John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to another Equinety Podcast. This week we've got Sommer Smith out of Temecula, California, and this is probably ... well, it is a new one that we have not done before. This is going to focus around the English side of show horses and, well, we're going to talk about four this morning. So without further ado, Sommer, welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
Sommer Smith:
Hi and thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about your wonderful product and excited that we have something like this on the market for our equines and all their needs.
John Dowdy:
Awesome. Well, and I hear some foot clopping in the background. Might you be riding a horse right now?
Sommer Smith:
Yes, I am currently on a horse. I'm here out riding out on the trails and trying to beat the heat in Southern California this year.
John Dowdy:
Awesome. Well, that's great. Okay, so you and your husband actually have race horses, but as you were telling me in the pre-call, you decided to use your for-show horses as a test batch to see how this stuff really works.
Sommer Smith:
Correct. I originally purchased the product for one of my show horses as my test subject with the idea of using it on our race horses. The reason I decided to use it on my show horses first was I actually ride those horses versus the race horses that I do not. It gives me a better baseline of knowing the horse that I'm on and seeing how the product affects my horse when I can actually ride it myself.
John Dowdy:
No, that makes perfect sense. And for those of you who might be tuning in, who do have high performance horses that, you know, "Hey, the horses are doing great, why would I need this product?" This is a podcast for you. So, what the quality of the horses that you have prior to even trying the Equinety, what was the overall conditions of the horses just in general?
Sommer Smith:
My horses are all in good health and show fit. The horse that I originally bought the product for, he had a minor strain that he sustained out playing out in the pasture. It was nothing major, but I was looking for something that might aid in the recovery so that I could get back to the show ring without missing too much of the season. So he became the inspiration of looking for something that would support healthy tissue growth and being able to return him to competition.
John Dowdy:
Sure. So let's talk about this first horse. He's an eight year old hunter?
Sommer Smith:
Yes. He's quite a large horse. He's 17.1, about 1,400 pounds, so he's not a little guy. He was out playing in the pasture, kicked the fence, hooked the shoe in the fence and just had a minor strain behind. Wasn't anything major. The vet just give him a couple of weeks off and he could go back to working. I tend to be conservative with my horses and I had already planned to give him double the time off. It was fortunately not during competition season and I just wanted to get something to help support his healing, and that's when I found Equinety.
John Dowdy:
Sure. How long has this one been on product?
Sommer Smith:
He's actually been on it now for four months.
John Dowdy:
Okay. And how's he doing now?
Sommer Smith:
He's fantastic. We returned to the show ring, got some of the highest scores we've ever received. The trainer that I show with doesn't see my horse on a regular basis because he's out on the circuit all the time and I'm only out there part of the time, and he remarked about how wonderful the horse looks physically. And then when he rode him, he said, "This horse feels better than he's ever felt."
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Sommer Smith:
So that was encouraging. I ride the horse daily and sometimes we don't notice subtle changes in them, but when you get feedback from somebody who's very trusted in the industry and has known the horse for two years and just keeps raving about how great the horse has returned, and it was very encouraging.
John Dowdy:
Sure. And under saddle, how have you noticed just recovery and stamina and things of that nature, being a performance horse?
Sommer Smith:
My horse is ... He tries very hard for me. I am an amateur. I make a lot of mistakes and sometimes I ask him for unusual feats of athleticism, which he's more than happy to give me, but because of doing so, he does get tired. By the end of the horse show it's all I can do to kind of keep him going as far as energy level, but on Equinety I don't feel that at all. He's the same day one as he is day four and that is simply amazing to me. Again, I've been showing this horse for two years and have struggled on the last day with stamina and no longer have that struggle.
John Dowdy:
That's incredible. Yeah. Okay, let's go into horse number two, which is a four year old hunter as well that you just acquired from Europe?
Sommer Smith:
Correct.
John Dowdy:
Yep, okay.
Sommer Smith:
We castrated him before shipping him over and that's hard on a horse in general anyways, just the castration alone, but then getting on a flight and having to come to California and quarantine. He lost a lot of weight in the process. It's a stressful thing for a young horse and weight loss is to be expected, but his was a little more than was anticipated. So we put him on Equinety right away and he just bloomed so quickly and was able to go to work after clearing quarantine. He picked up weight. It just was phenomenal on him. Sorry my horse is jumping forward at the moment.
John Dowdy:
That's okay. He's getting excited.
Sommer Smith:
Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that.
John Dowdy:
So you noticed the weight came back on quicker than expected, muscle tone.
Sommer Smith:
Muscle tone's great. Another thing, when we castrate horses, their coats tend to get a little dull afterwards just with the loss of hormones, and his coat never went through that. And I have to credit Equinety with that. I've never had a horse castrated who didn't have just a change in their hair coat, and this horse, if anything has changed, has been for the better.
John Dowdy:
Sure. And as a side note, since you mentioned that, for those listening and for the first time, what the Equinety product is it's 100% pure amino acids. There's no fillers, no sugars, no starches, there's no loading dose, and a serving size is 5.2 grams, which is not even a tablespoon. What it's specifically formulated to do is stimulate the pituitary gland, which is the master gland in the body, and that's what triggers all the hormones, specifically the hormones that help heal at a cellular level.
