Dutch oven cooking
classes. So Dutch oven cookingis kind of something I really like
(32:42):
to do. And I've done quite abit of it in the past where I've
done a few women's events atthe outdoorsmen church in Missoula.
And then we did women andoutdoors events at Cabela's where
we set up our Dutch oven onthe sidewalk and. And cooked for
people. And so that wassomething we kind of offered out
here was to do a cookingclass. And we set it up like, you
(33:05):
know, a cooking show. Andpeople come in and pay and they get
a three course meal and theyget the Recipe cards for everything
I cook at the end of it. Andwe do bread and biscuits and gravy
and cobblers and chicken andkebabs and all sorts of stuff. And
that's been really fun. Andwe've done like ladies night. We've
(33:26):
had, you know, groups of womencome in and we set up big charcuterie
table on the barn. And I havea friend that does wine tasting and
she'll come and do the winetastings and you know, we will just
kind of rotate women aroundand take a group out for a ride down
the road. And those that staybehind will sit there and eat and
try some wines and then rotateother women out. And we do kids camps
(33:49):
in the spring and we'll offera couple during the winter too, where,
you know, like Martin LutherKing Day, kind of a one day camp.
And I think that's kind ofnice for parents because a lot of
parents I think struggle like,oh my gosh, they're out of school
for one day. What am I goingto do with my kids? And I have to
work, it's Monday. So it kindof is a nice outlet for them. And
(34:10):
they can come out and theylearn how to groom and they ride
for the day and learn allabout the horses they help us feed.
And we'll do some crafts andlunches and things like that for
them and have a fire and thekids can make s' mores. And every
year we do a barn dance in thefall. And that's a fun, fun event.
That's kind of our end of theseason hoorah, if you will. And we
(34:33):
have very fortunate to havesome neighbors next door that are
incredibly talented andmusical. And so they come over each
year and play during ourdinner and we serve dinner and. And
then kind of when they'redone, we turn on the best 80s 90s
country and try and get peopleout there line dancing and two step
(34:54):
in and. Yeah, and so it's afun time. I think that's one of our
biggest events that we dobesides our, our Christmas event
that we're doing currently.And this year we have. My husband's
brother brews beer and so weended up in the barn and he, you
(35:15):
know, was part of the brewersassociation and they do competitions
and stuff like that. But heends up brewing so much that he kind
of needed an outlet. So wewere like, put a bar in the barn
and we'll just offer it, youknow, for free to our guests. And
that was a huge hit with theguests over the summer. And they're
actually going through theprocess currently to get license
(35:36):
to open up their own breweryin Frenchtown. So it's kind of been
good advertisement for them aswell to let people come in and sample
it and be like, yeah, this isgoing to be a thing for them here
in the future and very cool.
What has been the community'sreaction to your business opening
up?
I think it's been good.There's nothing out here like us.
(36:01):
And so especially the kidscamps. You know, we've had a lot
of local kids that have comein and done lessons and done the
camps. And we have a ton oflocal people that come in and we
have a lot of local peoplethat book trail rides, which really
surprised me. But yeah,especially when their family comes
to visit and they're trying tofigure out things to do and they're
(36:22):
like, oh, you know, thesepeople out here, you know, that go
for trail rides. You want todo that. And so, yeah, quite a bit
with local people. And ourDutch oven classes too is mainly
locals that come in for that.And same with the barn dance. And
our Christmas event isdefinitely all local people. As far
as I know, there's. There'snobody else that's offering horseback
(36:42):
rides with Santa Claus, right?
I've never heard of ahorseback ride with Santa Claus.
Oh, yeah. And so, yeah, thekids get to get on the horse and
they go around the arena withSanta and get to tell them what they
want for Christmas. And we setup a tractor ride so kids can hop
on the tractor trailer and myfather in law drives back and forth
(37:04):
between the barn and the arenaand the kids ride that and we will
pack our barn full of localvendors. So it's kind of, kind of
really fun to provide a spacefor those people to sell their stuff
and just give them anotheroutlet to get their stuff out into
the community. And I thinkespecially with our Christmas event,
(37:26):
we draw in a lot of peoplefrom Missoula. And so a lot of these
vendors are local to Mineralcounty. And I think it's great for
them to get that exposure forall the folks from Missoula to come
in and buy from them andsupport them and be able to help
those guys out.
(38:33):
So you had mentioned when wewere talking about acquiring this
ranch and kind of howcompetitive the market is in land
acquisition in Montana,especially from people outside of
Montana. But the horseindustry itself can be quite competitive.
So what have been some of thechallenges that you've faced in your
(38:57):
career and in growing yourranch to where it is today in terms
of competitiveness.
I mean, yeah, find. Findingthis place was probably the ultimate.
You know, land is. Especiallyon the western side of the state,
it is really, really hard tofind property in Mineral County,
(39:18):
Especially in this area thatwe're in. It's almost unheard of.
I think if you got on thehousing market right now and looked,
there would be nothing. Unlessit's a multi million dollar something
that nobody from here couldafford. Which is. It's nuts because
where I'm from, you know, yougo east of the mountains, you find
(39:39):
all sorts of ranches for saleand plots and property and whatnot.
But it's crazy over here. Andsame with, with the horse prices
and prices of horses over hereare insanely through the roof. And
you know, if you go justoutside, you know, I mean the majority
(40:00):
of our horses we have havecome from Great Falls area or farther
east and we only have ahandful of them that have actually
been local. And even if yougo, you know, west and you go to
Idaho or Washington, it'scrazy how much cheaper they are.
And I know we have a friendwho does outfitting and he goes,
(40:22):
you know, east like Michiganor Minnesota somewhere over there
and buys all his horsesbecause of how cheap they are. And
you know, it's crazy to thinkthat the cost of him driving all
the way over there and pickingup 4 to 5 head of horses to bring
back is cheaper than buyingone horse here locally. And I don't
(40:43):
really know why that is. Ilike to think it's because of, you
know, you do get a lot of outof staters that come over here and
they want to live the westernlife and they want a horse and they,
they don't know. And so, youknow, I think you. It's kind of gotten
a problem of people sellinghorses for top dollar that really
(41:05):
aren't worth top dollar andpeople don't know any better and
they buy it anyway. So thenbecause so and so down the road sold
their horse for that, theythink they can sell their horse for
that. And it kind of just hasthis domino effect and it's. It's
kind of sad really because youknow, you end up with a lot of horses
(41:27):
that will go through the salering. And that's a lot of what we
try to avoid. I know a vastmajority of the ones we have gotten
were set to go to the saleyard or the auction yard and we kind
of have come in just at theright time before that happened to
pick them up. And a lot ofthose horses that are going to Go
(41:49):
through the sales, you know,that might have a bump on their knee
or they obviously are a littlestiff in the hind end or something.
You know, people aren't goingto buy that, and they end up on a
slaughter truck going toMexico, like. And a lot of our horses
that we've picked up justneeded a little TLC maintenance to
(42:10):
get back on track. You know,we had, you know, our one with the
shoulder injury. It justneeded a chiropractor adjustment
and his feet trimmed right,and he was great. So a lot of ours,
and we've gotten pretty goodat being able to look at a horse
and tell, like, how I couldpatch him up with a little bit of
vet care and just a littlegood joint supplement and whatnot.
(42:32):
But, you know, we also look atquite a few that that horse has a
major injury, and that's notgonna. No amount of MSM is gonna
help that horse. And so thehay has been another thing. We're
super fortunate and blessedthat my dad produces hay. And so
over the years, we have boughtall of our hay from my dad. And,
you know, it's crazy how cheapit is just on the other side of the
(42:54):
mountains than here. It'sinsane. It will cost me significantly
less money to purchase, youknow, 20 tons of hay from my dad
and pay him to truck it hereand stack it than I could ever find
locally. So we. We go thatroute. And like I said, we're very
(43:15):
fortunate. And without that, Idon't know if our business would
have taken off in, you know,we would have been a little bit more
strapped than we were withoutthat kind of a connection. And we've
been real fortunate to buildrelationships with those around us
and just the people that havecome into our lives especially. And
(43:36):
we have a neighbor up the roadthat my husband has become really
good friends with, and he isthe one who gives us access to take
rides out on his property.Also had my husband take over his
hay operation. So now myhusband does that, and now we produce
half of our own hay. And, youknow, the hope is to get to the point
(43:56):
where we're producing all ofour own hay and maybe I won't need
to buy from my dad. Hopefullyhe doesn't hear that I still want
hay.
