Neil Dudley: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pederson’s Farms podcast. We are so excited you’re here. We appreciate you joining us. And we look forward to sharing these conversations with thought leaders from our industry. They’re going to paint a picture from every perspective – consumer, customer, vendor, employee, and peer – that I think is going to be super valuable, and we’re really excited to share. So, thanks for tuning in. Remember don’t tune out, and grab life by the bacon.

Are you a mom or a dad or a grandparent who is struggling at times to feel proud of what you’re doing and how you’re raising your kids or your grandkids, whoever it might be that you’re really playing a super important leadership role for? Well, today’s guest, Paige Murray, she’s a mom, she’s a runner, she’s a model, and aside from that, she loves to cook. She values nutrition in her life. All of those things really make her a great asset for you as a listener, for Pederson’s as a company, for me as a person that just wants to have somebody to pay attention to that is doing things that’s going to teach me something. So, I want y’all to listen to this. She has a great perspective as a working mom in charge of raising her daughter and how that sometimes can feel tough and then the most rewarding as anything else as well. So, keep listening if you want to hear those things from Miss Paige Murray. I’m Neil Dudley. I’m the VP of Business Development for anybody that’s a first time listener. For everybody that’s been here before, you’re going to understand most of what I’m saying. But for the first timers, hey, I’ve been in the food business for over 20 years now. I kind of worked up from a QA tech to a VP of a business. So, I was able to sit in a lot of conversations with really thoughtful, smart, hardworking people, leaders. And I want to share those things with you. Paige is a good example of them. We try to tell the story of where your food comes from, so you have a robust, deep understanding of where Pederson’s comes from, why we do what we do, as well as a bigger, broader vision of the food industry, especially the meat industry, the better-for-you meat industry. So, keep listening. Let’s talk about all those things. Thanks for being here. Your time is valuable, and we want to make it great. 

All right, everybody. Well, I say this every time, but it’s just true, I’m excited. We’re pumped up. The Pederson’s Farms podcast is back with another guest. Paige Murray has joined the show. She is so kind to come on and tell us her story. We’re here to amplify her story. She’s up to all kinds of cool things. One of them is being a mother. I think a lot of you out there listening can relate to that and there’s going to be truths within her life that she can share and will put all of these things in perspective or give everybody another thing to think about. Well, I’m going to let you introduce yourself. I almost wanted to, but you’ll do a better job than me. You know what all you’re up to more than I do. So, Paige, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you’re doing these days.

Paige Murray: Thanks, Neil, and I’m not sure how many cool things I have going on because it feels like mom takes center stage.

Neil Dudley: You’ve done a cookbook. You’re on social media quite often sharing your thoughts about things. A post I saw recently was something just about how you feel like a failure as a mom sometimes, and you’re like, oh man. I think that stuff is happening to everybody and the dads too. And I really enjoyed seeing, oh yeah, cool, I know that. I think everybody knows we’re not really any different. We are all fighting the same battles, but you lose track of that. 

Paige Murray: Yeah. So, I have a three and a half year old daughter and so that is kind of taking first priority and takes up most of my time. And it’s the most fulfilling, purposeful job I’ve ever had. Let’s see, I’m Paige, and I’m married to Ty Murray, and that’s how we met. You come out for the branding every year, and you and Ty good cowboy friends that work together. And so that’s how Neil and I met. But I’m from South Carolina. I grew up there in a small town, and let’s see, I majored in animal science at Clemson University, and then after graduation, I got a job offer with NASCAR for Miss Sprint Cup. So, I traveled a good bit in the NASCAR circuit, loved that job. Shortly after that, I worked at a hunting and fishing outfitter kind of as their brand ambassador, lived in Minnesota for a year.

Neil Dudley: I want to jump in. So, when has food- I mean, this is, we are kind of centering this storytelling or these conversations around Pederson’s. I mean, it kind of is what brings all these guests together. I’m curious, has food always been important to you? Is it today?

