Joy Dengler | From Thin & Squishy to Thick & Solid Hooves
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week’s Equinety podcast. We are swinging up into the great state of Pennsylvania. We've got Joy Dingler on this week. Joy, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
Joy Dengler:
Hi, thank you so much. It's great to be here and I am super excited to share my story about JT and his feet.
John Dowdy:
Well, we're excited to have you, as always excited to have guests on. So we're dealing with hoof issues this week. So tell us what was going on with the hooves here.
Joy Dengler:
So JT has very thin souls and I could never keep him sound or keep shoes on him. And he got very painful and needed glue on shoes and pads and they would be casted right onto his feet because he absolutely could not walk without them. And then there came a point where we just couldn't keep doing that and we put shoes back on him and we went right back to the same problems. And you could push with your thumb on his soul and see it go in.
John Dowdy:
Wow. So his soles were very thin then?
Joy Dengler:
Yes, they are about an inch and one ... they are less than two millimeters.
John Dowdy:
Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.
Joy Dengler:
Less than two. About a millimeter and a half. So they are very thin.
John Dowdy:
So always kind of lame. And so you're having to go to extremes, putting on glue on shoes and even casting. That's pretty serious.
Joy Dengler:
Yes, because he didn't ... the material, what we had to work with on his feet were not ... we couldn't get glue ons to stay on and there was nowhere to nail or clip shoes anymore just because they were so fragile and they would just flake off or he would pull it off. And the nails just rip straight down. And my farrier was even using copper nails on him that were supposed to be better. And I tried all kinds of products that were supposed to harden his souls and they did not.
John Dowdy:
So, wow. That had to be a very frustrating. How long were you dealing with this issue?
Joy Dengler:
The glue ons and ... that was probably a year.
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Joy Dengler:
Of going back and forth ... and every time. And then there were years of when we would take his shoes off, he could go without shoes for less than 24 hours before he would ... all he could do was stand still and rock back on his back feet. So the farrier would come right back out and we would try something new.
John Dowdy:
Wow, so just always in pain. Couldn't grow a hoof at all. Very thin soles.
Joy Dengler:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
And probably put your farrier to the super creative tasks. Maybe things he's never had to do before.
Joy Dengler:
That is absolutely correct. My farrier went and found new things and got very creative and people know about glue on shoes when it's too cold, the glue sets too slow. And when it's too hot, the glue sets too fast. So it was always difficult and then it got to the point where we needed to involve my equine vet and she needed to come out and we've taken x-rays of his feet twice and she would have to actually sedate him because he was in so much pain and it was ... we would end up putting rubber mats under one foot, one front foot, while he worked on ... while my farrier worked on his other foot.
John Dowdy:
Oh my gosh.
Joy Dengler:
Because he was that sore that standing on three legs just was very difficult for him.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Yeah. That's heartbreaking seeing your horse go through that. So-
Joy Dengler:
I thought I wouldn't be able to keep him. I didn't think he was ... at one point I did not think he was going to survive that issue.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Joy Dengler:
And it wasn't foundering or laminitis or any of that. It was just the condition of his hooves.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. No matter ... we won't mention any names, but you tried pretty much everything on the market that was available as far as strengthening hooves and growing hooves and all that kind of stuff.
Joy Dengler:
If they sold it, I bought it at the store. I had never ordered anything online for him. Oh, and I did use supplements that I ordered. There was a pelleted supplement that is supposed to be wonderful and got that for years and it didn't help.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Joy Dengler:
So I discontinued that.
John Dowdy:
Right. So always battling just poor quality hooves and thin soles. So now let's jump ahead. So you kept seeing ads for, on Facebook, of our Equinety product, but they didn't really hit home because you weren't seeing ads around the hoof, you were seeing some other things. Body composition and weight gain and filling out and things like that so.
Joy Dengler:
Yes. And my horse was, other than his feet, a very happy, healthy, sometimes too filled out horse.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Yeah.
Joy Dengler:
And so yes. I'm like, "Yeah, that's nice, but my horse doesn't have that problem." And then I saw a story that somebody was talking about their horses hooves and everything that was there I'm like, "Yes. Yeah, that's exactly it. I can identify with that." And so I thought, "I'm going to try this product because I have nothing to lose," and so I started to cry and truly, almost immediately, I just started seeing improvement. And then, so at one point we stopped with the shoes. We stopped with the glue ons. We stopped all of that. And my farrier fully expected to come out the next day to put his shoes back on and we were going to go ... they used to be nailed on and we were going to do clips and he restored because he had been without shoes.
Joy Dengler:
And I, at that time started the Equinety and he wasn't painfully, he wasn't immobilized sore. It wasn't acute pain that he was in. It was just foot sore on and within a couple of days that got better. And then it got better on cement and then it got better on stone dust. Then today, he's walking on gravel and we're riding and he's super happy. And every time my farrier comes out, which is every five weeks in the winter and four weeks in the summer, he has been commenting since I started the Equinety, "I can't believe how much toe he has grown because that was part of the problem is his feet grow incredibly slow.