Keep growing hay.
Yeah, keep. Keep growing thatjust in case I have a bad year. You
might have a good year. So,you know. Yeah, it's in. It's crazy.
(44:17):
Like, I mean, the averageprice over here, and especially the
last couple of years, you hadpeople over here trying to sell hay
for $400 a ton. And that'sjust outrageous. And I think people
who are trying to sell, I, youknow, I hope they step in dog poop
one day. Like, it's just. No,absolutely not. And compared to,
(44:39):
you know, my dad is, you know,selling it way below that and still
is making a profit andcovering his costs. And so it's hard
for me over here when you seepeople like that. And I try to help
other people out with thatbecause I'm like, I'm here to tell
you that you can produce itless, and if you can't, you're doing
it wrong. And it, you know, I.You got a lot of people over here
(45:03):
that were trying to sellreally crap hay and slapping a premium
label on it without testing itor anything. And, you know, I. I
think when people realizedthat there were those out there getting
$400 a ton per hay, they werelike, oh, well, I got a field of
(45:23):
grass. I could sell hay. Andthey borrowed their neighbor swather
and Baylor and they went outand cut some fallow land, and, you
know, we're selling it for 15to $18 a bale. And I was like, oh,
my gosh, no. And so it's justkind of the norm over here. And it
just blows my mind that peopleare willing to pay that. And I wish
(45:45):
they weren't. And I wish therewas more options for people because
if they were able to, youknow, not support that, I think people
would get a clue and not tryto price gouge everybody out because
they know it's very limited inthis area. And that's the tough part.
But now you got a lot ofpeople that are going in together
(46:06):
on semi loads of hay fromWashington or over east. And I think
that I've seen a lot of thatthis year, and I've noticed the prices
come down, especially with itbeing a really good crop year. And
so I'm. I'm kind of glad that,you know, prices are coming down
for everyone else, because itjust kind of makes you mad to see
people charging that for justbecause can, you know.
(46:31):
Well, I think the communitypiece comes into it, right? Like
in building a strong localcommunity and being able to be honest
by saying, hey, like, thisisn't worth it for me to purchase
at this price and having acollective of people being like,
hey, we can find better hay.
Somewhere else or whatever it is.
(46:52):
But I think it really speaksto the power of community. And in,
really, in any rural area ofcoming together to work together
to find prices or findequipment or find, find whatever
it is that's going to work for them.
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
So Kailey, what is next forHood's Western Adventures? What are
(47:12):
you guys hoping to accomplish?What are some big goals? Dreams?
I mean, I think the ultimategoal and dream was is to be able
to have our businessprofitable enough to where, you know,
my husband or I don't have towork a job or a part time job, you
(47:33):
know, like this would supportitself. And it's, we're almost there.
Like it's at that point nowwhere the business is supporting
itself and then everythingelse is kind of on us. So it would
be the hope that we get to apoint. And in the summertime especially
(47:54):
we're, we're crazy busy. Butwinter time can be kind of hard because
we really slow down. You know,it's. Nobody's booking rides in the
winter and lessons slow waydown. Nobody wants to ride when it's
cold. And so we do rely onour, our Christmas event in December
helps get us through December,January and when we get into February
(48:16):
we do a couple kids camps andthat really helps us. So it's kind
of just trying to be creativein ways to utilize what we have and
keep going. And I'm fortunatetoo to have some great, you know,
people who come in and weoffer, you know, boarding for other
people's horses too. So thatreally helps. But I've been really
(48:36):
fortunate to have a couplegals come in that have just been
great and I've kind of broughtthem in as part of our team and like,
hey, I want to know what youguys think. I want to know what you
guys want to see happen outhere. And so they've been great at
bouncing ideas and you know,we've talked about doing a, a women's
camp this summer where we havewomen come in and they can park campers,
(49:00):
they can put up tents,whatever. But it's just going to
be fun girls weekend. And youknow, we do a couple lessons in the
arena. It's going to be openfor people to, you know, if you don't
have a horse, that's not aproblem. We'll give you one. And
if you do have a horse, bringit. We, we can put up and you know,
and talked about what thatwould look like. And so, you know,
(49:21):
do a couple lessons in thearena, maybe end Sunday with a trail
ride and you know, do some funthings like do a wine tasting one
night and campfire dinners andmaybe see if the guys next door want
to come over and play Musicfor them. And we have a really good
friend that does. Just startedher goat yoga business. So we reach
out to her and I'm like, hey,you want to come to go yoga in the
(49:44):
morning for these gals? And,and it's just, you know, really being
able to help each other out.We, we've got so many friends that
have great other businessesaround us and we're really fortunate
to be able to piggyback off ofeach other and help each other and
really promote and boost eachother, you know, and, and what they're
trying to do and accomplishand. And so I think that would be
(50:08):
the goal. You know, right nowmy husband and mainly we really just
have our part time jobs forsomething to do in winter and kind
of keep the cash flow going.But you know, we, I work part time
at a bar up the road, ahistorical bar and do some cooking,
bartending up there. And Ialso will pop in at a farm and ranch
(50:28):
store in Missoula and myhusband works part time for a beekeeper
that's out here. And you know,and it's all just, you know, maybe
one, two days a weeksomething. And yeah, that would be.
And then, you know, maybe oneday I hope to have an indoor arena
instead of an outdoor arenaand all sorts of other little things.
(50:49):
I know my husband would liketo grow our cow herd and right now
we have nine cows. So theyhelp us enough to be able to cover
our hay costs and whatnot,which is how that worked out this
year with the way cattleprices are. So we were able to sell
a couple calves and that tookcare of the hay bill for the year.
So everybody was set with foodand didn't have to worry too much
(51:10):
about that. And we have adairy cow, her name is Myra. She's
actually set to calve likeyesterday. Like we're about ready
to put her in the squeezechute and squeeze her because this
calf has been overdue forabout a week and. And she's just
out there living life likewhatever. And we're like, come on,
we're tired of getting upevery morning and checking on you.
(51:31):
But yeah, so we, we milk herand we have fresh milk all the time.
And like I make butter andcream and cheese and all the things.
And so that's been really fun.Our kids really like it and she's
the sweetest cow ever. You canactually ride her. I always joke
that she's more halter brokethan most people's horses are, so
(51:55):
that's awesome.
Well, those. Honestly, I hopeyou get to hear this back and hear
all of the goals and hopesthat you have for your ranch. Because
for somebody who said, I don'tknow if we have any, we certainly
do. And I always love whenpeople get to listen back and hear
where they were to where theyare today. And even just to hear
(52:17):
your story of where youstarted four years ago, you've had
a lot of growth, and I hopeyou keep growing.
Yeah, I mean, we've had a lotof growth. Just in this year, I feel
like it was. We've linked upwith. There's other, you know, outlet.
We're really in kind of thisneat little central hub. Like, there's,
gosh, three, four raftingcompanies just down the road from
(52:41):
us. And so one of which welinked up with this summer to be
a vendor for them and anoutlet to where they could book trail
rides through them with us formorning rides. And there's another
great company right around thecorner that we work with that recommend
rides, and we put togetherride and raft packages. And. And
(53:02):
so I think just that alonereally, you know, took off. And there's
also, you know, a couplewedding venues out here. And. And
so it's just. It's quite the.In the summertime, it's. It's kind
of a bustling little area,really. And it's. It always strikes
us as funny because, you know,in the wintertime, there's nobody
(53:22):
out here, and it feels like welive way off the beaten path. But
in the summertime, it's.There's vehicles, there's raft trailers,
there's, you know, fansconstantly going. And then you got
my truck and trailer rippingaround all the time and back and
forth and. Oh, yeah, it'sjust. It's been a great summer, been
a great year, and good growthfor us. And so I feel like the goals
(53:45):
are getting there.
