Jordan and her horses fight through some devastating situations: Spinal & Suspensory injuries then West Nile Virus
Tune in for Jordan's series of miracles, she's recovered from near paralyzation while treating and nursing back to the health the horse that caused it. Then at the tail end of her treatment another horse came down with West Nile Virus and she feared the worst. With Equinety and determination in hand, she and her horses are better than ever.
John D.:
Hello and welcome to another Equinety podcast. This is your host John Dowdy, and I am so excited to share this podcast with you because the challenges that Jordan, our guest, has been through personally with a potentially career-ending back injury while at the same time her really good barrel horse had a sympathy injury with a suspensory injury. So it's pretty amazing and very, very inspiring to anyone listening to this one.
John D.:
So without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome Jordan to the show.
Jordan:
Thank you, John. I'm really excited to be here and tell my story.
John D.:
Good deal. Well, we are really excited. And I tell you what, when you shared this with me my jaw was on the table more than a few times.
Jordan's History as a Rider and the Life Changing Injury
John D.:
As we go back in your ... Well, let's give a little bit of history of how you started, which you started riding 100 jumpers when you were around five years old. And as you told me, after three or four years it just wasn't enough of an adrenaline rush for you, so you got into barrel racing.
Jordan:
Yes. I did.
John D.:
And then you had picked up on that. It seemed to just come very natural to you. Then you started training your own horses, and then as you get into your late teens you had a potentially career-ending back injury. Tell us about that.
Jordan:
I had a horse ... I was roping that day and we put [Ivory 00:01:39], the horse, around the track and told me to go put him on the hot walker to cool her off, and so I did that. I ponied her over there, so I tied my horse up to the corral and put her on the hot walker and she just freaked out. She had been on it before, I don't know what happened that day. You know, you never know with horses.
Jordan:
But she did pull back and I was trying to lower a little bit and before I knew it I just heard a big clamp, and I turned around halfway and all of a sudden the hot walker, she pulled it down. And it hit my back, hit my neck, hit my L4 and L5, and my leg. I laid there for about 10 minutes until they realized that horse is loose, something happened.
John D.:
Right. Good night. So about 10 minutes, and so you're laying there trying to figure out what even happened.
Jordan:
Yes.
John D.:
Wow. So-
Jordan:
I looked up and I seen them looking in the pasture for me, and one guy rode over by the barn and I was screaming and crying to get this thing off of me.
John D.:
No doubt. So you go get everything checked out, and what did they tell you at the hospital?
Jordan:
They told me I broke my L4 and L5, and they didn't test me for any nerve damage, so they released me. And then the night after, I had a really bad shocking pain and I tried to get out of bed and that's when it happened. I called one of my friends and I told them to call 911.
Jordan:
My roommate finally heard me crying and she ran downstairs. They called 911 and the ambulance got there and they took me back to the hospital the day after to find out that my left leg was paralyzed I guess from trying to get up when I shouldn't have.
John D.:
Oh goodness. Wow.
Jordan:
But I shouldn't have been released out of the hospital.
John D.:
No. No, it does not sound like it. So you are now paralyzed from the waist down. And now at the same time your really good black barrel horse had a suspensory injury, so he's out of work essentially and you actually start him on the Equinety during this time.
Jordan:
Yes.
John D.:
Right. And then the other thing you were telling me, how often were you injecting your horse?
Jordan:
I injected him every three months.
John D.:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)- And during that year, now you're going through rehab, which I call a sympathy injury for your horse ... just, you know. Why should you do all the suffering when he could do the same?
Road To Recovery
John D.:
Now your rehab took about two years because ... Well, you didn't even know if you were ever going to ride again. What did you find after a year of your horse being on Equinety as far as specifically with the injections? What did you find?
Jordan:
I didn't have to take him. Every time I would take him, even though my vet, every three months, he probably got sick of me. But I was like, "I think he needs his injection," and he told me "No, no. He's 100% sound. He doesn't need anything." And I was like wow. You know, the hocks and stifles doesn't need to be injected and that's what caused his suspensory issue, so I couldn't believe that he didn't have to be injected, but twice a year now.
