Interview with Scout & Michelle - Scout's Trail

Interview with Scout & Michelle - Scout's Trail.
I'm very pleased to announce my third interview with Scout and Michelle from Scout's Trail (USA).

It's been over a year since our last chat so I'm excited to hear all about their adventures since we last spoke and to see how Tuk Tuk is getting on with his training.

Scout is his carer and trainer and she is only 14 (Tuk Tuk is now 3yrs) she is doing an amazing job with him.

I hope you enjoy this podcast with Scout and Michelle (Scout's mum) for an informal chat about life, horses and their amazing adventure called life.

You won't be disappointed and who knows, they may even inspire you to follow your own dreams and one day make them a reality.

So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Scout & Michelle's Story.
My mom and I traveled the world (I have been to 11 countries so far) for about 4 years. On August 15 2019, after selling our farm on Cape Cod, we hit the road full time.
We live in a tiny home (truck camper) and tow our horses. We are seeing America by horseback! I have always been homeschooled. It is primarily done through experiential learning. Travel and culture providing endless opportunities for learning.
I also have dealt with anxiety and depression and have fought my way back to a happy life. The road, the animals and nature is the place for me.
We mostly camp and boondock in places where our trail dog is welcome. We would love to meet up and ride, especially if you have any kids who like to ride.
Mom and I are available to speak at your club, venue, event or gathering. We can speak on our lifestyle and adventures, unschooling, my recovering from a riding accident and controlling anxiety.
Mom can also teach wilderness medicine and how to stay safe and prepared in the backcountry. Feel free to message Scout's Trail with any requests.
https://www.facebook.com/scoutstrail

A Magical Friendship Journey (Paperback - January 15, 2021)
by Scout Murphy (Author), Diana Lancaster (Illustrator)
https://a.co/d/den2xgx

Video version (alongside applicable podcasts) can be viewed on facebook and YouTube.
https://www.facebook.com/equinevoices.co.uk
https://www.youtube.com/@equinevoicesuk
https://www.instagram.com/equinevoices.uk

Contact Ronnie.
mailto:equinevoicesronnie@gmail.com

Transcript

Ronnie: 0:11

Welcome To equine Voices. My name is Ronnie, I'm so, so excited that we've got two special guests on today's interview. Scout and Michelle have been on my podcast a couple of times now, but it's over a year ago since we've chatted. I think the last time we chatted she had tuk Tuk, which was her new Mustang that she was gentle in, which is what they call the training and I know she's had another Mustang called Lady B, who's gone to a new home. Michelle and Scout can explain a little about themselves and what they're doing on their amazing adventures, traveling around America. Hi everyone. Hi Scout. Hi, Michelle I'm so, so happy to have you back again. I keep watching your updates, so I haven't lost touch. I've been watching what you've been getting up to, for the benefit of the people that maybe don't know who you are, just give a brief introduction on yourselves and what it is that you are doing in this amazing.

Michelle: 1:06

In 2019 scout and I decided to overcome. just like stress of life and you know to achieve better mental health from what was currently happening. I'm retired as a firefighter and we sold all our possessions in our house and we loaded our horses and dogs in a trailer and we've been seeing America by horseback ever since, and it's been amazing therapy, the plan worked as planned, and so our life has changed in over the years but in the past year since we've talked to you Scout, of course trained Tuk Tuk and has a passion to help Mustangs and then another thing we did this winter. I got some land in the desert in Arizona, so we've been creating a homestead, so we have 10 acres. Our horses have had a nice sabbatical where they can just roam and recoup from traveling. And we're working on a tiny home and we trained a service dog, which is another thing I retired from. So Scout has learned how to train a service dog. So yeah, it's been really busy, busy year for us.

Ronnie: 2:18

So you've got some land. Mm-hmm, that's brilliant.

Michelle: 2:22

Yeah especially because we traveled all the time during Covid and had no place to really go. It was a little stressful sometimes that we didn't have a place to just go and sit and so, We just wanna sit in one place and not worry about when we have to leave or, you know, people have been very gracious to let us stay on their place, but we're very aware that we don't wanna overstay our welcome and so it's nice to just have our own, our own place. And it's been great for the horses. So and it's also for Scout's future, so we're setting it up as a place for her to train and as she gets older, she'll offering horse training. And I think our plan for the fall is for her to start her third Mustang there. You wanna talk about that?

Scout: 3:06

Well, of course we'll be traveling around during the summer and just going around doing our own, our usual traveling. But then when we come back to Arizona next fall slash. We have it set up with round pen and stuff to train a new Mustang which will go to a new home once I completely gentle it. It'll probably be a baby like I normally do. So I 18 months old usually.

