Terri Dinubilo Murray - From stuck in the stable, to leading the pack again
"You will find a significant difference in your horse. I'm very happy, and I have to say this, too. My husband and I both feel very blessed that we took the step of faith and tried this product, because it has been a miracle, and there are people around the barn that say the same thing, and those that have already purchased the product and had their horses on it already. So, thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity to share my story." - Read on to see what seems like miracles!
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety podcast. We are going to swing way out West. That's out West for me since I'm in Florida. We're going to go out to Oahu, Hawaii, and we've got Terry Murray on the Equinety podcast this week. Terri, welcome to the call.
Terri Murray:
Thank you. I'm glad to be here. I'm very eager to share my testimony about this wonderful product.
A Little Background
John Dowdy:
Well, that's great. We're glad to have you. And let's start off talking about your horse. Just from our pre-call, you had brought this horse in from the mainland, and for those of you on the mainland, that's us on the big, big island of the United States. You're out there on the island by itself. So you brought this horse in from where in the States?
Terri Murray:
This horse came from the Cascade Range of Washington.
John Dowdy:
Okay, so this was about in 2006-ish timeframe?
Terri Murray:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
Okay.
Terri Murray:
She actually came to us in the January of 2006, yes.
John Dowdy:
Got you. So before you brought it over, she was vet checked, and the vet that checked her out said she had a bit of stifle issues. But when you got her there on the island, what did your local vet... what was his take on what was going on?
Terri Murray:
With the stifle issue that she had, it wasn't very prevalent, and he basically said with conditioning and exercise that that would help reduce any type of stifle inadequacies where she's unable to move. It would help that.
John Dowdy:
So you kind of just started off doing some conditioning and trying to get her in shape and things like that?
Terri Murray:
Yeah. So what we did was a friend of ours had a cattle ranch, and so we went and boarded her there for a couple of months and just had fun with her moving cows. She was stalled. She had some pasture time. We'd work with her on a daily basis, slowly bringing her up to a good healthy condition.
John Dowdy:
Sure. And then, you got the itch like most horse people do. And so you started doing some training; so, what were you training her to do at this point?
From the Ranch to the Big Show
Terri Murray:
Okay, so I met somebody here that was alongside the vet. She was an assistant and she kept encouraging me to show Winnie. She had a lot of eye appeal and was a looker. And so shortly after, maybe about, I want to say, Oh, about two years later, I met a gal that was willing to coach me and teach me how to ride and get ready for the Western Pleasure show that was short- lived here in Hawaii. But we showed in both the Equine Class and the Western Pleasure, and at times, the trail course.
John Dowdy:
And being a novice rider getting into that, I hear you did very well one year.
Terri Murray:
One year we did take the novice championship, and so, that was really exciting. It was exciting to meet other people in the Western Pleasure classes, and just meeting other horse owners, and just sharing the camaraderie and the passion that we have for horses.
John Dowdy:
Sure.
Terri Murray:
It was a new experience for me.
John Dowdy:
Great.
Terri Murray:
So we went from just trail riding to the show ring, and it was a great experience.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And in addition to that, you also participated in some of these parades out there, and for those who have not been to Hawaii and in these parades, tell us a little bit about what those were like.
Terri Murray:
Okay, so the parades, when you have an equestrian division, which has been going strong here in Hawaii, they are consisted of riders that represent each island and the Hawaiian island chain with a banner, a princess of the island, and then you have anywheres from four to five escorted horses behind you, including the attendants. And with that, you dress and adorn yourself in the [inaudible 00:05:02] fashion. You're wearing 12 yards of fabric around you, which is tied around you and and cased with kukui nuts to give the draping effect. And then you have a [inaudible 00:05:16], which is the top that you adorn over you. Your colors represent the island colors and also the forage and the flowers. So your horses are adorned in horse leis, your riders have horse leis and flowers in their hair. Your men are dressed in Western, with Western hats and leis around their hats and it's pretty spectacular. One of the parades in June is the King Kamehameha Day Celebration, which is almost a five mile ride, and then in September is the Aloha Festivals parade, which a 2.5 mile parade route.
John Dowdy:
Yes. Now, for those who are tuning in for the first time on our website at teamequinety.com, posted just below this podcast, it will all be transcribed and then we'll have some pictures, because the way that you've explained that, that must just look really, really nice, with all the flowers and the horse leis and everything.
