Whew!  The old gray mare just ain’t the student she used to be…

I swear, my mind wanders too easily if I am in front of a computer while listening to a webinar.  I mean, you are in front of your computer, looking at whatever they are teaching you and then your EMAIL pinger dings telling you that you have a new message.

What to do… what to do?!  Should I get that email or just let it sit there?  Arrrgh.  And then you see a banner go across your MSNBC header that tells you Lindsay Lohan is going to JAIL!  Of course, that makes me want to head right over there and check that out (maybe).

You know what I mean…

I’m one of those people whose business is attached strongly to my email so I’m trigger-happy when one comes into my box!  So of course I clicked on the icon which brought me to my mailbox where I proceeded to read and reply to the said email, all the while convincing myself that I was actually still hearing and ingesting the information coming through the webinar.

Yeah, well, I’m not that good I found out… as I went back to the webinar after I had finished my email correspondence, my eyes fell upon a slide that said something other than the last thing I’d heard.  Ooops.  Obviously, my peripheral listening is going bad.

Anyway, that realization snapped my back to reality and I focused myself totally and completely on the webinar from that moment onward… honest.

What I did hear from the webinar was really interesting so I’m going to pass it onward to you.

 

ALPHA OMEGA

The company hosting the webinar was Alpha Omega.   They make natural equine/canine/human health products.

Norma, my donkey, introduced me to them in a round about way.   She had a horrible case of laminitis and one of my readers suggested giving her AntiFlam instead of Banamine for long term use.

Since Banamine is so expensive and bad for the gut over a long period of time, I decided to give it a go with my vet’s blessing.  I went online and ordered a small bottle of AntiFlam to try.

OMG.  The Anti-Flam was very impressive!  Norma was sound when on it and unsound when I took her off of it.  So, to break the cycle and keep her sound as she healed, I used the AntiFlam every day and it worked!  I was very happy.  Norma was very happy.  She is totally sound and no longer needing any medicine.

Of course, being me, I wrote about AntiFlam.

Quite surprising to me, the AntiFlam manufacturers had heard about my blogpost about their product.  And, one of them contacted me to tell me that they’d like to send me several of their herbal products to test.

Hmmmm.  Sure!  I’ll test them.  I won’t guarantee a good review, but I’ll test them.

How fun!!!

WHY WEBINAR?

So they sent me a list of all the natural and herbal supplements they were going to send my way…

HOLY CANNOLI, the list was HUGE and I had no idea what each product did or how to use them or anything!  I called them in distress and asked if anyone could coach me on how/why/when/omn whom I should try these products that they were sending to me.

“Sure,” they said, “we have educational live webinars about all of our products, just sign up.”  So, I did.  And, the first one was today.

FULL CIRCLE

Now we are back full circle.  This is where you came in – me listening to the webinar instead of answering my email.

And, I’m telling you about what I learned on this webinar just in case any of this information will benefit you or your horse BEFORE I have the chance to test these particular products.  If these products are anywhere near as good as AntiFlam, they would be well worth a try in my book…

THE WEBINAR

The first thing that was said was, “These are all natural and safe for show testing.”  Good to know.

OK, so the topic of this first webinar that was available to me was “Hormone Health Naturally for Horses”.  When you think of hormones you might think about breeding and then shut off your attention span.  But, really, hormones are the endocrine system and that can effect every part of your body – or your horse’s.  It is like the mail delivery system for nutrients and if it isn’t working, things slow down.

So, the following is what I learned about the Alpha Omega products today.  Again, I haven’t tested any of this so I’m not endorsing them.  But, I am telling you about them because their AntiFlam product is incredible.

LIVER FLUSH

This seemed to be the product I would use first before anything else if your horse seems to be generally dull – lacking in appetite, low energy, rough coat, skin conditions…

You see, the liver is the detoxification center in all of us.  If that is a bit clogged or has a hiccup, the whole body will feel the effects.

So, it would be a good idea to herbally flush the liver and see if that kicks up the activity and helps the body detoxify itself.

BIOTIC-8

Everyone seems to be talking about ProBiotics.  You know, the good bugs in the gut…

Well, what they don’t speak about is how delicate the delivery (so they are still alive after passing through the stomach acid) of probiotics can be.  And, that you have to have a diversity of strains to make it effective. Really, this is the problem with many probiotics – they die in the stomach before they can do any good.

Biotic-8 was described as having 8 widely different strains which are carried to the gut with a flax seed protective vest, so to speak.  So, it delivers the 8 dissimilar probiotics safely and successfully to the hind gut.

The logic here is that when the gut is working well, the body is able to absorb more of the beneficial nutrients in their food.  The horse eliminates better, gains weight more easily, reduces acid in the stomach… all the benefits of good digestion.

So, if you have a horse that is skinny or looks mal-nourishes or has gut issues or inflammatory issues, this is a supplement for them.

ADREN-FX

This is for the horse who has Cushings or Cushings symptoms (cresty neck, won’t shed his coat, shaggy coat, sensitive to sugars, tends to have laminitis, fat pockets…).

They said this was also good for diabetic horses.

I think I will try this with Norma.  She has all the symptoms of Cushings but the tests came back negative.  So, I’ll try this with her when it arrives and we’ll see if she becomes less symptomatic.

MINEREQ

Minere-Q is for highly athletic horses or horses that have a strenuous job.  I helps the muscles and “tying up”.  It is chock full of minerals and muscle support enzymes.

I asked if this could be used instead of a Mineral Block.  They said YES, sort of… you still should provide the white salt block but if you feed Minereq, it is a great replacement for the minerals in a mineral block.  And, actually, the minerals/vitamins in Minereq far surpass those blocks which are made for cows, really.

I thought I would try this instead of the mineral block or any other mineral supplement in one of my pastures.  I’d love to see the results.  For me, I’m quite interested in supplementing the mineral and vitamins that may be lacking in my hay or feeds…

PREMARE

This is for the “mare” syndrome.  You know… “witchy”, “crazy”, “unsafe”… all the terms used for mares when they are hormonally effected.

You could use this in conjunction with Regumate if need be.  The instructions say that you should keep the mare on this the entire season and you will definitely see results.

I’ve got alotta mares who could benefit from this, if you know what I mean…  Gwen will be my guinea pig with this one and I’ll be DELIGHTED to try it with her.  Truly, if I could maintain her sunny personality more often, she’d be a different ride for me.  I love her incredibly but she can be a very scary ride if she decides that she is feeling PMSy (Pissy Mare Syndrome).

In fact, I am really excited about Premare!

IN CONCLUSION

Again, I haven’t tried any of these except the AntiFlam.  But, I’m really excited to be the tester for all these products because AntiFlam was so remarkable.  I’ll keep you posted.  But, if you try any of these before I do, please let me know how it goes!

 

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

February Drop in the Bucket Fund:  LEROY, THE WONDERPONY
He was found in a Home Depot parking lot with a huge leg wound. To learn all about the Bucket Fund and to donate towards the care of LeRoy, please click on the photo (photo credit, Trish Lowe)