Rachel Cleary & Sam Anthrope – Horse Rehab – Equinety accelerates healing process – Suspensory – flexor tendon – Navicular – Mystery Lameness and more

John Dowdy:

Hello and welcome to this week’s Equinety podcast. This is a special one although I think every week is special but we’re going to swing up into Indiana and we’ve got Rachel Cleary on the line now. Her background is rehabbing horses that come from well one end of the spectrum to the other and we’ll get into that but what’s unique about this particular podcast is she drug on one of her friends and boarders that’s going to talk about her horse and how she found Equinety. So Rachel Cleary and Sam Anthrop welcome to the Equinety podcast.

Rachel Cleary:

Hi, thanks for having us.

Samantha Anthrope:

Hi, thank you.

John Dowdy:

Oh you bet. We’re excited to have you. So let’s get right into this. Rachel, let’s start off with just talking a little bit about the work that you do with rehabbing horses and where do they come from, what kind of stuff do you typically deal with, how long you’ve been doing it, that kind of stuff.

Rachel Cleary:

Well we have been doing rehab really my whole life that I can remember. We’ve always gotten horses that have been in bad conditions and rehabbed them weight ways and health ways to get them to get show homes and things like that. We started doing physical rehabilitation about eight years ago. A certified massage therapist, rehab therapist among a million other things here. But we really do a lot of sports injuries and weight issues, elderly horses, things like that. So, a lot of extreme cases come in as far as pain or just in your general killer pin type courses that have been abused so not just weight gain but physical rehabilitation.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, so we can be talking from something very I mean like a weight gain type of thing which nutrition and some exercising things to very severe like we’ve got to have the professional team because I mean you do work with, well tell us about the team that you work with.

Rachel Cleary:

Absolutely. I have an awesome team. I have a veterinarian that is one of which is our, we call her our emergency onsite farrier, Chris Chapel. She lives about 10 miles from us so she can get to the barn pronto. She is always got eyes on our horses. We have a corrective farrier, Dan Woody, who’s also an RVT who does all of our balancing with the hoofs. And then we work with Dr Davern from Centaur Equine Specialty Hospital in Shelbyville, Indiana. He is a surgeon and he takes all of our extreme cases and helps us with these really tough journeys so we have a great team.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, that’s incredible. Now let’s talk about now you’ve been doing this for a long time and you’ve been using the Equinety product for about how long?

Rachel Cleary:

Since July of 2017 so this will be going on our third year so about two and a half years with the product.

John Dowdy:

And I think it’s important because the reason I asked you that question is since you’ve been doing rehab work that brings all kinds of challenges to the table you didn’t have Equinety. You’ve only been using it for two and a half years. So what is the biggest thing that you’ve noticed since adding Equinety to your program?

Rachel Cleary:

How fast this product accelerates everything that we do from weight gain to muscle gain, to the healing processes of physical wounds, flesh wounds, cuts like that, and internal wounds as far as suspensory injuries and torn muscles and things like that. We’ve been doing it a long time and rehab’s tough and every horse is different. And even with the weight gain issues you’re not just targeting one thing. A lot of times where we have to treat ulcers or absorption issues, we are dealing with lameness issues and all of this while we are trying to bring that horse back to life with nutrients. So this product is helping in all of those areas. There’s a lot less products, I really use Equinety and one other along with our feed program and other than the physical rehab and extras that we have to use from our vets we’re not having to use as much and it’s really made a difference. There’s no comparison without it as far as the speed especially on the easier weight gain issues I mean that’s fast now. The 30 day turnaround is unbelievable.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, and I think before we get into, we’re going to be talking about five different cases here, although you have a lot more than that but due to time constraints we’ll keep it to five and maybe we could do another podcast down the road. But if you’re tuning in for the first time maybe you’ve been seeing the Equinety ads and maybe some friends are talking about Equinety or you’re just saying, “Hey, what exactly is this stuff?” The Equinety horse excel is 100% pure amino acids. There’s no fillers, no sugars, no starches, and there’s no loading dose. A serving size is 5.2 grams which is just shy of a tablespoon. But ultimately what this product is doing is it’s giving the body what it needs to release its own hormones that help the body heal at a cellular level.

