Megan Cramer – Rescue – Barrel Horse Bleeder – Recovery – Picky Eaters
John Dowdy:
Hello, and welcome to this week's Equinety Podcast. We are swinging up into South Carolina. We've got Megan Cramer on the call this week, Megan. Welcome to the Equinety Podcast.
Megan Cramer:
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
John Dowdy:
Well, as always it's a pleasure having guests on. And we're going to be talking about, we'll say three and a half horses because the fourth horse is in training. They're taking the product, but you haven't seen the horse since. But we've got three other ones. We're going to be talking about a rescued mare. We're going to be talking about another one that has some breathing and feet issues, and then a gelding with an injury. And then the fourth one is a cutting horse that's in some training right now. And we're also going to be talking about the experiences that you've had with using the Equinety Horse XL, but also in combination with our second product, which is the Equinety Ultimate OEC. So how long have you been in the horse industry? Now you're in the barrel racing world, correct?
Megan Cramer:
Yes. Correct. So I've been in the horses my whole life. My parents both had horses growing up. So when I was born, I was kind of born into it. I started off riding actually English and then did some Western pleasure, but then I just had the need for speed and I decided to go into barrel racing. So I've been barrel racing about eight years now through NBHA, and I recently started high school rodeo, and barrel racing is my main event. I've touched in some pole bending, but I really enjoyed barrel racing. That's my passion.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. Now, for those that are tuning in that, aren't that familiar with barrel racing, about how fast can you get going in the barrel racing arena?
Megan Cramer:
Well, I mean, it totally depends on the horse, but from that adrenaline rush from zero to a hundred, as I like to say with one of my mares, it's nothing you can beat. You got to have a need for speed, because you're going so fast and you're having to think so fast, it's all just a thrill.
John Dowdy:
Yes. And then when you're turning that third barrel and you're coming down into the alleyway, then you all of a sudden you've got to put the brakes on like landing on an aircraft carrier.
Megan Cramer:
Oh, yeah. Especially when the alleyway is pretty short. You're like, "Whoa."
John Dowdy:
Awesome. All right. So let's get into talking about the rescue mare, and what were some of the things that you were dealing with? And then how did you come across the Equinety product, the Equinety Horse XL specifically, and then how did that product change this mare?
Megan Cramer:
Yeah. So actually, she was about one of the first horses I started on the Horse XL. I found out about it through, I was actually gifted. I won this product through my NBHA association, and she was the first horse I actually tried it on. And I got her out of Oklahoma, and when I got her, she came from a bad situation. She a couple hundred pounds underweight, she needed some TLC. And within 30 days I had transformation pictures. I mean, she doesn't even look like the same horse. And we put her on a good feed and we added the Horse XL and I could see a tremendous difference. And that's when I really knew. I was like, "Wow, her coat is healthy. She's picking up weight quickly." It just helped improve her progress a lot, and I could see a huge difference with her in just those 30 days. And after that she continued to improve, improve, improve.
John Dowdy:
That's great. So what is she up to these days?
Megan Cramer:
So I actually re-homed her, she's down in south Georgia now, but I broke her out and after that we just found her a good home.
John Dowdy:
Good.
Megan Cramer:
And I think she's starting on the barrels right now.
John Dowdy:
Oh, nice.
Megan Cramer:
So hopefully that's going well for her and her new owners.
John Dowdy:
That is awesome. And one of the things, we've had a few guests on this podcast that specifically deal with rescued horses and some of the challenges that they've expressed, when you're trying to bring back a rescued horse, you're trying to fix one thing and then other things are going wrong and it's like trying to plug all these holes, and it's just a very challenging type of a thing. And one of the common denominators is when they're using the Equinety Horse XL, they come back faster and they don't seem to have all of the underlying issues that they normally have. So if you're tuning in and have rescued horses or know people that do, please recommend the product to them. And you can listen to some of the podcasts too that we have on that with the rescued horses. Okay, so your second horse, tell us about this one with the breathing and feet issues.
Megan Cramer:
Yes. So she is actually one of my main barrel horses and I've had her on Equinety now for, once I started that one mare on it, I started everybody on it. And she's a bleeder. And so since I used Equinety, I've noticed her recovery times after I get done running her are improved. And we do run on Lasix, so I think that it helps her immune system as well. It builds that up and I can definitely tell a huge difference in her recovery time after we get done running. Before she would normally have heavy breathing and it would take her a long time to cool down, but I definitely see that Equinety has helped her improve on that. And she also has what we call donkey feet, because her feet are so tiny. And about a year ago, we were really struggling to keep shoes on her and keeping her sound because she just had no sole.
