LISA LYONS – SOLE DEPTH -UNDERWEIGHT – MORE FOCUS –
BETTER ATTITUDE – MORE TOPLINE – MUSCLE QUALITY – CUSHINGS
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety podcast. We're going to swing out to the West Coast of California. That's West Coast for me because I'm in Florida. Lisa Lyons out of California. Welcome to the some other podcast.
Lisa Lyons:
Thank you. It's great to be here.
John Dowdy:
Well we're excited to have you. A couple of weeks ago you sent me some before and after pictures of your horse's hoof that was severely foundered. And the pictures are quite shocking. We've been running this as an ad for the last couple of weeks and it's got a lot of activity. And let's just talk about this particular horse, how long you've had him and how did you learn about the Equinety and what were your thoughts when you first got the Equinety?
Calvin: Unexpected Severe Mechanical Founder
Lisa Lyons:
Okay, well Calvin is a 10 year old, 17 hand, national show horse. I've had him for two and a half years. He was purchased as a project horse. He was underweight, under muscled, didn't have the greatest feet, but had a heart and soul. So got him, got him into training, was given a sample of your product at a horse show. And like so many samples, threw it in my bag, didn't think too much of it at the time.
Lisa Lyons:
When I got home I decided to read the back of it, do a little research, was impressed with the ingredients, the testimonials seemed good. It's not a banned substance. I can give it to my horses that go to USCF shows, not worry about any drug testing problems. And right off the bat I noticed with Calvin he seemed more focused, more calm, better attitude, better focus. And as an added bonus he was in training, was getting good nutrition and good farrier care. But he started developing a much better top line, better muscle quality and unbeknownst to me, it was helping him grow his soles. He didn't have the greatest feet and had some corrective shoeing done.
Lisa Lyons:
And anyway, flash forward to previous May, he'd been doing great and then came down with a severe case of mechanical founder. It happened very quickly. One day he was fine, next day I got the call and it was a touch and go for a while. He had to be hospitalized twice. A lot of radiograph, a lot of vet care, change of diet during his vet care. He was hooked up to IVs because everything got so inflamed. And one thing my vet commented on during all the radiographs was that he had a good amount of sole which probably saved his life. Because when he rotated the coffin bone it didn't drop down due to the sickness of his soles.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, so just to reiterate, so you had him for two and a half years. After about six months of owning him is when you started him on the Equinety and that's where you really noticed the muscle quality, the attitude focus, and a little did you know it was also helping with the sole depth, which is obviously came in handy for this mechanical founder. Now for those that are tuning in and have never heard of mechanical founder, could you tell us exactly what that is?
Lisa Lyons:
Sure. I mean, in my layman's terms, I'm not a vet. Most founder is caused by something metabolic and in some other instance, Cushing's, are highly susceptible to laminatic issues and with mechanical founder due to confirmation. And his confirmation is very straight up and down. And that's how it was explained to me by the vet.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I find that... Well I would say what I want to say is, I find this interesting because it's the first story that I've heard of where, you had started the horse on the Equinety product and he was on it for a year and a half. And then this happened where, well, it would have been life ending for him if it wouldn't have been the sole depth.
Lisa Lyons: Absolutely.
How Equinety Works
John Dowdy:
And here's the one thing that we tried to get across to people and a lot of these podcast are for educational purposes, so we can try to help educate people on the benefits of amino acids and ours specifically, there's no fillers, no sugars, no starches. But the thing that's so unique about it is that they're specifically formulated to stimulate the pituitary gland, which is the master gland in the body.
John Dowdy:
And that's what releases the necessary hormones, which help heal at a cellular level. Now with all that being said, it's not a miracle supplement. It's not one of these things that is going to cure anything. What we try to get across is when you use this product in conjunction with what you're already doing, the best things for your horse, and in your case you're feeding him really great feed and giving him great care, he's got a great vets and farriers. So they're getting the best of everything and you just added this to it and added the Equinety to his daily regime. These are the things that you started noticing.
