Kim Harmon - Mystery Lameness
John Dowdy:
Hello, and welcome to this week's Equinety podcast. We're swinging out into the West coast. That's the West coast for me. I'm down in Florida, but we're going all the way out to Utah. And we've got Kim Harmon on the call this week. Kim, welcome to the Equinety podcast.
Kim Harmon:
Thank you. Glad to be here.
John Dowdy:
Well, as always, it's great to have guests on, and I was really excited about this one. I actually ran across one of your comments in one of the many Facebook ads that we run on a daily basis. And it really struck me because from what I quickly read, you had been dealing with a very severe mystery lameness case with all kinds of question marks all over the place with farriers, veterinarians, testing. Nobody could seem to find out what's going on. Tell us a little bit about what you were dealing with. How long have you had your horse? When did it start coming up? And then, let's start at that point.
Kim Harmon:
Well, Flint's a horse I've had all his life. I started him as a baby, and I've been riding him for 10 years. He's a gaited horse. He's a Missouri Fox Trotter, and he has never, ever had a misstep in his life. He's never had any lameness issues. He's a tough as nails athletic little horse, and been riding him all these years, many, many miles in tough country. And we moved to Utah from Washington State. And for whatever reason, he started to be off. I wouldn't say he was lame, but I know my horse and he was off. And talked to my shoer about it. And he did the various lameness experiments and checking with different equipment to see if he would be sore, and he would never show sore. But he was off. And that was going on for, we tried different various ways of shoeing and different things, for almost a year.
And it was progressively getting worse. I actually switched shoers three times. Actually four times. And so I had four different shoers working on him. And then I started with the vet, and little more he was just more and more off. I turned him out in the field with the other horses. The other horses would run, and he would stand and watch them run by. He was too uncomfortable to run. And I could see some lameness in the field when he'd be out.
It just kept progressing, and I ended up taking him to the vet. Did full lameness exam, x-rays, ultrasounds. Spent a few thousand in tests, and not one conclusion. And at a certain point, I was riding him and he just went three legged on me. He would not touch the ground with his left front foot.
So I thought, oh, well at least we have finally narrowed it down to a foot. I took him to a specialist down in Las Vegas and they went through the myriad tests and they still could not figure out. It was not one foot. It was all four point quarters of the horse, but we don't know where. And that's when I decided to try something. I had seen Equinety on Facebook and I was very skeptical. It's just another product with a lot of claims. But, when I have my heart horse that is not rideable, I thought, well, it's worth a try. So I put him on it in December and did a little bit more shoeing things as well. And it didn't take long, actually. It was very quick. I would say within a couple of weeks, actually even less, he was improved. And within a month or two, I couldn't detect anything. And now at three months he's chugging along like he was before all of this started, and he's going perfectly. I got my horse back.
John Dowdy:
Okay. This sounds way too good to be true here, what you're saying.
Kim Harmon:
It does. But it is true.
John Dowdy:
See, I spoke right over the top of you and you said you've got your horseback. As a short recap, you've had the horse all his life. All of a sudden he starts showing signs of some lameness and some things, sees off. You go through four farriers, two veterinarians, a myriad of tests, and no answers. Nobody has any idea what's going on. And meanwhile, you keep seeing the different ads and things in your news feed with the Equinety Horse XL. You said you were skeptical, but what was your real thoughts going on when you would see the Equinety ads going on?
Kim Harmon:
Well, truth, it's just everybody that's selling something has the very best. Even when I called and asked about it, I was kind of like, talk to the hand. But, bottom line is I didn't know what else to do, because I had no answers and I adore this horse. And I thought, well, you know, it's the cost of one tub of powder. Why not try it? Thank goodness I did. Thank goodness.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And I tell you what, for those of you tuning in for the first time, and maybe you're in a similar situation. It could be you've tried everything else under the sun. Nothing seems to be working. Some kind of a mystery, something going on. Or, you're looking at maybe just giving your horse a little bit of an edge, or helping with some arthritic issues or joints, or filling out top line, demeanor, any of these types of things. And you keep seeing the Equinety ads rolling by, and you're one of the skeptics.
Here's what this product is and why it works in so many ways. First of all, it's 100% pure amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. And with it being in this stage, it's already in the stage ready for absorption, which is one reason why it works so quickly. There's no fillers, there's no sugars, no starches, and there's no loading dose. And I did ask you this before, but were you surprised at how little the dose was?
Kim Harmon:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. It's a little tiny scoop, like a rounded teaspoon is all it is, just once a day, perfectly fine. There are situations where you can give one in the morning and one in the evening for a horse in recovery, or for a performance horse to help with recovery. But, scientifically what this product is designed to do is stimulate the pituitary gland, which is about the size of a pea right in the middle of the brain. And that's what releases hormones in the body. And the hormones specifically that we're after are growth hormone, and that triggers IGF-1 out of the liver. The combination of those hormones are what go throughout the body to help repair at a cellular level.
In this case, we're dealing with this severe question mark, question mark, question mark mystery type of a thing. And by adding the Equinety Horse XL, we're giving the body what it needs to release its own hormones. Therefore the body's deciding where to send those hormones with pinpoint accuracy.