John Dowdy:

So in this case we’re going to talk about five different horses from a couple of rescues to a very extreme that had all the odds against this horse. And the pictures are quite shocking which I will have posted in the transcription of the podcast on our website at teamequinety.com. And the neat thing with this product is and again in this case we’re talking about five horses and as you give each horse one scoop a day or possibly two depending and I can get into the reasons one versus two scoops but if you’re just giving one scoop a day because we’re giving the horse’s body what it needs to release its own hormones then it’s that horses hormones that are going to the problem areas.

John Dowdy:

So in essence, it’s customizing to each horse and that’s important as we go through each one of these different examples in these five horses and how it’s affected them each a little bit differently while at the same time there’s commonalities with all of them softer, shinier coat, filling out more muscle, they’re happier, stronger and faster, healthier hooves, just to name a few things. But so, let’s get right into this first horse which is Dee I believe. Now Dee and Piper these were rescue horses so let’s talk about Dee first and this was just within 30 day timeframes on these two particular ones. So let’s talk about Dee first what was going on with Dee how’d you acquire Dee and what was going on?

Rachel Cleary:

Dee was a horse that our family used to train and we found her in Ohio in terrible condition. They basically gave her away for what she is. So and they had said, “She’s a little thin and we think her hocks need injected.” So my mother in law drives over there to get her and she sends me these pictures and she is not thin this horse is emaciated. I’m talking like four or five inches in between her back legs gaping open, spine’s sticking out and she’s wobbling around like she’s got APN. I mean so weak in the backend. It was a long shot to get her to where we thought she’d be in [inaudible 00:07:54] So there again threw everything at her yes food and good hay but we added Equinety.

Rachel Cleary:

And the 30 day picture on her it’s unbelievable how much she picked up and not just fat, not just weight in her belly. I mean her muscles started to come back and this horse started to move around a little bit better here and there. We didn’t put her out with other horses because of how weak she was in behind end we were really afraid they would run her and hurt her or she’d fall down. And I also sent you in a 90 day picture in there. Her 90 day picture she is ready to go in a halter she looks beautiful. [crosstalk 00:08:39] Super happy, got her awful attitude back thank you. She is now able to go out with other horses. She actually we’ve seen her run in the pasture where I’m telling you this horses was, I really thought I’d put money on it that she had EPM and she’s becoming more sound and we’re going to be able to breed her this spring.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, it’s amazing looking at the pictures and as you said it doesn’t really do it justice but in the before picture just bones I mean really.

Rachel Cleary:

Nothing there.

John Dowdy:

Yeah and then 90 days later well even in the 30 day pic is pretty darn good, it’s a little bit overcast and not a sunny but in the 90 day man put your sunglasses on.

Rachel Cleary:

Look at her hair coat.

John Dowdy:

Yeah that’s great.

Rachel Cleary:

And she came with that awful reign rot, just typical starving horse and she does now get brushed regular.

John Dowdy:

Yeah now let me ask you this question because anybody that knows anything about horse is you take a horse that has been neglected and hasn’t had any nutrition and looks like this horse does and then you give them nutrition of course they’re going to blossom and do things. So, how do you feel that Equinety added to the benefits of where this horse is today?

Rachel Cleary:

Yeah, like I said we’ve been doing this for a long time and yes when you feed them they do, they gain weight but it’s a much slower process. And one thing that we’re not having to do near as much when we add the is Equinety is we’re not having to treat all these other issues that we normally have to treat. Usually you get them in, it’s like okay we get them balanced out. Then we have to treat the ulcers because they’ve been starving. We have to give them extra [inaudible 00:10:34] We need to give them something to manage their pain issues that we’re dealing with and we’re not having to do near as much of that.

Rachel Cleary:

These horses are coming back really fast, really help in their attitudes as well. A lot of horses are very depressed. And a lot of times you’ll get a lot of weight on them and they’ll plateau off for a little bit and then you get them back up there. Since we’ve been using the Equinety it’s just like we’re just going up hill real fast. I haven’t had them plateau off near as bad.

John Dowdy:

That’s great. Okay, let’s go into Piper and how’d you acquire Piper and what was going on there?

