John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety Podcast. We are swinging up into Canada again this week, and we've got a dynamic duo, Jaimey and Tina Irwin, out of Canada. Jaimey and Tina, welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
Tina Irwin:
Thank you very much. We're happy to be here.
Jaimey Irwin:
Thanks, John.
John Dowdy:
You bet, it's a pleasure. We've been trying to get you, and when I say we, it's really just been me, trying to get you guys on here for a very long time but you guys are so busy, all over the place. So let's give a little bit of background with both of you. So Tina, you are a successful international Grand Prix rider, Equestrian Canadian certified high performance coach and you've also represented Canada on numerous occasions. Could you go into a little bit more detail on some of your things that you have accomplished through the last years?
Tina Irwin:
Yeah, absolutely. Sure. So I've been fortunate enough to compete at two Pan American games. In 2011, I competed at Guadalajara, Mexico with a horse named Winston, where I was part of the silver medal winning team for Canada. And then most recently in 2019, I competed at the Pan American games in Lima, Peru with my horse, Laurencio, where we won the gold medal for team Canada and individual silver medals. Jaimey coached me and he is my current coach and has been for a long time, and helped me achieve that success.
John Dowdy:
Holy smokes, if I had some automated applause right now, I'd have to throw that in. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Jaimey, your background is pretty darn awesome as well. You're an international Grand Prix rider. You're sought after, as a high-performance coach, and you've represented Canada also on numerous occasions. What are some of the accomplishments you have?
Jaimey Irwin:
I guess my riding accomplishments was I represented Canada at the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden. I won the first Lindor's Finest. Also, part of Canada's first Nations Cup gold medal winning team Wellington, Florida along with Tina. I also placed silver individually. I trained many horses to the levels, to the Grand Prix and coached Tina for both Pan-American games. And we also developed a lot of young riders and juniors and taking them to the North American Young Rider Championships were they won medals and yeah that's kind of what we're about.
John Dowdy:
That is pretty awesome. So I guess you guys are kind of stuck with each other, it's not like Tina, you can get a different coach if you want. Cause Jaimey could just say [crosstalk 00:03:13] Jaimey's like, "I'm not going anywhere, so now what?" Yeah.
Tina Irwin:
Yeah. It's not so easy, I think, to get out of that one. I stay whether I want to or not.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Yeah.
Tina Irwin:
It's all good. I mean, obviously it can have its challenges when you're that close, husband and wife running a business together. We have two children as well, a son and daughter who are Gavin and Marlise who are 10 and seven, so they keep us super busy and the horses and the clients. So yeah, it's full on all the time. We don't have a lot of time. So hence why we've been delaying on the podcast but we decided to do it today. Finally.
Jaimey Irwin:
We're both here in the same room.
Tina Irwin:
Yeah we're here at the same time, in the same room. I mean that's rare.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, exactly. And somehow you were the only two people in the world that have found about 40 hours in one day, it sounds like.
Jaimey Irwin:
Seems like that, sometimes.
Tina Irwin:
Sometimes. Yeah.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So how did you guys actually meet?
Tina Irwin:
Well, it's kind of a cool story. So my sister's two years younger than me and she also is an avid dressage rider. She doesn't do it for a living, but we grew up riding together with my mother as well. And so she made the Ontario young rider team when she was 16 years old and Jaimey was on the team. He was 21 and they went down to Chicago for the North American Young Riders Championship. And so both my family and Jaimey's family were there and I had to actually stay home and watch my parents' farm because they couldn't leave it. They had a bunch of horses and other animals. So I had to stay home and be responsible and stay there. And so to Amy and my sister, Sarah, they met first and when Sarah came home from the trip, she said, Well, this guy on the team named Jaimey, he keeps asking about you and actually it got pretty annoying. I think you should like email him or call him or something because he keeps talking about you and asking about you."
Jaimey Irwin:
[crosstalk 00:05:33] never really noticed me around at all but I noticed her. [inaudible 00:05:39] The deal was if I made the Young riders team [inaudible 00:05:48] I was going to dye my hair blonde.