Michelle: 3:31

Scout has a specific niche she's working on.

Scout: 3:34

I train all my horses in trail riding so they can go down hills and they can carry things while you ride and they can just follow you or they can be on leashes and they're just amazing trail horses, ride with you and we'll be a forever partner.

Michelle: 3:49

I think some people have commented that, oh, they're wild mustangs. They know how to be trail horses and well, that's not necessarily true because they are just familiar with whatever landscape they came from on their particular range. So when we're trail riding, We're exposing them to water crossings and steeps and switchbacks and all of that. And how do you start the Mustangs? Completely at liberty? Yeah. So they'll be really prepared from the grounds with the foundation to become great trail horses.

Ronnie: 4:22

You know an adult to train a horse is something. So for Scout to do that, I mean, she's 14 years old and to do that, it's amazing. So what people say about that, you know for a 14 year old girl, in fact, younger at the time to start training a Mustang is something people would dream of and especially the way you do it, I love the way that you call it genine. It is such a gentle way that you working in liberty. And you've also got Mr. Nelson, I remember Mr. Nelson from last time. He's a little monkey toy that you put on the backpacks.

Scout: 4:57

It's not really to get, he doesn't really weigh anything probably weighs half a pound. It's just to make our already a circus of herd, just more funny for everyone but yeah, he rides tuk Tuk when Tuk Tuk carries a pack.

Michelle: 5:10

And tell them about lady B and who Her rider and why you chose the name?

Scout: 5:16

Well, lady Beam, my last Mustang that I did in the summer of 2022 she got the name from Lady Long Rider Bernice End, who sadly passed away in October of 2021. But she rode, I believe over 30,000 miles around the country from 2005 all the way up until 2020. With her horses and she had a dog who rode on one of her pack style horses, whose name was

Michelle: 5:44

I'm forgetting her name right now. Yeah, me too.

Scout: 5:46

But that was her rider who she, who would ride on her was a little stuffed border collie looking dog.

Michelle: 5:53

Sort of became a theme for Scout now, each of her little mustangs will have a mascot.

Ronnie: 5:57

Which is lovely, isn't it? Yeah it's your thing. Would you like to give us a little bit of information on the horses you have? So you have joker, hetiwooti and Dakota, would you like to give little background to the horses that you have?

Scout: 6:10

We have our four so Joker is her horse. He's the only horse that or animal that we've ever bought. We got him after I had my riding accident almost four years ago yeah. Four years ago. Five. Five years ago. Yeah. Five. He used to be a Western massage horse and he went through a few owners before us and now he is an amazing trail horse for her. He's great with the Mustangs. And he is an Arabian paint horse. And then our extra horse Heu, or Wie is a appaloosa and we got. I think almost seven years ago, she was an abused brood mayor and she was thrown away. We got her from a kill auction and now she is living her best life of retirement. She's currently 32 and just gets stronger every year. We call her immortal And then there's my riding horse, Takota or. She is almost 21 in June, and I recently got her and took, took DNA n a, tested. So she is a cream draft a, I hope I'm pronounced this correctly, a galino and Welsh pony, surprisingly.

Michelle: 7:20

So what, what was she, where did she come from? What do you.

Scout: 7:25

as a baby. Oh, as a baby. She was a nurse, nurse full she came in a herd of, I think 12 horses that my mom helped train work with when they were all babies. They were anywhere from two hours to, I think two weeks old days, two days old. And once she finished train, she got to keep one and she chose Coda. So we've had her since she was just two days old and she loves helping. The baby Mustang. She absolutely adores them and then there's my Mustang, the first ever Mustang I trained, Tuk took who recently turned three. I also got him DNA tested and all of his breeds are gated breeds, so that's kind of exciting. He is a Tennessee Walker, Missouri Foxtrotter, and Standard Bread and he was, for the first eight months of his life, he lived in the wild with his herd in Wyoming. Stewart Creek was his herd management area. And then until he was about 18 months old, he lived in a holding pen in Rock Springs holding pen in Wyoming. And then I adopted him and I trained him in s September 1st we started of 2021.

Michelle: 8:34

And who did you mentor with to do that?

Scout: 8:36

I mentored with Hannah Catalina of Hannah Catalina, Liberty Horsemanship. She's in Montana.

Michelle: 8:44

That was a really intensive time. They worked together three times a day for two weeks and. Hannah also had a video made, and it hasn't come out yet, but when it does come out, it's how to start a Mustang at Liberty, so Scout and Tuk took, will be the stars of that when it finally makes it through production. But that was an intensive time for Scout and Hannah and a lot of hard work and Tuk took was a superstar and then we spent an extra week there. Just getting him ready to hit the road and at the end of the third week he started traveling with us full-time.

