Kathy Moss - Cowboy Poetry - Severe Founder - PSSM - and now has her life back!
John Dowdy:
Hello and welcome to this week's Equinety Podcast. We are swinging out into Oregon this week. We've got Kathy Moss on the call. Kathy, welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
Kathy Moss:
Hey, thanks John. I'm real tickled to be here.
John Dowdy:
Well, it's always exciting. You called me, it was around the end of April with a lot of questions. You had a very unique situation about your horse that's 18 to 20 years old, named Sugarfoot. Before we get into this story, because we're going to be talking about a severe founder. Also, the horse had PSSM and as a precursor, what did your vet actually tell you about this horse?
Kathy Moss:
When he saw the x-rays on both front feet, even when he first saw her, but when he saw the x-rays to confirm, he says he has never had a horse survive this severe founder.
John Dowdy:
That is incredible because now this horse is running around. So we will get into that story, but let's get into a little bit of your background. Tell us about your background, and I also know that you do some cowboy poetry, so I might put you on the spot to rattle something off for us, but give us some of your background. [crosstalk 00:01:26]
Kathy Moss:
Yeah. I was raised with a horse trader. Not a trainer, well he was, but we considered him a horse trader. And so what he would do is he would find horses that were troubled horses and he'd bring them home and he'd have me do the groundwork with them and then he would take them out and he would day ride for different ranches throughout Eastern Oregon. And then we would resell and then we would find other troubled horses. So we saved hundreds and hundreds of horses from the slaughterhouse. But as a kid, I was 9, 10 and 11 doing the groundwork, I learned a lot about horse language and groundwork. At that size of a person, working with horses, you really have to figure out what the horse is trying to say and how you can finagle it.
Kathy Moss:
It comes out to be a good thing. But anyways, so it really sent me on a journey of horsemanship and trying to teach people and help people and help horses get together better. And I got a real quick short story. When I was 10, I bought my first pony mule and Pap paid $15 for it down at the sale barn. He says [inaudible 00:02:51] "you're going to bring that mule home." I said "all right." So he made me lead that pony or that mule all the way home, which was a mile and a half away, and he was an unbroke mule. He didn't even know how to live. I had learned a few new words along the way, but also Mom said, "man, tap, you have the patience of Job." And I thought if Job would come down here and help me lead this thing, you will home momma, at least feel happy.
Kathy Moss:
And then when I turned 13, I sold Fred and I bought my first full grown Philly to start from ground zero, no hands-on her to competition as far as ladies and that type of stuff as a kid. And again, when we put the halter on her, kind of let her around a little bit and Pap said, "lead her home." And he turned around and left and there was another mile and a half I had to lead her home. So with that, it creates kind of a little bit of a character. And I have a little bit of an odd sense of humor for a lot of things.
John Dowdy:
That will do it, I would think.
Kathy Moss:
But you learn to laugh and giggle at different things, but I also learned a lot, not by a book, but by actual doing and thinking and kind of communicating with the horses and it worked very well for me and the people that I work with. What's really cool is now that I have, because I do pressure points and all those things to help with horses, this Equinety Horse XL is even making me better at doing this because some of the things that the Equinety does for horses, which I know we'll get into later, will benefit these horses a lot. And I'll explain that a little bit later on.
John Dowdy:
Sure. Now, at what time into your life did you start getting into the poetry?
Kathy Moss:
I was writing it at during high school, but I was probably about 32 when I had written. My dad had gotten pretty sick and so I was trying to capture some of his stories and they all came out into poems. And so I wrote a little book called "The Cowboy In The Making" and it was all of his stories and poetry form. And I printed out a hundred books and I sold those all in one day and I thought I better do something, I better make a few more books.
John Dowdy:
Right. So, you have a couple of CDs that are international?
Kathy Moss:
I do John. It's amazing. I didn't realize that cowboy poetry would take me around the world. It was just something that I did for just because. I produced one that's called "The Truth" and there are stories of the buckaroos and the Western women that I know of. And in 2019, it went to the International Western Music Association Album of the Year. It was the most played album around the world. And then in 2020 I released my next album, which was [inaudible 00:06:36] I'm sorry, they come prancing. And it is now in the top five and here in the next few weeks, I will know if I actually made the second album worldwide for most played poetry CD.
