Rural Heritage June/July 2025

Business Spotlight Haste Draft Horses & Mules

by Joe Mischka B efore he started Haste Draft Horses and Mules, Steve Haste sold used cars. During that stint, he was given some good advice by a seminar speaker named Joe Verde who said: “You can learn all the sales tactics you want, ” Steve remembered. “You can try to get better. You never will until you understand one thing. And I said, ‘well, what's the one thing.’ “The customer's what matters. All you have to do is find out what the customer wants or needs and do what you have to do for that customer.” Steve took that philosophy to heart. It is one of the fundamental principles he uses to run his horse and mule business today. It all started with one mule: “Well, what happened was an Amish guy moved into this area and said,‘Will you sell a mule for me?’” Steve said, “Are you serious?” This was like way back, like 2009, something like that. I put that mule online and sold it that night to a guy in Maryland for $1,500. No kidding. Today that's pretty cheap, but back then that was good for a green mule. “And he gave and he gave me $500. And I thought, ‘there's something here.’ And he said,‘let's do it again. I got a mini horse in a wagon.’ “I said, ‘let's sell it.’” “Then we done it again and we done it again. And I think, ‘something's happening here.’” That seminar speaker, Joe Verde, told Steve something else that has stuck with him: “He said ‘You know, 90 percent of the people that come to you are not even looking to buy anything. They’re looking for a friend and somebody to lead, guide and help them and be there for them.’ And I took that to heart. “Like, we're we're doing a clinic right now,” Steve said.“All these people out there (taking the clinic) are best friends now. I got so many customers. Shout out to all my customers out there across this country,

Steve Haste

man, that are not just customers. They're friends. And if we need something, all we gotta do is make a phone call in any state. “They help us and we help them. And we've built so many good relationships with this business.” Steve and his business partner, Henry Martin, held their first clinic in 2012 in Hettinger, N.D. Since then, he's held a few more on the road, but when he noticed people were coming from all over the country to attend, they decided to hold them at his place. “We can give the people a lot better clinic right here,” he said. Because we got everything. We have all the equipment. If they want to hook up a Knepps power forecart and go out here and spread manure and learn that, we can do it right. If they want to plow, whatever they want to do, right. And that's how we run our clinics. They call like, do you have an itinerary? I've never made one. We're yours. We're here for you. You tell us what you want to learn. It's your clinic, not ours. And that's how we run them. Haste Draft Horses and Mules. (606) 303-5669. drafthorsesandmulesforsale.com.

Rural Heritage

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