Tina Irwin:
Bleach blonde. Like really blonde.
Jaimey Irwin:
So of course, I made the team and that was the deal, so I dyed my hair bleach blonde. It was kind of that that made Tina notice me at a horse show, came out in the corner and I was there, she's like, "Oh, oh hie."
Tina Irwin:
Yeah, it was kind of like right in my face with blonde hair, this guy, and I said, "Oh, he's kind of cute, who is this guy?" And that's actually true. That's what made me notice him was the blonde hair. And then with my sister telling me the rest, I got more interested and yeah. And then we kind of, the rest is history, really.
John Dowdy:
That is awesome. So, wow. All right. So now you've been working together and traveling together and coaching and training and two kids and pretty awesome.
Tina Irwin:
Yep. Yep. It's been a busy last 10 years that's for sure. With the addition of the children.
Jaimey Irwin:
That's a whole different element. A really, really fun one though. We wouldn't change it for the world.
Tina Irwin:
No, we wouldn't.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Well, for those who are tuning in that don't know much about dressage or maybe have heard about it, and I know we could spend hours just talking about this, but in a cliff note version, what would be the best description of exactly what is dressage? How many different levels are there to make it to the top? When are the horses in their prime? All these kinds of things. So somebody tuning in can kind of get an idea of what this is.
Tina Irwin:
Okay. Well, dressage actually is a French word, which means training. So really in any discipline, a question discipline, everyone does some shape or form of dressage. Now, if you are solely in dressage, like we are, that is our area of expertise. We have many different levels starting at a very basic level where you just doing walk, trot, canter all the way up to the Grand Prix level, which is the Olympic level for our disciplines. So there's every level in between. And there's a training scale that you use to sort of work your way up through the different levels. And it takes many years to train a horse and develop it to reach the Grand Prix level, probably six, seven years, approximately, depending on the horse and the rider. And yeah, basically our sport is judged. It's very political.
Jaimey Irwin:
It's sort of like figure skating where you have this set pattern and everybody does the pattern and each person is judged by their movement and how well they execute it and how harmonious it is and the way the horse moves. I always like to say, it's kind of like, you're getting the horse to dance. You and your horse are dance partners and you're trying to go through the pattern in a way that the horse is dancing freely and with as much expression in a harmonious way through the tests that everybody does. And we also have the elements of the freestyle which is music.
Which is, I guess the most interesting for people who don't really know much about dressage, because you can see when the horse is with the music when it's not, the different music choices and how the music highlights the strong forms of the horse and that has really boosted the sport. And the freestyles have been introduced. It's not been for quite a while, but yeah, training the horse in a very systematic and gymnastic way, to be able to execute the movements with ease in a way that it looks like it's harmoniously dancing.
John Dowdy:
That is pretty awesome. Now specifically with the music, are there certain, or do you have somebody compose the music? Is it music that you can just use from anywhere or do you pick certain music for certain horses? What's that like, trying to match that up?
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah. Well I think the music that people choose kind of reflects who they are and what they like, but it also has to be appealing for the judges and the other people that are watching. So also needs to be a good rythym and beat for the horse that you're riding. So we're always keeping an ear out for the different types of music that we really like and think, "Oh, this could work for that horse or a different horse." And we're very lucky we have two amazing people that do our freestyle music, Wendy Watson and Louis Manet from Toronto, Ontario.
That's productions, they're geniuses when it comes to music, we played, we really like clean songs and they actually reproduce the entire songs themselves with their own instruments. And they put it through the speed of the horse make it slow down then speed up because they're recreating the music themselves. We're very, very lucky, that we have them to do our music and they do an amazing job. It's a lot of fun to ride freestyle.
Tina Irwin:
It is a lot of fun and quite often when you're at the top level, you're able to ride the freestyle in a really nice atmosphere, whether it's in a big stadium at night, under the lights, there's a big crowd and people are eating and drinking and having a great time. It is really very much a performance.