Rachel Cleary:

Piper, let’s see she was a horse we once had and had sold and somehow she wound up in the sale barn and sold to a person who dumped her off at a boarding facility and so she was abandoned there for about three years. The lady that owned the facility had passed away and her family got the place and they didn’t want the horses. So they found out that she was once mine through some people and I went there and I got her. When I went there, well mind you before the horse this was a pretty hot headed big mare, very, very big, very pretty horse and full of attitude.

Rachel Cleary:

And I pull up there and I get there and she’s got her head hanging down on the ground. Her feet are all messed up, she’s laying on the front, she’s laying on the back, her spine’s sticking out, you can see all of her ribs. I mean she’s defeated. Her hair is pale, her tail was at her hawk. I mean this horse was beautiful the last I had seen her. Brought her home, started feeding her and gave her Equinety and I gave you a 30 day picture on that one. And along with Dan jumping in there and bouncing out her feet and we worked on her body a couple of times she’s already found her new home and back conditioning for barrel racing so that was in 30 days.

John Dowdy:

That’s crazy.

Rachel Cleary:

And the top line on her man it’s unbelievable and her tails grown quite a bit too and her mane and she’s got her fire back in her. That is one thing I’ll say about the Equinety, if you have a horse that’s gotten a lot of pain and are unhealthy for some reason and they’ve lost their fire Equinety will give it back to them, they feel much better.

John Dowdy:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think it would be important to point out too because every now and then we’re asked, “Is this product going to make my horse hot?”

Rachel Cleary:

No.

John Dowdy:

Yeah. And typically what we found it’s not like giving Jack and them up on a caffeine or it doesn’t make them lazy like a sedative. I think the best description it balances the horse and it brings out the personality of the horse because they’re not in pain or we’ll say whatever pain it would be significantly less. But a lot of times it’s just they’re a healthy, happier horse and they’re more comfortable in their skin

Rachel Cleary:

It is a clean, healthy. I mean, they feel good, they feel genuinely good. That’s the one thing I’ve noticed that even on our horses we give it to that don’t have these big major issues I don’t want to have any of them without it because I know they feel better.

John Dowdy:

Right. Yep. Awesome. Okay. Let’s go into Bristol which I think we have someone here also on the call that can talk about this particular horse. All right Sam.

Samantha Anthrope:

I have had Bristol. She was at Rachel’s barn. I was boarding her there and barrel racing and she started getting lame, swelling and when we took her to the vet and did a lameness exam it was three out of five on pick whichever leg you wanted to pick at the moment.

John Dowdy:

So she’s a high maintenance, needs attention horse.

Samantha Anthrope:

Yes very much so.

John Dowdy:

Now was she also, she was a 1D horse, right or is a 1D horse?

Rachel Cleary:

It’s all there, she is a fast cat I’m telling you and a turning machine. So to see her go from that to not usable is pretty hard.

Samantha Anthrope:

And I felt like I wasn’t, I had tried so much taking her to the vet we had done corrective shoeing, we had done injections about every, I’ve tried about everything except for the Osphos injections that I was recommended because there was a bunch of mixed opinions on that. One vet would say it was good, one would have an opposite opinion. And then Rachel turned me on to the Equinety with Bristol. And she was always one of those that would lay down in the stall at night, she always gets put up at night and when I would get there in the morning she’d have to stand up and she’d just walk so stiff and sore and lame. And if you worked her the next day I’d have to be you name it, giving her whatever to be able to see her walk and not just want to cry looking at her.

John Dowdy:

Now when you first opened the tub of Equinety what were your thoughts on the dose size?

Samantha Anthrope:

I had to do a double take and ask Rachel if it really was only one scoop of the tiny little scoop that’s in there. I’m like, “Are you sure only one of these?” But so then she was only on it. I started giving it to her December 3rd and it was about four or five days later after that I noticed a difference. I went out to the barn and when I walked out there Bristol popped up out of her stall and walked off like nothing was wrong, not stiff, not lame, absolutely nothing. And I have not seen that in at least three years in that horse.

Rachel Cleary:

Yeah. I got a message that morning, “How fast does this stuff actually work? Am I just seeing this?” And I’m like, “Well no, you’re not just seeing this.”