Terri Murray:
So the most important thing I want to say about parades is these horses need to be in condition. It's very hot and humid here in Hawaii. The sun comes up very early. These parades are in the beginning of the worst heated months of the year, and ends in the most hot months of the year, which is September. And so, you have a l
ot of horse owners that rent their horses out, or you have few of us that own horses that actually participate in the parade.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Well, that'll be nice to see these pictures.
Starting to Feel Her Age
John Dowdy:
So as you're... and you do this for about eight years, doing these parades and things. Yep. And so, Winnie was getting to the point where... starting to develop a bit of arthritis, as you explained to me. So you're think
ing, "Well, I may have to look at retiring her."
Terri Murray:
Right. So Winnie, we did retire her, she was age 24 when she rode her last parade.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And so you boarded her at another facility, and you got another horse.
Terri Murray:
Correct.
John Dowdy:
Yes.
Terri Murray:
We got another horse.
John Dowdy:
Yep. So, with Winnie being over at the other place to live out her horse life, things didn't go so well, and there was a little bit of trouble where she wouldn't get up. Tell us a little bit about that.
Terri Murray:
Well, on the beautiful North shore of Oahu, we have a beautiful ranch that you can turn your horse out into... just a small pasture, but is large enough for two horses to graze continuously. I thought it would be a great way for her to retire out from being stalled for that many years with me. And she had given me so much of her heart and doing what I love to do that I thought it would be a great idea to pasture her. So we set forward, trailered her, load her up, took off to this beautiful pasture, walked her out to introduce her to her new pasture mate, which was a gelding, and we could see he was getting aggressive.
Terri Murray:
So when he continued to graze, we were there. She kept her eye on us, and I could see that. And we weren't going anywhere until we knew that this was going to work with this new horse living with her. I want to say about 20 minutes into the introduction period, he charged her. And she took off. And at that time, we knew we had to separate them; they weren't going to be able to co-habitate, so a hot wire fence went up and they were separated. We finished putting her up, getting her done for the day, and came back to see her the following Saturday, and she was a different horse.
Terri Murray:
Pretty much, the life had left her eyes. We could see she wasn't as happy as we expected her to be. She wasn't moving. She really didn't care to graze very much. So we began supplementing her with feed and dropping feed twice a day. Second week after that, we came and she was still... she was in the same spot that we left her; walked her around, tried to get her to walk around, just spend time with her there. She was walking very slowly as if she didn't want to move.
Terri Murray:
The third week we realized it was time to move her out, and the ranch manager agreed. They felt that she just wasn't doing well with this other horse, and putting her in another pasture with a older mare would remedy things. Moved her to another pasture with the older mare and she was fine with her; they were fine with each other; no hot wire fence. They grazed together. And then a week later, Winnie was down, and down more than she should have been.
Terri Murray:
So I got the phone call that she wasn't getting up, and that's when we went out and we decided to bring her home.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And so, you didn't really know what was going on specifically, and you had your vet come out to see if they could find anything going on?
Injured Sesamoidean Ligament
Terri Murray:
Correct. So with the ranch manager and I, and her being a good friend of mine, we both decided that yeah, it was time for her to come back to the stall so that I could keep more of an eye on her and see what's going on. Being that she was further away from me, I was only able to see her once a week. So, I brought her back and made the appointment with the vet. He came maybe about four days later and took x-rays. And it wasn't until he went to try to lift her front left that we noticed she lifted it... exaggeratedly lifted it over her head. That's how high her leg went up. And that's when he detected, "Okay, it's this leg right here." Took more x-rays, and then he confirmed it was a blown sesamoidean ligament.
John Dowdy:
Hmm. So, and that was caused from probably when she was charged by the other horse and took off real quickly?
Terri Murray:
We have a good assumption that it could have happened then, because my immediate response was, "How could this happen? How did she get like this? What causes this?" And he said one of the most often ways a horse blows their tendon like this is when they just take off quickly, or their footing is off that they land on... just sudden movement can even create that, because he knew I wasn't riding her a lot. This was on her own.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Terri Murray:
So, yeah... so he immediately prescribed aspirin and stall rest.
John Dowdy:
Yes. So this was in August of 2018 timeframe?
Terri Murray:
This was more like September, because we had turned her out in August. And so by September, we had brought her back home. Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Okay. So then with-
Terri Murray:
Or back to the barn where we...