Jaimey Irwin:
And they allow the crowd to get into it too because they also have a say in whether or not they like what they're seeing, do they like the music, do they think it matches and quite often the crowd will get into it and start applauding and it's a cool thing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. I know that you guys, with the exception of this last year, usually make your way down south to Florida down to Wellington, Florida, which I've been able to watch you guys perform for quite a few years actually. And it is pretty darn awesome seeing it live, just through my experience. I remember the very first time I think, and I'm not sure if you guys were showing this and this goes back to 2014 of in Canada and somebody had said, "Oh yeah, we're going to go watch dressage." And I'm thinking, well, I grew up in Oklahoma, so that's all rodeo. I'm thinking, "Dressage? What is this?" So of course I looked it up. I'm like, "Oh, Lord help me." It didn't look that exciting, but I will have to admit that when I was there and you're seeing it live, it is so impressive because of all the things going on.
And from what I gathered, it looks like the writer is sitting perfectly still, but there's all these other things going on, just little finger movements, foot movements. And is that what you're actually getting the horse to do the certain moves just from certain body positions and things? Describe to us how that works.
Tina Irwin:
Yeah. I mean, that's what all those years of training a horse should ideally develop into. [crosstalk 00:13:37] It's supposed to. It doesn't always, but when you see anything done at its top level, you can appreciate how good it really is because if someone is making it look super easy and it is not easy, it takes many, many years of skill and training on the rider and the horse's part. But yeah, that's the idea is that you basically are using very fine aids. Invisible aids, is I think the correct term, very subtle seat aids and hands and legs to communicate with the horse and make it look like you're not really doing anything. That is the goal, to make it look like you and the horse are one and are partners and working together and dancing, really.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that is incredible. Now you may have mentioned this earlier. What is the typical age of when they're in their prime?
Jaimey Irwin:
I guess because it takes so long, when they're in their prime it sort of measures to the Grand Prix level. That's kind of the idea. Horses that are really in professional training right from the beginning, it still takes many years because it takes so long for them to finish their growing. Warmblood similarly, I think it's more like 6, 7 years old until they're really finished properly growing. So to ask them to do that higher level of collection can you expect them to be strong enough and balanced enough to do those high level Grand Prix movements. They don't really start to be doing it until around 10ish, nine to 10. Then it takes a while to really solidify at that level and become really comfortable with the movement.
So you see a lot of the horses at the Olympics in around 15, 16. So anywhere between, I would say like 12 to 15 is probably in their prime and the idea of what it's supposed to be is that the horse is working really correctly through their body in a subtle way. And they're balanced and strong enough to do the movement. So the idea is that the horse is going to last a lot longer because they're finding the work easily because they've been properly developed.
John Dowdy:
Right. Wow. That's pretty incredible. Now I think that's a great segue going into, cause I first met you guys back in 2014 when we really launched this product. But if we go back prior to the quantity product itself, what has been your experience? We'll say pre Equinety product, according to horse XL, and then obviously how you came across it. And what changes have you noticed in the past seven years of using the product? So kind of a before and after comparison.
Tina Irwin:
I think I have a good example. There's a horse that I ride and before using Equinety she was very much an excessive sweater. Like she did sweat a lot. And then once we started to use Equinety that really changed. I noticed that she was coping better with the work and the amount of sweat was drastically reduced and that even in the winter, she would sweat a lot when it was really cold here. And it was always bizarre. And really her workload did not change from when I started to use the Equinety before and after it was the actual product. I mean, she instantly was recovering a lot better from her workouts, a lot quicker and drastically was reducing the amount of sweat.
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah. And I also noticed that none of the horses that are on Equinety are really ever sore in their muscles from work, which is really good.
Tina Irwin:
That is true.