John Dowdy:
But a year and a half, so now he comes down and with this founder. Now when this podcast is published below the podcast on our website, I'll have all this transcribed, but I'm going to put the pictures of bottom of this hoof so people can see. Which is just startling how quickly the recovery was.
Back to Calvin and Rapid Hoof Growth & Healing
John Dowdy:
So let's get back into... He comes down with this mechanical founder, he's really kind of on death stories, IVs and all this stuff. So what was the future of this horse really as it was sitting at this point? What was the doctor or the vet saying?
Lisa Lyons:
Well, we had a couple talks. I was worried if he was going to be suffering longterm, obviously, no horse center wants to put their horse through that. I asked her if she thought he could recover. She said yes. Asked her what the recovery time was. She said probably a year until he was sound and that he'd probably would never be ridden again. If so maybe lightly, at a walk, maybe an easy trail ride, but that he would never be able to be under workload again. And that was in August? And that was in August. And then in September he developed a pretty good size abscess and the radiographs showed it was a couple centimeters away from the coffin bone.
Lisa Lyons:
And with the help of my vet, the farrier and vet were able to drain it, pack it, clean it. That was end of September and 12 weeks later, that's the two pictures at the 12 week span. The hoof had, I'd say, 85% healed the sole of his hoof, had healed.
John Dowdy:
Holy smokes.
Lisa Lyons:
Blowing everybody away and the amount of grow out of healthy hoofs has been phenomenal. And I'm happy to report that in the last five weeks he has been back to lunging, [inaudible 00:08:13] freely, no pain, totally sound, happy as a clam.
John Dowdy:
Oh my gosh.
Lisa Lyons:
Everybody's excited. And now the vet and trainer is saying, "Well maybe, he could be a show horse again." If he's not, that's okay. And I'm just happy that he's sound and healthy.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Well I tell you it cracks me up and sometimes I have to hold myself back because, we run a lot of advertising on Facebook and the before and after picture that you sent me, it's doing very well with all the interactions and things. But it always cracks me up when you have the comments that are thrown in there that, "Oh well it's... Look at that horrible hoof trim or look at... Or it's cut to this." You know, they always have their opinion. Have you ever-
Lisa Lyons:
I know I've kind of laugh. It's like, would you like to see my $10,000 vet bills?
John Dowdy:
Oh I know.
Lisa Lyons:
Everything that's been done has been under veterinary care and we even fly in a specialized farrier from Oregon that has experience with foundered horses working hand in hand with my vet, my trainers on board and nutrition and body workers. And it's like, really we're not hacking into his hoof because we don't know what we're doing.
John Dowdy:
Yes.
Lisa Lyons:
It's dead infected hoof.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Yeah. Well I guess with social media, anybody can have their three seconds of fame by typing in whatever in there.
Lisa Lyons:
Absolutely.
John Dowdy:
Well-
Lisa Lyons:
Yeah, there's always going to be naysayer.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Lisa Lyons:
It's a free world. Think what you want. I just know I'm looking at a horse that's happy and cantering and in great condition right now.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I think the important takeaway with this is, in this particular situation, you definitely spent thousands of dollars and you have the best care and when you add this product to whatever's going on with your horse, it helps speed up the, in this case, the recovery. Helped everything speed up. But if we go back and we've kind of already-
Lisa Lyons:
Absolutely.
John Dowdy:
And we've kind of already mentioned this, but fortunately because he had already been on product for a year and a half, the sole depth was at such, at his savings grace really because that would've just been disastrous.
Lisa Lyons:
That was crucial. Yeah. And something else, he'd been on it for awhile and do the severity of his founder he was confined to a stall for five months. A heavily padded stall either at the hospital or at our barn. And he was so calm and so good and my vet commented that he was the best patient ever. She said quite often after a month, horses have to be sedated. They just start losing it after being stall rest for long periods of time. And he was just, he was a happy boy.
