Severe Navicular and Lame - Now giving lessons again!
John Dowdy:
Hello, and welcome to another Equinety podcast. I am really excited for this week's episode because Danielle Chouteau is someone that I came across commenting on one of our ads that we run on Facebook. And I'm like, "Oh, that's it. I've got to reach out to her and get her on." Because from what I read and I'll read you pieces of this as we get into this podcast, a complete supplement skeptic, which I loved. But her story is even more exciting. So without further ado, welcome to the show Danielle.
Danielle C.:
Thank you.
John Dowdy:
Great. Well it's great to have you. As I just mentioned, you had made a comment on one of our ads. I'll quote you right here, saying, "You can honestly saying, I am no means a lover of supplements." So we'll leave that right there. But before we go further, would you mind telling us a little bit of your background? It seems as though you are no stranger to horses or the horse industry.
Danielle C.:
Yeah, I actually got involved with horses when I was around 10 and started my first colt. I was probably 12, watching John Williams videos and then going out into the round pen and doing what he was doing in the round pen. And then I also have a degree from the University of [inaudible] in equestrian studies. And outside of that, now I run my own small business doing riding lessons for kids and I do birthday parties and I have my own little special herd.
John Dowdy:
Special herd. Yes, we'll get into that, as well. And I was also excited to find out you're in my stomping grounds of Oklahoma, which is where I grew up, so you're out in the Enid area.
Danielle C.:
Yes. I am. It's a great area and I can't see ever moving out of it.
John Dowdy:
That's great. And you love dodging the tornadoes as they're whipping through tornado alley there?
Danielle C.:
Yeah. Actually, Enid is in a little hole. They always, knock on wood, seem to go right around us. So I've learned to not get too nervous about them, but definitely have learned to watch the weather, as well.
John Dowdy:
Those are scary. And interestingly enough, in the little town that I grew up in, it was also in a little pocket, so they seemed to always go around us. So that was ... Those things are definitely scary.
John Dowdy:
So okay. So going back, now you saw this ad. Is this how you were first introduced to the product? Is this where you first learned about the product?
Danielle C.:
I did. I found it on Facebook. I kind of mentioned my special little herd. I've got a 26-year-old Quarter horse with Cushing's and I have a Quarter horse and a Thoroughbred with navicular. And the Thoroughbred also has ringbone. So half of my horses are half lame. When I found out about Lucy, she's one of my main lesson horses and she's probably 14 years old now. I found out about the navicular two years ago. But it was at the point, I need her for my business and she's [inaudible] for me, so I wanted to find something to help the poor girl out.
Danielle C.:
So I decided to go ahead and try it, just looking at the Facebook and all the ratings on it, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot.
John Dowdy:
Yes. Now I mentioned earlier, you had said in your post you were by no means a lover of supplements. As a matter of fact, maybe looking at this as a possible snake oil or something along those lines was your initial impression.
Danielle C.:
Yeah. I really remember looking at it. And I said, "Oh, hell. It's a hundred bucks. I said I might as well trying something to help her out. Everyone's ranting and raving about it." So I put her on it and honestly, I didn't really see a difference, so I pulled her back off of it after ... I think I went through two tubs of it. And I said, "Oh, forget it. I'm not seeing a huge difference." And I thought I had thought I had won to be completely honest with you.
John Dowdy:
Right. Okay. So you went through two tubs. Now were they the larger tubs, the three-month supplies?
Danielle C.:
Yes. And I had been splitting them between a couple of my other horses. So I had my Cushing's horse on it. I was kind of splitting it up, putting everybody on it. If it's so great, let's see if it changes anybody.
John Dowdy:
Okay. Sure. So probably a good couple of months worth?
Danielle C.:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). For sure.
John Dowdy:
Okay. So not seeing any difference. So you're like, "Well why am I wasting my money?"
Danielle C.:
Right.
John Dowdy:
Okay. So then as the story goes along, your farrier was scheduled to come out and so what happened there?
Danielle C.:
I had noticed Lucy, that's the lesson horse, [inaudible] navicular horse. I noticed she was barely walking out into the pasture with the other horses. They would take off cantering and she would just kind of walk behind them. And she'd walk in behind them. And they'd still canter in and she'd kind of walk behind them. In lessons, she would still trot. And she's never looked lame. She's always heavy on the front end, but the shoes have always kept her from being three-legged lame.