John Dowdy:
Right. So with this injury... so the vet's telling you about a six month stall rest, really, for this injury to heal?
Terri Murray:
Yeah. He said, "Give it at least six months to see if it'll just mend on its own."
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Wow. So, and also I think it's important at this stage, you still did not know that Equinety existed. So, this was an injury... you're following the vet's recommendation, stall rest. Now, of course, with that injury being on the left front, what happened to the hooves? Because she was now favoring the other one.
The Remedy Caused More Issues
Terri Murray:
Correct. It just doubled the issue that was happening with her ruptured tendon. So that was on her front left, so she would not bear weight on that leg. All her weight was placed on her front right, and then we've seen what was developing from that is her hoof could not... she couldn't grow a heel. Her hoof basically grew out flat like a pancake, so she was rocking back on her heels and very reluctant to lift her hoof for us to even clean or pick her hooves. So therefore, because of that flat foot and being in the stall and the moisture, she developed an abscess that went straight up above the hairline of her hoof.
John Dowdy:
Wow. So I would probably be safe to guess her overall mood and demeanor, that she's probably feeling pretty depressed because she can't get out, and in pain.
Terri Murray:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Terri Murray:
Yep. It was very visible. Winnie was the type of horse, as soon as she heard your car, she would nick, or she'd be at the corner of her stall waiting for you, hanging her head over the stall posts. When they would pull up, Winnie would be laying down.
John Dowdy:
Wow. So she was not getting any better, and being depressed, just laying around a lot.
Terri Murray:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Terri Murray:
Just keeping off her legs because she was in so much pain.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Yep. So, now we skip forward through 2018. We get into 2019; that's around the February timeframe.
Terri Murray:
Yeah.
John Dowdy:
And this was when you came across the Equinety product.
Taking a chance on Equinety
Terri Murray:
Right. So we were looking at it in January; we ordered it late January, because we can see... between the time where she was diagnosed up until when we started thinking about Equinety, she still hadn't walked out of her stall. We would force her out, of course, because we had to bathe her and wash her and get her out of her stall just so we could clean it properly, and just hopefully get her to move, whether she wanted to or not for various reasons. And so, that was a forced situation.
Terri Murray:
So what we would do... what we did was we ordered the Equinety in January; we got it within a week, and we started two scoops every day.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Now let me ask you this question. So prior to the Equinety... so you're now getting in close to a six month mark, or around the five or six month mark. Winnie's obviously very depressed, she's not getting up, you're kind of forcing her to come out. Had that crossed your mind? Were you starting to maybe thinking about the inevitable? Was there any hope in there at all? What was your feeling like at that point?
Terri Murray:
Yeah. When I would see her down so much, even before we left the pasture, I thought at that point she was going to have to get put down, because I was afraid she wasn't going to get up for us to load her, because we had been trying and trying and trying, and it took a lot of coursing to get this horse up on her feet.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Terri Murray:
So that was the first thought that crossed my mind, that I have to get her out of her misery. I can't stand to see her like this, and I refused to take pictures of her like that. So a lot of people want to see testimonial pictures of her in her worst. I couldn't take pictures of her like that because that's not how I wanted to remember her. Yeah.
John Dowdy:
No, that makes sense, and so, then you came across the Equinety with a lot of the advertising that we do. What was your thoughts then? Why not? What do we have to lose? Or what was your thoughts there when you came across our product? Or did you just see the other testimonials and think, "Well, there's a possibility this could help?"
Terri Murray:
Yeah, I had hopes, high hopes. I kept reading it, looking at it, watching the testimonials. We had tried other supplements while we were showing, because just to keep her in better shape... and I never saw any improvement off of the other supplement that we tried, and it's a very well- known brand name that is in the horse community. You see it often, but... and I don't want to mention it, but I'm just saying, you're not so quick sometimes to just start investing your money into powder products. You're just not sure because by the time a horse is her age, I understand most of her cellular reproduction is shot. She's older. It just happens with age.
Terri Murray:
But I have to say that this horse, she had given me a good part of her life... that I changed my life forever.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. No, for sure. You guys had definitely been through a lot.
Terri Murray:
And I didn't want to give up on her, and so, I said, "Why not?" So, my husband was the one, and he picked up the supplement first. He said, "We're going for it. Let's try it." So we did, and that's when I want to say everybody was in awe!
