Lisa and Don Schledfeldt 6 Cutting Horses and a Mule
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to another Equinety podcast. I am excited this week. We are going into the cutting horse world and we're going to swing out to Yakima, Washington, and I've got Lisa and Don Schledfeldt on the Equinety podcast this week. Lisa and Don, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
Don Schledfeldt:
Well, thank you. How are you today?
John Dowdy:
We're doing just great on this side, and Lisa is there with you, as well?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yep. Yep, and we're really excited to be here.
John Dowdy:
Good. Well, I'm glad to have you. I know y'all are busy people out there, so I appreciate you taking the time. This week we're going to talk about six horses, and what farm isn't complete without a mule.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Excellent.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So I understand through our pre-call, you're got performance horses, you've got an older mare, you've got some boarding horses and of course your mule. So you've got a wide variety. You also use a lot of supplements through the years. Tell us a little bit about maybe what you've experienced, prior to using Equinety, you've got these performance horses and things. Tell us about, maybe in generic terms, your supplement. You're a fan of supplements, but it seems like there was always something just kind of missing.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, and I'm going to let my husband expand on that because, well, he used a lot of different supplements prior and was always investigating different kinds of supplements.
John Dowdy:
And we don't have to go into specifics of names or anything, it's just I kind of want to give everybody, I'm sure there's other people similar, that are feeding a lot of different things and trying to look for stuff that would help. So that's kind of where that question's going.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah, I've kind of researched the supplements through the years, just kind of researching what the horses really need and just that some of the prior supplements, you heard so many good things and there was just about as many bad things about it. And on the Equinety I just noticed that most of the testimonials are all positive, and now I see why, because the results that we've seen over the other supplement, they're a little more outstanding as far as-
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Movement.
Don Schledfeldt:
Movement and-
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Coat.
Don Schledfeldt:
The coats and the looks of the horse, compared to the other products. I mean, we got some of the shiny coats and that off of some of the other ones, but not to the extent that this has. They really just looked like they came out of a bath now. Yeah, pretty unbelievable.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Now, at the time of this recording, well, this one will be published right around the 1st of November, second week of November of 2019 so you guys just started using the Equinety product this year, right around August, September timeframe, end of August, first of September.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah, I think it was right around probably the first or second week of August, we started them on it.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Well, let's go through and we're going to go through, I'll just go down the line here. And so horse number one, Missy, tell us a little bit about Missy, what some of her quirks were or different things that were going on. What were you trying to help her with and then when you added the Equinety, what happened after that?
Missy High Caliber Cutting Horse Off Of Injections
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah, Missy, she's just a real high-caliber cutting horse. She's really, really physical in the pen. She's just full of cow. Like I said, the most I've noticed on her is she just got a better topline and her muscle tone's a little more defined and just her endurance and ability to move better in the show pen. She's already a pretty thinky mare. She's pretty smart on a cow, but she needed the most help in just the recovery and the stamina in the show pen. Sometimes if you get a cutting horse and you're working them too hard, they'll just stop and they'll start backing up, you know? And I've had that problem with her before and I haven't noticed that in the last month, working her. She just seemed more focused and more drive in her.
John Dowdy:
That's pretty awesome. And I think what's really interesting to point out for those that are tuning in is this particular mare is 13 years old. How long have you had her and how long have you been working with her prior to using the Equinety?
Don Schledfeldt:
I've had her for seven years.
John Dowdy:
Okay. So, safe to say that you definitely know how this mare works. You've got a definite baseline and you've tried or been using supplements on her before and different things to get her to perform at her best. So I think it's important to point out that you really know this horse, you've had her on things and then you add the Equinety and it seemed to just fill in those gaps that you were really looking for all along.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah. I forgot to mention one other thing is she's typically a horse that I have to have her hocked and injected twice a year. I haven't injected her this year yet. I haven't seen her stiff legged in the rear, so I'm hoping I can avoid that. And it seems like it's working pretty good the way she is on this, on Equinety.