Megan Cramer:
We had nothing to nail to, her feet were just falling apart. And now, we're able to shoe her and keep her sound, and I really believe that her feet have hardened up. They're not chipping off as much, she's grown a lot more sole and foot to her and we're really, really happy with that. And I can definitely say that the Horse XL has, you know, it's almost an all-around supplement. Like I said, it goes from their respiratory system all the way down to their feet. It just helps all the way around, and I can definitely see a big improvement with that.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, and I know we've had a lot of feedback through the years, especially getting into the performance horse world. We hear this a lot with the recovery and especially the ones that are hauling all over the place where sometimes they need to give a two to three-day rest, now it's like a one day rest and the horses are ready to go, or you skip towards the end of season and they seem to be just as fresh at the end of season as they are in the beginning. So that's a very, very common thing. And then again, going into the hoof issues, we've got a lot of people that are struggling with trying to find something to help thicken the soles and just make for an all around healthier, stronger, faster-growing hoof.
John Dowdy:
And one of the examples that I give is, you could have the best farrier on the planet standing in front of your horse, but if there's nothing to work with, what's anybody supposed to do?
Megan Cramer:
Yep. You've got to help that farrier out, you know?
John Dowdy:
Exactly. So I tell people all the time, you know, the Equinety Horse XL is not a miracle supplement, but it sure does some miraculous things. And it definitely helps get your horse to where you want him to go at faster, and gives that farrier more to work with in the hoof situation. Also with horses that are quite a bit arthritic and that's a little bit dangerous for the farrier just to pick up the leg to work on them, we're getting all kinds of feedback where it's just helping those arthritic situations.
John Dowdy:
And we're going to talk about this next horse, and before we do, I want to go into a little bit of the science behind this product and specifically how it works. Because it doesn't fit into the category of a hoof supplement or a joint supplement or a recovery supplement or a shiny coat supplement. What it's specifically doing is it's giving the body what it needs to release its own repairing hormones, and then the body can send its own repairing hormones to its own problem areas. And this is why it helps in so many ways is because it's customizing to each horse. And it's one of the reasons I was excited to have you on, because we're talking about three specific horses and then your cutting horse, we know it's going to do great on the product, but we're allowing the horse to help repair itself from the inside out. And so that's why it does so many different things.
John Dowdy:
And the Equinety Horse XL 100% pure amino acids. There's no fillers, no sugars, no starches. And there's no loading dose, it's just a tiny little scoop, 5.2 grams, which is like a teaspoon. Just put it right in their feed, it starts working within a couple hours. And just like what you've noticed, the vast majority of people see changes in 30 days or less. And often it's even within days to a week, depending on what's going on. So let's get into talking about the third horse here, which is a gelding with an injury. What happened with this one?
Megan Cramer:
Yes, so he actually jumped a barrel. Some may have seen the video that went viral on Facebook a couple years ago.
John Dowdy:
Oh, boy.
Megan Cramer:
But he did tear a couple of his lateral ligamenta in his knee. And he was over at the knee as well, so balancing him out with the farrier, there was a lot of aspects that come through in it. But like you said, with the supplement, it provides those hormones that would help rejuvenate tissues to grow on that time. And I truly feel like his recovery time was shortened. Obviously he didn't become sick, but it was shortened because it helps grow those ligaments back and tighten up everything in there. And he actually did become sound after that and was able to run after that. And I truly believe that the supplement helped him.
Megan Cramer:
And through that time he dealt with ETM as well, so that was a true boost to his immune system. After we treated him with ETM and also had him on a Equinety, he looked like a whole new horse. His coat was healthy, he's able to gain more topline back. He overall was a great-looking horse after that. And I will say that I've noticed that, like you said, it reduces inflammation and everything, and with joints and arthritic joints, and I've had to inject less ever since I've started using Equinety. I haven't had inject every six months like I was, so I think it helped prolong that too.
John Dowdy:
Yeah, absolutely. That's one of the common things that we hear often with regularly injected horses, they don't seem to have to inject as often and sometimes not at all. But then again, it all is going to depend on the severity of what's going on in there, so everyone's different. And specifically talking about injured horses, one of the things that we found, if you do have an injured horse or know somebody with an injured horse, when they put them on the Equinety Horse XL, whatever the timeframe for the repair is supposed to be or when they can get back to work, this speeds everything up.
John Dowdy:
So in every case that we've heard, now of course we don't hear a hundred percent of them, but we hear tons and tons and tons of these stories that put them on Horse XL and they always are back to work sooner than what they were expected to be. So that is very, very common. And let's talk about your other horse that's in training. Now you've just started him on product and you haven't really seen this cutting horse, but do you have any feedback on that one?