Jaimey Irwin:
Even after a hard workout or a big competition, their muscles, they always come out the next day. They're not moving, "Oh, I've been really working really hard the day before." They come out walking very normally, moving very normally and the muscles are really nice, [inaudible 00:18:22] the stuff away. So that's something that I think a lot of the things we've noticed we didn't realize were missing before. And then when the horses went on Equinety then you saw what was missing previously, so that's my own personal take anyways. But yeah, definitely the muscles [crosstalk 00:18:46] and yeah, tiny code and horse growth and focus. The focus seems to be also another one. And I don't know if it's maybe because the body feels really good that they feel that they could focus or if it has a focusing aspect to it, but I did notice that the horses have been really quite focusing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I think that everything that you're describing, we hear over and over and over and it doesn't seem to be, well, I'll put it this way in, in every discipline, especially with on the Western side where they're hauling every weekend, tens and hundreds of miles sometimes just weekend warriors hauling all over the place and normally where they might have to rest their horse two, three days now it's like a one day rest. And the other thing is what we've noticed with seven years being on the market, it doesn't matter what part of the country or which country your horse is from or the quality of the feed and care that they're giving. When they add this, according to horse XL, they all seem to be benefiting. And I think it'd be good for those tuning in right now.
Maybe you've just come across the Equinety Horse XL, maybe you're looking to help enhance the performance of your horse or just the overall wellbeing. What the Equinety Horse XL is 100% pure amino acids, there's no fillers, there's no sugars, no starches. And there's no loading dose. So a serving size is 5.2 grams by like a teaspoon and just put it right in their feed. And what's really unique about it is it doesn't fit into a specific category of a hoof supplement or joint supplement or muscle recovery or focus. What it's actually doing is it gives the body what it needs to help release its own repairing hormones. And when we can get the horse to release its own repairing hormones, it's the body that sends those hormones to its own problem areas. And that's why it helps in so many ways.
And I believe that you two have been using the Equinety Horse XL well from the very beginning. So you're the longest Equinety users that I know of because I was there, but to be able to see it, and especially at your guys' level with these horses, have you noticed also an impact with your traveling internationally? You travel every year to Florida outside of this last year, which was a crazy lockdown year, but have you also noticed if they haul better or within being shipped around and everything, on the product?
Tina Irwin:
Well, I would say absolutely because I'm also just somewhat recently in the last month we trailered to North Carolina for a competition and it took us 19 hours from start to finish with our stop. And our horse traveled in a box stall in our trailer, but it's not an air ride trailer and it's a long trip. And she came off that trailer and was like, ready to go. And the next day I was giving her just a light day to ride and stretch, but she felt amazing. Like it did not affect her whatsoever, that trip and our other horses, I mean, we always go to Florida other than this past year we have for over 10 years now. And it's about give or take 30 hours. [crosstalk 00:22:29] It's a long trip for them. And I mean, our horses are all traveling.
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah, they all get off the barn really well and the next day their movement is great. They don't look like they've been on a long, long trip. These things do not have that fitness in their muscles that you'd expect from not doing anything or yeah.
Tina Irwin:
Yeah. Completely.
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah. That's pretty incredible. So where's your, where's your next, oh, go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say that what you were describing about health or the supplements or Equinety really gets the horse to fix the problem areas at a cellular level. That is the biggest thing that intrigued me in the beginning because I thought, "Wow, that's incredible." That really goes to the cellular level. Everything was made up of cells so wherever there's an issue this will go to it and help repair. And that was pretty groundbreaking to me, I thought.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And that was a great way to answer the question before I forgot to ask it. Well, cause you know, at your guys' level, I'm sure you're approached by a lot of people, a lot of different supplements come across your table and you're like, "Yeah, that sounds good", or you have a lot of opportunity to probably try whatever you'd like. So the fact that you looked at it at the Equinety product and thought, "Hmm, that is really different", which it really is. So that's pretty awesome.