John Dowdy:
Well that's incredible. Now, I know there's some other big names out there in cowboy poetry. You're starting to knock them off, sounds like. Knock them off, like down the latter is what I meant. [crosstalk 00:07:04] See what happens when you're just talking and the wrong words come out of the [crosstalk 00:07:12]
Kathy Moss:
Baxter Black, back in '98, he had come to a show that we were at and he come up, my friend had known him and told him he needed to come and see me. And so he walks up and says, "I hear you do cowboy poetry." He says, "give me a poem." And I say, "all right, I will." So I pop out those little poem and he's like, "why are you not on stage?" And I said, "there ain't no way" because I had seen him on stage and it's like, his fingers up his nose floundering around on the ground. There's no way. And he says, "do that" and he turned around and walked up and I got to thinking about all the stories that I write about are actual true things that, maybe a little bit on the funny ones, a little bit of imagination, but mostly true.
Kathy Moss:
I just knew the stories needed to be told and he was giving me an opportunity to share them. Anyways, so a year I opened for him and from there, been down into Elko, just traveling around, doing different things down in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado, and just doing poetry. The cowboy poetry world is so absolutely incredible with down-to-earth people. It is insane. If you ever have an opportunity, go listen to these guys because they are absolutely incredible storytellers and amazing, amazing people, for sure.
John Dowdy:
That was a great lead up. So we're going to have to request a poem at this time, if you'd be so kind.
Kathy Moss:
I would love to. I was afraid I was going to lose some of the horses names that we had worked and this was called old names. Old Pete, Bill and Banjo, Buck and Roni too Smokey Badger and Rusty, just to name a few. Take Old Cougar Bait and chop that, remembering back when there was Winnipeg, they Lady, Lark Doc and then Barney, Silver, Rosti and Booger, can't forget Old Jack, Randy, Breezy, Fannie and Breaker. And she's the newest of the past. There was Cleo, Hazel and Wendy, Old [inaudible 00:09:49], Hurty and Chance. He can face with any car. Now there was Motor Mouse and Mighty Mouse and Minnie Mouse with star, along with rat [inaudible 00:10:00] and sender and princess, she was smart, Jazz, Mac, Jess and Ebony, the Colts that we wrote and then came bubbles possum. On the ground, we were thrilled. The list is miles long. That brings back memories of youth and then challenges that shape their destiny. So that list is miles long, neither stories. Here we are.
John Dowdy:
All right. That was awesome. [crosstalk 00:10:32].
Kathy Moss:
Maybe I should make a CDs.
John Dowdy:
Yes. Maybe you should. That was my one hand at applause going on there. That was awesome.
Kathy Moss:
Thank you John. I appreciate that.
John Dowdy:
Do you have a website where people can purchase these CDs of yours?
Kathy Moss:
Yes. Yes. It's akmoss.com.
John Dowdy:
Okay. One more time to spell that out for us.
Kathy Moss:
A-K Moss M-O-S-S dot com
John Dowdy:
akmoss.com. Awesome.
Kathy Moss:
Yep.
John Dowdy:
Well that is fantastic. [crosstalk 00:11:08]
Kathy Moss:
Yeah, it's on YouTube. I have a couple of CDs or not CDs, YouTube videos and stuff. So it's kind of a fun place to go.
John Dowdy:
That's great. That is great. So you had reached out to me, as I mentioned around the 28th of April with quite a few questions. How did you acquire Sugarfoot?
Kathy Moss:
Ms. Sugarfoot came to me on April 1st. If you want to hunt backstory on her, she was my mom's good friend's horse and Sugarfoot had been in searching rescue. She was on the Sheriff's policy. She did parade, she did rodeo and trees. She is a little white Arab and just as wonderful as can be. But when mom's friend had gotten cancer, she asked her kids to take care of her. And after a lot of them passed away, one of the boys called mom and said, "would you come and get her? Or we're going to take her to the sale." So mom went down and saw her and she started to cry and she called me and says, "Kat can you bring her in?" And when they delivered her on April 1st, she was about 300 pounds underweight. She looked like she had Cushings. Her feet were about a foot and a half long. I'm going to cry over this. So forgive me.
John Dowdy:
It's all right. It's happened before.
