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Maddy Butcher worked for nearly two decades as a free-lance reporter for The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications covering sports, travel, business, front page, and investigative work.

More recently, she’s dedicated her work almost exclusively to horse-related content. (But she still writes opinion pieces for the Washington Post.)

Within the horse and ranching worlds, Maddy Butcher is the creator of several popular informational newsletters like the Nicker News, Horse Head, and High Country Outsider. She's also the founder of The Best Horse Practices Summit, and the horseman's mental health forum, Buck the Trend, and we talk about both here. 

Additionally, Maddy does day work on ranches, and is even working to become a range rider to help keep the newly introduced wolves in Colorado away from livestock.

Maddy produced The Best Horse Practices Podcast with Jec Ballou for the entire run, having done the final episode in the last month or so. I find it hard to believe that there's any time left for her to do something else, but she somehow even produced, wrote, and was in a short film in the last year. "A Brutal, Beautiful Life" is a project with her son, Beau Gaughran, who is a professional film maker and part time adrenaline junkie. This film is out at film festivals now and is a 10 minute view into the lives of female ranchers and cowgirls. It lives up to the title by depicting the solitude and struggles of this life and its brutality, while juxtaposing the beautiful surrounding, animals and experiences surrounding the hard moments that smother us. 

Maddy mentions a documentary about an idigenous girl. Here's the link to view it: 

"Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before The Sun"

 

More than a few of you have asked if I was going to have a guest on who wasn't a pro, and was more in your shoes, a sufferer of Adult Onset Horsemanship, and this episode applies. Maddy is candid about her stuggles and frustrations, as well as her breakthroughs and triumphs. She's intelligent, quirky, and a friend.

Recently, she invited me out to her place in southwest Colorado to help her with a young mustang and greenish ranch gelding that she's been trying in vain to improve. We worked for 4 days and a large part of this conversation is about the things we worked on, what she expected and was surprised by, and her take aways and insights.