John Dowdy:
Now you haven't had any updated x-rays is in regards to show the increased sole depth, but prior to using the Equinety, describe what you would feel by pressing on the soles and how thin they were. What was that like?
Joy Dengler:
So they were like squishy, you could push them in. And at one point my farrier actually pushed hard enough that he cracked it. He cracked the sole of his foot. He didn't mean to, but his fingernail ... I mean, that's how thin it was.
John Dowdy:
Wow.
Joy Dengler:
And that's how soft they were, his feet. And he was ... you could look at my horse and see the pain that he was in and the soles and when I went to pick them and clean them, I was very careful not to touch them. And I had this ... you would have to put something soft under one foot to do the other foot. This problem exists only on his front feet, not his back feet.
John Dowdy:
Sure.
Joy Dengler:
For whatever reason. And I have not had ever had his back feet X-rayed so I don't know what the soles look like, but he's never had a problem.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Now, how long has he been using product up to this point?
Joy Dengler:
So I'm going to say maybe four and a half months.
John Dowdy:
Okay. And what happens, describe for us now, when you press on the sole?
Joy Dengler:
It is solid as a rock. I can push all over. I can use like the end of the pick. I don't use the car, but like you take the flap ... something harder than my thumb.
John Dowdy:
Right.
Joy Dengler:
You can just push as hard as you can and it is hard as a rock and it just looks clean. And when you look at his feet, the hooves, they're cleaned, they're smooth. There are no cracks going around the edges on the outside when you pick it up and pick them out. And they're smooth on the bottom, his frogs look great. The bulbs ... his feet problem, his hoof problem involved every part of his foot. The bulbs, the frog, souls, everything, and everything that's like ... I think he, the last time my farrier was out, maybe five weeks ago he said, "Oh, at some point it looks like JT could have had an abscess by the bulb." And I said, "I didn't notice. He didn't say anything. He was sound," and it wasn't a big. And he said, "Well, it healed really well. It must not have been a serious one." So like, I didn't have to soak it, wrap it, put anything on it.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's incredible.
Joy Dengler:
Like, we didn't even know he had an abscess. He was not off at all.
John Dowdy:
Wow. Well, I'll jump in real quick here, because for those tuning in for the first time, everything you've ... I'll say, despite everything you've heard about the Equinety product helping with a very thin soled, poor quality hoof, which is what's been going on with this horse for years, Equinety is not a hoof supplement which is ironic. So excuse me. What the Equinety product is, it's 100% pure amino acids. But they're specifically 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.
John Dowdy:
So if you've listened to the other podcasts that we have, which go from one extreme to another. On this one we're specifically just talking about hooves. And in this case, this particular horse was sending the released hormones to the problem area, which was the hoof area. So this is where all of the healing is taking place. Now, in other horses it could be help filling in the top line or gut issues or demeanor and overall mood and things like that. Since you've been using the product now for a good four months, have you noticed any other things going on besides the hooves?
Joy Dengler:
So he does, you know what? He is more pleasant. Like his demeanor really is better. His weight is at a stable, very good weight and he's active. He's social. His coat is shiny and you look at him and he looks like a very healthy horse. And he is and my horse has collicked a few times in the past. Oh, we've gone through some crazy Pennsylvania weather this winter and not even close to ... I see my vet once a year now for his immunization, she has not needed to come out, like I haven't had any emergency-
John Dowdy:
Oh, that's great.
Joy Dengler:
-calls. And I've just ... a few of the horses where we are have collicked or had problems. My horse has not. And my horse previously, he has collicked a couple of times and then that just makes them more prone to that. And he's not. And he is back to being like this super easy keeper.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Well, you know what? And too ... I mean, if we are in a lot of pain than our demeanor's not the greatest and we're not happy campers either. So same thing with the horse. Now, his feet are feeling good. He's feeling better, more lively and happier, and being brought his personality back out again. So that is absolutely fantastic. Well, Joy Dingler out of Pennsylvania, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story here on the Equinety podcast.
Joy Dengler:
Well, thank you so much for having me and it was great to share a story. I hope that if someone else is having the same issues that I'm having, that they give Equinety a try because it absolutely 100% plus did way more than I thought it would much faster than I thought it would for my horse. And he's not only sound, he's sound and barefoot.
John Dowdy:
Yeah.
Joy Dengler:
So that's just an added bonus that it's not even just regular shoes, but yeah he's barefoot and sound.
John Dowdy:
That is awesome.
Joy Dengler:
Thank you so much for having me.
John Dowdy:
Oh, you bet. Thank you. I really, really appreciate it. I know people will get a lot of benefit out of hearing this one. So thanks a bunch.
Joy Dengler:
Great. Alright. Thank you. Have a great time. Buh-bye.
John Dowdy:
Okay. Thanks. Buh-bye.