John Dowdy:
Sure. And you know, it's interesting you bring that up because we have heard a lot of feedback with these performance horses that have regularly scheduled injections once or twice a year. We seem to hear a lot that since they've used the Equinety, they don't have to be injected as often and sometimes not at all. Of course, all of this comes down to the severity of what's going on in there. So, definitely we're not saying that your horse doesn't need it anymore. Obviously we want you to listen to your veterinarian and you know your horse better than anybody, so you're going to be able to determine that. But it's just some of the feedback that we've received and just interesting you bring that up. So, okay, let's go into horse number two, which is also a 13-year-old, Maya.
Maya High Brow Cat Cutting Horse
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah. Maya is a High Brow Cat cutting horse. Not a real athletic horse, but a real smart horse.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Pigeon toed.
Don Schledfeldt:
Oh, yeah, she was extremely pigeon toed when I got her, but we kind of worked that out. So she gets a little sore in the front, but, again, she's a pretty mellow horse. Really thinks hard. But, like I said, she's not real athletic and she's kind of lazy. But, again, she comes alive on a cow and, like I said, she's just got more go into her and she'll go harder and longer. And I think she does recover a little bit faster from a workout.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
And the heat cycles.
Don Schledfeldt:
Her biggest problem, one of her biggest problems, was her heats. I've had her since she was four months old and she's always cycled really hard. We've had her scoped, we've had her looked at, making sure there was nothing in there causing it. But she just cycles really hard. I mean, she'll throw her hips on the panels and she'll bend trailer gates and stuff.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Kick walls out.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah. And I just noticed lately that she's not rubbing on the panels. I transported her the other day. Usually she's a bucker in the trailer and throws herself on the gates, but that's kind of gone away. I haven't noticed it in the last month.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
You could've heard a pin drop in your trailer. There was no rocking and rolling. There was nothing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. As you're going down the road, you're like, "Did you latch the trailer gate? Are those horses even back there?"
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Are the horses back there? Yeah, there was nothing. Yeah, those horses have always been together and they know each other, but there was still the kicking and the bucking and wheeling. But there was absolutely none of that. She was always a little bit bad even when she wasn't in heat.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Oh, that's great. Okay. Horse number three, which I believe is yours, Lisa, Jesse.
Jesse A Hot Mare
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah. So Jesse is just a really hot caliber of horse. There's a lot of calming her down. She's the one I ride and I would lope her here at home. We have an arena here and we have a flag. So she was so bad I stopped loping her. I just long trot her. But working her on the flag is really traumatic for her. And I just noticed that walking up to the flag, she's just a little calmer and really looking at a little more focused in, and it doesn't take me that long to calm her down. So that was one thing. And her coat. But she's an extremely athletic horse and very, very tough. Her movement's always been really great. I've just noticed her be a little bit more mellow, a little more focused, not so drama driven.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I know one of the things that you are concerned with, because she was a pretty hot horse and so you were worried about this making her even hotter, right?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, yeah. We only feed grass hay, too, by the way. And we do turn them out. Like I said, we have a pretty good program where everybody gets out. You have to be a horse. And then we do the Equinety. That for her is really important. So I've always been leery about what she eats because she already can be pretty dramatic. So I don't need anything extra.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Yeah. Now you also mentioned, and the reason I want to point this out, because we do get a lot of questions. People say, "Oh, my horse is hot. I don't want something to make my horse hotter." At the same time somebody might, you had mentioned she was calmer, but it's not like given or a sedative or anything. It's like they're calmer but still very, very focused and they want to work. Is that what you found?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah. I love riding her. She's really fun to ride, but she's a ton of energy. She's easy to warm up. So, yeah, I don't want that affected. I like that energy level that she has. What I want is I want her thinking. I want to be able to engage her and get her to start thinking clearly. Because I think there's a difference there. When she gets pretty upset walking towards the flag, if she's getting kind of nutty, I have to be able to just keep her going forward and she's just more alert, a little calmer but yet that energy level's there, I don't ride with spurs or anything. I don't need...
