Elena Flaharty - USDF Gold Medal Dressage Trainer
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety Podcast. We are swinging into Northern California this week. We've got Elena Flaherty on the call. Elena, welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
Elena Flaharty:
I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
John Dowdy:
Well, it's always a pleasure and a little bit of your background. You are a USDF gold medal dressage trainer. So you have been around horses for quite a while and have seen a lot of things I'm sure.
Elena Flaharty:
I sure have. I actually started riding in Colorado as a kid, seven years old, and I have been through Pony Club, I was an inventor, I've been doing straight massage for the last 10 years and have taken one horse to Grand Prix. And I have another one on the way.
John Dowdy:
That's great. Well I believe the way that we connected was through Facebook, which is a lot of the ways that we find these stories and things. And you had talked specifically about a young horse. Did you have a six year old that was dealing with a lot of things, 18 months worth of diagnostic things and kind of some mystery lameness type things? Let's get into that and exactly what that was. And maybe those that are tuning in, which is kind of the point of this podcast is, those that might be going through similar situations can say, "Hey, that's what my horse is going through," or something similar. So let's talk about what you were dealing with, with this particular horse and how you came across the Equinety product and how this horse is doing now.
Elena Flaharty:
Okay. So I had kind of off and on soundness issues with him. He just turned seven this year. And I would say probably from age five to maybe the beginning of last year, so the beginning of his six year old year, he was pretty much off and on lame. And the multitude of diagnostics showed nothing that we could pinpoint. Thousands of dollars later or back snack, ultrasound, X-rays, things like that. The only thing we could find that we weren't even sure about was that he had fetlock bone chip. So my vet said, 'if this is causing maybe the problem, let's go ahead and remove them.', So we did, and he starts to go back into work and he's feeling okay.
Elena Flaharty:
And then six months down the road, he's often on lame again. So we go back up to the vet and that says, 'you know, I just don't think it's anything that we can actually diagnose. Why don't you just give him like six months off to grow?', He was pretty large at that point, he was 16.3 at that age. So I brought him home and I just kind of chewed on that a little bit and I thought, 'you know, I'm not sure that I want to actually give this horse time off. Cause he's large, I'd like him to move, keep the joints moving. So I just did a little bit of research on nutrition, stabling, and I actually thought maybe I should just keep working him, but not under saddle, just lunging him. I put him in a bigger corral and then I called a bunch of my friends and I said, have you ever had this problem? And they all pointed me to the nutrition.
Elena Flaharty:
So I pulled Clayton off everything except for orchard hay, and then I went back and I did research about what a growing young horse needs. And I kind of stumbled upon Equinety and it basically targets their body to help them help themselves heal. So I thought, you know what the heck I spent so much money at this point. Why not just try it? And he's been on it for the last, at the end of 2019 is when I put him on it. So he's been on it for the last year and a half or so he's in full work. He actually just won high point last weekend of his competition.
John Dowdy:
Nice!
Elena Flaharty:
Yeah, and so I've been really, really happy. He's been knock on wood sound, every time my coach comes, she tells me how great he looks, that he's just looking better and better. And what I've really noticed about the- it's like an overall product, because it's not just like hook or whatever. So what I love about it is his coat looks great, his weight looks great, he's got capellet, he feels great, his focus is good, he eats, he drinks. I don't have any issues with that kind of stuff. And he's like going in the trailer and he's being grown up, he's doing his job. And I just, I give him two suits cause he's a big boy and I just don't ever want to go back to that place that we were before. So I'm happy to just keep him on it forever.
John Dowdy:
Yep yeah. Now listening to that story and there might be some out there that are listening and the thought could come across their mind. Well, say you didn't give the Equinety Horse XL and you just let the horse go through the same phase or the same timeframe. What are your thoughts being right there with the horse? Did the Equinety Horse XL just speed everything up? Did it help him get to the point? Cause you had mentioned that you were looking for the nutritional aspect, but what are your thoughts giving the product versus if you would have not given the product and had the same timeframe over those 18 months?
Elena Flaharty:
You know, honestly, I don't, I was just telling my mom she's really involved in the horse stuff with me. I was just telling my mom the other day, I just looked back at that time and think, we didn't even know if he was going to be able to be ridden. I mean, it was not like a really bad lameness, but he was not sound. And just having, watching the body change, the soundness change with the product. I mean, within 90 days I saw a huge improvement in his body and actually his feet too, because he was really flat footed and had issues with one foot and not the other, so who knows what he was compensating with. His feet look great, he's been knock on wood sound. I do think that you can see a big change in their body with that product. It's amazing. Truly.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, for those tuning in, maybe you're looking for a product that's going to help your horse in whatever ways that you need help with. And you know, with so many products on the market, we don't really compare ourselves to any other products on the market because ours is so unique because it doesn't fall into the category of a whole supplement, a joint supplement, a muscle-building supplement, a recovery supplement. It doesn't fall into any of those categories. What it does. It's 100% pure amino acids, there's no fillers, there's no sugars, no starches and there's no loading dose. A serving size is 5.2 grams, which is about like a teaspoon, whether it's a mini pony or a draft horse and anything in between because what the amino acids are doing specifically is targeting the pituitary gland, which is a gland that releases all the hormones in the body.
