David Teets Jr - Tie Down Roper - PAFRA - Faster Recovery & More Stamina
John Dowdy:
Hello, and welcome to this week's Equinety Podcast. We're swinging back up to a previous guest we had on, David Teets Jr. up in Delaware. David, welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
David Teets Jr:
Hey, thank you. I appreciate it. It's a pleasure.
John Dowdy:
Well, it's always a pleasure to have guests on and we had you on before. It was late spring, early summer timeframe. I remember it was our 100th episode.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir.
John Dowdy:
And I believe this is 122. I thought I would have you back on because there was a big event back in October called PAFRA, and I wanted to get a little bit of update on that, as far as what exactly is the PAFRA for those who may have missed our last podcast, the importance of it. And so, tell us what PAFRA is and everything about that.
David Teets Jr:
Well, yes sir. PAFRA stands for Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association. Actually, this year was our 20th anniversary. Unfortunately, last year due to obviously, everything going around the world with COVID and things like that, it was canceled. This year was the 20th anniversary.
We're glad to have you a big part of it this year. But we are down in Topeka, Kansas. I say down, because obviously, I'm up here in Delaware right now. But at Topeka, it's a competition. It's three days long and it consists of anyone that's a veteran of the armed forces, active duty, current family members that are dependent. A lot of times spouses, sometimes younger children, and from all over the world.
We come down there and we consider it our world final. Some of the athletes that compete regularly that are not on active duty and stuff, they may still be on the PRCA circuit or things like that. And they come out just to have a good time and for the camaraderie and we compete on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night is our short go. And it was great. It was a new arena this year. Awesome experience. And it's always fun to see all of our brothers and sisters in arms.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, absolutely. And with it being a Veteran's Day just yesterday, it's very fitting that you're on here. We definitely appreciate your service as well as your wife who couldn't be on today.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. [crosstalk 00:02:17] appreciate that.
John Dowdy:
And she left it to the two men to dominate this call. Lord, help us.
David Teets Jr:
Well, we'll give it a try.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. But no, with your guys' service and everybody out there, appreciate all of that. One of the things now, you guys have been using the Equinety products for what, about a year and a half now?
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. We started in Wyoming, and then we moved up here in December of last year. Obviously, active duty, just got the orders out this way and things are going great.
John Dowdy:
Sure. For those with it being a while, give us a little feedback on maybe some of the challenges that you were having, if you were having any prior to using the Equinety product. And then, what you've noticed since you've been using the Equinety products.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. Now, earlier we talked about six months ago. And we are still getting into the new location up here in Northeast. And it was a huge change for the horses. Obviously, with us being active duty, as we've talked in the past, our really good horses, they have been in five different locations. So Texas, Arizona, Washington, DC, out to Wyoming, back out here towards Delaware. Just taking a toll on them, stressed and weather-wise and things of that nature.
When I reached out to you early last year, it was really just, we had seen great reviews and Equinety was really hitting the market hard. And so, we wanted to give it a try and see if it would help with the stress during the winter time. Especially, we started it I believe, summertime or so of last year before the winter was going to hit. And it helped them out for sure, but the feet were a major concern with the weather conditions.
And then, we came up here and the conditions weren't as obviously, but the water accumulation and things of that nature. And I had some major concerns about the frogs just weren't really staying together very well on the two good horses specifically. And then my good horse, she's a really light palomino with white hooves and that's just a struggle in itself. Even, shoot, we were trimming Jen's good barrel horse, Gunner, not even a week ago, put some new shoes on him. And she still was commenting on how great his feet had come around and just the condition has changed completely.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And it's one of the unique things about the Equinety Horse XL. We have two products, the Equinety horse XL, which we've been on the market, going on eight years and the Equinety Ultimate OEC, which is a flaxseed based, Omega 3. It's got 1,000 IUs of natural cold press vitamin E and colloidal silver. And it's made specifically designed to work in combination with the Horse XL, which is 100% pure amino acids.
An easy way to think about it is the Equinety Horse XL amino acids give the body what it needs to help repair at the cellular level. And the Ultimate OEC gives those repaired cells some nutrition as well as acts as a really powerful antioxidant, which helps support reduction of inflammation. With the Equinety Horse XL, it's unique in the fact that it doesn't fit into a specific supplement category. In other words, it's not a quote, hoof supplement or joint supplement or recovery or anything like that. It's actually giving the body what it needs so the body can send its own repairing hormones to its own problem areas. And that's why it works in so many areas.
And you could have 50 horses with 50 different things going on and it's going to customize to your horse's needs. And I say all that, because as you've been using it over the last year and a half that's quite a trip to haul from Delaware to Kansas.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir.