Ronnie: 9:21

So how is he doing for people that don't know him, how is it going with his training?

Scout: 9:26

He is doing absolutely amazing. We recently got him his own packed sadddle that he can wear. And he carries our first aid kit and any extra water that we have when we go out on rides. He is insanely tall. I mean, his butt is almost taller than my head and I'm five one. And yeah, he is doing great. He loves living on our 10 acres and being able to run around and frolic and having a great time. I'm probably gonna start working on laying over him and I'll show my process of doing that. I won't start riding him until he is five and a half. But I can start just leaning over him and having him get used to the look and feel and sensation of me being over him in the way that I would mount him.

Michelle: 10:11

And you can sit on him.

Scout: 10:12

I can sit on him, but not move, but not just in the right hand.

Ronnie: 10:15

Yeah and you're doing that for a reason, aren't you? A scout? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scout: 10:20

So horses, spines, well, their spines are the last things to fuse when they're growing. And that usually happens between the ages of five and seven. I mean, every horse is gonna be different, but no earlier so when we went to Dr. Thomas Tuske a couple weeks ago, we talked to him about that and he said that because of tick t tick's build, I could start avidly riding him when he is five and a half. And that would be okay for me to work on just sitting on him now. So that's really exciting. Yeah.

Ronnie: 10:49

I'm listening to you and I'm still in awe because I know a lot of what you've just mentioned, I do follow you and it's lovely to see your, your videos and I love the way that you keep everybody. Interested in informed what's going on with your journeys and your travels, and especially when you do it and you're filming on the horseback, it's like you are there with you. I love that part. So Michelle you've got a place that you are call home. Now, does this mean that you are gonna stop traveling or are you still gonna do some traveling to.

Michelle: 11:18

Oh, it's definitely not stopping traveling. We're setting it up so well, the purpose of it is so we have a place to go, should we ever need to or want to. That's our own mm-hmm. So that scout will have a place to call her own, you know, when she's an adult. So she has her own. Training, location and home but it's being designed so we can just close it up and leave anytime we want. So it's not the kind of place that needs to be maintained. So we can just travel all we want. But it's really the only place in the country that's always nice. Like we don't have to worry about it. Snowing always nice in the winter, not in the summer..Oh, that's what I mean. Yeah. Always nice in the winter. So for the winter months, it's great to come and. Have a cycle of like resting and pausing and letting the horses just take a break from being on the trailer so much and maybe. We didn't get to it this year and we'll tell you why soon. We were planning to start writing our book this winter. But that got put on hold because another project came up. But I think it's a time where we could write and just work on those kinds of projects. But then we're absolutely going to continue traveling. We do have a camp in Washington, so in the summer we will end up way up. Because it's really beautiful for summers up there. Mm-hmm. But definitely all moving. We have a lot of places we still haven't seen, so there's a lot of country to see. Okay. So we're not planning to stop traveling.

Ronnie: 12:40

It's a huge country, a huge country. You look really well, Michelle, I must say, you both do. You look really glowy. You look as if the years have just taken away any stresses. Now, I don't mean you haven't had stresses, cuz I know you have, but you just look like you are living the dream, when I say that, it doesn't mean it's rose tinted glasses the whole time. But you are just loving what you do in your adventure. And what a thing to have a place that you can call home and then you can still do what you love as well. I mean, you got the best of both worlds. I'm a little bit envious.

Michelle: 13:16

Yeah. It's worked perfect for us. You know what we do might not be right for everyone, but thankfully Scout and I have the same needs and desires and a lot of that is that we just like to be off by ourself in the lake desert or the mountains with our animals. And we don't go to town too much. So you know, we just enjoy being with our animals and we're, we always have plenty to do and plenty to work on, and we yeah, it's just made us really happy and it has just taken so much pressure and stress away from us to live this life. Which may not be right for everyone, but it was the perfect prescription for us to get cured of what AED us.

Ronnie: 13:55

Mm-hmm and that just shows in both of you. Obviously you've met lots of amazing people on your journey. People that you've crossed paths when you're riding. And I know you're doing some sight scene as well, so you're not just sat on the horse and doing that the whole time. You're going outside seeing and you mentioned Thomas Teske? Yeah. Is that how you pronounce it? Mm-hmm.

Scout: 14:15

He's amazing. Ab absolutely phenomenal.

Ronnie: 14:17

You want to tell people who he is? You can mention who he is and what he does.

