About The Ain't No Dummy

To start out, I would like to begin by saying thank you to my family and friends who all contributed in various ways throughout the creation and developmental process, whether by offering encouragement, advice, helping to formulate ideas, testing prototypes, marketing, or helping to teach me how to sew and how to create a small retail business. 

(Rodger & Jane Wakasugi, Elsie Billey, Riata & Rhett Wakasugi, Braydon Wakasugi, Terri Wakasugi Husmann, Larry & Linda Kerr, Jared Sinclair, Liane Nevarez, Robert & Bobbi Schaffer, Quincy Sorensen, Julie Adams, Clara Adams, Jill Francis, Richard C., and Randy W. Also, many thanks to anyone else I may not be remembering as I sat down to write this.)

When my daughter began goat tying in 2024, I reached out to a former collegiate coaching friend, Jill Francis, to coach my daughter. During my daughter’s first goat tying practice session I attended, Jill and I concluded that we were not quite happy with the various goat tying dummies our kids were tying on for various reasons.

I thought to myself as I was looking at the dummies being used- well, I bet I can figure out a way to make something better, 

and before I realized what I was getting myself into, I blurted out with more conviction than I felt, 

“I can make one.”
 

My dining room table quickly turned into a workspace where I and my family spent many hours and late nights working through developing prototypes. Since then, thankfully, we have converted a spare room into a designated work space.
 

The best part of this whole experience was the chance for my daughter Riata

to be a part of the actual creation process. She discovered the sleeping bag concept for the dummy while she and I were in our local department store seeking stuffing ideas when she excitedly exclaimed at the time that 

the sleeping bag “feels like a squishy goat tummy momma!”

After an entire year of praying over this process and working hard to incorporate the sleeping bag concept, testing various materials, and contemplating suggestions from many family & friends alike, to achieve the “feel” of a real goat, 

my daughter, Jill’s kids, and Jill, all, deemed the dummy’s feel as “realistic”- 

and we finally arrived at what was first only jokingly referred to in conversation as the:

“Ain’t No Dummy”

The phrase became the product name. 

Jill took a few of the initial prototype dummies I had made at the time to a goat tying clinic she put on for kids to use, as well as to a goat tying coach and athlete at the collegiate level to feel. 

The feedback was all the same, that the dummy felt “realistic.” 

I created a social media page for the dummy, an ordering form, and began casually posting to social media to gain traction and reach. 

Little by little, there has been some growth, and these dummies have slowly made their way across America into multiple states so far. 

The goal has always been to create something that truly helps kids practice better. The Ain't No Dummy allows kids to "scoop and gather" or "stuff" with ease due to their unique features. 

This has been an amazing, challenging, and fun experience.

I have also experienced some “ah ha” moments throughout the creation process. For example, the sleeping bag stuffing in each Ain’t No Dummy can be removed if a little competitor needs to bed down at a rodeo or other event such as rodeo bible camp. My daughter enjoyed me adding the heart, ears, and tail on to make the goats “cute” and more personable, which also allowed me to realize early in the creative process, that each dummy could be personalized with decorative fabric patterns, brands, or initials that I could sew on as desired by each competitor.
 

It may only be a hobby for me at this point in time, and that may very well always be what it will ever be, 

but it brings great joy to my life to spend the time it takes to hand make unique & customizable, yet, realistic, feeling goat tying dummies with my two kids and my husband, for a few rodeo kids across the country to practice on and to further grow their love for goat tying and the western way of life.

-Amanda