Megan Cramer:
She's two years old this year, so she's going through some hard training. At the two-year-old year, they're getting broke out and ridden pretty hard. So that's a lot on a horse. So I truly have high hopes that this product's going to do very well for her. And so far, I've heard good feedback from the trainers that she's with. And I will say that, like you said, it's just one scoop every day and it's super easy to feed all the horses. All my horses are picky eaters and they like it. So it's not one of the supplements that a horse will turn their nose up to. They like it all. So it's very easy to feed, and I actually have high hopes that there'll be a transformation. I actually saw a picture of her today, and she did look pretty shiny. She's already been on it about two weeks.
John Dowdy:
Oh, that's great. A lot of the feedback that we've had, especially with trainers dealing with younger horses, one of the most common things that this product really helps with is the recovery and the focus. Danielle and Kelly Bowser up in Ohio, they train a lot of young ones and that's one of the things that they say they notice the most in those young horses, is just better focus, which is important when you're going through all that training.
Megan Cramer:
Yeah. And it's important for her right now, because they're starting her on cows and the flag. That takes a lot of brain for a horse, and I'm glad that that will be helping her.
John Dowdy:
Absolutely. Now, one of the other things or the other products that you've been using is our secondary product, the Equinety Ultimate OEC. Now what this product is, we brought it out with the help of a veterinarian Dr. Zach Bruggen last year. And there was a specific purpose of why we brought it out, and that was to work in combination with the amino acids. So the Equinety Horse XL has given the body what it needs to help repair at the cellular level. The Equinety Ultimate OEC is giving those repaired cells nourishment, and so it helps them operate at optimal levels. And what this is, it's a flaxseed based omega-3 oil, it's got a thousand IUs of natural vitamin E and it also has colloidal silver in it. So it serves as a really powerful antioxidant, which helps reduce inflammation. Now you've been using this product in combination with the aminos, and what have you noticed specifically when you added the Ultimate OEC?
Megan Cramer:
Yes. So I have only been using it about two months now, and I really have seen just an improvement overall in their look and their feel. I had a mare that had colic surgery and she lost her topline through it, and she was really hard to keep weight on after it and everything. And then these past few months, her coat has really come out, she's gaining more topline, and this is her being on the Horse XL and the OEC. So I truly believe that the benefit of both of them mixed together has really brought out the best in her, in how she looks and how all of them look, quite frankly. They're all more shiny than they were. [crosstalk 00:15:29].
John Dowdy:
Which is kind of hard to believe.
Megan Cramer:
Yeah. I mean, honestly, they looked so great before, but I'm like, "Wow." Sometimes it takes a lot of pampering for people to do that with a lot of baths and everything, but they go out in the sun and they look like they're shining.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. So for those tuning in, just to make everything perfectly clear, we have two products, Equinety Horse XL and Equinety Ultimate OEC. We definitely recommend every horse being on the amino acids, the Equinety Horse XL, because that's giving the body what it needs to help repair at the cellular level. And then adding the Ultimate OEC gives those repaired cell, nutrition and helps reduce inflammation, and so that's the two products that we have. So, glad you were able to give us some good feedback on that, because we're starting to get more and more Ultimate OEC feedback in combination with the Horse XL. Well, that is awesome. For anybody that's tuning in that is listening to the podcast and say, "Hey, all that sounds really great, but I don't know. That sounds kind of too good to be true." Is there anything that you would have to tell them to get off the fence, other than what you've already talked about?
Megan Cramer:
I would just say get off the fence and try it. It's never going to do any harm to your horse. Personally I've seen major results on not one, but multiple of my horses, and this product fits to your horse's needs. Like John was saying, it has the amino acid buildup that will help your horse in the ways it needs help. And I just think that everybody should try it. Give it a try. I have transformation pictures of the differences that it has made on a couple of my horses, and I truly believe in this product. And I'm so thankful to be a part of Team Equinety and represent this team.
John Dowdy:
That is awesome. And at our website at teamequinety.com, we're going to have this podcast listed on there and the podcast will actually be transcribed so we can put some of your before and after pictures in there as well. So that's it.
Megan Cramer:
Yeah, that'd be great.
John Dowdy:
Yeah. At teamequinety.com, and just look in the podcast section. So, awesome. Well, Megan Cramer out of South Carolina, thank you so much for taking the time to share your stories here on the Equinety podcast.
Megan Cramer:
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
John Dowdy:
All right, thank you. Bye-bye.
Megan Cramer:
Bye-bye.
