JD Kneece – Performance Horse - Mystery Lameness – Poor Performance - Abscess
John Dowdy:
Hello, and welcome to this week's Equinety podcast. We are swinging up into South Carolina. We've got JD Kneece on the call this week. JD, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
JD Kneece:
Thank you, John.
John Dowdy:
Well, it's great to have you, and I'm excited to have you on. You're a longtime horse trainer. You're in the barrel horse industry, so you're no stranger to seeing all kinds of kooky, weird things out there that can happen with horses. And what caught my attention about this one in particular, is it was one of your main performance horses, and something just started happening. And then you found the Equinety product, dramatic change in as little as 41 days. But let's go back to some of your history and give us a little bit of your background. And then what was going on with this particular horse?
JD Kneece:
Long story short, I've raised a couple of sturdy colts each year for probably the last, I think, this is year 17. And we [inaudible 00:01:07] with securities, sell a few, how to do some outstanding pedigree crosses. And I believe in, the horses are athletes, they have to be 110%. So I'm not scared to go to the vet. But this in particular gelding, he is 18. We've had him since he was a two year old. I can depend on him anytime, locally, he'll slip up and win a barrel race. When you get out in tough competition, you're usually in the 2d, but his performance had totally gone downhill.
I was telling my vet, Dr. Greg Ford, that I really don't think my horse is getting enough air. He scoped Dean. We did a thorough trait. Couldn't find anything. He did some [inaudible 00:01:53] , but that was really an element of lameness he could find. We came home, kept working him, took him to some more shows. Still not happy with my horse, he's going downhill.
He referred me to a [inaudible 00:02:07] Dr. Hand, I believe his name was. We run allergy tests. They put him on allergy serum once a week, we were going to go several months. He said I should have some results. And two or three weeks off of the allergy shot, saw nothing.
I started getting nasal discharge at one of the shows, it was nothing to flip out about, nothing that nobody else would have picked up on. And I was like, "I raised this horse, I know him like the back of my hand, something is wrong".
He referred me to, [inaudible 00:02:43] vet lab in Lexington, Texas. They run some tests on him, we found out nothing. I was knocking on the door at $10,000 spent, I got a GTB RA show on gentlemen there that was set out with a plan B. He said, "Here is one of the little things, just try it".
But actually it came home and I took it out the trailer and put it in the feed room. The following Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, I did not use it. On Wednesday night, I was like, "Let me try this". I started feeding it. And after two weeks in and I was like, "Wait a minute. That's the only thing I've seen since I've added this white powder."
John Dowdy:
The white powder of Equinety.
JD Kneece:
Right. I mean, nobody really sat down and explained, they gave me a brochure of what I should be looking for or what we were going to address? But I was like, "Okay, for feeding my white powder". Three weeks, then I was sold on it. I was like, "I don't know what it's doing, but it's working".
I picked up my little gray horse about being Paul, Paul. Paul Paul had energy. He was lapping the field. So we had, I sent you pictures. We had an abscess blow out on one leg. I couldn't get it to heal. I was like, "I'm telling you guys, I was trying to tell the vet. I'm not trying to be smart butt, but I know my horse better than you guys do. And this is all linked together. I don't know how to tie it together, but it's linked together".
So after, I don't know, 30 days of him on Equinety, totally different transformation horse. Muscle wise, overall fairness, bright eyes. So I was like, "Well, if it works good, I'm going to put some Colts on it". So we got a colt working, ready for [inaudible 00:04:25]
John Dowdy:
Now, before we go there, let's recap a little bit what's happened here. So one of your main horses here, just all of a sudden just started going downhill, poor performance, and obviously brings a concern.
JD Kneece:
Right? Go ahead.
John Dowdy:
Well, after going through everything that you knew to go through and the vets are suggesting this and suggesting that meanwhile, you're $10,000 in the hole and your horses isn't getting any better essentially. So you're kind of at your wit's end dealing with just a flat out mystery thing going on here. So I'm sure that brings a lot of frustrations, not only for your horse, but for you as well. I mean, you're dishing out the dough.
JD Kneece:
Right. And I was blaming it on my riding and then I was laying it on him not being conditioned the proper... As well as he should have then.
John Dowdy:
Right.
JD Kneece:
I think during the process, we run two EPM treatments through the horse, trying to get him to respond. I'm trying to think what else I said, I pulled multiple blood panels. I was just trying to find... I mean, I felt like I was running out of oxygen.
John Dowdy:
Yep. And I tell you, with as many podcasts as we've done and as many people as we talked to, this has happened so many times. You're dealing with a mystery thing. You just want to pull your hair out because you know something's going on. And you said it best and we tell people this all the time, "Hey, you know your horse better than anyone. But the great thing with the Equinety product is it's giving the horse what it needs to help repair at the cellular level, from the inside out. So as you were saying, you were at a show and somebody had given you a sample, so you didn't use it for two, three, four days, however long. And then you started and then you started noticing a change in about two weeks, you said?