You're getting there. You'regetting there. Kailey, my last question
for you is, what is the mostrewarding part about being a rural
woman for you?
I guess being able torecognize your own strengths, you
know, just recognize how muchyou're capable of. And you don't
(54:05):
really realize how much you'recapable of until you're faced with
it and you just have to do it.But. And out here, that happens a
lot. And, you know, we're kindof in an area where getting a decent
vet, you know, is hard. Andwe're very fortunate to have an amazing
horse vet, and he's great.And. But it. For our cows, it's really
(54:29):
hard to find a Good cow setout here again, it's not like where
I grew up where you had, like,you know, 20 cow bats on call and
your neighbor could come overand help you, like, but out here,
it's. We've never been able toget a vet out for our cows, which
is crazy to me. It's so crazyto me to think of. And so my vet's
(54:51):
been really good, my horsevet. And I will call him sometimes
with questions because theyare a specific horse facility, you
know, and I'll be like, hey,me. And, you know, he's great about
giving us advice and whatnotand us just having to figure out
how to deal with it. And, youknow, growing up, you know, my dad
(55:13):
knew how to pull calves and doall this, and I've seen it and I've
helped do it before, but it'sa whole nother thing. When you're
faced with it, you have to doit yourself, and you've got no help,
and you can't get a vetonline. And you're out there just
trying to fill your way blindand figure out what you're doing
and make it work. And, youknow, same thing with supplies and
(55:35):
things out here, andeverything has to be hauled in. We
don't have a, you know, ranchstore out here and, you know, the
closest things 35, 40 milesaway. So being able to plan accordingly
and with my husband and Isometimes going different directions,
a lot of the times it, youknow, it kind of falls on me to get
(55:59):
things done. And so it's kindof a challenge to, you know, try
and figure out how, you know,how am I going to get this hay unloaded
by myself? How am I going tofix this fence? How am I gonna, you
know, but you just make itwork and kind of dig down and realize
that you can do it and you cansplit all this wood and stack this
(56:19):
hay and get this horse takencare of. And so I think that's probably
good. And I think it's goodfor our kids to see that, you know,
anything's possible,especially with, you know, seeing
their parents and what we'vebuilt out here, and they don't need
any special schooling. And,gosh, I think everything that they
(56:41):
would need in life, they couldlearn right here. They can learn
to weld out here. They learnto drive the tractor. They learn.
I mean, their dad's prettymechanical, so the kids learn how
to fix the tractor. Andthere's my dog. So, you know, they.
They learn what they'recapable of as well out here. And
I think that's just a reallygood thing for them to see.
(57:02):
Absolutely. Well, and youexperienced it yourself. Right. You
learned on a ranch of all ofthe things that you needed to know
were inside of you. Right. So,Kailey, thank you so much for sharing
your story with us today. Forthe folks who would like to connect
with you after the show orfind out more about Hood's Western
(57:25):
Adventures, where can theyfind you online?
Oh, gosh, they can look up ourwebsite. You know, Hood's Western
Adventures or on. We're onFacebook, we're on Instagram. Yeah,
all that info can be on thereand. Or even on a horse hotel page
because we rent our barn outfor those who are traveling with
their horses. So we do that aswell. And I think that's what the
(57:49):
site's called. Horse Hotel,Horse Airbnb. And so that's been
kind of fun as well.
Yeah, very cool. I will linkall of those in the show notes so
people can find you andconnect with you and maybe need a
horse hotel.
Sounds great.
Thank you again for sharingyour story with us. I really appreciate
it.
Oh, you bet. Thanks for having me.
(58:16):
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman Podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast team. Audio editor Max Hofer.
A special thanks to ourPatreon executive producers, Sarah
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(58:38):
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(58:58):
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Send this episode to a friendor share on your social media. Let's
(59:22):
strengthen and amplify thevoices of women in agriculture together.
Until next time, my friend,keep sharing your story.
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:04):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:27):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women, and
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey, everyone. Welcome
(01:57):
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Kailey Hood, a born andraised Montana cowgirl, passionate
rancher, and the owner ofHood's Western Adventures. Nestled
in Alberton, Montana. Kailey,alongside her husband and their two
kids, operate a diverseranching enterprise that offers everything
(02:18):
from guided trail rides,horseback riding lessons, and Dutch
oven cooking classes toweddings, hay production, cattle
raising, and even a cozy horsehotel for traveling riders. In our
conversation, Kailey sharesher incredible journey from navigating
the challenges of her youth tobecoming a successful entrepreneur
(02:39):
deeply rooted in a ranchinglifestyle. She opens up about the
pivotal moments that ignitedher lifelong love of horses, the
realities of building a ranchbusiness from the ground up, and
the importance.
Of community in overcomingobstacles and finding success.
Kailey's story is one ofresilience, determination, and a
(02:59):
whole lot of heart. Withoutfurther ado, my friends, let's get
to this week's interview withKailey. Kailey, welcome to the Rural
Woman Podcast.
How are you today?
Good. Thanks for having me.How are you doing?
I'm doing very well. I am soexcited to get to know your story
(03:21):
and hear about your life inMontana and all of the good horse
things and all of the goodstuff. So for our listeners who are
unfamiliar with you, give usyour background, tell us who you
are, where you're from, andhow you got your start in agriculture.
Well, my name is Kailey Hoodand my family and I own Hood's Western
(03:43):
Adventures. We're in Alberton,Montana, which is 30 miles west of
Missoula. Very small ruraltown. It's very similar to the town
I grew up in. I grew up, Itell people, mostly Great Falls,
because if I tell people Sims,nobody knows what I'm talking about.
So I'm from the Great Fallsarea, and my family has a ranch over
(04:08):
in Sun River. It's called TailFeather Angus Ranch. They raised
Black Angus, and I went toschool, graduated from Sims High
for tigers. Ended up movingthis way. Met my husband. My husband's
from this area. He worked forthe Forest Service for a while. And
(04:29):
when I met him, he wasactually working for Costco. So he
kind of made a big careershift there. But he really liked
working for the Forest Serviceand ended up leaving because his
grandpa was sick and in thehospital. And at the time, he was
on the trail crew doing trailmaintenance, and it would take him
out into the mountains forseveral weeks at a time. And so when
(04:50):
his grandpa fell sick, he kindof gave up on that and came home.
But he was at Costco for 15years when I met him and ended up
realizing I kind of like themountains a little bit better than
the flatlands. So here we areover here.
That's great. I want to talkabout, you know, you growing up and
(05:12):
growing up on a ranch. Can youshare with us some of your favorite
memories of growing up on yourfamily ranch, central Montana, and
how that really shaped yourlove of horses and ranching?
It's. It's actually quite along story, but I didn't initially
start growing up on a ranch.My mom and my stepdad always had
(05:35):
horses growing up. We alwayshad horses. And I ended up as a teenager,
kind of becoming a problemchild and ended up in trouble. And,
yeah, don't recommend that forkids, but what ended up happening
is I had met a guy in highschool and I was dating him for a
(05:57):
short while and startedworking for his folks. And that time
I was currently in and out of,like, a juvenile detention center
and kind of bouncing back andforth, and my mom didn't really know
what to do with me. And so atthe time, his parents had stepped
(06:19):
in and offered to take me in.And I wish I could say it was easy
and rainbows and whatnot, butit definitely was not. And so transitioning
to that, to the branch, it wasa good wake up call for me. And it
was really good for me ingeneral. And they really helped me
come into myself and figureout who I really was and Mr. You
(06:43):
know, helping on the ranch andmy dad. So. And I talk about my folks,
I talk about my adoptiveparents, but they, you know, really
stepped in to, you know, kindof take over, and it was great and
a really good Place for me tobe. And so growing up there, you
know, he had horses and I hada horse. And at the greatest horse
(07:07):
growing up, the kind of horseeverybody wants their kids to have.
