My team is like my family. And fortunately for me, I have a BIG family! My sponsors are up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, so I have a big support network that spans from Michigan to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire to Tennessee, with a few places in between. Thank God for the Internet. I’m able to keep in touch with them from anywhere I go. Some of my sponsors I’ve never even met, something I very much hope I get to change.
Colleen and Matt Meyer of Advanced Saddle Fit have been with me since my Young Rider days and have supported my career from the very beginning. Our relationship has long since transcended the business element; they’re my friends, a part of my family.
The saddle is, undeniably, one of the most crucial parts of the package for a horse and rider. With Colleen, I know not only that I’m riding in a quality product, but that I’ve got her decades of expertise to count on for making sure the saddle fits.
One of the many great things Colleen has turned me on to are pads from a company called Prolite. Made from a squishy polymer, Prolite pads are SUPER shock absorbing – almost every horse I ride goes in one, but especially my sensitive-backed horses. What’s also cool about the Prolite pads is that you can get them with pockets, into which you can insert shims to help build up weak-toplined or rapidly changing horses. I find I use them a lot with saddles that fit OK, but could be a little better, for clients who just can’t afford a new saddle at present. They’re a great tool in my toolbox, and thanks to Colleen, my toolbox is extensive and high-tech. Be sure to read her blog Saddle Fitting For Smarties – it’s a stitch.
Nutrition is another of my pet obsessions, and my friends at Uckele Nutrition have encouraged my insanity. They’re another of my sponsors who’s been with me from the very beginning, and in five years and dozens of horses they’ve never steered my wrong or come across a problem they couldn’t help fix. Every horse I own is on their GUT, Gastric Ulcer Transnutrients, which I fell in love with when, after only three days, Ella did a 180* – always a tough keeper and a picky eater, Ella started eating comfortably and was markedly more relaxed under saddle and in the barn. I feed the powder every day, and keep the tubes around for shows. I’m also wild about their TriAmino, which I know has a COTH Forums cult following, and it’s well deserved – both Ella and Fender bulked up FAST on TriAmino, and they’ve both got way more muscle stamina as well. How cool is that? Uckele also does hair mineral analysis, which is the neatest science ever. I’m thinking of doing one on myself, but I know it’ll come back with the information that I should try eating some vegetables sometime, and I’m in denial, so nevermind.
Good supplements are nothing without a good base. I’ve been feeding Purina Mills feeds forever, starting with Ultium. Billy is the hardest keeper EVER, and finicky to boot; Ultium was the first feed where I didn’t have to feed a kajillion pounds a day or drench it in oil (which he hates) in order to keep weight on. Now it’s the staple of my feeding program. Their ration balancer, Enrich 32, is terrific for horses at the other end of the spectrum, the absurdly easy keepers. Tres and Douwe, my little air ferns, are thriving on it.
ADVERTISEMENT
To complete the nutrition trifecta, I take my forage pretty seriously. My newest sponsor, Haygain, makes a hay steamer that… well, does exactly what you think it does: steams hay. The amount of dust and spores and lord-only-knows-what-else in the average bale of hay will make your hair stand on end. For horses with allergies or sensitivities, that’s obviously no good, but it takes its toll on healthy horses as well.
I’m so lucky as to not have any allergy horses, but I feel so much better knowing I can reduce the bad stuff I put into their bodies. No dust is also a BIG deal for travelling – like Coree Reuter’s article on trailer safety pointed out, horses in a trailer with their faces in their haybag for however many hours get a lot of dust exposure. No dust, no drama! AND the Haygain adds a bunch of moisture to the hay without the bale getting drippy (seriously, you pick the bale up out of the box expecting to get drenched, and then you don’t. Blows my mind.), which means more water in the horse’s system, which is always good news. Plus, it makes the barn smell delicious.
Also new to my team is RJ Classics. Back in my (totally awful and pathetic) attempts at hunter equitation in the IHSA, I had an RJ Classics coat, and when I needed a new dressage coat I was floored at how a) affordable, and b) light and breathable they are. I’d been sweating my hide off in the standard Pikeur Diana for years, but no more! These coats are GORGEOUS, and very light. And miracle of miracles, they are LONG enough for my Neanderthal arms. Truly incredible. I’ve got a new shadbelly en route from them… very excited!
Last but certainly not least are my friends at Equilite who make lots of tremendous stuff, but are best known for Sore No More. I’ve got lots of Sore No More Saved My Butt stories, but my favorite is a flashback to 2008. I took Billy out of his stall, and he couldn’t turn right. Unbelievably sore and tender in his right front tendons. Crap, I said. Well, you’re done for 6 months. My vet couldn’t come out to ultrasound for a week, so on a lark, I wrapped him up with Sore No More poultice. By the time she came out, he was 100 percent sound, and ultrasound revealed nothing – no strain, no damage, no inflammation. Whoa. Needless to say I take it with me everywhere I go. Their fly spray is terrific, too – keeps the bugs off without smelling like cancer.
I truly couldn’t do what I do without my sponsors. They are the best!