Paige Murray: Well, yeah, let’s see, gosh, I grew up, just I have always loved to eat and like just food is my passion, I guess. But growing up, it was just Southern food, and I just love to eat. Our whole family does. Like when we go somewhere, Ty says we’re like a pack of wolves. Like don’t let the Duke girls go first in line at the buffet. There won’t be anything left. But I just grew up loving Southern food. And I was very active, in all kinds of sports. And then after graduation, I became a little more passionate about nutrition. 

Neil Dudley: That’s a great way to put it. There’s a difference. There’s a different thought process behind food and then nutrition. 

Paige Murray: Yeah, and I did- I never had to watch what I was eating. I never had to watch my weight or anything or what I was eating growing up because I guess I was just so active. So, after graduation, working in the public eye, I realized, well, I got to stay fit. And so, it first became like an aesthetic point of view. I got to eat healthy, so I don’t get- so I stay fit for my job, and I was working as a model. And so that kind of is where I started eating healthier, but it was more from the aesthetic purpose. Well, then I just became really passionate about nutrition, and I love studying it. I wish I would have studied it in college. But at the time, I didn’t put that much thought into it and have the passion for it. I wish I would have. 

Neil Dudley: I mean, don’t we all kind of go to college and then leave and you look back and you think, oh, I could’ve- even when I went to graduate school, I think I ended up dropping out before I ever got my master’s, but I feel like if I had gone in and studied management or something like that instead of economics, I’d have probably been more inclined to finish it. It just got really statistical and mathematical. 

Paige Murray: Yeah, I feel like when it’s your passion, it doesn’t feel like you’re studying, and it doesn’t feel like work. And I feel like I’ve studied so much nutrition just on my own that I could have passed and got my nutrition degree.

Neil Dudley: Can I just take a test somewhere? Because I probably know the information. 

Paige Murray: And so, then it became about, wow, this is really interesting how food affects your body. And I just wanted to find what worked best for me, and I didn’t want to fall for all the fad diets. That’s pretty rampant in the model industry is like eat as little as you can. How much can you get by on? 

Neil Dudley: Talk about that a little bit. I mean, you’re talking about, we’ll just say it, you need to stay skinny to be a model. And I don’t know if that’s right, and maybe it’s changing some because you’ll see a lot of new body shapes in the models in the ads these days, which I think is good. Raising three daughters, I think about that. I worry about that. They have different body types. They just do. Like everybody does. We’re all kind of special. So, I don’t like the idea of putting one special one on a pedestal. Like, oh, now everybody needs to match, I don’t know, Kate Moss is the one that comes to mind. But did you find that culture to be pretty high pressure on that front? What’d you learn? 

Paige Murray: I think it can be depending on your goals, and you’re right, there’s like a body positive movement going on now, and there’s a representation of all body types now in the modeling industry that represents more of America in the whole. But I never had the goal of being like a high fashion runway model. And it was the same with like my accent when I would do on air television network. Like I didn’t want to change who I was. And so, I was more cast- there’s opportunities for different types of modeling and whether you are a fitness model or the All-American girl. And so, I really just focused on my health instead of- I didn’t care to be that size zero model, trying to make it in the high fashion runway industry. That just wasn’t a goal of mine. So, I feel lucky. Like I found clients that worked with me. Like Wrangler was a big client of mine. They’re based in North Carolina, so I’d work with them. Bass Pro Shops, just a lot of great companies that like the build I had and had to bring. So, I still wanted to eat though to maintain my fitness and my health. And so, it wasn’t about how little I can eat, but how can I best nourish my body? And that’s what I started to teach myself. And then I’ve always been active and love to work out. And so, these last few years, I’ve been running more, and I want to have goals for myself to run a marathon. It’s like you have to nourish your body. And when you guys came to me with Pederson’s farms, I was like what a cool opportunity and your vision and all for how you bring the meat to people is just I think it’s a focus on the health and quality of the meat, and it aligns with how I believe and my philosophy on eating healthy. 