But, you know, we did thingsthat, you know, these days just don't
do. And even my own kids,like, I would take that horse bareback
and we rode to the store. Andback in that day, they had a hitch
and rail actually outside thelittle Sinclair gas station. And
(07:30):
so you could ride and youcould leave your horse there and
go inside and get some candyand a pop or whatever and right back
home. And it was a few milesand had a really good friend that
had lived on the other side ofthe plateau from our place. And we
used to ride our horses upthere and pretend we were camping
out on the prairie with therattlesnakes and all. And, I mean,
(07:53):
never tied our horses toanything. I don't know what we were
thinking. If our folks foundout, they'd probably kill us. But,
you know, we rolled out abedroll and spent the night up there.
And God only knows why ourhorses didn't leave us high and dry.
Maybe our horses knew betterthat, gosh, these kids would probably
die if we live them out here.But, you know, and I would just hop
(08:13):
on my horse and be gone forhours and hours, just wandering.
And you get to know theneighbors really well and ask for
permission. You know, hey, isit okay if I ride out here? And most
of them guys are like, sure,as long as you leave the gate how
you found it, that's okay.Always the golden rule and don't
let the cows out. And. Yeah.And so, you know, I ended up staying
(08:38):
on with them and ended upgraduating high school, which wasn't
easy because I had messedaround a lot my first two years.
So I made up four years ofhigh school my junior and senior
year to graduate and get myhigh school diploma. And I would
not have been able to do thatwithout my folks pushing me and being
(09:00):
behind me every step of theway and let me know I could do it.
And I don't know if theyreally gave me much of a choice,
but helped me along the wayand moving over here and getting
married and as. Especiallywith starting up our business. I
mean, they've been there. Andso we do big Christmas events. So
we just had our first oneSunday where we do Christmas on the
(09:24):
ranch and we do horsebackrides with Santa, and my dad is Santa,
and so they come over.Unfortunately, wasn't able to make
it this year. So my husbandStepped in. But normally my dad comes
over every year and is ourSanta Claus and rides with the kids
and my mom kind of takes careof coffee and things like that, making
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sure things are going well.
I love that. And these areyour adoptive parents you're speaking
of, correct? Yeah. It soundslike the ranch was probably the best
thing that could have happenedto you as, as a young kid.
Yeah, for sure. I reallyneeded a good kick in the butt, that's
(10:04):
for sure. When I was ateenager and I got that many times,
you know, you see these memesor videos and stuff where kids talk
about, you know, oh, you know,you can't hurt my feelings because
I used to work house with mydad, like, yep, this could be.
(10:25):
You know, something that wecould look into later in life. And
I'm sure there are programssuch as, like, you know, for troubled
youth. Come make them workcows and then they will learn their
lesson.
Oh, 100%. I mean, it's, yeah,and it's, you know, we, we kind of
do a little bit of that. Imean, it boils over into just regular
(10:46):
kids with their lessons andstuff. But it really makes you step
outside of yourself,especially when you get into a pen
with a 1200 pound animal andsuddenly it's not about you anymore.
Yeah, absolutely. You hadmentioned growing up you always had
horses. Was this an initiallove for you or did you kind of have
to work your way into liking horses?
(11:08):
Oh, no, I had always likedhorses. I don't know where it started.
I, you know, we always hadsomething. I remember the first horse
we had that I rode was alittle poa pony named Shorty. And
he was an unreterd. And Ithink every kid should have a pony
at least once in their lifebecause it totally. It turns them
(11:31):
into good horsemen, I tell youwhat. But, you know, when my real
mom had met my stepdad, he wasreally big into horses. So I think
a lot of me learning to rideproperly and stuff came from him.
And my aunt as well could ridereally well. And she really pushed
me to ride a lot and alwayshad horses too. And, and so that
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was actually who had taught mehow to rope was my stepdad originally.
He could rope quite well. Andso we didn't have a lot of money
growing up. So a lot of ourhorses were. You know, they call
them res ponies. It's usuallycome real cheap off the reservation.
They're gray, they're notpaper, they're not the best confirmation
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and they're cheap. A lot ofthe times they're not that great.
And sometimes they make thebest horses in the world. And so
I'm a big fan. You know, a lotof our horses we have here are just
grade non registered horses,and they're amazing. And one of them
that we have is one that I gotwhen I was a kid, and I still have
her to this day. And she's aunregistered little Appaloosa mustang
(12:42):
that we got off thereservation and I bought her when
she was two months old, andshe's 21 this year, so. And she's
one of my top lesson horses.And so I like to tell people, you
know, sometimes in the horseindustry, people get real caught
up on papers and lineages, andthat doesn't matter so much to me
(13:02):
because I've come acrossenough horses that some of the best
ones, you know, the. You can'tput a price tag on them, and they're
free. And I've ridden horsesthat have the best of papers and
they're complete nut jobs,like. And somebody spent thousands
of dollars on that horse. Andso, you know. Yeah, I like to teach
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people to kind of just ridethe horse that they have and not
worry so much about thebackground or where it came from
or how much you spent on it.Just. Just write what you have.
Yeah, absolutely. Talk to usabout the transition.
You know, you had met your husband.
You'D move to the Missoulaarea. What was that transition like
for you, moving from, I guess,one small town to another?
(13:49):
Well, when I first moved here,my husband actually lived in Missoula.
We had a little apartment, andit was pretty lonely at first because
I knew nobody here besides myhusband. I left kind of everything
behind. So it was kind of hardat first. And we got married and
we had our first daughter, andshe's, gosh, turning 15 this year
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and, you know, go througheverything that young couples do.
And bought our first house,which was just a small house in Alberton.
So that's when we officiallymoved to Alberton, and we actually
lived in the town. And I.Gosh, I should have looked it up
before this, but I want to saythe population's less than a thousand
within a town. It's prettysmall. I think the vast majority
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of your population comes fromoutside of the city limits, if you
will. But it's, you know, oneroad through the town. There's post
office, two bars, a bookstore,school, gas station, coffee shop.
And then, you know, we got toyour point. My husband and I had
both worked for an outfitterwho is not too far from us now, but
(15:01):
it was called Hole in the WallLodge. And my husband worked up there
as a guide and a ranch handand did all sorts of things up there.
And I ended up going up thereas well and worked in the kitchen
and was cooking, bartender,server, you know, groundskeeper,
whatever they needed, youknow. And it was such a fun place
(15:23):
to work until it shut down.The owner had passed away and they
decided to donate it to IowaState University. So now it's a conservation
camp for the college. Andunfortunately, I mean, it's great.
It's great for the collegekids to go up there and they do a
job of keeping the trailsclear. But now it's closed down to
the public, so you can't evengo in there anymore. And that was
(15:46):
actually where we ended upgetting married. And so it was always
a special place for us. Andit's kind of a bummer now that you
can just drive by it. And thenI went on to work for a couple other
big ranches nearby. And guestranches is what they are. And there's
just not, you know, growingup, you so much agriculture on the
(16:09):
east side of the mountains andbig ranch and there's just not that
here. And, you know, I used tobe able to go get hired on to go
gather cows and do brandingsand sortings. I mean, like that.
And they just don't do thatover here. There's not the space.
All the big ranches that arehere privately owned and are usually
(16:34):
a guest ranch. And I workedfor a few of those and it was okay,
but we really struggled with,you know, you go work out there and
it's owned and ran by somebodythat doesn't even live here. You
know, they live in Vegas orwherever, and they just come on the
weekends to play cowboysometimes. And so you end up feel
(16:59):
like you're running the placehow you think. And then the owner
would come in and, you know,they want all their buddies loaded
up with beer and taken up themountain, and it's just chaos. And
we were like, there's gotta bea better way to do this. Especially
since we had worked for areally good outfit before. And we
(17:21):
were just like, why not juststart our own company? And at the
time, we had had just a, youknow, a handful of horses, and we
were getting by random people,and we were getting contacted by
people who knew us and knew werode and had horses. And they were
like, hey, we got friendscoming in. And we know some family
(17:43):
coming in. They would love toride a horse. Would you Be able to
take them on a ride. And so,you know, before we officially started
our business, we had startedour business, you know, and we were
like, why don't we just dothis? And, you know, we went through.