John D.:
Right. Well, and that's one of the things that we found. We get that feedback all the time with injected horses that no matter how many times they need the injections or receive the injections per year, when they're on the Equinety, it's drastically reduced and sometimes they don't have to give it at all. It just depends on the scenario of what's going on, and 100% at the advice of the veterinarian ... and the owner obviously, who knows their horses very well.
John D.:
So that's pretty exciting news from that aspect. Now, as you're jumping ahead, you're now a year in and you still don't know where you are because you're laid up. But you also had another horse, which you have the nickname of Slick Rick, which you had owned since he was five months old.
Jordan:
Yes. We bought him for a better future.
Slick Rick's Bout with West Nile Virus
John D.:
Right. If we go back about six months or so, that was six or seven months now I guess, back in late September, Slick Rick ... you were feeding him. Tell us what happened there.
Jordan:
I went to feed him out in the pasture and he looked a little wobbly. First thing caught in my mind was, oh my gosh, he has EPM. He's walking up to me like he doesn't even have his balance. So of course when he got up to me out in the pasture he literally just ... I dumped the feed and just fell right down, and I was just like oh my gosh, he really has a severe case of EPM. It's over.
Jordan:
Well, I hooked up to the trailer immediately. I tried to get him up, I got him up. We were walking out of the gate and he fell again. I was screaming, I was all alone. My husband was out hauling cattle, I didn't have anybody there to help me get him up, and I just prayed to God please give this horse the urge to get up so I can get him to the vet.
Jordan:
Finally we walked really slow to the trailer, gave him a little break. Got him to the trailer, got him in, and I did 20 the whole way to the vet. I called the vet and they said just be really careful. It doesn't sound like EPM. It sounds like something else. And all I could think about was the core equine diseases, all this other stuff that could be going on. The last thing I thought was what I found out three days after taking him to the vet, which was West Nile.
John D.:
Holy smokes. What typically happens when a horse comes down with West Nile? Or what are the possible outcomes?
Jordan:
As many times as ... What I've heard from my vet, as many times as he fell, he shouldn't have gotten back up. I guess he's a fighter, and the outcome would be or my main concern was the fluid on the brain that West Nile, but he was there the whole time. He wasn't duh or loopy or anything. He was down. He responded, but it was just like his body just couldn't hold him up anymore. And I didn't know when I dropped him off at the vet if that was the last time I'd see him.
John D.:
Within three days of being at the vet, how much weight had he lost?
Jordan:
I went there the third day to check on him with my friend, and I walked in the stall and I just bawled. His legs were ... sorry. His legs were all taped up and he just looked at me like, "I'm fighting mom." He lost over 100 pounds, and then he didn't look like the same horse. He looked like a yearling.
John D.:
Wow. And just in three days. Holy smokes. Wow. And I know this is ... and you told me before we did this podcast, it's pretty emotional because of all the things that you've gone through personally and with him. That's what you see him this way in three days.
John D.:
Now the great news, as we skip forward two and a half to three weeks, what happens then?
Equinety Supercharges the Recovery
Jordan:
I brought him home. The vet called me and said he's going to pull through. He's a fighter. We have to keep him on this oil for his ulcers. He's going to have major ulcers from all the banamine that was pumped through him. I brought him home. He looked like a horse that got the crap beat out of him I felt. I brought him home and I started him right away on Equinety, and a month after he just kept blossoming and blossoming every day. He grew stronger and stronger every single day.
John D.:
And so he had put all the weight back on, looks better than ever.
Jordan:
He looks amazing. His growth was a little stunned, but I'll take that.
John D.:
Yeah. Taking that or the other potential outcome. Absolutely.
John D.:
So you got him back home, you sent him out to the trainer, and then how soon did the trainer start working with him?
Jordan:
He was in the training in December, which was a huge awesome outcome to his ... You know. Going through West Nile, three months later he's out training. He just [inaudible 00:10:14]. That's right, he is at the trainer's, and she started riding him the day after he got there. She let him settle in the first day, and he just took to it.
Jordan:
He's super special to her and he's super special for me, and we've decided to hold him back from paturiting this year to let him just ... in five years let him grow a little bit more.
John D.:
Sure. So he was at the trainer's for about a month. You got him back this January ... No, I'm sorry. He went to the trainer's around January, and then you just-
Jordan:
And I got him back ...
John D.:
You just got him back a few days ago.
Jordan:
Last Friday.
John D.:
Right.