Neil Dudley: Yeah. I think it’s going to work with some people, it’s going to- some people aren’t. I mean, we can’t solve everybody’s desires, or with our products, we’re not going to be the answer for everybody. But there’s a group of people that are thinking about, hey, I want to run a marathon. Okay, cool, if I’m going to bother eating, I should eat the best stuff I can that’s going to really be bioavailable to my body and be able to repair that training. So, what is your training like? Okay, you’re going to run a marathon. And look, folks, you got to go Google Paige Murray. You’ll find her on Instagram. You can follow her. You can check out all the things. You’re posting just about races you run, 5ks, running groups you’re in, stuff you’re doing with your daughter. If your goal is a marathon, tell us a little bit about how you’re approaching that. There’s some information there that what if I wanted to run one someday?

Paige Murray: Well, the running kind of started. So, after I had Oakley, my little girl, I had to adapt my workout routine to be able to do something when I had her. So, running became something I could do on the ranch and push her in the jogging stroller. So, I had my- I kind of still had my alone time because she was content in her stroller, but I was still with her. And so, I nursed for a year and I couldn’t be away from her long because I hated that and I couldn’t really do it. And so, I had to be with her. And so that became how I’d work out with her. And I entered my first 5k when she was probably about a year old, and I pushed her in it. And I surprised myself with my time. I was expecting to run like a 27, 28 minute race, and it was like 22:06. And I was like, wow, I can’t believe how great I did. And I was so sore for the whole week after. I felt like I got hit by a train. But I was like I miss this competition. I miss what that brings out of me. And it pushes me to try harder and be my best. 

Neil Dudley: That’s right, competitive nature. Everybody, I would argue everybody has a little competitive nature about them. And if you don’t get to scratch that itch, it feels like a little something’s missing in your life. So that’s cool how you found that. You said another thing that piqued my interest – you got to have your alone time. I’m thinking other moms, most people think, or I would think alone time means like relax. Well, some people find that relaxation in the toil of training. So that’s cool.

Paige Murray: I think I refer to that as like active relaxation, where I’m still doing something that feels productive, but my mind gets a break, and that’s what cooking does for me too. I really enjoy that, and it’s fulfilling to me, but it’s still relaxing. And so, after I entered that race, I was like I don’t think I can run any faster than that. And I just kind of, after that, I just would run with her for fun. And it took me two years until this last July, I was like I miss racing. Like I want to do that again. So, I entered again. I started to fall in love with the incremental progress I could see from my times. And it was like something I could work toward and see progress and the result of my hard work. Because as you know, being a parent, you don’t always- it doesn’t always feel fulfilling- not fulfilling, it isn’t the word, but it doesn’t always feel like you are making progress or that you can be proud of yourself all the time. And so, with running, it was like putting in the work, I can see the progress and it made me feel proud. And so, I decided, I entered a half marathon, the Cow Town in Fort Worth, and I did better than I expected. And then my marathon’s coming up in October. I’m going to run the Marathon to Marathon because we love Big Bend, Texas. So, it’s in Marathon. And so, my training, I have to be realistic with the time that I have as a mom. I don’t want to take away from any other aspects of my life. I want running to add to it. And marathon training can be grueling. 

Neil Dudley: I think it is 6 miles one day, 12 miles. You’re working yourself up, that’s 24 miles. 

Paige Murray: Yeah. So, my goal is just to devote what I can to my training and have quality training sessions. And it’s usually two days of speed work. And I do that. She goes to wee school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So those days I devote to my harder training. And on the other days, it’s runs, the long run or easy runs, because a lot of your runs, it’s supposed to be like an 80/20 rule, 80% in your easy zone and then 20% you push yourself. So, I can do that training with her, or do a long run on the weekend and take her to grandma’s or something. And so, I don’t really have a time goal for my marathon. I just really want to finish it. 

Neil Dudley: You will find the competition on the trail. 

Paige Murray: Yes, I’m sure I will push myself, but I just want to see what I can do. 

Neil Dudley: It’s kind of part of doing it with others. Now you pick out that guy or girl and go chase them. At least for me, that’s true. And I think it works in business. Chrissy, which is Cody’s wife, she’s ran, I don’t know, several marathons. She got really into it. And it’s grueling. It’s tough on the body. I mean, she did, she lost toenails. I mean, there’s just so much running. It beats your feet up. It’s tough.