It was a process of getting towhere we are now, especially, I mean,
(18:07):
just buying the ranch andselling our home was a huge leap.
And it's crazy to see how Godreally worked through everything
for us and where we were. Andbefore we even moved into our home,
we had decided, let's do this.Let's sell our house, and we're going
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to move and we're going to buysomething better, and we're going
to go full blown with this.And at the time, we lived in a modular
in town, and we rented pasturefrom a friend across the river. And
so our house literally sold,like, two weeks before we were going
(18:49):
to list it. And we werefrantic, like, oh, my gosh, what
are we gonna do? Where are wegonna live? Like, at the time we
were operating, we had juststarted our first official year operating
out of a place just east ofAlbertan. And they had someone that
had come in and they weregoing to build this big resort and
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had contacted us about doinghorseback rides for this resort.
And we said, sure, we couldsign on as a vendor. And so we were
operating out of there andthen come to find out they were subdividing
the whole thing. And we werelike, oh, well, this is not going
to work for us. So we decided,you know, we really needed to move
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and find our own place. And wewere going through the process with
the forest service of gettinglicensed to guy and doing all that
stuff. And we ended up movinginto our horse trailer for, gosh,
a couple months. We had itparked at my husband's parents's
house, and we were living inour horse trailer for several months
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with the horses. And we endedup finding the place we live in now.
I was just cruising through,and our realtor, I mean, she was
amazing. She is the best. AndI found this place. It had been on
the market for an hour. And Iwas like, jamie, we. I want to go
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see this right now. And she'slike, I just enlisted. Like, I don't
even think the guy's ready toshow it. And I'm like, right now,
Jamie, we have to go. Andshe's like, okay, let me call the
guy. And he was a littlefrazzled. Like, I have nothing ready.
We. I literally today justdecided to sell my house, like. And
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we came out, he wasn't evenhome. He was out of town. And we
looked at the property, and Iwas like, we have got to make this
happen. What do we do? And shewas like, well, you know, I just
don't know if it's in yourbudget. And it really wasn't. We
were. We were so strapped.Like, just to make the numbers work
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in itself was crazy. And therewas others who threw in offers that
were way higher than ours. Andwe were like, this is as high as
we can go. And the guy whoowned the property, his name is Bill.
And we ended up becomingpretty good friends with Bill, but
we wrote him a letter and justsaid, hi, this is us. We would love
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to buy this home. This is whatwe would do with it. This is what
it means to us and our family.And then our realtor, you know, sent
it over, and he called usback, I think, a few days later.
And she's like, you are notgoing to believe this. And I'm like,
what? And she goes, billaccepted your offer? And I was like,
no way. And she's like, youwant to know what he said? And I'm
(21:39):
like, what? And he says, well,he had a couple other offers that
were higher than yours. AndBill looked at those offers, and
then he read your letter, andhe read their letter, and he was
like, nope, I will take theiroffer because I'll be damned if some
out of stater from Californiabuys my property. And I was like,
thank God, Bill. And so we,you know, we ended up doing a good
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friendship with him. He had alot of livestock, and so since we
bought the place and he endedup in the same situation that we
did, he now all of a suddenwas like, crap, I don't have any
place to live. And he ended upbuying bare land up in St. Ignatius
and had nothing on it. And so,you know, he did so many good things
(22:25):
helping us out. So we werelike, bill, let's help you out. Like,
what do you need? The horses,the cows, everything could stay here
as long as you need to getyour fence up, like. And so we did.
We ended up keeping a few ofhis horses, mules, and cows while
he got his property fenced.And we offered him our horse trailer.
And. Which was funny becausehe ended up just living in his wall
tent up there until he got hishouse built. But, yeah, it was just
(22:50):
crazy the way it worked out.And even our realtor was like, I
mean, just things with thebank and stuff. And it really kind
of showed us where, like, Godhad a hand in it, because our realtor
was like, this Deal should nothave happened. I don't even know
what to think. This is weird.And so we really felt like this was
meant to be and this is wherewe were meant to be and we had to
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work really hard for it. And Imean, we were like hot dogs and ramen
noodles for a long time.
Right, well. And like yousaid, it was meant to be somehow.
And you finding that ad anhour after it was posted and Bill
being the person that he was.Right. So that's amazing. What year
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did you buy your ranch?
We bought it in 2020.
Okay. So. And you know, duringjust a unprecedented time in the
world's history, anyway, it.
Was definitely the time tobuy. Crazy. Yeah.
So talk to me about growingthe ranch and back from 2020 to where
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it is today.
Yeah. So, I mean, gosh, whenwe. When we first started, we had.
Trying to think. We had 1, 2,3. We had 3 usable horses when we
first started that were bombproof, safe for anyone enemy. And
then we had picked up a couplecolts. Mine was, that I purchased.
(24:17):
He was only like, you know,eight months old, so he was kind
of just a lawn ornament for awhile. And then we picked up this
two year old that we wereleading rides on. And he's actually
turned out to be a reallygreat horse now. But so we just had
a couple and we would take,you know, two to three people out
for a ride. And that was kindof before we bought the place. And
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then when we bought our place,we. I mean, it just, you know, crazy
how our horses ended up withus. And I mean, each one of us or
one of them has a really coolstory and how we came to acquire
them. And, you know, we endedup finding just the craziest of deals.
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And then a lot of the peoplethat we got horses from ended up
becoming good friends with us.And, you know, we had a couple that
right off the bat, I ended upbuying these two horses in one day.
And I bought them each for 500bucks. And one was a just old retired
ranch horse, and he was huge.He used 17 hands. His name was Itty
(25:20):
Bitty. And just the best ofhorses. He was such a good boy. And
we bought another little marenamed Pumpkin, and she was also great.
And we actually bred her thislast year. And so she has a baby
now and. And they're doingjust great. Her baby's huge. He looks
like a Twinkie. He's just alittle fat butterball. But, you know,
(25:41):
and then each one, it was kindof funny how randomly I would put
out an ad, like, hey, this iskind of what I'm looking for. And
I like, I always like to tellpeople I kind of have a sense, like
I can tell when I go up to ahorse and I can just feel it, like
how they are and how they'regonna be. And so each, you know,
(26:02):
horse that we went to look at,we were like, yeah, this is the one.
And, and they all came at justthe right time. And, you know, we
went and looked at quite a fewthat, you know, my husband and I
took our horse trailer and wejust went across Montana and went
and just responded to ad afterad and it was kind of a nice road
trip and rode some fantastichorses, rode some not so great horses
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and, you know, came back andso now we're at 13 now, just over
the course of four years. Andwe've gotten quite a few from a ranch
over in Augusta that are just,you know, just good retired ranch
horses that there's nothingreally wrong with them. It's just
they've sustained an injury atone point in their career or they're
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getting a little older andthey just cannot do 30 miles a day
on the ranch. They can't beout there from sun up to sundown.
They can't be dragging cowsand roping and. But they're certainly
not done. And so we've got afew, you know, we've got a really
great horse right now. Hisname's Boone, who got a shoulder
(27:11):
injury at some point. And he'snot even old, he's about 12 years
old. And he just couldn'thandle, you know, going in the mountains
to gather cows. And so they,you know, offered him to us and we
got him kind of fixed up andhe's doing great now. And he's also
one of my top lesson horsesand he's also an amazing guest horse.