Michelle: 14:23

Well, he is a holistic veterinarian and he does whole body health, whole body dental. And like David Landreville, who's also amazing, if you haven't interviewed him yet, who's also here in Arizona, they do barefoot trimming from the inside out to develop a healthy hoof, there's just so much more than shaping a hoof like it's a sculpture, you have to understand. You know, we learned about this whole body dental where just the way a horse's front teeth align, let me say it a different way, and I'm not the expert, so I don't wanna say too much, but if a horse's gate is a certain way, they already know you know, that might be off what's wrong with their teeth. And when we went, we brought the boys joker and took. And Joker went second and if you go back and look, you can watch a video where Tuk took, is getting his teeth done, and Joker is literally standing over Dr. Tuskie's shoulder with his mouth open. Begging to have him have a turn like he knew what was about to happen because most of the time, dentists don't touch their front incisors and that's what he needed. And Joker had been begging me for help with his pole and we've tried to do a lot of body work and. Nobody was really ever able to help with that. And mostly he didn't want anyone to touch it. And when Dr. Teske was doing his incisors, there was no sedation, no thing holding his mouth open and as he was doing it, joker was pushing into him like he was so grateful. And when he finished, the result was is Joker's Jaw was released from whatever. That bad tooth alignment was causing his jaw not to be free, which was then causing that stiffness in his pole and then he showed us these passive stretches for him to stretch his on neck out. And it was crazy, unbelievable, just that simple little bit. But even when we got there, he just watched the horses move in a pen for like half an hour before he even touched anyone. And it's just all really like quiet. observational and you know, just about looking at everything about the horse. Not trying to focus in on one thing, but recognizing all the pieces come together they're all interconnected, so you can't solve one thing without addressing the others. And so yeah, it was really, really nice. And scout did learn we've been learning about hoof trimming by following David Landreville. and our horses are so much better since we started following him. And we had a chance encounter with him a year ago, and he's the one who did, took Tooks first, like full hoof, hoof trim and gave Scout a bit of a lesson. And he's super kind and gracious with inform. And so scouts been trimming, took tuks hooves all this time, and she was really proud when Dr. Teske was so excited about how good tuk-tuks Hooves looked. So, mm-hmm. that was nice.

Ronnie: 17:39

Wow. That's really good confirmation for you Scott, that you're doing the right thing. Here in the uk we are not allowed to trim our horses' feet. We're not allowed to touch them. So you have to have a special license but obviously you are huge country and you need to look after your horses' feet and there is not always a farer or a trimer near you. But in the UK it's illegal to do your own horses, feet. But you wanna know what you're doing as well. You know, you've had an expert that's shown you but that's amazing that you are doing that scout so good on you. And you also got to meet Mark Rashid. Now, was that through the same people? Yeah. I don't know if you've ever interviewed Maddie Kaba, but she's amazing person and she is the executive producer of a movie called, what's her movie called? The Box. The Box. So it's, it's about her life really, and she's an amazing inspirational. Speaker. And she's involved with equine assisted therapies. But we met her scout, got a scholarship this winter to go to the international, what's it called? Scout? It was for Equine assisted psychotherapists. So it was the International Summit, so there were people from all over the world there. And Scout got a scholarship to go and I got a scholarship to go as hor her responsible adult. Yep. So that was amazing. And Maddie was the keynote speaker and Maddie and Scout hit it off immediately and became fast friends and she also lives near here. Yeah. And she's the one that told us Mark Rashid was doing a clinic. And so we got to go and audit the clinic, which was amazing. And that was sort of what started finding Dr. Tuske because he was the one talking about whole body dental. And then, because joke. was off and I've been trying to solve his problem. I then w went on a quest to find such a person and couldn't find anything, and one of the local participants is the one that told me about Dr. Teske. So that's is a kind of how it all came about. Mm-hmm. Synchronicity is an amazing. When things line open, yes when you're looking for something they tend to come towards your or you get a clue or something yeah I love that. You call it floating, don't you? It's not the mechanical it's the hands version, isn't it? You call it floating? Yeah.

Michelle: 20:10

The mechanical would be called power Floating Power tools. Yeah. And so this is would be done by hand. So to be careful not to take off too much and to just take off what you need.

Ronnie: 20:23

Yeah I recently had, it was last year. Again, they're quite difficult to find in the UK people that Don't use the power tools you know they had to travel quite away, there's not anybody near where I am. And luckily found somebody through synchronicities last year and he came to do my horses Toots and Francis. And he was doing the front because they weren't matching. And he had to do quite a bit he didn't actually had to take a lot off, but he had to do quite a bit of adjusting. And it was really interesting because afterwards they were having to get used to a different bite. So as they were chewing their hay, it was better and they weren't spitting anything out, but it was like they was having to get used to that different action, that movement, which yeah, it's fascinating and it is of course looking at the whole horse because if you change one thing, it's like a dominoes. It doesn't matter how much there's an adjustment somewhere else, so you can't look at one thing and not think it's gonna affect the feet and vice versa. So it's quite complicated isn.