One of the other great things about this product, it does start working in 24 hours. It's really just a matter of how quickly you can begin seeing things. And I would say the vast majority, and I'm talking upper 90 percentile of people, do see changes in 30 days or less. And that could just be a softer, shinier, healthier coat, filling out, they're happier, they have a better demeanor. Also people will comment on faster hoof growth in a 30 day mark, although closer to six weeks, but we've had a lot of people comment in 30 days and thicker soles.
So, we're blessed. It's an amazing product that really does so many things. And, I can't say enough good things about it, but hearing you give this whole story, and then at the very end, and again, I stepped over you when you said you've got your horseback. That's got to make you feel great, having your horse back.
Kim Harmon:
It does.
John Dowdy:
You weren't able to ride your horse for about a year, or was it about that long?
Kim Harmon:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
During all this.
Kim Harmon:
Yes.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. And then when was the first time you were able to get back on and go ride?
Kim Harmon:
Oh, it was within the month. And the reason, I was wondering how am I going to know when I should ride this horse, because it was such a weird thing that he's not lame lame most of the time. You don't see him limping. But I knew because I looked out and he was bucking in his pen and he hadn't bucked. And he was jumping around, swinging his head and just being coltish, just having fun. And he hadn't done that in a year. And I thought, oh, okay, I better ride him. And I was kind of worried he might be too frisky. But he wasn't. He didn't get hot or high. He was just back to work. Okay, mom, let's go. It was awesome.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, because you had mentioned to me that while the other horses are out running around, he would just stand there and watch them, evidentually.
Kim Harmon:
Yep. He would watch them run by, and that's not normal for horses. They want to be part of the group. He just would watch them run by.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. You brought up another good point. You look out there and see him bucking around and playing and acting coltish, but he's not hot. That is, I won't say a very common question, but we do have people that say, hey, will this product make my horse hot? Well, there's nothing in this product to make your horse hot, but what it is doing, it helps them feel better. So that's where the bucking and playing and stuff. But they're not hot, they just feel good. It's really what it comes down to. You've been giving the product now just a little over three months, and how's he doing today?
Kim Harmon:
Well, I rode yesterday and it just keeps getting better. It's been a long time. We've had some iffy weather, so I haven't ridden really consistent to see a really nice as much of progress as I could have, because it was there, I just wasn't riding. But then I rode again yesterday. Each time I ride him, he's just better and better and better. And yesterday road, and he just had his great big extended walk that he can do. And he's been like a Shetland pony. When I have ridden him in the last year, he just feels like, he just couldn't stretch out. Whatever was hurting him, wherever, made him just shuffle like a Shetland instead of a nice big strided gaited horse. And he just got into his big old walk, and you could tell he was totally free, totally comfortable. It was awesome. I just had a blast yesterday.
John Dowdy:
Oh, that is fantastic. Well, I tell you if there's anybody tuning into this, that even after you're hearing this story and they're thinking, well, my horse has a little something different going on. Or, I don't know, I'm still iffy or skeptical. Is there anything other than what you've talked about that might get them to just go ahead and give it a try?
Kim Harmon:
Well, I had another horse. She wasn't in pain or anything, but she seemed a little different too. But I don't know her as well. And I went ahead after I had had Flint on it for a month and could see already substantial improvement, I thought, wow, well, why not put Cat on it? So I put her on it, and she immediately got better. And she was happier and she was moving out better. I didn't even really realize that there was something going on with her. I just was beginning to suspect. So I would say for any horse, they can't talk. They might have something that this could help, and just put them on it and see what you have. That's what I'm doing.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. No, that's a very good point because what we've even found in the high end performance barns, or just the people that can afford to give the best of the best of everything to their horse, what we're finding is just by adding this to their diet, it will seem to just kick them up another notch, whatever that might be. It could be even the coat is softer and shinier. It could be a little healthier, stronger hoof growth. It could be filling out a little bit or top line type of issues, but they're happier. We have a lot of people that use it as a preventative because it is helping to keep the cells working at their optimal levels. It's like I said, we're blessed. It's an amazing product. We had no idea it was going to help like it has, but after being on the market now for five years, what this is really showing us is that horses in general are deficient in the right amount of amino acids.
And, there's a lot of feeds and things out there that are loaded with amino acids, but if the feed is pelleted form, then it requires heat to create those pellets which actually breaks down the integrity of the amino acids. I would say the biggest thing with our product, they're specifically formulated, are eight amino acids to stimulate the pituitary gland. And that's what releases the hormones that help heal at a cellular level.
So, it's a very unique product that does things for a horse that I don't think anybody ever imagined. There's nothing like it on the market, and we're blessed to get in that way. And which [inaudible 00:15:44] our tagline is Helping Horses Worldwide. So great example with your story.
Well, before we sign off, is there anything else that you want to touch upon or share? That's a pretty powerful story you just gave.
Kim Harmon:
I just would encourage people to try it, because I was a skeptic and now my horse is thanking me. So, I'm pretty happy.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. That's awesome. All right. Well, Kim Harmon out of Utah, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story here on the Equinety podcast.
Kim Harmon:
Thank you so much.
John Dowdy:
Okay. You bet. Bye-bye.
Kim Harmon:
Bye-bye.