Terri Murray:
And what's going on with Winnie... and this was like was within a month... she would walk out. We would just open her stall gate, because I really hated trying to lead her out, because her head would go up and down really hard as to telling us not to do that, because she's not ready to move. And so when we would just go up there, we'd open her gate, walk away; okay, when she's ready, she'll walk out. And I have to say towards the end of February this was happening. Yeah. She'd take five steps, and then more and more.
John Dowdy:
So right up to using the product, how was the swelling in her leg from this tendon that was torn?
Terri Murray:
Okay, so very noticeable. The bulb above the heel that reaches up into the short cannon? That was fat. It was noticeably big.
Terri Murray:
So I want to say after the Equinety and towards the end of February, we started to see, "Oh, look at her leg." That was the first thing we were watching, to see if the leg was going to start looking more normal again, and narrow and thinning out and not so inflamed, and it began to happen. And when that began to happen, that's when she started stepping out more and more on her own.
John Dowdy:
Right. Yeah. So from the time of the injury, from the stall rest, which was in September, all the way to February... so, we're looking at close to six months there... the swelling was still there. You started the Equinety, and within a month, the swelling had drastically gone down, and she's now walking out of the stall on her own.
Terri Murray:
That's correct, yes.
John Dowdy:
Wow. So... now, we might have some people listening in and think, "Well, of course, the vet said six months; so, that was at the six month timeframe. So I guess that could be an argument of, 'well, the six months were up, so of course she's feeling better.'" But in every case that we've seen, and I think this is important for those tuning in for the first time... if you're dealing with an injured horse, we just hear this over and over and over and over again... that with an injured horse, and you add the Equinety, the healing time is drastically faster. A lot of times half, but it's definitely ahead of schedule.
John Dowdy:
So in this case, it was a six month kind of a stall rest at a minimum; so we're already at the six months when you started the Equinety, but within a month the swelling had gone down, and now she's walking out of her stall.
Terri Murray:
Right.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And what other things did you notice this?
Terri Murray:
So I noticed her life came back into her eyes. Her coat was super shiny. Her appetite increased. She started to gain back her weight. Just a lot more alert. She would go further and further from her stall; so, she was at the other end of the barn grazing on her own, walking around. It was significant.
Terri Murray:
And I hear you saying, it was at the six month mark, which the vet... but up until that six month mark, she was still lying down a lot and still inflamed.
John Dowdy:
Yes. Yeah.
Terri Murray:
So we were waiting to see if this... we were giving it a shot. Okay. You said six months, we'll try. But there wasn't significant improvement, other than she was able to stand up more, but now we had the abscess in the hoof.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Terri Murray: And on the good leg; so, multiple things were happening, which we had to do something fast, and needed to see much quicker improvement in all areas of now that Winnie was experiencing.
John Dowdy: Yeah, so in February, you started giving the product. So, now you're dealing with the abscess and the hoof that was all out of whack, because she was favoring the... so what happened next over the next, say, couple months? What did you notice?
Terri Murray: So, increase in energy. Her hooves started to grow out. The abscess went away. However, the abscess, of course, leaves damage, in the tissues and in the whole area. It actually blew out, like I said, the top part of her hairline... above the hoof wall is where it blew out. So now it was a a matter of keeping this hoof clean, getting it grown out so we could start trimming it, and the fact that the shoer couldn't do anything because Winnie wouldn't bear weight on the damaged leg.
John Dowdy: Right.
Terri Murray:
So we couldn't lift that foot. We couldn't trim it. We couldn't do anything. He managed to do it while she was lying down. And this was in February, after we already started her on the product.
Terri Murray:
So with that said, hooves started to grow out, continued trimming, more increased energy; her weight's still coming back; her coat, nice. She's a lot more alert. Her mind is there. She wants turnout time, so we did turn her out. She was starting to run across the arena by March.
John Dowdy:
That's incredible.
Terri Murray:
Loping and running across... yeah. And this was still with no shoes on. Her hoof still needed to get growth on it and so forth, but she was ready to go and we could tell. And we just waited for her to tell us; we weren't forcing anything. Right.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So, by May, you were able to put shoes on.
Terri Murray:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
And then what miraculous thing happened in June?
Terri Murray:
In June, we saddled up, mounted up and we went up the trail. Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Terri Murray:
And I got an awesome trail ride, and I rode her up the trail through the summer, actually.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Terri Murray:
So, it was getting too hot and unbearable, but it was nice evening rides, and she loved it. She was looking forward to it.