John Dowdy:
And once that happens, which by the way happens within hours of giving them a scoop and then the body can decide where to send its own hormones and sends those hormones to its own problem areas, and this is why it helps in so many ways. And so you, you kind of put it we're helping the horse to help itself, which is absolutely true. So if you had 50 horses with 50 different things going on, in essence, it's going to customize to each horse because again, we're allowing the body to help repair itself from the inside out. And when you get into all the things like you were just talking about flat heals and all these different body composition, all this stuff, probably one of the best descriptions we hear a lot is just helping to balance the horse from the inside out.
John Dowdy:
And as I mentioned with it working in hours, going into work within hours, we've had a lot of people that have had horses that have a lot of stress and anxiety that have had complete demeanor changes in as little as two or three days for the working performance horse, fast recovery, better stamina, more focused, they're just more comfortable under saddle within a week to two weeks. And you get into the 30 day mark, which is the vast majority people do see changes, whether it be kind of filling out in the hips or top line, they have a super shiny and soft coat and they'll even start noticing a little bit better hoof growth at that point and thicker soles. And so with your particular story, you go out 90 days and it is like dramatic dramatic. And this is one of the reasons why we also encourage people to take before and after pictures even within 30 days, because when you're around your horse every single you don't notice a lot of little small changes, but when you can snap a photo it's pretty huge from the physical changes.
Elena Flaharty:
Oh yeah, absolutely. I actually might have a before and after. I posted one actually on social media of him from the show, and I can't believe how many people said to me, his body looks fantastic. Cause he struggles a little bit with putting on weight on his hind end, like over his loin and in that Hunter Bump area. And I mean, it's completely filled out the last time the chiropractor came, she was like, he looks like a different horse. His topline looks phenomenal, weight looks great. It's just an amazing product for overall everything. Yeah,
John Dowdy:
Yeah, absolutely. So after you saw the results on this six year old and the recovery and just the body composition and everything else, then you decided, Hey, let's try this on my FEI horse, Charlie. And so tell us about that.
Elena Flaharty:
Yeah, actually, he had had an interesting injury. We're not really sure what he did, but he did something in turnout that tweaked his SI. And of course he picked the right year to do it, he did it last year at the beginning of last year, the crazy 2020 year. And he went to go do, walk on the treadmill for rehab and I just thought it's worked so well for Clayton. Why don't I just put him on the Equinety too? I mean, he needs it and he works harder than Clayton does, he's rehabbing, I want to help him get through this and hopefully never deal with this again.
Elena Flaharty:
So he's on one scoop a day now and he's doing [Craig St. George 00:10:37], we're schooling. I won I2. And he looks fantastic. And what I was just talking to my vet about was, we were talking about how Charlie's doing. She checks in with me a lot. And she said, you know, he hasn't had injections in almost a year and a half of the talk. And I just thought, I wonder if that's because his body's doing what it should be doing because of the supplement.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You know, we hear that a lot with horses that are regularly injected, obviously we're talking in the performance world, whether it be on the English side or over on the Western side. And one of the most common things that we hear is the regularly injected horses, when they start taking the Equinety Horse XL, don't have to be injected as often. And sometimes not at all, it all just depends on the severity of what's going on, but that is something we definitely hear a lot.
Elena Flaharty:
Yeah. I'm pleasantly surprised. And on top of all of that, having an FEI horse, they have to have such stamina for a two or three day show, and he's the kind of horse that has to be worked hard to stay focused. So I was getting to that second or third day before the Equinety and he would just see, he would just be flat and he would start misbehaving a little bit. Like it was just too much work, his stamina wasn't good, his recovery of his muscles wasn't good. I tried other products, nothing was really doing what it said it was going to be doing. I have to say this last show, he was on his game all three days and it was 95 degrees every single day so I am super, super happy about that.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Just with the overall recovery and the stamina and yeah. Especially getting into the three-day you'll know, on the third day you're like, hang in there, buddy.
Elena Flaharty:
Yeah, exactly. The beginning of summer when they're like, whoa where does this heat come from? And he can struggle a little bit with that. So, and he was even drinking more than he normally does, he's been eating really well, his weight has been staying pretty steady. So I definitely, that's the only thing I've changed in his diet over the last two years that I can attribute that to.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's great. Well, and before we jumped on the call, you and I were talking, I was giving you more information on our, the second product that we have, which I'll give everybody a little insight on that. It's called the Equinety Ultimate OEC. And we brought that out last March after spending about a year, doing research and development and field trials with Dr. Bruggen who brought it to us a couple years ago. And we had been on the market at the time, six years with the Equinety Horse XL, the amino acids, which is a lot of our ads and all the testimonials and things are pretty well based around that.