Lisa Lyons:
No, no, he was calm. He was good. He just was, he was totally chill.
John Dowdy:
Oh that's fantastic. Well...
Lisa Lyons:
Yeah, I mean he did his part. I mean everybody did their part. The vet did her part. Farrier did his part, trainer did her part, the product, the Equinety did his part, and Calvin did his part. He wasn't kicking, he wasn't making things worse.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Yep. All right, Lisa, I also understand that you've been giving the Equinety to your hot headed redhead mare that also has Cushing's. So how long have you been given the product to her and what benefits have you seen since you've been giving it to her?
Lisa Lyons:
Same amount of time. Given that sample at the horse show a couple of years ago and she is a 20 year old national show horse mayor, diagnosed with Cushing's about three years ago. We noticed she just was getting really furry and not shutting out. And she's a picky eater. She'll take it no problem. And, thankfully with her, she has never had any laminetic issues, which is one of the downfalls of Cushing's. She's 20 years old, she's in great shape. People are blown away when they find out she's 20. She's probably more game than my 10 year old gelding and great body tone, great attitude. And the nice thing about the product is the cost. And so many supplements out there are so expensive and it works out to a dollar a day per horse, that's less than a cup of coffee. So, definitely doable.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Yeah. Were you surprised at the... When you opened that little lid and looked at the scoop, what was your reaction about the scoop size?
Lisa Lyons:
I couldn't believe it. It's tiny. It looked like something you'd give a small kid.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So for those of tuning in, the serving size, if you've never tried the product, it's 5.2 grams. So it's just shy of a tablespoon and it doesn't matter the size of the animal because we're targeting the pituitary gland, which is the size of a pea roughly. And in mammals, whether it be a dog or a horse. So yeah, we have a lot of people that, big horses or big draft horses or if they've got a little mini they're like, "Oh do I just give half?" Nope. You give the same serving size to all of them. So. Awesome.
Lisa Lyons:
Yep.
John Dowdy:
Great. Yeah. So I think for the people that are tuning in for the first time and wondering if this product is really for their horse, in your case you were just given a sample way back when and it really helped with his demeanor, focus, stamina, help build muscle.
John Dowdy:
He was a show horse. So you're needing all those components and then used, I guess it would be safe to say, almost at that point as a preventative, not knowing that that's what it was going to be with helping the sole depth. Because that's what really saved him in that aspect. But if there's anybody that's tuning in, just learning about this product for the first time, that might be a little skeptical because here's a product that claims to do all this stuff or at least people are saying that it does all this stuff. What advice would you have for them or anything that you'd have to say to maybe to get them to try the product for themselves?
Lisa Lyons:
Well, I would say try it. There's nothing harmful in there. There's no fillers, there's no additives. Read the ingredients if you're not sure, give it a try. What have you got to lose? I'm so grateful that I was given that sample because I honestly didn't know about it and I saw the results and the first thing I noticed was his demeanor. He was calmer, he was more focused and then I noticed everything else happening. And then the happy accident was unbeknownst to me, it was creating thicker soles, which saved my horse's life.
John Dowdy:
Yep. That's right.
Lisa Lyons:
Yep.
John Dowdy:
Well that is great. I know there's people going to benefit from hearing your story there and glad that he's doing awesome and we'd love to have an updated podcast maybe in six months or so and see how he's doing at that point.
Lisa Lyons:
Yeah, absolutely. Our goal is, he's... The last six weeks has been doing groundwork, getting out every day, getting lunged, long lined and the goal is after the new year, get on him and start lightly riding him again.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Well, that's a long ways from the first prognosis.
Lisa Lyons:
Yeah. I mean, that's a way long ways away when he's getting carted off to the hospital.
John Dowdy:
Right. Wow. Well, Lisa, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story here on the Equinety podcast. Lisa Lyons out of California. Thank you so much.
Lisa Lyons:
Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you for a great product.
John Dowdy:
Oh, thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.