John Dowdy:
And so, how many horses were you hauling? Well, how many horses were you hauling specifically?
David Teets Jr:
We took three. We took our two good ones. We left two behind that we weren't going to use. And then, we brought an up and coming just for the experience and the exposure and things of that nature. But we definitely were planning on asking a lot from the two main horses.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And what were you using the two main horses for out there?
David Teets Jr:
My good rope horse, she runs barrel Sparks on queue and stuff, but our head yield calf rope, my mare, the time we were talking about. And then my wife's horse, Gunner. He doubles as a head horse every so often rodeo-wise, but barrels for sure. He is clocking one 2D fairly consistently.
And so, he was pretty much strictly for that, but she actually used him to break away to, and he gave us a pretty good shot. I stuck to mine and she stuck to hers. And even just that alone, after the first round, one of my good buddies who ended up winning the tie down, actually switched to use my mare for the second and third round on top of everything I was using her for. It's definitely beneficial to be able to bring her back every day after expressing her out in multiple events and having additional riders, due to the circumstances, give them a shot to win it.
John Dowdy:
Wow. And how did you end up finishing up personally?
David Teets Jr:
Out there?
John Dowdy:
Yes.
David Teets Jr:
I ended up the steer wrestling champion, the average winner. I was sitting there thinking all over the place. But I won the steer wrestling. I placed second in a tie down in two of the three rounds. Took myself out of the average. Unfortunately, that was me, not the horse. Can't blame her.
And then Jennifer, she was sitting first in the average, after two go rounds, she was clocking in very well, about 25 women competing in the barrels. And like I said, there is a lot of individuals that compete consistently down in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas area all year round. And she was right there with them. And going into the third round, put up the same great time that he had then. Unfortunately, they bumped the barrel and took her out of the average. But she was doing great and the horse was running extremely good.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Let me get this straight.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir.
John Dowdy:
You had your horse or your horses both using in multiple events. And then you end up finishing second in tie down. But yet, the guy who won was also using your horse.
David Teets Jr:
Correct. My buddy, Travis Beck. He competes PRCA, a lot of steer wrestling and some other events as well, but his horse didn't work exactly how he wanted after the first run. And so, to give him a chance to do well in the final two rounds, he asked if we could swap out between runs. And so, of course, I took care of him, he always takes care of me.
John Dowdy:
That's awesome. At least half of you was in first place, really. I mean, you finished really [crosstalk 00:09:41].
David Teets Jr:
Yeah. Definitely, the horses, even though it didn't completely work out for us, it's probably a couple little minor errors on rider part, as it usually is. Right. And it just takes that split second to take everything out. And it was a lot of fun though.
I mean, we had, I believe right around 120 starts and stops in the timed event. Which was great because we've been recruiting more and more from all around the country. And there's some great competition out there right now. And it was nice to bring you into the family, so to speak. Because everyone was extremely appreciative of not only bringing those products around, but getting a chance to use them. I know a couple of buddies that I rope with, they used it on their horses before and had great things to say. Having you as a partner this year was a blessing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I tell you what, we were really excited to be a part of PAFRA all the way around. And we came in a little late, so we weren't able to get in on a lot of the action sponsorship-wise. But we were represented there pretty darn good, especially with you and Jen. So we definitely appreciate spreading the word. And I know we sent out quite a bit of samples and some swag.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
John Dowdy:
And we had banners and commercials playing on the jumbotron and all kinds of good stuff out there.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. And actually, one of my buddies out of Colorado, he's prior army. We had talked a while back and he had tried with one of his horses and he had great things to say. And I believe in the third round, he actually won in the short go in the tie down because he was right there with us. But they were just super ecstatic to see us pull up and have some samples to give out.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. No, that's awesome. Well, I know as far as the being the 20th anniversary and I know that had to be pretty exciting for everybody to get back in the swing of things.
David Teets Jr:
Well, it was definitely a lot. Well, I mean, it made it bigger this year because we weren't able to go last year. And so, the anticipation, the frustration of not being able to not only compete, but also see what we consider friends and family from all over the place.
John Dowdy:
Sure.
David Teets Jr:
So it made this year that much more anticipated and it went extremely well. From start to finish, and like I said, we started in that new location. And like you say, and the jumbotron and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of people showed up in those seats, that's for sure. And so we're anticipating it just gets bigger next year.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's great. You finished up that event and then you hauled back to Delaware. And then how did the horses recover after all of that exciting stuff?