Samantha Anthrope:

Yeah, it was crazy. So then and now I mean I ride her and the old Bristol is back. The Bristol I used to have her personality is there. When I ride her out and I bring her back in she’s not lame the next day. The very first time I was like, “Well I’ll give this a test.” Because we went trail riding and we looked a little bit and I thought, “Well she’ll be sore, really sore tomorrow. She’ll probably be lame.” Nothing, nothing was wrong with that horse. I actually turned her out in the pasture and she took off running and bucking and for a good couple minutes straight and that horse has not done that in years. She has play time out in the pasture which I mean.

John Dowdy:

Now what you had emailed over to me earlier just giving me a little background on this horse. So she was diagnosed with mild navicular and then you were having to do some creative shoeing and three degrees wedge and that’s when you were doing the injections and rehab and all of this stuff would kind of work but it was nothing longterm.

Samantha Anthrope:

Correct. Yeah. The last time she had went there she got diagnosed and then we adjusted her shoeing and put three degree wedge Morrisons on her and trailers in the back. And it still, I mean it helped but it was not, she’s had hock injections, ankle injections and coffin joint injections.

Rachel Cleary:

Yup.

John Dowdy:

Wow. And so …

Samantha Anthrope:

And when I started this Equinety she has not had injections since then. The only difference is adding the to Equinety to her diet. We have not even taken her back for injections yet. It’s been a two year process from the start of, well about two and a half year process of when we had trouble with her to where she’s not able to do her job. And so she just started Equinety less than 60 days ago and looking like we might be able to start our job.

John Dowdy:

Wow not taking a lame step since?

Rachel Cleary:

Nope.

John Dowdy:

Wow well I tell people all the time and I will reiterate this is not a miracle product, it is not a miracle supplement but I’ll let you make up your mind hearing these stories so.

Samantha Anthrope:

Yeah, I’m a firm believer that horse will never ever again go without Equinety in her life.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, that’s incredible. Wow. Well keep us posted on that because that would be really neat to see how she does as you get her back and in racing again see where she’s at.

Samantha Anthrope:

Yeah, I plan to start legging her up and racing again here in the upcoming months.

John Dowdy:

Great. Wow. Okay. Let’s see. We’ve got two left, I believe we’re going to talk about Chance next. So tell us what was going on with Chance.

Rachel Cleary:

Chance, he came to us, he had torn his peroneus tertius and his deep extensor tendons. So, basically his left leg was just hanging on by a few threads. So the front of his left hind leg those muscles and tendons there had been near ruptured I mean torn. So he had swelling from his stifle all the way down. His whole leg was about as big as his stifle all the way down when I first saw the pictures. I mean not good so he was taken to his first vet appointment to get an ultrasound to figure out what the heck was going on. They said, “He’s torn his peroneus tertius, he’s going to have lots of rehab. At that point that vet gave him a 12 month prognosis as far as healing time to be able to start going back and getting conditioned and lunged and things like that and turnout.

Rachel Cleary:

So his owner, Becky, brought him to me from that vet appointment and started him right away on Equinety and in our physical rehab program. I had made an appointment with Dr. Davern for three weeks from the day they dropped him off to me. So we had taken him in, at this point all the swelling was gone and we were able to get an ultrasound and what they had found at that point was that he was torn in more than one spot. The original vet appointment he was so swelled up they couldn’t even see the extent of the injury. They were worse than we had thought when he had had just a 12 month prognosis. So, at that point he had shown so much healing within those three weeks that he got, his prognosis cut in half it was down five months. So we took him back home and he’s been on Equinety and our feed program and our rehabilitation program. He went home December seventh, five months on the dot and he’s back in condition and entered in the AQHA world show.

John Dowdy:

Oh my. So from 12 months down to five months and now entered into competition?

Rachel Cleary:

In five months on the dot he’s being rode. Yeah he was rode five months and one day. He was released to start, at four weeks I was able to walk him, I had gotten him up to 800 feet. So mind you that’s where this horse was at. He was on stall rest and he could start out on 200 feet a day. And then every few days I just started doubling it and he just kept accelerating and accelerating. So then we started lunging him lightly. And this horse is hard to contain, he’s full of it which is probably why he got his injury in the first place and we started lunging and then we started lunging for 20 minutes at a time. And then the day before he got home I snuck a ride on him and he hasn’t taken one step backwards.