Don Schledfeldt:
Let me throw one more thing in there, getting back to the medicine. The NCHA, they allow us to use... We can use Ace to a certain percentage of the body weight and she's typically the horse that we've had to Ace in the past, just to slow her down a little bit. We haven't given her none in the last two months.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, she hasn't had any.
Don Schledfeldt:
She hasn't had none.
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Don Schledfeldt:
Now we have an arena here at home. We have an actual cutting pen here and so we work them here and the show season's going to be starting. We've got to really start getting them in shape and stuff. But yeah, so I would always be concerned about giving her Ace because I want her thinking. You know, a hot horse that's not thinking, to me, is real dangerous. But if they're thinking... To me, there's just a difference with her. I can feel it.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
You know? I just want her thinking. It's okay to be afraid and it's okay to have that energy. I can move her in the right place. It's just I want her thinking and focused and that seems to come around a lot quicker.
How Equinety Works And Whats In It
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I think it's important for those tuning in. Equinety is 100% pure amino acids. So there's nothing in this like a caffeine that jacks a horse up or a sedative that chills him down. It's giving the horse what it needs to release its own hormones and then the body's deciding where to send those hormones with pinpoint accuracy because the body knows exactly where this particular horse needs the healing. So we've gone through three horses with three completely different things and we've heard how it's affected each one of these. And then we've got three more horses and a mule, so we'll continue to go on here and see how just this one little tiny scoop is positively changing for the good, all of these horses, so that's great.
Back to the horses
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, and one thing, John, I wanted to add about Jesse, too. I'm going to start really looking for this with her. Pulling back when I tie her up and when I go to cinch her up, so I have a way that I cinch my horse up when I get her ready, because she would pull back. As long as I walk her and cinch up as I walk her. So I'm going to start really looking to see some improvement in that area. The last time I saddled up, I didn't have any issue at all, but I'm kind of hypervigilant now about it, always watching for it. So that's going to be telling, as well.
John Dowdy:
Absolutely. Yeah. Okay, now we're going to go into horse number four, which is Barney, 13 year old. Tell us about that one.
Barney A Lena Gelding Showing Major Muscle Improvement
Don Schledfeldt:
Yeah, Barney's a 13 year old, smart little Lena gelding. He's just my general ranch horse and turnback horse. I roped a few cows off of him. He's just a big gelding. He hasn't been really worked at hard since we started on him. But I have noticed a big difference in his body definition, his topline's improved. He just looks really muscular because he's so slicked out, so shiny.
John Dowdy:
How long have you had him?
Don Schledfeldt:
[crosstalk 00:14:09] I've had Barney since he was two years.
John Dowdy:
Two years. Yep. Wow. So I just find this fascinating, hearing this. You guys are obviously super in tune with your horses and you're giving them and exercising them and doing the things that they need. And then it wasn't until the Equinety that you noticed toplines filling in, they're filling out muscle-wise and coat. To me that is fascinating. But it's telling about the product, as well. So you also had mentioned to me earlier you've noticed, along with the more muscle and filling out, but he's able to kind of kick it into a higher gear speed-wise at events, too.
Don Schledfeldt:
Yep. Yep, yep. He can get across the panel a lot quicker. Yeah. He's just got a little more go in his step.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's great.
Don Schledfeldt:
But it's real important for me. When your horses are shiny and they look good and their muscle tone, people notice that a mile away, especially when you show up at a show and your horses, people are staring at them. That says a lot about your horses and your program.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You're going to have to add a little bucket there on the side. "If you look at my horse, you have to pay me a dollar," or something.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Okay, let's get into your older mare, horse number five, Lacey.