Paige Murray: Yeah. And we’ll see if I even like it. And if I don’t, I’ll stick to the shorter races, I’ll see where- but there’ll be a season in my life where I can devote more time to marathon training and have a goal time in mind. But right now, I just want to finish and be proud of the effort that I did and know I gave everything I could with the time I had. 

Neil Dudley: I just keep- I want to keep noodling on that. We’ve got time still and I want to get to the cookbook and some of your thoughts there as well. But how do you think it affects Oakley? For you, like just curious, do you think about her perspective in all this?

Paige Murray: Yeah. And so, people have asked me like how do you work out with her? And it’s just all she’s ever known. Since I’ve had her, I’ve been pushing her in the jogging stroller for my workouts. And when she got a little older, I’d have her in my gym and I kind of had to let her entertain herself while I’d be on the Peloton or something. And so, it’s just what she’s known. And she plays better in the gym entertaining herself than she does any other time of the day because that’s when she knows I guess she has to, and I’m not there to entertain her. And I think she just likes being with me. And what’s really cool is before several of the 5k races I’ve done, there’s like a one-mile fun run and she enters it and I hold her hand. And she runs the whole one mile by herself, and she’s so proud of herself. She looks forward to it. She likes being involved. And I like to think that she is seeing me dedicate myself to something and get results. And I hope that’s passed along to her. I mean, she already feels proud.   

Neil Dudley: I think that goes in through osmosis, not really, but just being around that. I think that’s partly why I love being around cowboys. There’s so much good perspective and thoughts that I just pick up by being in that group. And your kids do the same thing. Stacy and I think about it a lot. Like what are our kids learning from us that we’re not even trying to teach them? We’re just living. I hope they see hard work. And I think your daughter’s probably learning those things too, just because, and it is interesting. 

Paige Murray: And I don’t ever feel like she has to feel like running is taking away my time with my mom. And that’s something that I’ve been very conscious about. I never want her to feel that way because she is my first priority. And so, by including her, taking her on the runs, and then she stands with her dad and grandparents come and cheer me on at every race. And she just has so much fun like cheering for me and being there. It’s a fun thing to do with your child. Usually- they had like an Easter egg hunt at the last 5k I did. So it’s fun for her.

Neil Dudley: Sure. I think find those communities of people that are like-minded and you enjoy. I mean, yours is a running group. The listeners might have a car group or anything. I mean, even around the food community, healthy lifestyle community, there’s a lot of great groups of people to be involved with from Whole 30 to keto. And you were talking a little bit about you don’t want to get on a fad diet. I think that’s a great thing to explore too. So now let’s transition to that a little bit. Talk about how you eat, what do you expect in your food, how do you cook, and your cookbook.

Paige Murray: Yeah. So, with the fad diet thing, I think that can serve a purpose depending on your goal, and whatever works for you is what’s going to be best, whatever you can stick to. I’ve done the macro counting, and sometimes I will revert back to that if I have a specific like body composition goal I want to get back to. If I need to lose a little bit of body fat and put on muscle on, the macro helps keep me accountable for eating more protein. And with that, I feel like it’s a good thing for people to do if they want to try the macro diet because it teaches you what your food is composed of, and then you can go forward, and you’ll be more conscious about what you’re eating and you don’t have to track it, but you can eyeball it and say this is- I know what this is made of, the carbohydrates, protein, or fat. 

Neil Dudley: How many people don’t even know that a potato is carbohydrates or that a steak is protein and fat. What do you think about fat? Are you scared of fat? 