Michelle: 21:28

Yes. Yeah there's just so many small things and I guess I would like to say says a public service to all horses, the more we talk about these things You know, scout has so many followers now and everyone that knows her, knows where she's coming from. But we get maybe some new people and they'll make comments like this one in particular, well some old timer just said, give my horse you know, hard corn once in a while, and that'll keep his teeth down and I've never had any problems and with all different things, saddles especially, I've never had any problems. Horses are prey animals so their DNA N says, don't ever show weakness because the weak animal in a herd is the one that gets eaten by the predator. So our horses, by the time they say we have pain, it's significant and been going on for a long time. And so I think there's a lot of horses that have never worn a saddle that didn't hurt or you. Has just live a life without any pain because they just learn to accept it and tolerate it. And or if they protest, then they get marked as bad or aggressive or, you know, that they're just trying to speak their voice and people aren't listening. So we hope that through all these. Things were sharing that people learned to pay more attention to their horse. Now, recently we watched a video from this man that has the corrector saddle and mentioned how on a saddle tree, the stirrup leather goes around the bar and that almost all saddle makers don't compensate on the part of the bar that touches the horse for that little thin strip of leather but that ends up feeling like a rock in your sock. And if you lift up your skirt and you see a shiny rub right over where that stir is on your bar, that your horse is having that constant pressure into their back. And it's just all these little things. Yeah, the horse probably isn't complaining about, but maybe that's why they're not performing their best and then eventually it can become a really bad, bad issue situation.

Ronnie: 23:43

A really good point, Michelle. Thank you for sharing that. And like you said they don't always complain because they know that that's the way it is or they just get on and do it and some horses are more stoic than others. Some are really sensitive and they will show you and they get labeled with, be either, either a moody mayor or bad behavior. It's come from something, it's not a case of being bad or naughty for no reason, that's not how it works. Exactly. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that. And sometimes because something's done a certain way and it's the norm, people think, well, it must be fine. It's only when you question things and start to look at things a bit deeper and the bigger picture, not just the small part that you ask questions, and when you ask questions, then that's when you get your answers sometimes, or you get an answer that takes you to another question to then to another answer, then to another question. It can be a long road or a short road, but at least you are communicating with your animals and you are listening and they're able to show you that this is not right oh, that's right. And if you see an animal every day, you get used to what you see the same as a person. And it's only if somebody points something out that. that eye is telling me that they're not comfortable. You know, just look at them. What are you really looking at? And then they can see that. Like body work. If you're doing a, a slight touch, you can see your horse reacting. And that's a way of showing a person, look, this is how sensitive they can be. So imagine how much they feel. I saw a video of a guy, I can't remember who he was, he posted a video of mounting a horse and it was a western saddle, and he was showing that you can mount a horse without having a cinch on, which is a girth in the uk you can get on a horse mm-hmm with no pressure with very little pull, and he was showing you mounting a horse from the ground, the correct way to mount the horse. And the saddle wasn't secured in any way and the saddle hardly moved and the horse was comfortable. So if you can do this this way, there is no need to get on a horse from the ground, yanking the saddle on its back, there is no need for that. and I thought that's just amazing. It's a tiny three minute video, but it made sense. And he got close to the horse's body and it was a maneuver he used to get on the horse, so very little weight was in the syrup even though his foot was in the syrup. Just another way of thinking and showing somebody that there's always another way. You were gonna say something about writing a book, but you've got something else coming up. Do you want to share what that is? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Michelle: 26:26

I've been talking talk

Scout: 26:27

Well back in November, when we first came here we don't usually leave the property. We can stay there for over a week, but for certain reason she had to drive out like three days in. And every day there was this dog in the exact same spot in our area, a lot of dogs just get dumped in the desert. It's really sad. And every day there was this one dog that was just sitting there, probably waiting for his owner to come back. And on the second or third day, she finally decided that she was gonna get out and she was gonna try and lure him in. It took her about 20 minutes. We eventually, she got him in the truck and she brought him home and we started training at the time we need to find a service dog for someone. So he was like the perfect size, the perfect build everything. So we got him and we started training him. And then that fell through. But one of her old clients a really amazing. Client. This family, they, they needed a new service dog and so she had talked to them about him for whatever reason. And we eventually decided that this dog, zoro he's back here somewhere was going to be her service dog. So I've started learning how to train a service dog for this past. I think by the time he leaves, it'll be about four months and it's been a really awesome experience.