So, as we're going through each of these horses and horse number one, the recovery was better, happier, comfortable, recovered very nice from that strain. Just the overall endurance and everything is better. In the second horse where you're shipping across from Europe, significant weight loss, and just adding the Equinety helped with the weight gain, the muscle tone, the overall look and feel. And as you mentioned, didn't lose the coat.
Sommer Smith:
[inaudible 00:07:47] of his coat.
John Dowdy:
Correct, yes. So that gives a little bit of insight for what the product is and how it's working and why it helps in so many different scenarios. So, let's go into horse number three, which is a mare that's a bit spicy and hot as you told me earlier, and is a jumper. Tell us about this one.
Sommer Smith:
Yeah, so horse number three is a high-level show horse. She competes at the meter 20 level. She's just a hotter type mare. Doesn't make her un-rideable by any means, but she's spicy and I love her for that. She also takes very good care of me out there. I decided to try her on it because I wanted to find out if it made her hot or hotter and it does not at all. If anything, she a little bit happier on the product. She's another one who tries her heart out for me and can get a little tired at the end of a horse show. Doesn't really compromise her ability to do anything, but it makes me have to ride a little bit harder and putting her on Equinety, I don't have that. Again, she's the same the first day of the horse show as the last day of the horse show.
I recently had taken her to a series of horse shows and so we were at the show for two weeks, and prior to Equinety, it was a little harder the second week. But on Equinety, she's again, she's the same horse the first day of the show as the last day. And just the recovery on her is significant. I was so pleased that she feels so good on it all the time without getting hot or fresh.
John Dowdy:
Yes, absolutely. Well, and as you mentioned before, your entire goal from the beginning was, hey, let's test this on a few horses. Because your horses are already in great shape, but if you can help them be a little happier, a little healthier, and they're doing things that are like a professional athlete. So they're, you know, the stress and the strain and all those types of things. Let's go into horse number four, which has only been on the product for how long?
Sommer Smith:
For a week.
John Dowdy:
Okay. One week on the product, and what were the things going on with this horse that you thought, "Well, let's try the product and see if this helps."?
Sommer Smith:
His weight was a little light. I just bought the horse so I don't really have any previous information on him. He kind of had some skin allergy issues where he was always itchy and scratchy. His coat was a little dull. He was rubbing his tail really bad. I had tried washing the tail and conditioning it and using topical products and nothing really seemed to alleviate the itchiness that he had. So I put him on Equinety, and low and behold, he stopped itching the very next day. He stopped rubbing his tail. It's actually growing. People have remarked about how his coat color looks different. And again, he's just thriving on it. I was shocked. I didn't think I would see a difference in the horse in that short of a time. I'm so thrilled that he is comfortable, literally comfortable in his own skin now, and he's just a happier horse.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's great. Well, and one of the things ... This product actually starts working in 24 hours. It stimulates the pituitary gland as soon as it's absorbed, which is fairly quickly and starts working in 24 hours. We've seen in two to three days, horses that have a lot of stress and anxiety, just complete demeanor change. In this case, one week on product, it's already benefited from the skin allergies and a better coat, which is quite remarkable in as little as one week. That's something now. How big of a barn are you in?
Sommer Smith:
We have 70 horses on the farm. The hunter-jumper division has about 20 horses in it, and the rest are race horses or layup horses of various types. We do breeding and foaling. We start horses to go to the track. We do layups, retirements, you name it, we do it. I feel I can say from conception to cremation
John Dowdy:
That would cover all basis for sure.
Sommer Smith:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
Yep, yep. So, how would you say your horses look compared to other horses that are in there? Because again, this is a high-end barn where they get the best of things. How would you say yours compare just look-wise?
Sommer Smith:
So, my four horses that are on the product, their coats are very tight and shiny. The rest of the horses in the barn are actually starting to grow their winter coats, whereas mine have not yet. The only difference between the other horses and my four horses is Equinety.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Wow. That has to be encouraging for anyone tuning in, especially for the show horse crowd that if you find that your horses are doing fine, you don't think that they need anything extra, maybe you should give the Equinety a try and just see how it works for your horse. A lot of people even use it as a preventative because it's helping those cells operate at their optimal levels, so that's always a plus. But if nothing else, for recovery, stamina. They haul better and all those types of things.
Well, I tell you what, Sommer, this I know is going to be very beneficial for the folks listening in. Is there anything else that you could think of that we haven't talked about or maybe a piece of advice for anyone thinking about trying the product and maybe hadn't pulled-
Sommer Smith:
Yeah. There's lots of products out on the market, but there's nothing that compares to Equinety for what you're getting for your horse and cost-wise. It's so much more cost-effective than I would say 98% of the products out there. But more than the cost, it works fantastic and it's worth giving a shot.
John Dowdy:
I couldn't have said that better and I did not pay you for that comment. Just so ...
Sommer Smith:
Well, it's true. I mean, I tried it because, again, I own a lot of horses and so I do have to be conscious of what costs are. And I'm one of those you get what you pay for type, and you don't want to cut corners. You want to get the best product you can, but when you have as many horses as I do, you do have to be conscious of how much you're spending on a daily basis. And your product is not only remarkable of what it's doing for my horses, it's cost-effective to feed and that's just amazing.
John Dowdy:
Sure, absolutely. Well, Sommer, thank you so much. Sommer Smith from Temecula, California. Thanks again for sharing your stories on the Equinety Podcast.
Sommer Smith:
Well, thank you for having me on.