Paige Murray: No. Fat is so important, especially for women, for hormone function, having your healthy fats. So, the way I eat is I am big on whole grains, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables, and I would say lean meats. That’s just what I like, but I mean, even a steak that’s a ribeye or something has its place in your diet in moderation. And so, it’s not always lean proteins, but high protein. So, I try to eat more, I guess what I just listed, are foods and they are- I don’t even want to say- There’s not bad foods and good foods. Like a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate. Your body breaks it down. It does not know, oh, this is coming from an apple, or this is coming from a piece of white bread or white rice. But the more nutritious your food is, the better you’re going to feel. And so, if you can fill your diet with highly nutritious foods, that’s where if you’re eating white rice, it’s going to give you a carbohydrate, but it may not- it’s not going to have the fiber. And so, it’s not necessarily whole foods, but just more nutritious, wholesome foods. That’s how I like to eat. And yeah, I’m not scared of fat. And I feel like when I eat healthy most of the time, then I can afford to have those, the cookies and the foods that aren’t as nutritious for you. But that’s if you try to tell yourself not to eat them, you’re going to think about it more, and then you’re going to binge on them, then you’re going to feel bad. And then you’re going to- it is a cycle.

Neil Dudley: It is all that internal conversation also, like you almost start shaming yourself over it. Like I suck. I knew not to do that, but I did it anyway. I think that stuff’s really important for everybody. If you’re listening, just kind of think about that for a minute or two and think, okay cool, am I winning little promises I make to myself? And when you don’t, do you shame yourself over it? I know I do. I mean, even this morning, I was thinking about getting up and going to work out. 4:30 is when I need to get up to do that. It came around to four o’clock, turned my alarm off. And then I found myself later after I did wake up saying, man, I kind of wussed out. I should have went and done that. Well, you do that enough, you start kind of believing you’re a wuss or you’re not capable. So, I think it’s important. I mean, I think you just live- some people build that a little at a time over years of wanting to do a thing.

Paige Murray: Yeah, I think small changes, internal motivation is big. And I think another reason I enjoy races is I like having a reason to train. So, it’s not like I got to work out just to do it. It’s like I’m going to work out so I can be faster in my next race. So, if you can find your why, you want to enjoy doing things. And then even with like building habits with exercise or with healthy eating habits takes time. So, it make small changes. And it takes time and then it becomes just part of your daily life. 

Neil Dudley: So, if somebody wants to learn more about you, I know that you have a website and your cookbook. Tell everybody where they can find some more out about you. 

Paige Murray: So, my passion for eating healthy, but I’m still a Southern girl, so I called my cookbook Southern Fried Skinnyfied. So, it’s just more nutritious, healthier ways to prepare favorite Southern dishes and just some of our favorite family recipes that are by nature healthy that I grew up eating. So, my cookbook’s on Amazon. There’s a Kindle version or a paperback version. And I’m published that a few years ago and it really just started as a- it was right at the end of my pregnancy, right when Oakley was first born and I was finishing my cookbook and I was like I want Oakley to have this, because there’s a bunch of family recipes, one day. And then I was like, oh, this is cool. I’m going to put it out there. And it’s been fun to do. And then I have a blog called bootsandbiscuits.com where I share recipes, more indulgent and then also healthier recipe options, and ranch life, life on the ranch with Ty, our daily life, and things we do.

Neil Dudley: Did you grow up on a ranch? 

Paige Murray: No, I didn’t. 

Neil Dudley: So, is that kind of all new?

Paige Murray: Yes, but it was always a dream of mine. I’ve always loved horses and I majored in animal science and equine business. I just grew up in a small town, so I’m just a Southern girl that my grandma got me in horse riding lessons, and I loved it. But I absolutely love ranch life. And I’ve really taken to it and appreciate it. And it’s just like a piece of heaven, being out there on the ranch to me, it is. It’s fun to share that life because maybe in Stephenville, Comanche, everyone kind of lives similar lives, but when you go out of our town, like our life is so different and removed from other people’s lives. When I go work on modeling shoots and stuff, people just are amazed by it, and it’s fun to share it with people because it is like an old-fashioned way of life that many people don’t live now. So, it’s fun to share. 