Ronnie: 27:48

Another string to your bow scout, that means another skill. Yeah. So when you say service dog what kind of service is he gonna be?

Michelle: 27:58

What does he do? She's saying,

Scout: 27:59

He helps the woman with balance and he has also really helped me. I can have a hard time going out into public for a really long time, but he has been able to help me do things that I have never been able to do before.

Ronnie: 28:13

Wow so that's something you're gonna be doing more of, do you think?

Scout: 28:16

Service dogs probably not.

Michelle: 28:18

she was very good at it. I use clicker training or operating conditioning I've trained service dogs for over 20 years and that's just one of the things I retired from but I use clicker training for them, which is also how she's learned to train horses. So she was a natural at training the dog because it was the type of training she already knew how to do. So she was so beneficial and it was really helpful because this dog would become too attached to me and he needs to. that someone else is gonna be her handler. And the person who's getting him, I trained her first dog for her when she was six years old and she's now 26 and she needs a new dog and again, just synchronicity that this dog just appeared at in the desert when she needed a new dog. And it all just came. Crazy. Just boom at the same time. So she's the same size as Scout and so Scout started taking over a lot of his training and then all of his in public training out in stores and things, and they just did amazing together. And yeah, scout can go out in public, but it's extremely difficult for her. She gets physical issues as she gets overwhelmed. She has to leave. She can't stay as long as she'd like and then it makes her sad, you know, it's just really hard. And so with her out with Zora, it's been amazing how it's affected her in a positive way. And I think it made her start to think that she would like to have a service dog because of the difference, how it changed her life you know, she can't just stay in the woods, in the desert forever. She's gonna become an adult and she has to be able to comfortably not just, you don't wanna just go out in public in a survival mode. You wanna be able to enjoy all parts of your life and all the things that you have to do. So, yeah. That was, that was something that really came up in Yeah. So she probably is gonna train one more and you know, that will be her own. Mm-hmm.

Ronnie: 30:29

When you are with your horses and when you are showing videos and when you are working with your horses scout, you just glow cuz you love it. And I think that gives you the confidence and you've got something to focus on, it's the same thing with the dogs. You've got somebody else. To think about, to interact with. So it's not just you, if you've got somebody else, you are looking at them, you are focusing your energies rather than worrying about other things. So that's amazing. You must be so proud of Scout. But Scout, you must be so proud of your mom too. She's an awesome mom. the fact that you get to do what you do is credit to yourself, but also to your mom as well you know you two ladies are inspiring for lots of people and I don't think it's just about having a dream to go travel. I think what you show. And what comes across is determination. Hard work as well like I said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it's such a joy because you get something from every experience and you share that with people and you share the hard bits and the exciting bits as well From me, I'd like to say thank you for sharing your life because it is inspiring and it's lovely to see from my point of view and from a lot of people too. We have got quite a few people that stop by to say hello, so I'm gonna quickly put their comments on so this is from Gail she says, wow what adventures you must be having. So I dunno if you know these ladies and then we've got Paty. Hi from Kuk california. California. California. Oh, you can tell I'm English, can't you? And then we've got Maddie great.

Michelle: 32:14

That's who we told you.

Ronnie: 32:16

Hi Maddie. So if anybody wants to ask Scout, Michelle a question, that'd be lovely.

Michelle: 32:21

People frequently send us a comment like that one that Joyce is saying and mm-hmm. It's impossible to keep track of things, but if people have a place that you either want us to come speak cuz we can speak at your club or group or if you have a place where we can set up to boondock on your property and you want us to visit and you want us to ride with you, we are happy to do those things, but we can't keep track of random comments on Facebook. You have to actually direct us private messages, us with at least at a minimum, your town, and then we put that on our Google map. And as we're traveling, if we end up in your area, we'll contact. or if we're going to be ending up in your area, or sometimes we're just looking for a place to land as we're traveling, so people just have to send us that through a direct message with a actual location, impossible to go back and search through this, just on comments. Yeah.

Ronnie: 33:18

You'll have so many. Do you have an email address or do you just want people to contact you through messenger.

Michelle: 33:24

The best way is on Messenger because that's the most common way for us to see it quickly, and.

Scout: 33:31

And we always check that at least once a day, if not multiple times.

Ronnie: 33:35

Do you know this lady? Lynn Harrington?

Michelle: 33:38

Yes. Yeah, that was up in Washington. On the Washington yeah. Border.

Ronnie: 33:45

Yes, you spoke at Black Country Horseman Group hi Lynn. Welcome. Thank you for everybody that's stopping on by and just saying hi to scout Michelle. It means a lot to them and to me too. Once again, if you've got any questions, if you'd like to leave a comment, and then we'll try and get that before we finish our chat this evening. So what have you got in the pipeline? What's coming?