Tina Irwin:
Most recently there was actually, most of the horses in our stable are on Equinety, but there are a few or they were a few that weren't and just different borders that we have, our own personal horses are all on it. And there was one horse who just had a terrible coat, like really like kind of not himself. And it was like not awesome, not looking healthy, not looking good and so Jaimey said, "Well, let's put them on the Equinety." And literally, I think the weekend went by and it was like, it was noticeably different. The owner came out and she said, "I cannot believe how good this horse's coat looks." And he was shiny and he looked healthy and he looked, the change was quite drastic actually. And that's the only thing we changed. I mean, you see it again and again, right? Like when the horses are on it for so long, you kind of sometimes forget, I guess, because it just becomes normal. It's expected but when you see such a drastic change, it's quite impressive.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's pretty awesome. They're like, "Man the Irwin barn here is magical." Yeah. [crosstalk 00:25:42] Well, as we're coming into the summertime here in 2021, what do things look like? Obviously, we've been dealing with the COVID lockdowns over the last year, as things are starting to open up more and more in Canada. What does the rest of the year look like for you guys?
Tina Irwin:
Well, things are moving a little bit slower. They have been, and now I think, gradually, we're starting to reopen again. So we really haven't had any competitions here, but they are supposed to start. There's one actually coming up this weekend, which we're going to and then there should be some more. [crosstalk 00:26:27] Yeah. I mean, today the lockdown is over, which is crazy. So we're starting to reopen gradually and we'll be able to have a competition and there will be some more plans for the summer. So we're really looking forward to getting back out and competing and yeah, we've missed it a lot of course, because Florida was a big part of our career and going down every winter. So yeah, we're excited to get showing again, get our horses out and the young ones that we've been developing, getting them out and seeing the world and sort of planning for the future.
So we both, unfortunately we were trying to qualify for the Olympics for Tokyo, which got delayed from last year to this year. And due to all of the competitions that were canceled here in Canada, we were not able to qualify unfortunately, because we did not go to Florida. So yeah, it was a personal decision for us not to go because of our family and because of our business, there were a lot of risks for us. So we chose to stay home, but yeah, so that's kind of a bummer that we're not able to go, but at the same time, the way we look at it, there will be many other chances. Olympics at world championships and other events. So it's only one year and we're looking forward to the future. That's what we're working on.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. No doubt. So real quick, give us a day in the life of the Irwins like, what time do you get up? What's kind of your whole daily schedule look like, what time do you get back into the house?
Jaimey Irwin:
[inaudible 00:28:15].
Yeah. We get up around 6:15am, we start to get up at around 6:15am.
John Dowdy:
Tina serves you breakfast in bed, don't forget that part. Yeah.
Jaimey Irwin:
We only like to have really healthy breakfast and make sure the server is making a healthy breakfast for the kids and wake them up so that they can come down and have breakfast with us. We always like to try and have our meals all together So breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we always eat together when that's possible. And then I go to the barn first and [inaudible 00:29:03] at eight.
Tina Irwin:
I kind of stay home, looking after the kids, getting them to school, making their lunch.
Jaimey Irwin:
To divide and conquer a little bit.
Tina Irwin:
So I don't really make it to the barn until about nine or just before nine, but things that are ahead of me and usually he's there longer than me. And then I leave a little earlier. [crosstalk 00:29:28].
Jaimey Irwin:
Exactly. It works really well. We both know what we're supposed to be doing and go through it. And then the day is filled with riding either training coaching or having people come into lessons. And right now we have right 27 horses, I think, in the stable, but it keeps us busy all day.
John Dowdy:
No doubt.
Jaimey Irwin:
That's just doing what we need to do in a day. You know, we live on the farm. So there's a lot of things that we need to do with fence repairs and lawn maintenance and things of course always have to break to add more hours to the day. We stay very busy.
Tina Irwin:
And then on weekends, Jaimey, usually he travels quite a bit to teach clinics. So quite often he's flying out on like a Friday afternoon and then home on a Sunday night. So normal pre COVID that was happening quite frequently. And then back again, Sunday night and then working again Monday, and then if we're not at a clinic, we're at a horse show. So yeah, it's super busy and competing. And we also go [inaudible 00:30:56] and we look for horses for people to buy for them and we sell horses as well. So it's a bit of everything. And I think the biggest thing is that we, you try to stay organized and have a bit of a schedule. So you get everything done in a day because they're long days and then you come home and make dinner and then basically get the kids to bed and spend a little time with them before that and all the emails.