(27:34):
And a lot of our, you know,horses are probably have a little
arthritis, so they all get ona joint supplement and keep them
going. And we don't doanything hardcore. We just offer
one to two hour rides. Andthat kind of seems to be what people
can handle. You know, the onehour rides are certainly the most
(27:56):
popular. I would say 90% ofour guests are guests that have never
been on a horse before ever.And so that's great for them, just
being in the saddle for onehour. It's funny to see them come
off and they're all bow leggedand a lot of the ones that are like,
we're having such a greattime, let's go for Two hours. And
then they can't walk when theyget off. Or they. You know, we always
(28:19):
try to tell people, let ushelp you down, because you're gonna
be sore. And you get, youknow, people that are like, oh, I'm
fine. I can do it. And they goto step off, and they hit the ground,
and they're like, I'm notfine. You're like, y. We know. So,
you know, it just. It's just agreat place for these horses to land,
to keep them going and givethem, you know, just a nice place
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to go and. And they love theirjob. All of our horses love their
jobs, and they like thepeople. They love the attention,
and they've got it pretty goodhere. You know, they get lots of
hay, and they got lots ofacreage out here to run around and
play. And I always like totell people, too, that, you know,
I. I don't like to callourselves a dude ranch because I've
(29:03):
worked for a lot of those, anda lot of them don't really take the
best care of their horses.And, you know, a lot I feel like
dude ranches get a bad rep,and I've heard some horror stories.
And, you know, we get peoplewho will come into our place, and
they think that we just keepthe horses tied to the hitch and
(29:23):
rail all day, that we saddlethem up first thing in the morning,
and I stay there just waitingfor somebody to show up to go for
a ride. And that's just notthe case. You know, they are out
there in the pasture livingtheir best life until someone books
a ride and then they getpulled in and saddled up and they
go for their ride, and theyget turned back out to be their fat,
happy selves at the end of theday. And they don't do multiple rides
(29:47):
a day. We. We try not to. Youknow, if we have to, we'll do maybe
a ride in the morning, ride inthe evening on some of our younger
horses. But our older horses,they don't go out twice a day. You
know, they go and they work,and they've done their job, and there's
a lot of people that will keepthose horses that open, tied, and
they just do rides around.Around the clock, three to four rides
(30:10):
a day. And I just don't agreewith that. And our horses get chiropractic
care. We also have a bodyworker. We have a great body worker
in our area that will comeout. And then my sister also is a
body worker in the Great fallsarea. So when she comes to, she works
on our horses, and we do ourbest to keep them feeling good because,
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you know, I hate horses and Iwant ours to last because they're
great. And losing one is. It'snot just financially hard. It's.
It's emotionally hard to loseone because you get attached and
your. Your guests get attachedto them, so it's really hard to replace
that, you know. And so, yeah,we try to do everything we can keep
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them going and lasting andfeeling good. And they got to deal
with, you know, guests gettingon and hanging on the side and, you
know, you'll look backsometimes and guests are leaning
over on the saddle and theyget tired and. And so we always make
sure their backs feel goodbeginning and end of the season,
(31:17):
and they're just good to go.
It sounds like your horses getbetter taken care of than most humans.
Probably riding those h. Oh, absolutely.
I've never been to thechiropractor. Mine go twice a year.
Right. Never gone.
That sounds really nice, right?
Oh, yeah.
(31:38):
So besides the trail riding,what other offerings do you have
at Hood's Western Adventures?
So we, we do the trail ridesand then we do, you know, and even
our trail rides arecustomizable. We, we've taken girls
out for a birthday party andwe've packed some cake and things
(31:58):
like champagne for them, andwe set up a little picnic down by
the creek. And we've doneproposals out here where we took
the. Took a couple out for aride while their family stayed behind
secretly and set up, like,purposeful table for the guy and
super cute. And we did a lotof photo shoots. We've done engagement
(32:19):
pictures. We've done. We dounicorn photo shoots. Those are a
big hit with the kids. My mommade all these super cute unicorn
horns, so we can customizeeach one per horse which one matches
the horse better, you know,and the kids can pick out which unicorn
they want to take a picturewith. And we do Dutch oven cooking
classes. So Dutch oven cookingis kind of something I really like
(32:42):
to do. And I've done quite abit of it in the past where I've
done a few women's events atthe outdoorsmen church in Missoula.
And then we did women andoutdoors events at Cabela's where
we set up our Dutch oven onthe sidewalk and. And cooked for
people. And so that wassomething we kind of offered out
here was to do a cookingclass. And we set it up like, you
(33:05):
know, a cooking show. Andpeople come in and pay and they get
a three course meal and theyget the Recipe cards for everything
I cook at the end of it. Andwe do bread and biscuits and gravy
and cobblers and chicken andkebabs and all sorts of stuff. And
that's been really fun. Andwe've done like ladies night. We've
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had, you know, groups of womencome in and we set up big charcuterie
table on the barn. And I havea friend that does wine tasting and
she'll come and do the winetastings and you know, we will just
kind of rotate women aroundand take a group out for a ride down
the road. And those that staybehind will sit there and eat and
try some wines and then rotateother women out. And we do kids camps
(33:49):
in the spring and we'll offera couple during the winter too, where,
you know, like Martin LutherKing Day, kind of a one day camp.
And I think that's kind ofnice for parents because a lot of
parents I think struggle like,oh my gosh, they're out of school
for one day. What am I goingto do with my kids? And I have to
work, it's Monday. So it kindof is a nice outlet for them. And
(34:10):
they can come out and theylearn how to groom and they ride
for the day and learn allabout the horses they help us feed.
And we'll do some crafts andlunches and things like that for
them and have a fire and thekids can make s' mores. And every
year we do a barn dance in thefall. And that's a fun, fun event.
That's kind of our end of theseason hoorah, if you will. And we
(34:33):
have very fortunate to havesome neighbors next door that are
incredibly talented andmusical. And so they come over each
year and play during ourdinner and we serve dinner and. And
then kind of when they'redone, we turn on the best 80s 90s
country and try and get peopleout there line dancing and two step
(34:54):
in and. Yeah, and so it's afun time. I think that's one of our
biggest events that we dobesides our, our Christmas event
that we're doing currently.And this year we have. My husband's
brother brews beer and so weended up in the barn and he, you
(35:15):
know, was part of the brewersassociation and they do competitions
and stuff like that. But heends up brewing so much that he kind
of needed an outlet. So wewere like, put a bar in the barn
and we'll just offer it, youknow, for free to our guests. And
that was a huge hit with theguests over the summer. And they're
actually going through theprocess currently to get license
(35:36):
to open up their own breweryin Frenchtown. So it's kind of been
good advertisement for them aswell to let people come in and sample
it and be like, yeah, this isgoing to be a thing for them here
in the future and very cool.
What has been the community'sreaction to your business opening
up?
I think it's been good.There's nothing out here like us.
(36:01):
And so especially the kidscamps. You know, we've had a lot
of local kids that have comein and done lessons and done the
camps. And we have a ton oflocal people that come in and we
have a lot of local peoplethat book trail rides, which really
surprised me. But yeah,especially when their family comes
to visit and they're trying tofigure out things to do and they're
(36:22):
like, oh, you know, thesepeople out here, you know, that go
for trail rides. You want todo that. And so, yeah, quite a bit
with local people. And ourDutch oven classes too is mainly
locals that come in for that.And same with the barn dance. And
our Christmas event isdefinitely all local people. As far
as I know, there's. There'snobody else that's offering horseback
(36:42):
rides with Santa Claus, right?
I've never heard of ahorseback ride with Santa Claus.
Oh, yeah. And so, yeah, thekids get to get on the horse and
they go around the arena withSanta and get to tell them what they
want for Christmas. And we setup a tractor ride so kids can hop
on the tractor trailer and myfather in law drives back and forth
(37:04):
between the barn and the arenaand the kids ride that and we will
pack our barn full of localvendors. So it's kind of, kind of
really fun to provide a spacefor those people to sell their stuff
and just give them anotheroutlet to get their stuff out into
the community. And I thinkespecially with our Christmas event,
(37:26):
we draw in a lot of peoplefrom Missoula. And so a lot of these
vendors are local to Mineralcounty. And I think it's great for
them to get that exposure forall the folks from Missoula to come
in and buy from them andsupport them and be able to help
those guys out.