Michelle: 34:06

Well, we have something more exciting and Ronnie, we're going to use your show for the big reveal.

Ronnie: 34:13

Oh my God.

Michelle: 34:14

This is why we're talking to you on the side of the road. Because something happened this morning that was last minute. Oh, this is Zorro right here. Heading to Connecticut next week.

Ronnie: 34:27

Oh, he's beautiful.

Michelle: 34:29

Can you get him on the camera? Yeah. Good boy. Who's that?

Scout: 34:33

Well, this is my service dog in training, Sisu he's a boy.

Ronnie: 34:39

And he's gonna be your dog?

Scout: 34:41

Mm-hmm he's seven weeks old.

Michelle: 34:43

Where did he come from?

Scout: 34:44

He was left on the side of the road, on the side of the highway, actually, with another puppy at a gas station and he was rescued by a shelter. About a week ago, and he is been a foster home.

Michelle: 34:57

And Scout is going to share His training as she teaches him the tasks that he's gonna do for her. And also everyone's always asking how Puck becomes a great trail dog, so Sisu also will be coming a trail dog for Scout once you put him back now. Yeah and so she'll be sharing videos on all of that training. So everyone will be able to see how that goes. But yes as soon as Scout realized that she'd want a service dog and was actively thinking about it, SISU popped up in our life. And do you wanna tell him how you got the name?

Scout: 35:33

Well, Tuk my Mustang Tuk is a name from Riot in the Last Dragon it's a Disney movie, and I was watching that movie when we decided that Tuk Tuk was gonna be my horse that I was gonna train and tuk took in the movie is what Raya ride. It's kinda like a little rolly pully thing, but then the last dragon in the movie is named Sisu, and that's like her other companion that goes with Raya. So I figured that it would fit with mytheme.

Ronnie: 36:05

Perfect. That's so exciting and thank you for sharing that news on our podcast, how excited is that?

Michelle: 36:12

That's what'll be happening coming up, she'll be starting to do the training to sit on tuk tuk and she'll be training her new puppy. Then we'll all be hitting the road again this spring and traveling. We're hoping to do a pack trip this summer and I guess if you are somebody that is interested in us stopping by, kind of our projected plan is Western Texas in April and then up through New Mexico in Colorado and into Montana. And then we're gonna cross all the way to Washington where we're gonna house it over the 4th of July. And then we're gonna come back to Montana to hopefully do a pack trip and then back to Washington to spend a couple months in Northwestern Washington at our camp for the summer. Then we are gonna ride in Monument Valley, Utah in October, which is a really special ride. You can only go in with a native guide and there's only so many slots available every year. And so we've gotten our own week where I've established our own group of friends that were gonna go in and be guided. An elder matriarch of the Navajo tribe, will live with them and take us out on daily rides and show us their special places and have sweat lodge and learn about medicinal medicine plants. And it'll just be a great immersive experience and then we'll probably make our way.

Ronnie: 37:45

Oh my goodness that's such an experience to have, such an opportunity for both of you. I can't wait to hear all about that. Are you filming some of that as well? Are you allowed to do that?

Michelle: 37:56

Yeah I'm quite sure, because many people have posted about their trips there, so yeah, I'm, you're able to do that yeah. You just can't go in without a guide but you can you can take pictures and things, and one thing we're kind of looking forward to is on the land, anytime they've found artifacts, like over the years, there's this special, really massive cave. And all of those things are brought there. So it's essentially their museum, but you can only get there like you ride to it on horseback and then all these things that have ever been found are laid out there. And then of course, they're all interpreted for you. By this Navajo guide. So I'm pretty excited to experience that and every ride is to some fantastic place. So if you've never seen the landscape at Monument Valley, you should look it up because it's has amazing rock formations.

Scout: 38:47

It's amazing.

Ronnie: 38:49

I'm not even gonna ask you where's your favorite place? Cuz you've been to so many places so I'm not even gonna ask that question. But I'm so excited for you guys and I'm so excited that we can experience a little bit of that your adventure by keeping updated with your posts and like I said, I love your videos, it's almost like you are there. I love the ones when you are on your horseback and you are showing is where you're going and the horses and the animals. Wow. Is there anything else you'd like to chat about? You've said quite a lot actually but I know you're sat in your car you've got a busy day and it's great that you can connect to us anyway.

