John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week Equinety podcast. We're going to swing down into some serious horse country in Weatherford, Texas. We've got Judy Collins here on the Equinety podcast this week. Judy, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
Judy Collins:
Thank you. Thank you for letting me tell my story.
John Dowdy:
Oh, absolutely. We're excited as always and what caught my eye, of course we run a lot of Facebook advertising and I believe it was you had posted a comment because you were dealing with an older retired horse, 30 years old and dealing with the sinus infection and you had asked if we thought this product would help. I think the short answer was yes, because it's always going to help with recovery, but tell us exactly what was going on with Hank and what you were dealing with for quite a while.
Judy Collins:
Well, Hank got an abscess tooth and we had no idea he had it. He had not gone off feed. He had not acted sick. And then we came home one night from a roping and he had discharge coming out of one side of his nose and it smelled terrible, it reeked. You could smell it the minute you walked into the barn. And we FaceTimed my son and his wife are vets here in Weatherford and they said, "Well he has an abscess tooth. Bring him into the clinic. We'll take care of it." We took him to the clinic and they couldn't get the tooth pulled and they did an X-ray of his sinus cavity and it was full of infection, so they ended up having to do a surgery. And they did the surgery. They kept him for a week and treated him there at the clinic.
Judy Collins:
And then we brought him home and in this process they had drilled a hole in between his eyes on his forehead for this infection to drain out. And then we had to take a tube and put it in that hole and flush those sinuses out and we did that for about a month and a half until the hole finally closed up. And he was on strong, strong antibiotics the whole time this was happening. As soon as he went off the antibiotics, about two or three weeks, we started getting the discharge again and the strong odor. And so we just have to keep putting him on antibiotics. And they tried multiple brands of antibiotics and as soon as he would go off it would come back. So then we ultimately ended up doing a second surgery and this time they put a port in his forehead and we still had to go back to all the flushing.
Judy Collins:
And we did that for about another month, three weeks to a month and then they took all that out. And again, we just were constantly the sinus infection. And as soon as he would go off antibiotics, it would start back up again. And so we did this for two years on and off with antibiotics. We did a hair analysis with vet in Pilot Point and had supplements made specifically for him to help build his immune system up and so on. And during all that, we were still battling this. It just wasn't going away. I'd seen an ad on Facebook for Equinety and I messaged you guys and I asked, "This is what we're dealing with, do you think this will help?" And your response was certainly you thought it would help, so I was willing to give it a try and we tried it and we bought the big tub, which is a 90-day supply and about 60 days into it I started seeing a difference and he had been on antibiotics the first month with it, we'd taken him off and I would say by the end of the 90 days we were at a point where there was no antibiotics at all anymore.
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Judy Collins:
Yeah, we were very impressed and that was the only thing we had changed in his routine was the Equinety.
John Dowdy:
Well in all of that time in the surgeries and what was his attitude and demeanor like going through all this?
Judy Collins:
Well, he's one of those super calm, super easy to work with horses. He was great for us to work with, but I have to tell you, towards the end of us sticking tubes in his forehead and flushing out that sinus cavity, he had had about enough of us. He was not fighting us, but he was beat down, he wasn't himself. He was just kind of beat down emotionally and physically, because it was taking a toll on his body and he had lost some weight. And with an older horse, when they start losing weight, it's really difficult to get it back on. And anyway, he has done a complete turnaround. He's healthy. His hair coat's healthy. In fact, we had Fred now here the other day who is a retired vet and he couldn't believe it. He goes, "Man, I can't believe how good that horse looks." He said, "Usually the first thing you can tell that they're going downhill is their hair coat." And he says, "His hair coat looks great." He said, "He looks awesome."
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Well, I would say that's probably one of the most common things that people notice when they put their horses on Equinety and typically within 30 days is a softer, shinier coat. So it is definitely one of the things that it helps with, not to mention this huge recovery that he was having to go through and a sinus infection and oh my goodness.
Judy Collins:
Yep, he's doing great.
John Dowdy:
So you were able to get him through all of that and as you told me earlier, he was being retired, he was more for the grandkids to ride around on, but he was having some other issues with his hooves and things. Tell us about that.
Judy Collins:
Yes, he had been diagnosed with navicular about 10 years ago and we had him in special shoes and then he developed a ringbone and he was mobile and we just kept him comfortable and he was retired and we were spending like $280 with the farrier every time we had him shot just in these special shoes and stuff to keep him comfortable and keeping moving. In the process of using the Equinety for the sinus infection, not even thinking about the other, we just assumed we were going to have that until the day he died. We started noticing his feet were getting better, they were getting stronger, his hooves were growing a little faster and the farrier just kept working with him and three weeks ago the farrier was here and he said he's ready to go barefoot. And so he's barefoot now and I told the farrier, I said, "Well, I'm going to have you on speed dial because I'm not sure he's going to be able to do this." And he said, "Just call me. I'll be there. I'll come as soon as I can get there and we'll put shoes back on him if we have to." It's been three weeks and he has not taken a lame step and he's out in the pasture running with the other horses and he's on 25 acres of pasture with the other horses and he's doing fine.