Kathy Moss:
So they hauled her an hour and a half to get to my place and unloaded her. And I told my husband, "I probably send her since she's retired, sent her to a horse rescue." When I saw her unload, I take a picture and I sent it to my husband. And he said that Mary is not going anywhere. She's going to stay here until she dies. And so with that, I took me on a journey of founder that I had never understood before, because I didn't feel with a whole lot of founder in my childhood. But we own a meat shop here in our little town and I have one of my employees who has a young girl by the name of Carly and Carly was kind of looking for something to do. And she really liked horses, but she's never had the opportunity.
Kathy Moss:
So I introduced this little Mary to Carly and a whole new life has bloomed out of that one introduction. And with that, we took her to the vet. I had Carly go to the vet with me. And the vet actually had said at that point, when he took the x-rays, he said, "She's too severe. Her paddle bone is almost perpendicular with the ground." And she had gotten really laying there for about a week and I told Carly, "I don't know if we can pull her out." And as we were cleaning her foot, we hit an abscess. We drain the abscess and took her back to the vet, got that all taken care of. And with the help of everybody around, we've made a tremendous comeback.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That is incredible. So what went through your mind when the vet told you he had never seen one come back from this kind of severity of a founder?
Kathy Moss:
I have a little bit of a bullheaded street.
John Dowdy:
What? We cannot guess that.
Kathy Moss:
I know. Who would have guessed that? You have not met me yet.
John Dowdy:
No. You tried leading a mule for a mile and a half.
Kathy Moss:
I've seen this Mary on good days and I've seen her on bad days. But I've seen her on good days and there every answer that little mayor wants to go forward. She wants something to do and some place to be and she wants to be a part of. On the bad days, which are getting less and less all the time, John, are tough, but nothing like that one day where I thought tomorrow morning, if we can't pull this together, we're going to go ahead and let her go.
Kathy Moss:
What's really cool, I have to tell you. When we started this Equinety conversation and I was kind of grasping at straws and I found some fantastic foods for her and all this great stuff. But I had her trim twice and 60 days, when those guys came, it was four weeks, I'm sorry. Let me back up. In four weeks, they came back to trim her again and they trimmed up more souls than they ever thought they could off that Mary. And granted her feet are still bruised, the soul is still a little bit bruised, but the healing on those hooves, John is incredible. And both of those guys said, "I can't believe how much we're taking off this Mary to get that."
Kathy Moss:
I don't know for sure how to explain it, but that excess growth underneath the hook. Anyways, when they started peeling that off, they were thinking, "All right, the bones got to be here. The bones got to be here." So with me saying that to you, I cannot wait. This is only 60 days into the program. I can't wait for 90 days. I can't wait for six months and taking those x-rays again. And then having that evidence that founder can be fixed if it happens like this, because this Mary got another good 10, 15 years of activity, if we can keep her going, like she is right now.
John Dowdy:
Sure. When you had acquired the horse. So that was around the 1st of April. So you're looking, but you are also at a little bit of a limitations because with being foundered and also with possible PSSM, it's not like you can change a whole lot. And so you're limited in what you can use and when you came across the Equinety horse XL, what went through your mind when you first found that?
Kathy Moss:
Oh, God. As soon as I, because I was going through dozens and dozens and dozens of different supplements and stuff that kind of might help her along. And as soon as I saw Equinety XL and realized it's amino acids. That's all it is. And there's no book. There's no sugars, there's no starches, there's nothing in it. It's like, "This is my go-to. This is where I got to start." And that's why when I called you, I was like, "All right, I am laying it out on the table. I got a lot of stuff going on." And you're like "I think there's the benefit." And then you also talked about giving her like 30 days on just the XL before I went to the oil and I thought, "Okay, we can try that."
Kathy Moss:
But when I realized the oil is cold press flaxseed, I had everything. And for the first week, I thought "I'm just going to what John says," and I thought, "No, can't do it. We're giving her the whole gamut."
John Dowdy:
Sounds like my wife.
Kathy Moss:
There's no sense in trying to compare. I already know this is going to be a good combination.