Danielle C.:
So she wasn't limping, but you could tell. I'm not going to say she's 100% sound. So she'd still trot with these little kids on her, but she'd want to suck in her back end a little bit and you could kind of tell she was a little sore. So I just figured it was time for her reset. So my farrier came out to do her reset.
Danielle C.:
And we had a problem with her previously, so before I even started her on the Equinety and when I found out about her navicular, we actually had to sedate her to put shoes on her because she would run sideways, back up, rear. She was a holy terror to shoe. And she's a lesson horse. There's not a mean bone in her body.
Danielle C.:
So I figured when I had this farrier come out, we had been working with her to try to figure out ways that were going to make her feel better because I figured out ... We didn't think she was trying to be mean because she's not mean anywhere around the books. So she had that problem previously and then it kind of went away. So we thought we had just worked her through it, hey, it's not scary, we're okay.
Danielle C.:
So then, when she went off the Equinety, low and behold, she started pulling back and running sideways when he would pick her feet up. And I found myself hand-feeding her freaking treats to get her to stand still and get the shoes put back on her. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is not who I am." He was like, "I can't be having this." Like I said, what has come of me, but I had to keep my farrier safe and if I was giving her treats, her mind was on something else so she'd stand still long enough to get the nails in.
John Dowdy: Oh gosh.
Danielle C.:
So after that, he kind of looked at me and said, "Oh, well. We had a bad day. We kind of regressed a little bit. We had a bad day." I said, "Yeah. I'm not sure what that was all about." Maybe she was just body sore because I'd noticed she kind of stopped cantering out in the pastures and maybe she's just body sore. So he says, "Yeah. Okay. Well we'll check her out for the next time." So the next six weeks go by. She gets her next reset and she ... Once again, I'm handing her freaking treats to keep her standing still long enough to get the shoes on.
Danielle C.:
And he looked at me and he said, "Danielle, what have we done different? We haven't done anything different." And I just kind of looked at him and I said, "I don't think we did anything different, but I'll try something." And I didn't tell him what it was because he would look at me and laugh. He would [inaudible] like, "Yeah, whatever. You crazy horse lady." And I really didn't feel like having him laugh in my face over that.
Danielle C.:
So I went back and I ordered another tub of Equinety and I put her back on it and I said nothing to him. Actually, my husband, he had held her for the next reset. I'd put her back on the supplements. He held her for me and I texted my farrier and I said, "Well, how'd she do?" Because I was at work. And he said, "Oh, she was a precious little angel." And I said, "Dale," I said, "Stop screwing with me." I said, "Just be honest. If she was a holy terror, just freaking tell me."
Danielle C.:
He goes, "No, Danielle. She was really good." She stood there and went to sleep like we had done very other time before ever since we had, you know, worked her out of the stuff the first time. I'm like, "You've got to be kidding me." He said, "No. Why?" And I said, "Well, I told you I was going to try something." And I said, "I put her back on this supplement." And he goes, "What the hell was it?"
Danielle C.:
And I told him it was Equinety. And he goes well, "You know how I am." But he goes, "I'm being dead serious. She stood there with her eyes closed and let me shoe her." He said, "Zack didn't have to do anything. He just watched her." She didn't pull back. She didn't open her ... She just stood there. So I said, "Okay. It looks like we're just going to go ahead and keep her on this then."
John Dowdy:
And when I read that, I'm just like, "Oh my Gosh!" And this is the reason why I had to have you on. Because with so many products on the market and I know there are some great ones out there, we are just super blessed to have something that works so well. And what this product is actually doing and I'll take just a minute, just if you're tuning in for the first time to give you the reasons why this product is working so well and why it helps with so many different things.
John Dowdy:
Because ultimately, what this is doing ... It's a stack of amino acids. There's no fillers, no sugars, no starches. And what it ultimately does is it stimulates the pituitary gland to release the necessary hormones and then the body decides where to send those hormones for the healing. So you could have 12 different horses with 12 different issues and this is going to customize to each individual horse because the body is sending those hormones where it needs for the healing.
John Dowdy:
And that's one of the reasons why it's so effective because you're not having to play a guessing game, is it this issue so I need to try this product or this medication? This is really easy. It's one little scoop. And let me ask you this. How was the palatability for your horses?
Danielle C.:
They have not even noticed that it was in there. When I had Newt on it the first time, he tends to be a little more picky. And I think at first, he tried to snort around it, but I just slapped it all together and kind of mixed it a little bit and then he ate it right off the bat. And Lucy has never had a problem. Heck, she licks the bottom of her bowl and if there's any powder left, it's gone.