John Dowdy:
And the reason why we came out with the Ultimate OEC was two-fold. One, it's to work in combination with the amino acids to give those repaired cells some nutrition, which helps them operate at optimal levels. And secondly, it's a really powerful antioxidant which helps reduce inflammation and what it is specifically, it comes in a half gallon because there's no fillers in it, but it's a high quality flaxseed based omega-3 oil. It's got a thousand Ius of natural, cold pressed vitamin E and colloidal silver all in one. And it's not that the ingredients themselves are unique because there's companies out there that have one or two mixed into one or one mixed in with some other things. But to my knowledge, this is the first product that has all three mixed into one, but we brought it out specifically when, again, we wanted a high quality product and using these two products together, seems to just be like the ultimate [suppliment 00:14:29] combination from all the feedback that we're getting.
John Dowdy:
So we're pretty excited about that and starting to get a lot of feedback rolling in. Some of the feedback, just to give you an idea, the horses do phenomenal on the amino acids, and we recommend every horse be on the amino acids, because again, it's giving the body what it needs to help repair at the cellular level.
John Dowdy:
Now there's been some horses that were, they still kind of have like a cough. And I know you had mentioned to me that Charlie kind of has a bit of a cough. And so you're going to try some of the OEC and see if that gets rid of that, which we have had quite a bit of feedback with that. The horses are on the Horse XL and they doing great, but they have this little cough and they added the Utimate OEC and that got rid of the cough for whatever reason. And then-
Elena Flaharty:
Oh that's awesome.
John Dowdy:
Yep. Yep. And then there's been horses that were doing great on the Horse XL, but maybe they were still tying-up or maybe they didn't want to drink when they're on the road. And they added the Ultimate OEC and that kind of fixed the problem. So it's a very, very interesting combination.
John Dowdy:
And so if you're tuning in and you've just been using the Horse XL, would highly encourage you to try adding the Ultimate OEC to it and see how that works for you. So it's a pretty darn exciting with what we've got going on out here. And it's also one of the reasons why we started this podcast. We've got over a hundred of these podcasts on our website and there were so many people that were calling in or emailing us saying, hey, let me tell you what this product did for my horse. And so many times my jaw would be on the table going, I can't believe what I'm hearing. And it's really unfortunate that I'm the only one hearing this story outside of your circle. And so I thought, well, this would be a great format to help get these stories out. So here we are over a hundred podcasts later. So we definitely appreciate you taking the time to share your stories here and I know it's going to benefit a lot of other folks out there.
Elena Flaharty:
Well, I can't thank you enough for such a great product, because honestly, I was looking at this horse that I had bread and I pulled out of his mom years ago and thought, what am I going to do with a [gilding pasture ornament 00:16:41] ? And you know, so truly I give you 100% credit to help me, in helping me get him going and where he wants to be because he loves to work, and so it's mutual. We thank you very much for that. Ironically enough or not, I guess the universe works in mysterious ways, I just got a message as we were on the phone from friends that asked me about Equinety.
John Dowdy:
Ahh, how funny is that?
Elena Flaharty:
Yeah. She's like, I know you were just telling me about it this weekend, one of my horses is having an injury that we can't diagnose. Can you tell me more about it? Do you think it would be a great option for us?
John Dowdy:
Yes, listen to this podcast.
Elena Flaharty:
And I just said yes.
John Dowdy:
That's so funny. Well, I tell people all the time that our products aren't miracle supplements, but they can sure do some miraculous things. And when used in combination with your farrier and vet, it's like a team effort. And so specifically I tell people, if they've got the world's best farrier standing in front of their horse, but there's no hoof to work with, what are they supposed to do? Everybody's just kind of stuck. And so specifically with that issue, when you add the Horse XL, that hoof is going to start growing, it's healthier, stronger, and it gives the farrier more to work with in a shorter amount of time. And when you're dealing with injured horses, it helps get everything back to where you want them to be faster.
John Dowdy:
So it's just always important, working with a good vet and farrier and the nutrition is so important and really being in tune with your horse and these products are just, it helps you get to where you want to go on a shorter timeframe. So it's, we're definitely blessed in that way. So if there's anybody tuning into this call and they're thinking, boy, that sounds really good, but I don't know, maybe they're still sitting on the fence a little bit. Is there anything you'd have to say to them other than what you've already talked about that might get them off the fence to give it a try,
Elena Flaharty:
Don't sit on the fence, just do it. I am so glad I did it. I actually have it on Amazon just on subscribed. So it just sends me one every, it's one every month for me since I have two horses on it, but you can pick like every other month or whatever. I hopefully will never have to deal with not having my horses on this because it is incredible. And I actually have a young two year old that will be going on it as well.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that is great. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your stories here on the Equinety Podcast, Elena Flaherty out of California. Thank you so much for taking the time here on the Equinety Podcast.
Elena Flaharty:
Thank you so much for having me. Great products.
John Dowdy:
All right, thank you. Bye-bye.
