Dueszy's Story

A racehorse recovers - Health, fitness and a new lease on life.

Preparing Dueszy for our training this morning, I stripped off his warm night rug and was, again, astonished by how big, strong and healthy this sweet boy has become in such a short time.

Returning to riding after 40 years, I acquired a free lease on this off the track thoroughbred on the understanding I would pay for his care and training. Union Dues (Dueszy) had been stabled in a Florida riding barn where his discomfort from the usual ulcers (90% of racehorses are believed to suffer from stress related ulcers) had left him ill mannered and unpredictable. The owner’s family declined to ride him and he was sent back to NC. During this time he was neglected due to poor barn management, thus exacerbating all his digestive difficulties and poor attitude and adding new issues; severe rain rot, diseased feet, a cribbing habit and chronic malnutrition.

Athletically, Dueszy was very stiff and inflexible. With poor muscle tone and loaded with inflammation, he had great difficulty carrying himself in order to work in the arena. (Dueszy had been sent to the same barn for a year of dressage training two years prior as a five year old before heading to Florida and at that time was making good progress in training and physical development). He was also sensitive to the rider’s leg and alarmingly aggressive when being groomed around his torso, nipping and kicking out. Not a happy horse!

Our trainer and dressage barn owner, Natalya, detailed his feeding regimen below. We also decided to address the digestive issues with L-glutamine, aloe gel, slippery elm and probiotics. A few weeks into the training we added daily Curamax, one scoop of pellets per day. His appetite became voracious, eating all hay given and drinking all water provided.

As the nutrition and careful training progressed we started to see good changes. Six weeks into the program, Dueszy had gained muscle, much improved abilities in his six days per week dressage training work and a more consistent attitude with increased body comfort.

Dueszy before treatment protocol. December 7th, 2018

Natalya declared, “I’m beginning to believe in the power of Curamax! He feels stronger every week and today felt more supple in the body than he ever did in the past when he was in training with me.”

Four weeks on, Dueszy is still progressing and has transformed. His rain rot has gone, his feet are healthy. Lower levels of inflammation in the gut continue to allow good weight gain, a happier disposition in and ability to perform with self carriage in training. He has built good topline muscle to allow a higher shoulder and more ‘uphill’ movement. He is much happier in his skin! He looks and feels fantastic.

In my mind, this experiment in recovery by nutrition has been a testament to the power of inflammation reduction in the gut and body.

Lower levels of inflammation allow for better digestion, thus efficient utilization of nutrients, more consistent training due to more body comfort and faster recovery and a calmer, more willing mindset and behavior.

We are now using Curamax on two of Natalya’s high level dressage mares, Izzy and Ameera. The scope of potential for owners and trainers to utilise Curamax in the sport horse world seems enormous. Most owners, I’m sure, would prefer not to medicate their equine athletes, if they were educated in the power of Curamax to prevent and heal these common issues and to maximise training, performance and recovery.

Laura DeWitt, MA