John Dowdy:
So she's happy, and the spark is back in her eye.
Terri Murray:
Yeah. I mean, we can now enjoy rides together, leisure rides.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's fantastic.
Terri Murray:
She still has turn out time. Her hooves are great. She's getting shod regularly. No abscess, no swelling. She has a good appetite.
John Dowdy:
I didn't ask you this before. Have you done any ultrasounds or anything in regards to that tendon, or is it just, she just sound?
Terri Murray:
I would say, she's not hundred percent from the injury. You could still see where... this injury was so bad that the growth of her hooves are not... they're not equal. They're not super balanced. Her left foot that actually was injured, grew out much more nicer than the one that she had bared weight on all this time. And no, I haven't had any more x-rays at this time. I don't feel the need for it, yeah.
John Dowdy:
No, it can get expensive, too. I mean, and like you said, if you're reading your horse, then that's great.
John Dowdy:
Now let me ask you this question. We get a lot of people that wonder how palatable this product is. So, what have you found... you use a little bit different way to make sure she gets it, but we usually don't have palatability issues. But what'd you find with Winnie?
Terri Murray:
Well, I wanted to make sure... because here's a couple of things. When she does get tubes and she gets hay and she gets senior feed, so I didn't want it to get lost in that. Because of her age and her bite, there are crumbs left when she eats. So unlike my younger horse, he licks the bowl clean. I can tell if everything's been ingested; with her, I cannot. So I wanted to be sure... it smells great. But what I do is I use... I just put some in the apple sauce that I buy at Sam's Club. It's a case of about 18 little cups, and I just open up a cup and I mix it in there, put it in the syringe, and I administer it to her every night.
Terri Murray:
Now, she's down to one scoop, and I have to say, I kept her at two scoops for the first 50 or 60 days, and then down to one.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Terri Murray:
So, I think just administering that boost, that extra scoop, and they're getting that boost initially... I think it's very beneficial.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You know what? We get a lot of feedback, and there there is some science behind that. So, the amino acids in Equinety are specifically formulated to stimulate the pituitary gland, which releases the necessary hormones that help heal at a cellular level. So, this is why it does so many things for different horse, no matter what's going on with them. But the hormones that are released have a 23 and a half hour life cycle, so if you give the product in the morning, then it spikes the hormones, and then over the next 23 and a half hours, she's just decreasing until you give it the next time, and then it spikes again.
John Dowdy:
So by giving one scoop in the morning and one scoop in the evening, you're spiking it twice, so it never has a chance to really get down to those low levels, because you're always kind of keeping it at a high level. So we have a lot of people in the performance horse industry that are doing a lot of hauling and showing; they absolutely swear by two scoops a day. And also for an injured horse, or one that's coming out of a surgery, or in this case here with Winnie, two scoops a day is very beneficial.
John Dowdy:
Now with all that being said, there is no loading dose. It's just, here's where we recommend the two scoops over the one. But one scoop definitely will keep the maintenance going, for sure.
John Dowdy:
So... well, I tell you what, it has been a pleasure having you on the call, and is there anything else that you'd like to add that we haven't touched upon? Or maybe if there's somebody listening in for the first time that might be sitting on the fence as to whether to try this or not, it might have any encouraging things to say to them.
Terri Murray:
Well I just want to say, I know there's a lot of horse owners out there. I actually thought... everybody thought Winnie was foundering. That's how badly her mobility was, and it wasn't the case at all. But I would say, you don't have anything to lose, because it's a great product, no matter what. Your horse is ingesting something that's good for them. I have to say... if your horse is on Butte, or you're just getting by with Butte, just to ride them and get them out for the day... I would stop investing in that and put your investment in the Equinety product, for more of the long duration of keeping and owning your horse, and keeping them up to healthy standards, and the potential to stay that way longer to enjoy them even longer.
Terri Murray:
You will find a significant difference in your horse. I'm very happy, and I have to say this, too. My husband and I both feel very blessed that we took the step of faith and tried this product, because it has been a miracle, and there are people around the barn that say the same thing, and those that have already purchased the product and had their horses on it already. So, thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity to share my story.
John Dowdy:
Absolutely. Well, we appreciate you being on the call, and thank you so much. Terry Murray out of Oahu, out on the island there. Thank you so much for being on the Equinety podcast.
Terri Murray:
Thank you, John.
John Dowdy:
All right, thank you. Bye bye.