Neil Dudley: I love what you’re saying because I eat animal protein and it never occurred to me, until I got into the business world, until we started working within communities where you would bump into vegans, vegetarians, people that had a real aversion to eating animal protein, it never occurred to me that that- how could anybody not do that? So, it is real different. My experience growing up and eating cattle that we raised is so, so far removed from what anybody- I say, anybody, a lot of people experience as a reality. So, if we don’t talk, we don’t tell these kinds of stories, you on your blog, us on this podcast and webinars, however we try to get that word out, how will they have a reference? They can only conversate with those people they have access to, and if that whole group had no experience with it, they don’t get the full picture. That is why I need to listen to other podcasts of people that were skateboard fanatics, and so I have a little bit of an understanding of that culture and their thought process. Okay so now, the country lifestyle and Ty’s a horsemanship mentor of mine. Really him and his dad, they both just really taught me a lot. So now you’re on social media. Do you treat that like of job? Do you think about it like a job? How do you really think about?

Paige Murray: I don’t really treat it as a job because just again like being a mom is forefront of my life right now, and I don’t have time- I don’t- I love being a stay at home mom with her. And so, I treat social media as when I can, I love to share what I can, but I can’t treat it like a job because I don’t want to. I could have the time, but I don’t want to devote that time to treating it as a job or something I need to get done every day.  

Neil Dudley: Have you in your life ever? Have you ever kind of treated it that way?

Paige Murray: Yeah. Yes, I guess in my 20s when I was working as brand ambassadors and just working with a lot of different companies, I treated it more like a job when I had time.  

Neil Dudley: Just for those who have never done that, is that actually- what does it feel like to think about social media- I have a thought process or I have an idea what you’re going to say, but I’m just- I don’t want to lead you. When you’re doing it, let’s say you’re treating it like that, what’s that like? Is it easy? 

Paige Murray: No, it’s not easy. But I’ve always just tried to be very authentic and just share my life and who I am. And I think that’s what connects people. That’s sharing that story of sometimes feeling like a failure as a mom and crying at the end of the day, people can relate to that. And I think people crave that authenticity and feeling like they aren’t alone in the world. So, I’ve always just tried to be very authentic on there. The more followers you get, the more eyes that see it, I’ve found that when you reach a wider audience of people that don’t know you and haven’t followed you for a while, don’t know you as a person, you do have to be more careful and thoughtful with your words. That’s hard in that I don’t want to offend anybody. I want to express myself in a way that people can relate to me or have a different opinion but feel safe to express that too. And so, I do try to be more careful with what I’m posting or thoughtful in what I’m posting as I start reaching more people. 

Neil Dudley: So, tell us, I’m curious, I want to explore, we just had the Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike made a huge comeback victory as an 80 to 1 long shot, which was exhilarating, amazing. And so afterwards, the outrider’s kind of- I mean, this whole scenario has made horseracing front of mind in a lot of ways. It’s been huge. It’s highlighted a big win. It’s also talking about, okay, cool, are there things we can do maybe with horsemanship inside this industry that could be better? You and Ty are sharing some posts and thoughts about. Not everybody’s agreeing. So, what’s that like? 

Paige Murray: Yeah. So, Ty, I feel he was so courageous and sharing this and horsemanship is his passion, and he’s devoted, oh, gosh, 30 something years of his life, since he was in his 20s, to learning horsemanship because he said he didn’t have happy horses. And he could make his horses do anything, but they didn’t like him, and he couldn’t catch them. And so, he knew there was a better way, and Ty really has a heart for animals. And so, yes, he opened up and he shared that this was a lack of horsemanship. I shouldn’t say horsemanship. There’s different types of horsemanship, even. Traditional horsemanship is what most people know, and it’s been passed down. And a lot of that is based on restraint or fear and manipulation to get your horse to do the behaviors you desire. And there’s a new thought of horsemanship that you can be gentler. Not like here give them a carrot.  

Neil Dudley: I think you can paint it, like just thinking about parenting, accountability. 

Paige Murray: Yes, it is just like a child, understanding a horse’s nature.

Neil Dudley: Setting boundaries, understanding how they think.