John Dowdy:
Right. And it's not very much. It's not even a tablespoon, 5.2 grams. And it's kind of salty by nature, so we don't really have any palatability issues. And I will tell you, you're not the first time that we've had people, we'll say, that have secretly given a product without telling others. You know, they were having an issue with their horse and their vet said, "Oh no. Take them off everything." And they went ahead and secretly gave it to them anyway.
John Dowdy:
And the next time, they'd come back, the vet's like, "Oh. What did you do?" So that's happened. We've heard stories like that. It's almost like we're the sounding board for people to get some of the stuff off their chest. They have to tell somebody. So it's fun to hear these stories.
John Dowdy:
I know with, of course, this is your prized lesson horse so with the navicular, also has some ringbone. And how long now have you had your horse back on this round?
Danielle C.:
So Lucy, she's almost, I'm going to say probably two months because I have about a month left out of that container. I have another probably 30 days left and a little under halfway down. I have not put the navicular and ringbone horse on it. That's a different beat.
John Dowdy:
Oh, okay. I got you.
Danielle C.:
That's my off-the-track Thoroughbred. So Lucy just has navicular. And she has about a month left before I need to reorder and then my plan was, I got my Cushing's horse, my 26-year-old Cushing's horse and then I have the Thoroughbred that has the ringbone and the navicular. So I was going to put him on it and see if it helped him out any. Because I have a little 10-year-old girl that's starting to ride him a little bit. So I need to get lameness taken care of or at least get him feeling better.
Danielle C.:
But I can tell you, since I've had Lucy and I've had her for, oh gosh, I'm going to say probably seven years, I have never seen anybody other than myself convince that thing to canter. She just won't. And I say it's because of the navicular, because she's sore and I understand so I don't really push her. So I use her for my teeny tots that are good to walk and trot and that's about it.
Danielle C.:
I had a little 4-year-old get on her. Oh gosh, it's been two weeks ago now and I said, "Lydia," I said, "Why don't you go ahead and get down to that barrel?" And I said, "I want you to kick her sides and kiss and just see what happens." So she gets down to that barrel. And this little 4-year-old sticks her legs out there and she kicks and she kisses and Lucy cantered off. I have never seen that horse canter off, especially for a little 4-year-old. And she cantered off like she knew exactly what she was doing.
Danielle C.:
So now every time, I see Miss Lydia, she goes, "Miss Danielle, can we try to canter today again?" I say, "Well, let's see how Lucy is feeling and we'll give her a try."
John Dowdy:
Oh gosh. That is so funny. So I'll ask you this. So with your degree in equestrian studies, you're out, no stranger to horses and with this particular one for seven years, you know this horse pretty well inside and out. And I guess you would have to come to the conclusion that with the Equinety in the first couple of months, you put her on, didn't see a different. That's when you took her off and things seemed to get worse.
John Dowdy:
Which by the way seems to happen often with people that will have somebody else feeding the product and they run out and the horse goes back to the way that it was doing before. And then they put the horse back on. But it's also a great test to sometimes see. And in your case, I would say more often than not, people notice a difference relatively quickly, within a couple of days to weeks and definitely by 30 days.
John Dowdy:
In your case, you're on for two months and didn't think it was working. And as you put it, you won because you proved us wrong. I love that.
Danielle C.:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
And so it wasn't until you took her off and then saw a noticeable decline and then you put her back on as now when you see it. So what we can conclude from this whole test and ultimately if the 4-year-old is able to make her canter, this horse is obviously feeling really good. No other way to ...
Danielle C.:
She ... No. I took her up from the pasture. And she normally just ... I can throw the lead up over my shoulder and she'll just kind of follow me. It was two days ago I was bringing her in for her food and she trotted the entire way up the driveway behind me. Seriously. I looked at one of my lesson kids and I said, "I might need to back her off to half a scoop." I said, "I'm so happy that she's feeling so good, but we have kids on her back."
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Oh goodness. Wow. That is so awesome. Well, I tell you, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your Equinety story and hopefully, this will be an inspiration for anybody else that ... Well if it worked for you, maybe it'll work for me. And I always tell people the odds of this working with whatever is going on with your horse are very, very high because of what it's doing internally. So I can't thank you enough. And I'm sure the people listening in really appreciate it, as well. So thank you, thank you for sharing your Equinety story.
Danielle C.: Not a problem. I appreciate it. Thank you.
John Dowdy: You bet.