Jordan:
Yup.
John D.:
So he's been on Equinety all this time, and this might appear to be a setup question, which it kind of is, but it's also the reason why we're doing the podcast. What is your opinion with how he's recovered with the Equinety versus what you think it might have been without the Equinety?
Jordan:
When I first started talking to you a few years ago about Equinety, I wasn't a supplement giver. My opinion on it, it helps with amino acids, the brain, everything. The body condition ... maybe it helps it. I tried Align supplement .. I just had a good feeling about this. It gave me hope, you know? I'm throwing him on Equinety the day he gets home, and that's what I did.
John D.:
And so now he just, as you say, he's blossoming more and more every day. So he's like 100% recovered, sound, everything.
Jordan:
He is 100% recovered, working at ….sound. He's wicked smart. A little too smart, but ...
John D.:
It sounds like we have a secondary horse that also had a sympathetic thing going on. Your first horse had sympathy injury, your second horse a very sympathetic and scary thing going on.
Jordan Gets Back in the Saddle
John D.:
And I didn't mention this before to anyone, and it's a little bit now out of the timeline, but I think one of the most inspiring and important things to hear from you ... You went through two years of recovery. And then tell us what you did within two to four months after you were quote released to maybe start riding again, which you didn't think you'd ever be able to ride again, but tell everybody what you did within two to four months after you were released to ride.
Jordan:
I got back on the horse that pulled the hot walker down on me.
John D.:
If that's not a crazy right there. But again, what was the line you told to me? To jump ... or that your dad told you?
Jordan:
My dad told me you have to override your fears, so I did that.
John D.:
I would say if that's not overriding fears, I don't know what is. I tell you what. Hearing this story, if it doesn't send goosebumps down your spine, might check your pulse there. Because there's three just amazing things of lost of hope to complete comebacks all in one little farm. Wow, which is absolutely amazing. Wow. I'm-
Jordan: [inaudible 00:13:40]
John D.:
I'm somewhat lost for words, I tell you that. Now with Slick Rick, now that he's back and blossoming every day, what are your future plans with him?
Jordan:
Well yesterday ... I've waited three years to jump on this horse, then yesterday I finally got to ride Slick Rick. And then from being a trainer and everything else, my plans with him are we are going to let him breed some mares this year. He is a stud. Let him breed some mares and [inaudible 00:14:16]. And we plan to ranch on him a little bit this summer, get his mind off of our training that we did this March to him, and [inaudible 00:14:26]. I feel more comfortable on him than any of our other ranchers that we have, and he's expressive.
John D.:
Yeah.
Jordan:
And then I plan to bring ... She's going to take him back in August, early September and we are going to go into more barrel training. She did put a lot of barrel training on him, but we're going to plan the future. And he had missed [five year old 00:14:51] and let him grow a little bit and mature.
John D.:
Awesome. That is great. Well I tell you, if you're listening to this podcast and you're not inspired in more ways than one, I tell you, you might want to listen to it again is what I would have to say. But if there's anybody that's listening to the podcast that still might be on the fence about well, is this Equinety stuff does it really work ... and I know a big portion of this podcast was not specifically about the Equinety product and everything else, but it's also why they're listening in to it.
John D.:
So if there's somebody that's still a little bit on the fence about trying the Equinety for their horse, other than the things you already talked about, is there anything else that you might have for them? Advice or recommendation?
Jordan:
Well, I was always on the fence about any supplement. But my horses are my life, and I tell everyone what I did, what gave me hope. We all have to try supplements and we all have tried supplements, but I had a really good feeling, especially nagging me for three weeks before I even tried Equinety. And I just kept on asking what does it do? What does this do? How does this work? I'm just like that. I like to do my research.
Jordan:
Reading reviews is big. I'm sure there are supplements out there that do work, but they only work for a short amount of time. And I've been with this supplement for three years now. I had a good feeling about Equinety, and it's been amazing and a life-changer for my children, which I have some new legs.
John D.:
Right. Well Jordan, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to share your Equinety story, your personal story. It's so inspiring, and I hope this just really gets out there though. The more people that listen to it, if they're going through challenges, listen to this and they're inspired by your personal story, your stories about your horses and just ... wow. It's really, really amazing and thank you so much for sharing your stories.
Jordan:
Well thank you, John.