(38:33):
So you had mentioned when wewere talking about acquiring this
ranch and kind of howcompetitive the market is in land
acquisition in Montana,especially from people outside of
Montana. But the horseindustry itself can be quite competitive.
So what have been some of thechallenges that you've faced in your
(38:57):
career and in growing yourranch to where it is today in terms
of competitiveness.
I mean, yeah, find. Findingthis place was probably the ultimate.
You know, land is. Especiallyon the western side of the state,
it is really, really hard tofind property in Mineral County,
(39:18):
Especially in this area thatwe're in. It's almost unheard of.
I think if you got on thehousing market right now and looked,
there would be nothing. Unlessit's a multi million dollar something
that nobody from here couldafford. Which is. It's nuts because
where I'm from, you know, yougo east of the mountains, you find
(39:39):
all sorts of ranches for saleand plots and property and whatnot.
But it's crazy over here. Andsame with, with the horse prices
and prices of horses over hereare insanely through the roof. And
you know, if you go justoutside, you know, I mean the majority
(40:00):
of our horses we have havecome from Great Falls area or farther
east and we only have ahandful of them that have actually
been local. And even if yougo, you know, west and you go to
Idaho or Washington, it'scrazy how much cheaper they are.
And I know we have a friendwho does outfitting and he goes,
(40:22):
you know, east like Michiganor Minnesota somewhere over there
and buys all his horsesbecause of how cheap they are. And
you know, it's crazy to thinkthat the cost of him driving all
the way over there and pickingup 4 to 5 head of horses to bring
back is cheaper than buyingone horse here locally. And I don't
(40:43):
really know why that is. Ilike to think it's because of, you
know, you do get a lot of outof staters that come over here and
they want to live the westernlife and they want a horse and they,
they don't know. And so, youknow, I think you. It's kind of gotten
a problem of people sellinghorses for top dollar that really
(41:05):
aren't worth top dollar andpeople don't know any better and
they buy it anyway. So thenbecause so and so down the road sold
their horse for that, theythink they can sell their horse for
that. And it kind of just hasthis domino effect and it's. It's
kind of sad really because youknow, you end up with a lot of horses
(41:27):
that will go through the salering. And that's a lot of what we
try to avoid. I know a vastmajority of the ones we have gotten
were set to go to the saleyard or the auction yard and we kind
of have come in just at theright time before that happened to
pick them up. And a lot ofthose horses that are going to Go
(41:49):
through the sales, you know,that might have a bump on their knee
or they obviously are a littlestiff in the hind end or something.
You know, people aren't goingto buy that, and they end up on a
slaughter truck going toMexico, like. And a lot of our horses
that we've picked up justneeded a little TLC maintenance to
(42:10):
get back on track. You know,we had, you know, our one with the
shoulder injury. It justneeded a chiropractor adjustment
and his feet trimmed right,and he was great. So a lot of ours,
and we've gotten pretty goodat being able to look at a horse
and tell, like, how I couldpatch him up with a little bit of
vet care and just a littlegood joint supplement and whatnot.
(42:32):
But, you know, we also look atquite a few that that horse has a
major injury, and that's notgonna. No amount of MSM is gonna
help that horse. And so thehay has been another thing. We're
super fortunate and blessedthat my dad produces hay. And so
over the years, we have boughtall of our hay from my dad. And,
you know, it's crazy how cheapit is just on the other side of the
(42:54):
mountains than here. It'sinsane. It will cost me significantly
less money to purchase, youknow, 20 tons of hay from my dad
and pay him to truck it hereand stack it than I could ever find
locally. So we. We go thatroute. And like I said, we're very
(43:15):
fortunate. And without that, Idon't know if our business would
have taken off in, you know,we would have been a little bit more
strapped than we were withoutthat kind of a connection. And we've
been real fortunate to buildrelationships with those around us
and just the people that havecome into our lives especially. And
(43:36):
we have a neighbor up the roadthat my husband has become really
good friends with, and he isthe one who gives us access to take
rides out on his property.Also had my husband take over his
hay operation. So now myhusband does that, and now we produce
half of our own hay. And, youknow, the hope is to get to the point
(43:56):
where we're producing all ofour own hay and maybe I won't need
to buy from my dad. Hopefullyhe doesn't hear that I still want
hay.
Keep growing hay.
Yeah, keep. Keep growing thatjust in case I have a bad year. You
might have a good year. So,you know. Yeah, it's in. It's crazy.
(44:17):
Like, I mean, the averageprice over here, and especially the
last couple of years, you hadpeople over here trying to sell hay
for $400 a ton. And that'sjust outrageous. And I think people
who are trying to sell, I, youknow, I hope they step in dog poop
one day. Like, it's just. No,absolutely not. And compared to,
(44:39):
you know, my dad is, you know,selling it way below that and still
is making a profit andcovering his costs. And so it's hard
for me over here when you seepeople like that. And I try to help
other people out with thatbecause I'm like, I'm here to tell
you that you can produce itless, and if you can't, you're doing
it wrong. And it, you know, I.You got a lot of people over here
(45:03):
that were trying to sellreally crap hay and slapping a premium
label on it without testing itor anything. And, you know, I. I
think when people realizedthat there were those out there getting
$400 a ton per hay, they werelike, oh, well, I got a field of
(45:23):
grass. I could sell hay. Andthey borrowed their neighbor swather
and Baylor and they went outand cut some fallow land, and, you
know, we're selling it for 15to $18 a bale. And I was like, oh,
my gosh, no. And so it's justkind of the norm over here. And it
just blows my mind that peopleare willing to pay that. And I wish
(45:45):
they weren't. And I wish therewas more options for people because
if they were able to, youknow, not support that, I think people
would get a clue and not tryto price gouge everybody out because
they know it's very limited inthis area. And that's the tough part.
But now you got a lot ofpeople that are going in together
(46:06):
on semi loads of hay fromWashington or over east. And I think
that I've seen a lot of thatthis year, and I've noticed the prices
come down, especially with itbeing a really good crop year. And
so I'm. I'm kind of glad that,you know, prices are coming down
for everyone else, because itjust kind of makes you mad to see
people charging that for justbecause can, you know.
(46:31):
Well, I think the communitypiece comes into it, right? Like
in building a strong localcommunity and being able to be honest
by saying, hey, like, thisisn't worth it for me to purchase
at this price and having acollective of people being like,
hey, we can find better hay.
Somewhere else or whatever it is.
(46:52):
But I think it really speaksto the power of community. And in,
really, in any rural area ofcoming together to work together
to find prices or findequipment or find, find whatever
it is that's going to work for them.
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
So Kailey, what is next forHood's Western Adventures? What are
(47:12):
you guys hoping to accomplish?What are some big goals? Dreams?
I mean, I think the ultimategoal and dream was is to be able
to have our businessprofitable enough to where, you know,
my husband or I don't have towork a job or a part time job, you
(47:33):
know, like this would supportitself. And it's, we're almost there.