David Teets Jr:
They recovered great. Worked them out really good yesterday too, and thought about going out there today but the rain saved them. They've been, right now, there's some circuit rodeos up here, Pennsylvania, Ohio. It's a little bit of a drive for us, but I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine. We'll probably rodeo the weekend of Thanksgiving. Probably team rope a little bit, maybe calf rope, but trying to keep him moving, that's for sure.
And my son, he's been... I've been trying to work the other ones a little bit more the up and comers because my eight year old thinks he's stealing my good horse to head off the herd. Yeah. That's like his comfort zone right now. And so to keep him motivated, I got to give up my good one because she runs hard, but she's safe and she listens to him. At the end of the day, you got to do what you got to do.
John Dowdy:
Absolutely. Now, did he run out there with you guys? Your son?
David Teets Jr:
No. Next year he will. It was actually nice that you bring that up. It's funny because we had a vote while we were there to change some of the rules because the breakaway is getting more and more popular. Right. And so, with our rules up to this point were breakaway was going to be basically all women.
But we were able to change that and include kids up to junior high, to compete with the women. Because that way it's a little bit easier for an eight, nine year old, if you want to get your family involved to compete in that rodeo with the breakaway than it is in the team rope. And for obvious reasons, a little more dynamic and a little more difficulty involved. Now, if we bring him out, he can run barrels if he wants to, but he can start stepping his game up as a big kid and rope in the breakaway at least now.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's great. Well, I know he's doing pretty good out there and we appreciate all of his representation wearing the Equinety swag.
David Teets Jr:
Yeah. It's funny because when the stuff comes in, I think I get second or third dibs because he's already wearing it around his school and wearing it here. And he's got the hat. And so, if I'm lucky, there's a hat left for me. But to be honest, we went to a barrel race, he placed... Shoot. He was going to win, yeah, two or 3D in the open. I can't even remember, but he clocked a really stupid time on Jen's good horse. He alternates between mine and Jen's.
And it was funny because afterwards he had one of the ladies come up to him and wanted to take a picture with him just because he's so small on that horse and he rides so good that it just brings a lot of attention to it. He definitely loves his t-shirts and everything and he wears them with pride out there.
John Dowdy:
Oh, that's awesome. Well, for anybody that's tuning in and you're out there running up and down the road and rodeoing, or even the trail riding and you're putting your horses through things. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on is just talk about the recovery and the stamina and the things that these horses have using the Equinety products.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir.
John Dowdy:
If there's anybody that's on the fence, that's thinking, "Well maybe this sounds too good to be true. Or is this really legit?" Or what would you had to say them? I mean, you've been using product now for year and a half and you've been on horses.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. And I know we've talked. The last time we talked about it and our situation is so unique in the fact of in 21 years of active duty service, over that for me and Jennifer is that right around 20 and still going strong. And so, we're limited on when we move. We got to start over. Right. The location might not be ideal. In this instance, we live on the base due to the position and such that we hold. We have to stall our horses up somewhere. We don't have the nicety of having a 20, 30 acre location, because we move so often and it would be difficult for us.
With that being said, we're limited on numbers of horses that we have, so we got to make the best of what we've got. And we ask a lot. And so we've noticed that the Equinety, it's helped keep our horses ready to go for multiple events on one given day. And we ask probably more than we should from our really good horses. But they take to it and they give us all the heart that they can.
If we had 10, 15, 20 horses and we could alternate a little bit more. Give some more time off and had a little more flexibility to maybe some injuries or things of that nature, then maybe we wouldn't stress as much about it. But in our situation, that's definitely something that we sure thought about. It definitely helps keep our good horses in a condition to where, no matter where we live, they can pick up and go.
John Dowdy:
Right. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, I sure appreciate you taking the time and educating everybody on PAFRA and the exciting things that's going on there. And we look forward to being a part of that again next year. Yeah. And again, thank you for your service. And we look forward to having you on again sometime in the future.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. We appreciate it. Again from the whole PAFRA family, thanks for joining the team. We're very appreciative and fellows out there that are listening in. Again, Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association, anyone out there that is a prior veteran, look it up. We've got a website out there and we'd love to have anybody because we want to keep growing it because it's getting bigger and bigger. And we're getting bigger and better partnerships as we're having this discussion right now. So we appreciate you.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's great. I'm sure the comradery is second to none out there.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. It's a lot of fun. We appreciate you being involved.
John Dowdy:
Awesome. Well, David Teets Jr. out of Delaware, thank you so much for taking the time here on the Team Equinety Podcast.
David Teets Jr:
Yes, sir. Thank you for the time.
John Dowdy:
You bet. Thank you. Bye-bye.
David Teets Jr:
Bye.