John Dowdy:
For those of you that are tuning in. So I'll go through each of these products. So the Equinety Horse XL, it's 100% pure amino acids, there's no fillers, no sugars, no starches. And there's no loading dose, so a serving size is just a little teaspoon, 5.2 grams, put it right on top of the feed, they eat it right up. And what is specifically designed to do is give the body what it needs to release its own repairing hormones.
John Dowdy:
And once that happens, which begins within hours, the body can send its own hormones to its own problem areas. And so this is why it works in so many ways or I'll say it doesn't fit into a specific supplement category. In other words, it's not a [inaudible 00:20:03] supplement. It's not a joint supplement. It's not a shiny coat supplement or muscle building or recovery. It's not any of those per se. We're just giving the body what it needs to help release its own repairing hormones. And then the body sends its own hormones to its own problem areas. And so Kathy, when you called and explained the situation you're in. You're really at a crossroads because you have to have something that works now. It works fast and it's not going to mess up the other things that you're holding this whole horse together with, band-aids and straw.
Kathy Moss:
And there's the bubble gum.
John Dowdy:
Bailing wire and whatever else. And that's why I started this podcast a little over three years ago, because there were so many stories. And if you're in a situation where, at the extreme, which is what this was, the odds of this helping are very, very good. And when it comes to founder, people ask, "Is it going to unrotate the coffin bone and do this and that?" Well, here's what I know, it's going to help give the body what it needs to repair at the cellular level. And then specifically with the hoof, it really helps thicken that soul, which supports the coffin bone and then ultimately helps with the overall health strength and growth of that hoof, which is going to give the farrier more to work with in a shorter amount of time. You're going to help get that horse back to where you want them to be in a shorter amount of time.
John Dowdy:
So what the Equinety Horse XL highly recommend every horse, even the performance horses that don't have any issues, it's going to help with just the soft tissue repair, recovery, stamina, the focus, they haul better. And so it's great for all these horses that no matter what scenario or situation they're in. So we've been on the market for seven years with this product and it's going stronger than ever. In March of last year, so a little over a year ago, Dr. Bruggen out of Arkansas had come to us and asked if we had ever thought about coming out with another product. And I said, "not for the sake of coming out with one, it would have to work with what we have and make sense." And he goes, "okay, well, that makes sense." He goes, "I'm a big fan of oils."
John Dowdy:
And my first reaction was, "are you serious right now? I mean, you obviously know how many oils are on the market." He goes, "I know, I know, but there's nothing like what I have in mind." And I said, "okay, what do you got?" He says, "well, there's so many oils on the market, just like you say, but what people don't look at is the quality of the oil. And a lot of the oils that are being used are high in omega sixes, which causes inflammation." He goes, "we're going to use a flaxseed based omega-3 oil, which is high in omega 3, and that's going to help with inflammation. So it's a really good quality omega-3 oil." The second component is a natural cold pressed vitamin E. And so it's got a thousand international units of natural cold-pressed vitamin E.
John Dowdy:
And so if people are using a synthetic vitamin E they might as well just pour it on the ground because the horse can't even utilize a synthetic vitamin E. So that's the second component. And the third component is the colloidal silver. And so there's nothing unique about any one of these three main ingredients because there's products on the market that have two of the three, or they've got one of the three. But what they're mixed with typically isn't the best overall ingredients. So, ours is a half gallon, it's El Primo top shelf. And the whole reason why we came out with it, with the help of Dr. Bruggen is two-fold one when used in combination with the amino acids, remember the amino acids are giving the body what it needs to help repair cells. And so this combination of the ultimate OEC is giving those repaired cells some nutrition, which helps operate at optimal levels, the cells.
John Dowdy:
And secondly, these three ingredients, the flaxseed based Omega 3, the natural cold press vitamin E, and the colloidal silver serves as a really powerful antioxidant, which helps reduce inflammation. And so a lot of the feedback that we've received just over the last year, we've had all the horses do phenomenally well with the amino acids, but maybe the horse is still tying up or they don't want to drink when they're being hauled, or maybe they've got a cough or just in your overall situation, trying to bring your horseback to where you need them to be. When they added that OAC, in combination with the amino acids, it just seems to be the perfect combination for these horses. And when you first called me up, and I explained both of these products to you, the reason why I kind of always recommend just starting off with the amino acids is because it works so fast within hours, it starts working.