Paige Murray: Yes, understanding a horse’s nature is what Ty is so passionate about. And so, he shared his thoughts on that, and I think people became offended because, one, they thought he was singling out the race industry, which he’s not because he’s done so many speeches and presentations on horsemanship in all disciplines. He’s just an advocate for the horse in general because he feels like the horse never has a voice. And so, it’s for all disciplines. And what Ty was saying is, he’s like, I’m not the one that shined the light on this. This was on like the Superbowl of horse racing’s broadcast for the whole world to see. And we do live in our bubble in the horse industry, not our bubble, but it’s a small group compared to the whole public perception in the world. And so, by caring about animal welfare, we are not going to do anything but elevate the public’s perceptions of all of our sports. Just like you guys care about the welfare of the meat products you provide. By raising them ethically, you are going to change the perception of maybe someone who doesn’t eat meat for ethical reasons because they don’t feel the animals are treated right. And it’s not about being one sided and siding with PETA because you care about animal welfare, because everything I feel like has to serve a purpose and nothing lives for free. And even speaking about like we are omnivores, we eat meat, we are made to eat meat and non-meat, plant-based too as well. So, it’s not like you’re going to say, oh, I’m not going to eat meat because they’re not treating- you can care about the welfare and still eat meat. You can care about the welfare of these racehorses or horses in any industry and still love the sports that they’re in. And it’s just about treating the animals fairly and in a way that they understand. And so really, Ty was prepared for the criticism he was going to receive. And he even said, he said, why don’t I just go out and enjoy my horses? He said, why am I-? He said, I don’t have a dog in the fight. I’m not trying to make any money off this. I am not trying to be a clinician or sell horsemanship books or anything. He said- And I said, well, Ty, if Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt and these horsemen that you look up to had kept quiet and just enjoyed their horse, their knowledge wouldn’t have been passed down for you to know now. I said, so you have to be courageous. And he stands behind everything he says. 

Neil Dudley: I give you guys a big tip of the hat or pass you a rose just for you have a platform, you’ve built it, you’ve both got some notoriety and some eyes watching the things you talk about. And that’s where I think the rubber meets the road. Are you going to speak up when you know there’s probably going to be backlash from what I think is just ignorance? Humans and social media kind of propagates it a little bit. They encourage the, well, there’s just a- it’s a lot easier to kind of get in a tit for tat on when you’re not in front of somebody.

Paige Murray: When you are not in front of somebody’s face. Yes, it’s easier to type it out.

Neil Dudley: Totally, trouble them or whatever they call it these days. So that was cool. I wanted the listeners to hear a little bit just about when you have a platform. And you could almost say the thing that same thing goes for Colin Kaepernick or a lot of people that just decide to stand up for something. There are consequences to that. Sometimes there’s awesome consequences. Sometimes there are negative consequences. I know Ty. I mean, I’m watching the broadcast. We had gone to a Mother’s Day weekend with my mom, Stacy’s mom, my daughters, my wife. We’re just having a blast. We caught a minute to watch the race in the hotel room. We were jumping up and down, excited. That was the coolest thing. And even there just- the outriders got the horse back and the horse is biting him, which I didn’t catch that immediately. I just saw him really jerking on the reins and kind of, I mean, it looked like he poked the horse’s eye once. I’m like, man, he is roughing that horse up.

Paige Murray: And to go back to that, Ty said if there was a need for this, if he was truly saving someone, if the horse was putting himself and other people in danger, it’d be a different story.

Neil Dudley: That is what I wondered. Why didn’t he just turn the horse loose? What’s the rule? Do they have to control them by an outrider at that point, or-? 

Paige Murray: Ty said it would be a different story if that was the case. But there’s a video clip of him going, the horse is just galloping out after the race. And he just goes up and immediately grabs him. And the horse isn’t biting at that point, he’s not looking for a fight. And Ty was saying, Rich Stripe was not looking for fight, but when you constrain a horse that doesn’t understand what’s going on, he’s going to fight or flee. And his only choice was to fight. And when you pick a fight back with them on national TV, that’s where it doesn’t sit well. And Ty’s not- gosh, he doesn’t- he’s not looking for any repercussions for the guy. He’s nothing, all he wants is to share his knowledge. And so hopefully- he doesn’t like to see that happen when it can be prevented with just the knowledge of the horse. And you know what Ty was saying, like if he just rode along beside that horse, there wouldn’t have been a fight.

