Lynette Mayeda saw something in the aged ranch horse’s eyes that led her to believe he wasn’t through yet.
She paid the meat price for Sterling and brought him home.
But then it seemed as though nothing would stop the Quarter Horse gelding’s drastic weight slide.
Time to let go, people said. Then Lynette found FOCUS SR.
New Life for an Old Hand
“Put at least 30 candles on his next birthday cake,” the horse dentist told Lynette Mayeda when he checked her Quarter horse gelding. She was shocked. His sellers believed the ex-ranch horse was twenty-ish. The warm-hearted bay was supposed to be her husband’s first horse. Now she was frantically trying to stop a drastic weight slide and save his life.
The vet, horse dentist, and feed rep visited. They checked for overall health, worms, tooth problems, and put on him a high-fat senior feed. Nothing helped. “Somehow something just was getting lost and he was not gaining weight,” Lynette says. “He didn’t act sick but the vet kept telling me he was not doing well.” As Sterling steadily lost more than 300 pounds, the vet gently prepared her to let him go.
Lynette refused to give up but didn’t know where else to turn for help. Then she saw an for Focus SR promising benefits for older horses with weight problems. Here was hope! Lynette called SOURCE’s 800-number and poured out her heart. Suzanne Birks responded quickly to the desperate plea and soon Sterling was on FOCUS SR.
Sterling was running again before he was finished with his first bucket of FOCUS SR
Sterling’s energy came back first. “He’s arthritic in both front legs,” Lynette notes, “but one morning he was running in the pasture for the first time all summer.” By the time Sterling’s first bucket of Focus SR was gone he was gaining weight. Even the vet agreed he looked better. Lynette comments that Sterling also seems to need less medication for his arthritis now.
“Sterling has now been on Focus SR about a year. He’s peppy again, says Lynette. The feed rep advised doubling his senior feed and weaning him off the supplement but Lynette won’t mess with success. “Even if we feed them well and give them good hay, they need something food and hay can’t give them,” she says. “Whatever Focus SR has, he needed that and wasn’t getting it anywhere else.”
Wait! Sterling’s story is not over yet!
Continue reading “Lynette & Sterling”