John Dowdy:
And the vast majority of people see changes in 30 days or less. Now, sometimes it can go longer than that, but I'm talking upper 90 percentile of people see changes in 30 days or less. And so I always liked to have people see results. And so that's why I'll ask this for the first 30 days and then add the OEC, but I will say that most people just do what you did and they listened to me and yes, and then they just do their own thing, which is perfectly fine.
Kathy Moss:
It's okay.
John Dowdy:
It's okay John, you just tell me everything and I'm going to go do what I need to do. Okay. Yes madam.
Kathy Moss:
What's interesting also is that I have a sorrow horse. He's an eight year old. And I've had him since he was six months old. And every since I got him, he was what we call his stall baby. He was raised in a little stall for the first six months of his life. And they turned him out in the round, pen to run around and then he'd go back in his stall. And that was pretty much his deal. But anyways, I got him at six months old and every time he would bend down to eat grain because I put him on a supplement or whatever, he would be pawned the ground that he had slapped his body and not his feet. And it would knock it all over the place and he had been looped circling around it.
Kathy Moss:
He was never eating under calm circumstances. And so I'd done a bunch of research on why is he just throwing a fit every time he eats, he just is pacing and moving from one foot to the other shuffling around. And when you told me about this and we had talked about it, I mentioned Hitchy to you. And you know what? I got to say within a week, that horse can stand there and eat without moving a foot. And that is one of the coolest things, because he has struggled with eating comfortably, his whole entire life. And now it's the only time that he really gets upset is if I'm late and he really does not like it if he doesn't have its oil on his food. Excuse me. You have got to have the oil on the food. He talks to me now .it used to be like, "yeah, okay."
John Dowdy:
That's incredible.
Kathy Moss:
I should have recorded him this morning because both of them were over there. Just like, "We get our little oil this morning."
John Dowdy:
Now, at the beginning of this whole story, you had mentioned Carly who's 13 and you took her to the vet. What has been her experience through this last 60 days seeing this transformation of Sugarfoot?
Kathy Moss:
Oh my gosh. So what Carly wants to do, she's a very quiet young lady, when she saw Sugarfoot, her heart broke for her. But what she wanted to do is she's right, she wants to write a book called "Life After Founder with Sugarfoot." She also is doing a picture board for [inaudible 00:28:11] and to go from where Sugarfoot started, what we've done as far as cut out the starches for the PSSM and the founder, and all the things, that dietary things, and then have the finished product or the finished Sugarfoot at the end of it.
Kathy Moss:
She was never a writer and she just wanted to hang around with horses, but when she realized that there would not be, she started riding Hitchy and she was thinking, "this is going to be cool. Can we do this with Sugarfoot?" And I'm thinking, "no, she's retired. We probably won't ever have this as an opportunity." So then she decided maybe we'll do Liberty, which is work Liberty without lead lines and alters and all that stuff so that she can do exhibitions for different places around the county, on horse communication. And here in the last two weeks, we actually have talked about, not now, but you're in the future. We're actually talking about putting a saddle on Sugarfoot.
John Dowdy:
Holt smokes.
Kathy Moss:
Actually probably we've discussed it and we're looking at. When we hit six months, she's improved that much. And when you go out there and that little Mary drops her nose in that hall turn is like leading you to the gate. You cannot ignore that. And that's the only reason why we're even considering. She wants to go do and be.
John Dowdy:
And the video you sent, this is incredible. It doesn't even look like the same horse. At our website at teamequinety.com, let me repeat that, teamequinety.com. We'll have this podcast transcribed. It we'll put the before and after pictures, because as I told you, when I first saw the comparison, it's like the first one looks like a large pony and the other one looks like Superman. Just bust it out, because it doesn't even look like the same horse at all. Just the transformation in 60 days is incredible.
Kathy Moss:
She lost her hair. When Carly and my vet had seen her, she instantly thought she had Cushings first and foremost, that was just a picture of her. She didn't get a chance to actually do any blood work. I had another vet do that for me. But when we started her on Equinety and she started losing her hair, I literally had to go on Facebook, because we have a Facebook page for Sugarfoot and Carly, and ask if anybody had a horse blanket because she was going so fast.