Like it's at that point nowwhere the business is supporting
itself and then everythingelse is kind of on us. So it would
be the hope that we get to apoint. And in the summertime especially
(47:54):
we're, we're crazy busy. Butwinter time can be kind of hard because
we really slow down. You know,it's. Nobody's booking rides in the
winter and lessons slow waydown. Nobody wants to ride when it's
cold. And so we do rely onour, our Christmas event in December
helps get us through December,January and when we get into February
(48:16):
we do a couple kids camps andthat really helps us. So it's kind
of just trying to be creativein ways to utilize what we have and
keep going. And I'm fortunatetoo to have some great, you know,
people who come in and weoffer, you know, boarding for other
people's horses too. So thatreally helps. But I've been really
(48:36):
fortunate to have a couplegals come in that have just been
great and I've kind of broughtthem in as part of our team and like,
hey, I want to know what youguys think. I want to know what you
guys want to see happen outhere. And so they've been great at
bouncing ideas and you know,we've talked about doing a, a women's
camp this summer where we havewomen come in and they can park campers,
(49:00):
they can put up tents,whatever. But it's just going to
be fun girls weekend. And youknow, we do a couple lessons in the
arena. It's going to be openfor people to, you know, if you don't
have a horse, that's not aproblem. We'll give you one. And
if you do have a horse, bringit. We, we can put up and you know,
and talked about what thatwould look like. And so, you know,
(49:21):
do a couple lessons in thearena, maybe end Sunday with a trail
ride and you know, do some funthings like do a wine tasting one
night and campfire dinners andmaybe see if the guys next door want
to come over and play Musicfor them. And we have a really good
friend that does. Just startedher goat yoga business. So we reach
out to her and I'm like, hey,you want to come to go yoga in the
(49:44):
morning for these gals? And,and it's just, you know, really being
able to help each other out.We, we've got so many friends that
have great other businessesaround us and we're really fortunate
to be able to piggyback off ofeach other and help each other and
really promote and boost eachother, you know, and, and what they're
trying to do and accomplishand. And so I think that would be
(50:08):
the goal. You know, right nowmy husband and mainly we really just
have our part time jobs forsomething to do in winter and kind
of keep the cash flow going.But you know, we, I work part time
at a bar up the road, ahistorical bar and do some cooking,
bartending up there. And Ialso will pop in at a farm and ranch
(50:28):
store in Missoula and myhusband works part time for a beekeeper
that's out here. And you know,and it's all just, you know, maybe
one, two days a weeksomething. And yeah, that would be.
And then, you know, maybe oneday I hope to have an indoor arena
instead of an outdoor arenaand all sorts of other little things.
(50:49):
I know my husband would liketo grow our cow herd and right now
we have nine cows. So theyhelp us enough to be able to cover
our hay costs and whatnot,which is how that worked out this
year with the way cattleprices are. So we were able to sell
a couple calves and that tookcare of the hay bill for the year.
So everybody was set with foodand didn't have to worry too much
(51:10):
about that. And we have adairy cow, her name is Myra. She's
actually set to calve likeyesterday. Like we're about ready
to put her in the squeezechute and squeeze her because this
calf has been overdue forabout a week and. And she's just
out there living life likewhatever. And we're like, come on,
we're tired of getting upevery morning and checking on you.
(51:31):
But yeah, so we, we milk herand we have fresh milk all the time.
And like I make butter andcream and cheese and all the things.
And so that's been really fun.Our kids really like it and she's
the sweetest cow ever. You canactually ride her. I always joke
that she's more halter brokethan most people's horses are, so
(51:55):
that's awesome.
Well, those. Honestly, I hopeyou get to hear this back and hear
all of the goals and hopesthat you have for your ranch. Because
for somebody who said, I don'tknow if we have any, we certainly
do. And I always love whenpeople get to listen back and hear
where they were to where theyare today. And even just to hear
(52:17):
your story of where youstarted four years ago, you've had
a lot of growth, and I hopeyou keep growing.
Yeah, I mean, we've had a lotof growth. Just in this year, I feel
like it was. We've linked upwith. There's other, you know, outlet.
We're really in kind of thisneat little central hub. Like, there's,
gosh, three, four raftingcompanies just down the road from
(52:41):
us. And so one of which welinked up with this summer to be
a vendor for them and anoutlet to where they could book trail
rides through them with us formorning rides. And there's another
great company right around thecorner that we work with that recommend
rides, and we put togetherride and raft packages. And. And
(53:02):
so I think just that alonereally, you know, took off. And there's
also, you know, a couplewedding venues out here. And. And
so it's just. It's quite the.In the summertime, it's. It's kind
of a bustling little area,really. And it's. It always strikes
us as funny because, you know,in the wintertime, there's nobody
(53:22):
out here, and it feels like welive way off the beaten path. But
in the summertime, it's.There's vehicles, there's raft trailers,
there's, you know, fansconstantly going. And then you got
my truck and trailer rippingaround all the time and back and
forth and. Oh, yeah, it'sjust. It's been a great summer, been
a great year, and good growthfor us. And so I feel like the goals
(53:45):
are getting there.
You're getting there. You'regetting there. Kailey, my last question
for you is, what is the mostrewarding part about being a rural
woman for you?
I guess being able torecognize your own strengths, you
know, just recognize how muchyou're capable of. And you don't
(54:05):
really realize how much you'recapable of until you're faced with
it and you just have to do it.But. And out here, that happens a
lot. And, you know, we're kindof in an area where getting a decent
vet, you know, is hard. Andwe're very fortunate to have an amazing
horse vet, and he's great.And. But it. For our cows, it's really
(54:29):
hard to find a Good cow setout here again, it's not like where
I grew up where you had, like,you know, 20 cow bats on call and
your neighbor could come overand help you, like, but out here,
it's. We've never been able toget a vet out for our cows, which
is crazy to me. It's so crazyto me to think of. And so my vet's
(54:51):
been really good, my horsevet. And I will call him sometimes
with questions because theyare a specific horse facility, you
know, and I'll be like, hey,me. And, you know, he's great about
giving us advice and whatnotand us just having to figure out
how to deal with it. And, youknow, growing up, you know, my dad
(55:13):
knew how to pull calves and doall this, and I've seen it and I've
helped do it before, but it'sa whole nother thing. When you're
faced with it, you have to doit yourself, and you've got no help,
and you can't get a vetonline. And you're out there just
trying to fill your way blindand figure out what you're doing
and make it work. And, youknow, same thing with supplies and
(55:35):
things out here, andeverything has to be hauled in. We
don't have a, you know, ranchstore out here and, you know, the
closest things 35, 40 milesaway. So being able to plan accordingly
and with my husband and Isometimes going different directions,
a lot of the times it, youknow, it kind of falls on me to get
(55:59):
things done. And so it's kindof a challenge to, you know, try
and figure out how, you know,how am I going to get this hay unloaded
by myself? How am I going tofix this fence? How am I gonna, you
know, but you just make itwork and kind of dig down and realize
that you can do it and you cansplit all this wood and stack this
(56:19):
hay and get this horse takencare of. And so I think that's probably
good. And I think it's goodfor our kids to see that, you know,
anything's possible,especially with, you know, seeing
their parents and what we'vebuilt out here, and they don't need
any special schooling. And,gosh, I think everything that they
(56:41):
would need in life, they couldlearn right here. They can learn
to weld out here. They learnto drive the tractor. They learn.
I mean, their dad's prettymechanical, so the kids learn how
to fix the tractor. Andthere's my dog. So, you know, they.
They learn what they'recapable of as well out here. And
I think that's just a reallygood thing for them to see.
(57:02):
Absolutely. Well, and youexperienced it yourself. Right. You
learned on a ranch of all ofthe things that you needed to know
were inside of you. Right. So,Kailey, thank you so much for sharing
your story with us today. Forthe folks who would like to connect
with you after the show orfind out more about Hood's Western
(57:25):
Adventures, where can theyfind you online?
Oh, gosh, they can look up ourwebsite. You know, Hood's Western
Adventures or on. We're onFacebook, we're on Instagram. Yeah,
all that info can be on thereand. Or even on a horse hotel page
because we rent our barn outfor those who are traveling with
their horses. So we do that aswell. And I think that's what the
(57:49):
site's called. Horse Hotel,Horse Airbnb. And so that's been
kind of fun as well.
Yeah, very cool. I will linkall of those in the show notes so
people can find you andconnect with you and maybe need a
horse hotel.
Sounds great.
Thank you again for sharingyour story with us. I really appreciate
it.
Oh, you bet. Thanks for having me.
(58:16):
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman Podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast team. Audio editor Max Hofer.
A special thanks to ourPatreon executive producers, Sarah
Riedner from Happiness by theAcre to learn how you can become
(58:38):
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(58:58):
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(59:22):
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Until next time, my friend,keep sharing your story.
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