Lacey: Senior Horse With Laminitis
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah. So Lacey I've had for 20 years and, oh my gosh, she's had laminitis for a lot of years, so I have to really watch her pasture time, what I feed her. I juted at her quite a bit, especially on days that she was uncomfortable, which I hated doing. Because I hear that's really tough on their stomach and it's really tough on their system. And also her soles had dropped so much. I always had to keep her padded. She couldn't walk across anything that had a rock in it. But once I started the Equinety with her, right off, it had to be seven days, I noticed her just moving like I couldn't believe. All this more flexibility and movement. And then I cleaned her feet sometimes twice a day because if mud gets up in there, and what I've noticed is that she has just more depth in her hoof.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
I mean a physical change, I actually noticed. I'm like, god, that's just incredible. Yeah. And I haven't padded her at all this summer. I haven't even padded her. And I was concerned about that and I asked my shoer back in August if I should put pads on her. She said, "Well, we were going to," and then I said, "Well, let me go another couple months and we'll see." And I haven't. I started her right away on the Equinety after that and so I just decided I'm not going to pad her any more.
John Dowdy:
And I know one of the other things you were telling me about, she always just kind of moved a little slow, had a little limp to her in the front end.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
She was always off in her front end, terrible limp. She still has a little bit of a limp, but sometimes, now what I've noticed about the limp is that it's light and it comes and goes. So sometimes she doesn't have it but once in a while she will and I usually have to go out and clean her feet. But, no, she's out on the pasture for morning time to get out and stretch. And she was trotting across the pasture. I mean, she's a big mare and probably shouldn't have lived this long.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, yeah. Wow. Okay.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah. And I don't like ribs showing and all that. No, she looks really good for an older mare.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Now, you also board a few horses and there's one by the name of Checks. Tell us about this one that you started on. What was going on with him prior to Equinety?
Checks: Past Trauma but Excelling
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Besides my old mare, this one horse that I hadn't been around, so seeing him come in to be boarded and seeing what he is now in just a couple months, it's just been incredible. And it hasn't even been a full two months, I don't think. So he came in on September eighth and he is my friend's daughter's barrel horse and competitive, and he's 18. They've had him for seven years and he's come a long way in those seven years. It was a pretty brutal life for him prior to them getting him. He was very ribby when I got him here. So the first thing we did is we wormed everybody, of course. And then I started him right away, with her permission, on the Equinety. And what I noticed, it wasn't that long... One of the things that he did, and I think it's trauma-based, was a lot of swaying in the pen, swaying back and forth.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
And when I started him on the Equinety, what I noticed in about seven or eight days, first of all he started filling out a lot better. But the swaying, I hardly see it anymore at all and I'm out here with them three times a day. Of course, all horses get turned out and back in the pens, but I have not seen him. I think this week alone, I think I saw him sway just maybe once, just slight. To me, from what I've seen, that's just incredible.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Well, anyway, she comes out and legs him up. Not a whole lot in the last month, but she went out and did a big jackpot barrel race out here by the home here and she went out. This horse is 18 years and he went out and it was flawless. It was beautiful. We thought she took first place. He kicked butt, but he ended up second. It was just a beautiful run. It was flawless. It was crazy.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Yeah. Feeling good.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, they said they hadn't seen a run like that from him in a while. I mean, it was beautiful.
John Dowdy:
That's so great. Obviously he's feeling really nice. Feeling good.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, the flexibility that he showed and the speed. I mean, it didn't even look faster, it was so beautiful. It's crazy. And now he's really filled out. He looks really solid. It's just sometimes I look at him and I just can't quite believe it almost.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Wow. Okay, let's talk about Ringo, the mule. Tell us about Ringo.
Ringo The Mule With FOunders
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Well, Ringo, oh gosh, we've had Ringo about three or four years and we're just kind of letting him grow. So anyway, we put them on pasture, but I keep telling my husband he's been out there too much. He's starting to show signs of laminitis or some founder. "No," he said, "mules don't founder," and I said, "Yes, they do." Anyway, I had the vet come out and, sure enough, it was in his front feet. He was just really, really sore and lethargic. Anyway, so I pulled him off. And so from August through recently, he's only gotten grass hay. I stalled him for a while with lots of shavings because of the soreness. And I got him to lose some weight. Well, then I started him on the Equinety and, no, he's as good as new right now. You would never know. He runs all over. Terrorizes everybody else after. He's back to his old self.