Neil Dudley: I don’t know the industry well enough. Like, I don’t know. The question in my mind is, I don’t know why, why does the guy not just turn him loose when all that starts happening? Is he fixing to run off? 

Paige Murray: Ty was saying he just ran a mile and a quarter, his guts out. He’s not going to run off. He’s tired. He’s not going to go eat people. Like, he’s not a lion. He started fighting back when there was a fight. And he’s not going to go eat and attack people. 

Neil Dudley: I don’t know, it’s curious to me why they- every single one of them probably had an outrider coming up to catch the horses. 

Paige Murray: Well, no, if you watch, all the other horses are just happily loping along peacefully. 

Neil Dudley: He is just trying to him go back to the winner circle or something. I don’t know. Anyways, it was cool. It is an interesting thing. Y’all should watch the race. It’s an awesome race. And I think there’s probably clips of this whole scenario playing out if you go check it out because it’s getting lots of attention from the race industry, from the horse industry, from just people watching. You’ll hear- It’s just crazy. 

Paige Murray: And I’m sure you got- you know like, as we’re in the animal industry, you from the meat side of it and providing a product, us from the sports side of it, like we’re under a microscope already. And to our point is like caring about the animal’s welfare is not going to do anything but help our industries survive and thrive. 

Neil Dudley: Well, and that outrider, look, he took a horse bite to the leg. If you’ve never been bit by horse, that hurts.

Paige Murray: Ty said he appreciates his grit and toughness and he hung in there. And he said he cowboyed it up and did it. He said, but the fight didn’t need to happen is where he’s coming from. 

Neil Dudley: It’s also part of transparency. I mean, I’m almost glad it did happen because if the camera would have cut away real quick, like, uh-oh, we don’t want the world to see that, then, uh-oh, now everybody knows the industry is hiding a little dirty secret. It’s part of what Pederson’s is trying to do with these podcasts. We just- look, there are things that we disagree with. And just even eating animals is one of those things people won’t understand. We’re just trying to put it all out in front of everybody. Like, hey, here’s the truth. If we are wrong, we don’t know it. There’s certainly things we still have to get better at. I mean, Ty even taught me that. Like in horsemanship, there is no finish line. You’re never perfect. You’re always- and you’re dealing with a different personality in each horse and even yourself on different days when you might’ve had a bad day. So all of those things really tie kind of cool together within Pederson’s products, our animals that we raise, the things that you do with Ty. I think as his wife, that’s kind of a cool thing you’re doing. Like you’re right there to take the fallout too, whatever it might be, or the win. I mean, that’s a cool partnership even in that way.

Paige Murray: Yeah. We always support each other, and it’s not just supporting him because he’s my husband. Like when you know somebody that well, and he’s such a man of integrity and everything he’s doing is just because he cares about the horse.

Neil Dudley: All right. This has been a fun conversation, a great conversation. I hope everybody listening really understands we know your time is not free. Like everybody’s time is a thing you never get back. So, this 30 minutes, 40 minutes, whatever we’ve been together talking, I hope you found value in it. I hope you now follow Paige. You get to know her. If she’s a person that speaks your language, now you’re in her community. You have a chance to be a part of that community. And if not, then listen to the next episode. That person might be better. Really, that’s what it’s all about, finding those people. 

Paige Murray: It is. 

Neil Dudley: Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. And anything you want to say that I forgot and just want to tell people to pay attention to if we haven’t touched on it? 

Paige Murray: No. Thanks for having me on. And I enjoyed talking with you. 

Neil Dudley: All right, good deal. Everybody, come back next time. We’re going to have somebody else that’s going to tell us all about their perspective. I keep saying the word perspective, they are just thoughts on lifestyle, healthy lifestyle, food, the better-for-you food industry, all those things. So come back. Thanks for listening. 

Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Pederson’s Farms Podcast. It’s been a blast bringing this to you, and I sure hope you enjoyed it and found value. If you did, tell a friend, share it out on social media, hit that subscribe button, or go check us out at pedersonsfarms.com. We sure hope you do. And thanks for being here.