John Dowdy:
Feeling great.
Judy Collins:
Yeah, he's feeling young again.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Well for those who are tuning in for the first time, maybe you've just learned about the Equinety product, you've kind of seen it around or heard a little bit, but don't know that much about it. What it is, it's 100% pure amino acids, there's no fillers, no sugars, no starches, and there's no loading dose. A serving size is 5.2 grams, which is not quite a tablespoon, which by the way, Judy, I didn't ask you this, but were you surprised at how little a serving size was?
Judy Collins:
I was. I was, I kept thinking there's no way that little bit of stuff is going to work, but I did it and it did. It proved me wrong.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So the amino acids in this product, they're specifically combined and formulated to stimulate the pituitary gland, which is the master gland in the body and that's what releases the necessary hormones, which help the body heal at a cellular level. So in this case, although you were specifically looking for a product to help with the sinus infection and not knowing that it was going to help with the ringbone and navicular, the hoof growth. We try to tell people all the time, this is not a miracle supplement, it although borders on sub miraculous things sometimes, but used in combination with a great farrier as in this case, it's a great combination because it's helping those hooves to grow faster, which allows the farrier something to work with and it helps speed up the process with everything. So that's really great. Now tell us what Hank is doing these days. You also told me that he had a little bit of a comeback. Tell us about that.
Judy Collins:
Yes, he got pulled out of retirement about a month ago to go to NRS to perform a wedding. Friends of ours were getting married and they got married during the roping. And what they did is in between the different number of ropings, they had everybody stay in the arena on horseback and then they came in on horseback and my husband performed the wedding ceremony on Hank. So he had his horse Hank and Hank got to be pulled out of retirement, go back to the roping pen one last time and perform a wedding.
John Dowdy:
Oh, that's awesome. Oh man.
Judy Collins:
He was wonderful.
John Dowdy:
Oh yeah. Sounds like I bet that was quite a sight to see that a wedding like that.
Judy Collins:
Yeah, it was. And everybody was shocked. They're like, "He's 30 years old? there's no way that horse is 30 years old." We're like, "Yeah, he is."
John Dowdy:
Loving life now. So after you saw the benefits that the Equinety gave Hank there, you also have four other horses that are active, so you decided to put the Equinety product on those horses. Tell us about those horses just briefly and why you decided to put them on and what changes have you noticed in those horses?
Judy Collins:
Okay, well we have four horses, two are rope horses, one's my husband's head horse, the other one is his heel horse and they go to competitions and he ropes pretty hard on them. The last few months we haven't been able to go to a lot of ropings because we moved and just the process of moving, he hasn't got to do as much as normal, but because he does haul them quite a bit and go to the practice pin quite a bit he decided for maintenance he wanted them on it and I'm like, "Well I'm putting mine on it too." So we have all four horses on it and we just keep them on it and one our horses that we have a paint horse that his hair is extremely shiny, just since he's been on it, he glows. At one of the team rope ins he was warming up and he was in the outdoor arena and the drill team was there that was going to perform and do the national anthem and the girls wrote up to him and they said, "What kind of shampoo are you using on your horse?" And he said, "Water."
John Dowdy:
Oh, that's funny.
Judy Collins:
And they just couldn't believe how shiny that horse was, but it was the Equinety. They all shine like that now.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Yep. And has he noticed, recovery stamina? These are performance horses that are in pretty good shape, so what kinds of things has he noticed?
Judy Collins:
Well, he has noticed that their stamina for one thing, they can go out there and chase four or five steers, six steers and they're not even breathing hard, they're just muscled up and their stamina is really great. Also, from the recovery standpoint, he wanted to make sure that their muscles and stuff were recovering faster, which is one of the things the Equinety says it does and that was the main reason he put them on there and also hoping to prevent any future problems with the navicular or anything like that.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Awesome. Well, I tell you what a Judy, it's been a pleasure having you on and for anybody that's tuning in and again maybe hearing this for the first time, maybe they're on the fence about giving it a try, would you have any advice or anything to say to them to maybe get them to go ahead and give it a try for themselves?
Judy Collins:
I would recommend anybody that has any kind of health issues with their horses, hoof issues with their horses to put them on it. It's the best money you will ever spend and it's not a gimmick, it really works. But it is, it is the best money you can spend to invest in your horse's health.
John Dowdy:
Great. I agree. I agree with that. So awesome.
Judy Collins:
We love it.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, we're blessed. It is an amazing product. Well, Judy Collins out of Weatherford, Texas. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your stories here on the Equinety podcast.
Judy Collins:
Thank you.
John Dowdy:
Thank you. Bye bye.