John Dowdy:
And no signs of the laminitis or anything?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
No, no. Oh no, you would never know. It's crazy. It's just nuts. Of course, again, we turn him out, we give them good exercise, and we can ride here at the place. We try to help them be mentally a horse as much as we can, but the shine in their coat and just kind of the way they've filled out and their minds, it just kind of blows me away, still.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So now let's talk about palatability. So we've got seven different animals here. There has to be some picky eaters in this group. So is that-
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, so Maya and Missy, not so much Missy, but Maya... Well, Missy does it, too. They started dumping their grain pans and eating around and so they would leave. This I don't. I just plop one scoop on top of their food and there's no issue whatsoever. Now I haven't had one eat around it at all. In fact, my goats will get in and eat it, too, with my old mare. I've got to kind of watch them. But they all get in there. It hasn't seemed to make a bit of difference.
John Dowdy:
Well, that's good. So saving food. Now, without giving away names or anything like that, are you still giving the other supplements and things or are you just adding the Equinety to it?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
No.
John Dowdy:
So you're just using the Equinety?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah. We have brand new supplements out in our barn right now and we just haven't even used them at all. I don't even think we've opened them.
John Dowdy:
Well, and I think it's important for those tuning in. Obviously, you know your horses better than anybody. And what we always recommend, from a company standpoint, is whatever your horse is on, whatever program they're on, don't change anything, just add the Equinety to it. Because you already have a baseline of what these things are doing for your horse. When you add the Equinety to it, you should start seeing changes.
John Dowdy:
In your case, it was seven days on the one horse. But typically most people see changes within 30 days. And at that point you can start maybe bringing them off of some other things or maybe taking them off. And I would say, you tell me how close I am to this, but we get feedback all the time. People are typically saving 20% to 40% in medical bills and other supplements since they started using the Equinety. Is that fairly accurate or would you find that to be accurate?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Oh, yeah, definitely. We might even be saving a little bit more because my husband would buy three different supplements that we were using, or two different supplements. And I won't name names, but it's just less is more for us. We don't have a lot of time to be going through... It's time consuming when I go to grain. I get the pans out and you get one scoop of this, and less is more. We don't want to use a lot of fillers and filling them up on all sorts of stuff. We just have them to be healthy.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
And, you know, the mind is the big thing. That's the one thing that I've really noticed overall. That's what I like about this Equinety. It wasn't just that I saw such a big, huge change in the movement, especially with the two that it was pretty obvious were having issues, but just overall their personalities and their minds, it's just a little quieter.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And, with that being said, going back, so they're trailering, they're more calm when you're trailering. We have heard of farms that do a lot of boarding and they require everybody to be on Equinety because it seems like everybody's more in tune. They're all calmer, they're happier, they're more predictable.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
So I think that's fantastic.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Well, and our other Subroto horses are also our prospective barrel horses, too, and they're younger. I haven't started them on Equinety because there are some concerns with graining one of them, being too hot. So I'll be having that conversation with the owner about putting them on a program. So what will be interesting is to see the before and after. So I wish I would've had all these pictures and stuff, but I can do that. So this'll be interesting.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Yeah. That's great. Well, awesome. Well, I tell you what, I appreciate both of you taking the time out of your day to share all these stories. Is there anything else that you'd like to add or put out there for anybody that might be hearing about this for the first time? Any suggestions or anything you might have for them?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Just try it. You have nothing to lose, believe me. It's simple and it's nice and it feels really safe and good for them and healthy. I just love it. I hope to god I can keep getting a tub.
John Dowdy:
Hey, with all the savings, you should be getting three or four tubs now, right?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's part of our program.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, awesome. Don, anything you'd like to add or say?
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Actually, he just stepped out. He had to go to work.
John Dowdy:
See, he's like, "I'm out. I've been on here long enough." Well, I appreciate Don. Thank you very much. Don's out of here. All right.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
You bet.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, I really appreciate you guys, Don and Lisa Schledfeldt, from Yakima, Washington. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Equinety podcast.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Oh, you bet. Thank you, John.
John Dowdy:
All right, thank you.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
We really enjoyed it.
John Dowdy:
You bet. All right, bye-bye.
Lisa Schledfeldt:
Bye.