JD Kneece:
Right. A good two weeks in I was like, "I don't know what this white powder is doing, but it works". And so at that point I was halfway through my little sample box and I was like, "Okay, where do I get some more of it?" So I Google it online. And the nearest person to me, I think her name was Tracy Paramin, I ordered from her. I was like, "I need it. Can you just send it, I'll pay for it. But I hate shipping, I don't want to run out".
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
JD Kneece:
So she sent me a container. And that's when I added the colts to it. I had that colt that we're prepping for sale. And he's behind he was slick by design, he just wasn't bulking like I thought he should. So I was like, "Here, you're getting some powder too". So not two weeks, three weeks in, I was like, "Oh, his hotline is really building". So there's eight or nine horses in the barn on it right now. I won't be without it.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's incredible. Now, one other thing, just going back to your other $10,000 in the whole horse there on medical things, you had mentioned the abscess, which you believed was a part of everything else going on and what you couldn't get it to heal up. And then how quickly, because you sent some pictures and we're going to post this at teamEquinety.com and the transcription of this podcast, we'll post these. These are 41 days apart. How long had you been just battling with trying to get this abscess to heal up before you started using...?
JD Kneece:
Well, the abscess had been, it had blew out probably a month prior to the pictures I took.
John Dowdy:
Holy smokes.
JD Kneece:
Then I couldn't get the deal, but I felt very strongly that it was related to... I've been battling with this gelding for going on two, two and a half years of poor performance, just not himself. And I kept telling the vet that, "He's not himself. I don't know how to explain it".
John Dowdy:
Right.
JD Kneece:
And so when the abscess blew out and festered up, I put a wrap on it, because his whole leg, it kind of looked like a cellulitis buildup. I wasn't... Gave me a set of antibiotics for rapping. Then when I took the wrap off, it had blown out. I was like, "Oh, I need to call the vet". And we were just grabbing at arrows in the dark on this way, trying to find something that would work.
And I had honestly, after the last... Where the gentleman gave me the sample at, that was the last show he was running. I was just like, "I'm not doing that no more. He's hurting, he's tired. It's not fair".
John Dowdy:
Right.
JD Kneece:
So I kind of kicked him out and I haven't worried about him. I've just been feeding him his white powder.
John Dowdy:
That's funny. Now, again for those tuning in, obviously I'll try to describe this picture, really nasty. And then 41 days later, it's probably three fourths of the way healed up. I would say it's dry and scabbed and...
JD Kneece:
I actually own him with a friend out of little river, South Carolina, Jessica Wurly. And I had told her what was going on when that abscess blew out of his leg. I was wrapping it and using... Dr. Ford sent me some type of mixture to help with the proud flesh. I was 110% sure we were going to have cut proud flesh off of that. And Equinety has...It's dried up, it's gone. There's not even going to be a scar.
John Dowdy:
Yep. So now you also had shown a picture of this to Dr. Ford. And what was his response?
JD Kneece:
Yes, his response was, and I said, "This is the container the powder came in". And he said, "Oh, that's some good stuff, my wife uses it."
John Dowdy:
That's awesome. Okay. So, what's the future plans for this horse now, as things are...?
JD Kneece:
I'm going to put him back in competition, I've been legging him back up. We've had a lot of rain, but not near what our Texas friends are getting. I've been legging him back up and I think in three weeks, we're going to enter him again.
John Dowdy:
Wow. That's incredible. So from a point of a frustration, mystery lameness, just at the point where you were looking at just turning them out to pasture, to now...
JD Kneece:
Right? It really wasn't a lameness issue. It was a poor performance. I went from having a horse that was locally, he would every now and then a slip up and win a barrel race, that's the good horses, two or three of my best up. And then when I would go to a three-day big show where there was 500 entries we could get into 2d, he always kind of paid his way. I never even stressed over... As long as he was on the trailer, I was good. And then, boom, I'm sidelined.
John Dowdy:
Oh yeah. Wow. Well, that's pretty incredible to bring him back and I'm sure at different points in there where you're frustration is...
JD Kneece:
Yeah. You get very discouraged. And I honestly thought, to bring this horse back, because I love a good rehabilitation case. I just love it. Keeps me busy. I was like, "I'm a year out, from being nobody, to entering him again at his age. I had no doubt getting back. And then it was like a light switch once they got into the system, if I would have been like, "Hey, I'm going to feed this for 30 days". It was free. It didn't work, but I kept an open mind about it. And I was like, "You know what? I'm going to have patience. I've seen results in two weeks. I'm ordering more because I'm going to keep going". And all I can say is, thank the good Lord above that I kept my patience.
John Dowdy:
No, absolutely. In so many times we want an instant fix and I will say that it Equinety horse Excel is not a miracle supplement. However, it sure has done some miraculous things in a lot of times, very, very quickly. As a matter of fact, for those of you tuning in for the first time, maybe you're doing your research, maybe you have a similar situation of this or you know, of someone that's battling frustrating things, where they might be at the end of their rope. The new thing with this product, we've been on the market now seven years, it's 100% pure amino acids. There's no fillers, no sugars, no starches. And there's no loading dose serving sizes 5.2 grams, which is about a teaspoon. And what it's specifically doing is it gives the body what it needs to release its own repairing hormones.