Jaimey Irwin:
And text messages and phone calls and [inaudible 00:31:29] all of that.
John Dowdy:
And a podcast.
Tina Irwin:
And then we basically like collapse and then we do it all over again.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And, and with all of that, because you like giving back and what the youth, tell us about your youth program that you've started up.
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah, well, we've always loved to help develop and the fact that there weren't really a lot of programs available in Canada for our youth. So we thought we would make one of our own to help youth and maybe they don't have access or opportunity. Just to give back and help anybody that was wanting the help. We came up with a youth bursary, where we would donate one full training month here with us. And then we were very, very lucky and fortunate to have all of our sponsors also want to jump in, Equinety as well, in donating money and products and help in any way they can. And so we've developed the youth team and the youth bursary and it was a big hit. This is the first year and we're very excited about it. And we have, I think, 15 applicants, which was great from all over Canada. And yeah, we're looking forward to do it as an annual.
Tina Irwin:
I think we were both both young riders. We were both working students. We had to work really hard to become professionals and everybody needs a bit of a break. Everybody needs an opportunity and something to help them get started. And they think that this is one of those avenues that can really help someone who's serious about the sport and wants to do something with it. And yeah, we just started, we had people help us and we really felt that it was important to give back and create something of our own self.
Jaimey Irwin:
And there didn't seem to be anything available that kind of did that for the youth to kind of give them something to, an educational sort of situation to help them. So that's what we wanted to do and give back.
Tina Irwin:
I mean the youth is the future of the sport. So you have to, you can't just look away. Your own goals are you have to keep this sport growing and that starts with the youth. So that's something we're very serious about and we want to continue doing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that is great. That is great. Well, is there anything else you'd like to touch upon before we end the podcast? I know there's a lot of people that tune in to these podcasts and a lot of times they're looking for direction and things. I know your website is team Irwindressage.com, which has a lot of information on there, really nice website. And a lot of times they're looking for products as well and they're thinking, "Man, this Equinety product sounds really good, but I don't know. I'm kind of on the fence." Is there anything that you had to say to them other than what you've already talked about that might get them off the fence to give it a try?
Jaimey Irwin:
Yeah. Like I said, what was the major factor to me is just, understanding like we were, when we first learned about the product, we looked into Dr. Weitz and how he explained how it works. And I thought that was unbelievable because everything is made up of cells. And when this product goes directly to the cell and repairs damaged cells.
Tina Irwin:
It's kind of a no brainer.
Jaimey Irwin:
That is unbelievable by the way. Whether it's hove growth, whether it's tendons, whether it's muscle, whatever bone, everything is made up of itself. So when you have a product that the horse is able to have new food and have the healing go directly to the cells that need to be healed that is unbelievable. So that was a no brainer to us. And we've been using it ever since we've heard about the product seven years ago. And the horses functioning amazingly. They look great. They're really healthy. And we can't really say enough about it.
Tina Irwin:
I would say try it if you're on the fence, try it. That is the best way to know and see for yourself.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, no, that's great. And one of the other things I'll add in there, and it's one of the great things about this product, is it does start working in 24 hours and the vast majority of people see changes in 30 days or less. I mean, you guys described just the quality of the coat within a weekend, you could start to see changes there. So I tell people it's not a miracle supplement, but it sure does some miraculous things. And we're definitely blessed in that way.
Jaimey Irwin:
And every horse is different and every situation is different. So, put your words on it and find something that you weren't even expecting, that it would help.
John Dowdy:
Right. Awesome. Well, Jaimey and Tina Irwin out of Ontario, Canada, thank you so much for taking the time to share your life story, your experience in the world of dressage here on the team Equinety podcast.
Tina Irwin:
Thank you very much for having us.
John Dowdy:
You bet. Thank you. Bye bye.