Michelle: 39:23

Well, I guess I'd like to make a little pitch for scouts. Book. A Magical Friendship Journey, which we talked about one of our other times we spoke to you. But if anybody out there has a bookstore or has a friend with a bookstore we'd really like to get her book in more stores. And we can share the publisher information so that they can have her book. It's a fantastic book. And she's working on a second. Children's book. And sadly the illustrator we had hired got injured and was unable to continue, so that got delayed. So we may even start to finish that on her own. Scout has become quite talented at digital art. She spends several hours every night practicing. She's really passionate about it, and you might see more about that coming up this year, she's thinking of making stickers and things to sell. Mm-hmm but we'd really love to get the current book that she has out there more, but it is available on Amazon anyways, for right now but we'd like to get it in some bookstores.

Ronnie: 40:20

Mm-hmm. Okay. So I'll add the link to the end of the podcast. So people can find that as well. I'm sat here as a watcher and a listener I could listen to you for ages. I mean the adventures that you are having and the experiences in your life. I mean, you've changed. Since I last spoke to you, Scott, you're a lot more confident. So even though you say about going out in public, you know, this is your thing, you are just glowing, both of you, you look so well, and it's great to chat with you again. There's quite a few comments, beth Rogers says, I love the pictures where Joker is looking out over the Vista views during the rides. He always looks like he really enjoys it.

Michelle: 41:01

He does. And you know what's important to us, that the horses enjoy this life as much as we do and joker mostly was just an arena horse and he loves the life on the trail. And when he climbs a hill or a mountain, he really enjoys gazing at the view and we never like push him past there. We always let him stop and enjoy the view because, you know, this trip is for them too. So I think he appreciates his life now from, not that he was not mistreated or anything, but to just have a life on the trail versus always in the arena and we let him appreciate views and visitor.

Ronnie: 41:39

Sure there's a lot of horses that would be in awe wishing that they could do the same thing. It's without question that your horses, your priority. I know that anyway and everybody that knows you is aware of that. Your horses are taken care of very, very well, and they are always considered. And that comes across all the time with all your animals. So how is Puck getting on anyway?

Scout: 42:00

He's doing good. He'd probably like to be riding a little bit more, but he does have 10 acres as well to roum. We go on bike rides almost every day, if not multiple times a week but he is loving life too.

Michelle: 42:12

He's all healed from his surgery. So he did have his double knee surgery last year and he's a hundred percent he's bionic now. Yeah. He's so, he's all healed up from that. And yeah, we, we can go hiking you know, it's just a lot of freedom and he's pretty happy.

Ronnie: 42:27

He looks it. Well, good luck with your new puppy scout. Really looking forward to hearing all about the training and everything and you Michelle as well. I know you did a few camps where people could go ride in with you. Are you doing anything like that again this year?

Michelle: 42:42

We're not planning that for this year. It was a lot of stress for us to have to be in certain places on certain dates and then for all of them, a lot of people dropped out, back out at the last minute and it just ended up not being worth it for us it was just too much. So if we're in someone's area, we'll happy to come and like drop in and do talks but we're not gonna schedule any big retreats or retreats or things like we did, cuz that just wasn't fun for us. We will say we made a couple really excellent friends through the people who came and so we are thankful for that but we're not planning to do that this year. We really just wanna go back to just blown in the wind and going when we feel like it without having to be on a schedule too much.

Ronnie: 43:28

I can understand that and sometimes you do things and realize that it's not for you Yeah, you get to know what you do want and what you don't want. Well thank you so much for chatting with us and it's great to see you both, and it's great to hear about your new projects as well. Is there anything you'd like to just say before you leave?

Michelle: 43:45

Not that I can think of. Thank you for always inviting us back. We really love talking with you and love watching your show.

Ronnie: 43:52

You're more than welcome, I really do get excited and you don't have to want to do everything that you do, but it's nice to share in somebody's adventure and I'm really pleased for you cuz it's lovely and it's nice to see mother and daughter, how your relationship has grown. It's just lovely to see. There's not words sometimes. It's just lovely to see when there's a lot of other things going on in the world, it's nice to focus on some really good stuff and see what can be achieved when you put your mind to it. So, if you wanna just say bye to the listeners.

Michelle: 44:24

Okay.

Scout: 44:24

All right everyone, see you out on the trail.

Michelle: 44:26

Bye, bye.

Ronnie: 44:28

What amazing two people I love chatting with them, it's been a great chat and what a cute puppy. Scout is an amazing young woman and what she's gonna become when she's a full adult. Oh my goodness the world is a oyster and she is a credit to herself, like I said, and also to a lovely mom, Michelle as well, you can see that when you see them and listen to. Thank you very much for everybody that stopped on by and made a comment. I'll put all the details at the end of this podcast about scout's book as well. If you've got any messages that you want to send to Scout Michelle, just do that through their Facebook page and they'll get back to you. Thank you again, take care and speak to you soon. Bye for now.