And when it does that, the body is now able to send its own hormones to the problem areas. And this is why it helps in so many ways, whether it be, thicker soles, all around better hooves to, you had mentioned with your younger horses, just kind of bulking up top line, but they feel better. It's helping to heal and repair from the cellular level with abscesses. Those things repair really fast, but pretty much anything that's going on, whatever the prognosis is or repairing time, it's always seems to be shorter with this product. And we're blessed in that way that this product helps in so many ways. It's quite remarkable. And then you had mentioned your younger horses and this is one of the things too. It's great for pregnant mares when they hit the ground all the way through life and towards the end, when they're out in the field, just enjoying in life. We have a whole gamut of this product works on all of them in the same way. So...
JD Kneece:
Right. I'm a firm believer. I'm a realist. Every problem an equine animal has, we as humans created, bottom line. Their natural state is to be outside, graze and [inaudible 00:14:03] Well, we pull them up and we want to make them performance horses. So literally I have nine horses on Equinety. Four of them are inside, four of them stay outside all the time. I don't have to tell you. I can tell you, when we're walking to my barn, you pick out the horses that are on Equinety and point them out to me. And I guarantee you can identify them.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You know, that reminds me of a funny story. I was going to a farm. It was about a year or so ago and they had been using product for a while and it was close to where I was going. So I was taking some product out to them. And so I'm driving along and I'm looking at all these horses out in the thing and I'm thinking, "Oh man, those horses nee Equinety". As I'm driving past different farms and I drive past this one, I'm like, "Holy cow, those horses look great". And then I pass them like, "Oh, that was the address I was supposed to be at".
But it was such a visual contrast. They looked phenomenal. But again, one of the things that we hear a lot of times, so, we're blessed. I can't say any other thing than that. It really is amazing and it helps in so many ways. It's one of the reasons I started this podcast, was a way to capture these stories because it's really helped so many other people that are on the search or looking for things and here it is. It's pretty amazing.
JD Kneece:
I have one gelding in the barn and he was one over a hundred thousand reserve at Fort Smith. He's a 1998. I don't know, what does that make him? 22? My cousin he [inaudible 00:15:47] my babysitter and my cousin takes care of him. She rides in, he's had fluid on his knees for probably three years. Every six months or so I get a drain and get it injected. And he's her mount, it keeps her going, keeps her happy. He's been on Equinety, January 2nd and I just saw that, that Wednesday... And he asked me, "What are you doing to this horses knee?" Because there was no fluid there. We just injected it. He was like, "Don't change what you're doing". I was like, "Trust me, I won't".
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that is awesome. Well, and I think to... We have a secondary product called Equinety Ultimate OEC, which is a flaxseed based Omega 3 oil. It's got a thousand I use of natural vitamin E and colloidal silver all in one. And it serves as a really powerful antioxidant, which helps reduce inflammation. And it also works in combination with the amino acids, since the amino acids are given the horse what it needs to help repair at the cellular level. The ultimate OAC is giving those repaired cells, sort of nutrition. So it's a great combination. And I know for the vast majority of all of these podcasts has all been around the Equinety Horse XL. And I know you were looking at getting some of the OEC, so I'd love to have a follow-up podcast down the road with your feedback on that, because...
JD Kneece:
Okay, not a problem.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, it's really helped in so many situations where there's inflammation and inflammation causes a lot of problems. And so with the Horse XL, we always recommend, use that as step one, no matter what. And then if you're going to add the OEC, it's all the better, but being able to help repair those cells.
The other thing I want to bring up too is, we've talked about your performance horse that wasn't performing and you went through all these tests and did everything and whatever was going on in that horse. Now you're looking at performing again, bringing that horse back. Then we talked about, your younger horses and how it's helped, fill those horses out. And then the horse over at your cousin's with the fluid on the knee and how that's helped.
So it's really amazing because, since it's given the body what it needs to release its own repairing hormones, in essence, it's customizing to each horse. Which makes it really unique because it doesn't fit into a category of a hoof supplement or a joint supplement or a muscle building supplement or a calmer or anything like that. It's really, really unique.
So if you're on the fence and you're thinking, "Well, I don't know..."
JD Kneece:
I also can throw in there that if you guys are one of those racy bred horses, that are kind of jittery, but know their job, it will really dial them.
John Dowdy:
Yes. Great point. Would you agree with this statement and we hear this a lot that, by giving your horse the Equinety Horse XL, it balances the horse from the inside out.
JD Kneece:
Absolutely.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So horses that are hot, it brings them down a little bit and ones that are a little lazy, it brings them up and so they're balanced. And it's a hundred percent safe to give with any medications. There's no side effects, no negative side effects of any kind. So yeah, pretty amazing.
Well, JD, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your stories here on the Equinety podcast. Before we sign off, is there anything else that you'd like to add or if there's somebody that's still on the fence that...
JD Kneece:
They're welcome to reach out to me. I'll be glad to show them. I think the results is right there. I won't be without it.
John Dowdy:
That's great. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, JD Kneece out of South Carolina, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story here on the Equinety podcast.
JD Kneece:
No problem. Thank you guys.
John Dowdy:
All right. Thank you. Bye-bye.