Kathy Moss:
The chiller the night would have... She just was not ready to be that, because it was coming out in gobs and gobs and gobs. I took pictures of it. It was insane how fast she lost her hair. So no Cushing. But it was amazing what her body was trying to do. We really had to try to keep it slow, John, just because there was so much that body has to do to rebuild itself and the PSSM is a very serious deal with her. To ever take her off of this, I don't think I would just because you see her and the light in her eye and her ambition and I never want that to go away.
John Dowdy:
Sure. And when you mentioned, all this hair loss and when you understand what's going on internally, again, this isn't a band-aid or something is just a little stop the pain here, or whatever you want to describe that as, we're allowing the body to help repair itself. And so, when you look at that first image, she is a furry little thing.
Kathy Moss:
Yes she is.
John Dowdy:
The body is doing a lot of adjusting and fixing and mending and all kinds of things. And then you look at the second picture just 60 days and that is how a horse should look just sleek, incredible.
Kathy Moss:
And I think that's the amino acid in that, also goes where the body needs it. So I don't have to look on the counter and say, "okay, this is for muscle. And this is for, and this is for." You just give the amino acids, the protein does what it needs to do, where it needs to do, the most important part of the body at that moment. And then it can fix the rest later.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's right.
Kathy Moss:
That's how I interpret it anyway.
John Dowdy:
That's right. That's right. Now, what was your vet's response? Because obviously she had told you that she had never seen one pull through this. What is she saying now?
Kathy Moss:
He is floored, actually. He can't believe, I take a picture or a video and send it to him and he says, "not even the same horse, it cannot be the same." And it's like, "Leon, there's only one Sugarfoot".
John Dowdy:
Yeah, that's right.
Kathy Moss:
I'm anxious to share it here. And I would love to visit with you on this journey that in another two or three months see where the x-rays are at and what's going on.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Maybe we could do a follow-up podcast with that. That'd be great.
Kathy Moss:
Sure. And the other thing I want to make sure is the boots. I mean, there's a lot more to it than just the Equinety. The Equinety has giving her that opportunity to heal because we have our boots that cover, we have the farriers and we have the vitamins and all of that stuff, but this here was an easy go to no stress, no thought about it type thing to help her recover.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I think that's a very important point too, because I tell people all the time, the Equinety Horse XL is not the miracle supplement. It's not the end all be all. It does help get your horse back to where you need them to be faster, which when it comes to the hoof quality and growth and everything, it allows that to happen to give your farrier more to work with in a short amount of time. And also, we've had on podcast, in the past, with rescue facilities and one of the challenges that they have to be careful with is trying to fix everything because you start fixing one thing and other things start falling apart and it's very precarious. And so one of the things that we've heard over and over and over, just by using the Equinety Horse XL is, it helps them get back faster without all the complications.
John Dowdy:
And so that's pretty incredible. It's so vitally important to be using a great fat and farrier, and if you need the boots and whatever else you need, this is just going to help get you where you want to go faster and safer. That's great. Well, if there's anybody that's tuning in and often this is what happens, they're looking for something, they think, "That sounds really good." But then the longer they listen, they're like, "Okay, well now this sounds too good to be true because how can I do all this stuff?" But we've got over a hundred stories and lots of testimonials and the proof is always in the pudding, but if there's somebody that's on the fence and they think, "well, this really sounds good." Is there anything that you would have to tell them that you haven't already spoken about in the last 37 minutes?
Kathy Moss:
John, I would say, like so many, just do it. It's like less than a cup of coffee. I wouldn't live by my horses will not go without this ever again. I just won't do it. If you're on the fence and you are looking, just go on the website and look at the research that they've done from the amino acids to the cellular level, to all of those things coming up to the cold compress, to the backseat, it's all there. It's all right there on your website and you can't get that anywhere else. As far as an easy go to place, just do it, go take a look, don't take my word for it. Go take a look because it changed my world and I didn't think I was going to have another horse in my world, but apparently we got Sugarfoot.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, exact. And a happy 13 year old, on top of that.
Kathy Moss:
Very, very happy 13 year old.
John Dowdy:
Go, Carly. All right, well, we'll be looking forward to her book as well. Awesome. Well, Kathy Moss out of Oregon, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with Sugarfoot here on the Equinety podcast.
Kathy Moss:
Thank you so much.
John Dowdy:
All right. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Kathy Moss:
Bye.