John Dowdy:

That’s incredible. And again, hearing these stories and if you’re tuning in listening this far and we’ve got another pretty dramatic one coming up but keep in mind it’s not a miracle supplement, you’ve got a great team of people around you and this is wow I mean.

Rachel Cleary:

Absolutely there’s a lot of hard work that goes in to your entire team when you’re dealing with any kind of rehab horse but I will tell you that this product speeds it up, it accelerates it.

John Dowdy:

Yep. Yep. Well and one of the examples I tell people because we’re running a lot of things around hoof growth and sole depth and all of the problems that come around with the hooves and things. And I tell people all the time you could have the world’s best farrier standing in front of your horse but if there’s nothing to work with the farrier is not much good because they can’t do anything. And so, one of the great things with this product it helps with growing a faster, healthier, stronger hoof and so it gives a farrier more to work with in a shorter amount of time. And I think that example extends right over to everything that you’re doing from a rehab standpoint. And we’ve touched on this but it gives you more to work with in a shorter amount of time so it makes your job a lot easier and the horse isn’t in as much distress for well we’ll say shorter times versus before it would be a lot longer rehab time now it’s just a shorter rehab time.

Rachel Cleary:

Yes. And our clients are liking that.

John Dowdy:

Yes. Well it makes …

Rachel Cleary:

Much less time and money.

John Dowdy:

Yeah, that’s right so it’s less on the pocket book and everybody’s happier, horses are happier so yeah.

Rachel Cleary:

We’ll have to have our farrier on here to tell you because he knows that, he has asked me on a couple of horses without knowing, “What have you done? This horse has [inaudible 00:24:38] that she’s never had before.” So, it’s pretty crazy.

John Dowdy:

Yeah. That’s awesome. So okay, let’s get into the last one that we’re going to talk about here on this Equinety podcast. This one’s brutal and we’re going to be posting the pictures on our website, pretty intense but tell us what happened with Six?

Rachel Cleary:

Six [inaudible 00:25:04] He was a 1D barrel horse. He’d been a really great race horse before, we raised, my family raised him. We were actually at our place at a horse show. We were running barrels, we were on our way home coming down from the third barrel to make our stop and he stumbled, he stumbled out with his front left and his back right foot kicked out, out of balance and it hung him in a fence, it hung him in the bottom of a cattle panel in mid stride. And what stopped him was his foot hooked up in that cattle panel and about pulled me off the top of him.

Rachel Cleary:

I jumped off and blood was squirting higher than his hawk. It had severed his artery and compromised his coffin joint. So at that point everybody from the horse show, Samantha Anthrop and Lauren Davidson and Anita Wise jumped in and without them getting him wrapped up and getting a truck hooked up to the trailer this horse probably wouldn’t have made it. We made it to Perdue University within 30 minutes and my lucky star was met. I met Dr. Alice Davern who is a surgeon. He had Six within an hour of the injury into surgery to repair the coffin joint. His prognosis at that point was fair at best.

Rachel Cleary:

So we went ahead with it and he came out with a hard cast. Also, what they had said too was that his dispensary had been slightly compromised as well which was the least of our worries which is the biggest thing that puts barrel horses down the drain. So on top of the coffin joint injury we had a little bit of suspensory issues. So he was in a hard cast and they said that he would be in a cast for 10 months which was his original prognosis. So he had to stay at Purdue University for a week before they released him to come home.

Rachel Cleary:

Two weeks from coming home he went back to his next vet appointment and they took the cast off and he was healed, he was healed. The wound was actually healed. And they were like, “Okay, well I guess we’ll just put a soft cast on him and send him home. That is bizarre but okay Six you’re the miracle horse.” So now we’re thinking okay we still have another year of stall and rehab and things like that at least to maybe get him to where maybe he is sound enough to stay out in the pasture. So within a month from the, so we’re not even two months into his entire the whole injury, so within two months we were hand walking outside and keeping him as best as possible at a walk that we could because at any moment that horse would be jumping up and and going crazy because he felt so good. Which this horse has experienced some pain that I think a lot of animals don’t go through. And I mean we have this documented, this would blow your mind if everybody could see these before and after pictures.

Rachel Cleary:

So in less than a complete calendar year from the injury I was back riding this horse. I was actually on him within a few months. They said, “It’s not going to hurt him if you’re going to do your walking with you on his back.” So I was actually able to get on him within a few months. This horse has only been on one scoop of Equinety a day at this point. Those first three weeks that we started him I think I probably gave him two a day but after that I mean he’s just been on one a day and he’s back in the bull pen now. I run him, my husband runs him.

Rachel Cleary:

Other than his speed and his Equinety we’re not having to do anything. I haven’t injected him. He doesn’t live on Bute, he doesn’t live on anything like that. So the last visit that I went to Davern he was like, “Get this horse doing something.” I treat them like they’re glass, I’m terrified like, “Please don’t hurt yourself.” And he’s like, “Get him out of here and go do something. Give him his job back.” So I mean, to have him alive is one thing but to have my horse back, my dream horse back is just, we can’t thank you enough.

John Dowdy:

Wow, we’re blessed. I mean this product is, it’s one of the reasons I started the podcast because typically people would call in or they would email their story and I would just be sitting here and my jaw would be on the table and I’m thinking, “I cannot believe what I’m hearing.” And this was just happening over and over and over and from one extreme to another and one day it hit me and I’m like, “You know what? It’s a real shame that I’m the only one hearing this story outside of their little circle.” And so, that’s one of the reasons I started this podcast so now people around the world can hear. And you had mentioned one scoop versus two scoops. Now, the idea behind that and I brought this up in the beginning of the call but one scoop a day stimulates the pituitary to release the hormones that help the body heal at a cellular level.

John Dowdy:

So those hormones which were after growth hormone and IGF1 they have a 23 and a half hour life cycle so that’s why you give the product every day, it’s one scoop a day. So, the idea behind giving two scoops, one in the morning and one in the evening, is it’s spiking those hormones twice a day so they always stay in an elevated state. And so, one scoop a day is perfectly fine, people see changes, and I would say the upper 90 percentile of people do see changes in 30 days or less. And then in Bristol’s case, four to five days, the magic scoop of powder.

John Dowdy:

So, but we do recommend with injured horses or even performance horses that don’t really have anything going on giving a scoop in the morning and a scoop in the evening really helps accelerate the healing process even for the performance horse with recovery stamina. So we have a lot of people that swear by that. Now, I didn’t ask you this specifically but with all of these horses were you just giving one scoop or were you doing the two scoops on a consistent basis I know?

Rachel Cleary:

Six was the only one that got a couple scoops there in the beginning. And I was just praying and throwing everything I had at him at that so I haven’t had to give any body two scoops but for my performance horses I give them an extra when I know that we’re hauling for a long time just for the stress but I don’t have any horses on two scoops all the time.

John Dowdy:

Yeah. And that’s what actually we recommend if you’re hauling you can start on two scoops while you’re hauling, showing and on the way back. And what have you found? You mentioned stress. Have you noticed they’re just more comfortable? What have you noticed on your performance horses?

Rachel Cleary:

Absolutely. I mean yes, our performance the recovery time on them you can’t, yeah you can’t believe how easy they come back and I’m getting these horses, I’m talking four, five, six, seven hours in a horse trailer and they’re coming out feeling good, their legs are cold. I know my horses so that’s what I do for a living and to not have to work on my own horses as much is much helpful when we’re doing all these stressful things and hauling these horses aren’t tired. And they’ve got all their spark in there and I appreciate that. I really like how they feel on this product, they feel good.

John Dowdy:

Yeah. Well with all these horses healing ahead of schedule you’re going to be bored.

Rachel Cleary:

I know. That’s great.

John Dowdy:

That’s awesome. Well, I tell you what I really appreciate y’all taking the time. Samantha Anthrop and Rachel Cleary out of Indiana. Thank you so much for sharing your stories here on the Equinety podcast.

Rachel Cleary:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity too.

Samantha Anthrope:

Thank you.

John Dowdy:

Oh, you bet. All right. Thanks. Bye bye.

Rachel Cleary:

Bye.