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Rodeo family discovers the real benefit of Gastro Essentials is winning

Segelke familySome families rodeo a little. Some families rodeo a lot. And some families eat, drink, sleep and live rodeo.

“We’ve been going every weekend since the end of March,” Vickie Segelke said in an interview on their way home from the last Colorado High School Rodeo in Craig, Colorado, at the end of September. “If it’s not high school rodeo, it’s junior rodeo or something else. We went to the big youth rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to Farmington for the high school finals, to the Little Britches finals in Colorado Springs. We’re always gone somewhere.”

One reason the Segelkes are on the road so much is they have three tough young competitors — daughters Hayden, 17, and Paxton, 15 compete at the high school level, while daughter Quincy, 11, competes in the junior high school Wrangler Division. All three compete in Colorado Junior Rodeo events. The girls compete at the top of their sport in barrel racing, pole bending, roping and goat tying, and have the saddles, buckles and other awards to prove it — Quincy even won a horse trailer at the Elks Youth Rodeo in Sheridan, Wyoming at the end of August this year by winning in multiple events on the same horse.

The Segelke girls come by their passion honestly. Vickie’s husband Tim was on the professional rodeo circuit for a number of years, and Vickie, now a teacher, also competed professionally and trained horses. That’s how they became fans of Formula 707.

Segelke family“We’ve been using Formula 707 for years,” Vickie said. “We always feed Daily Essentials, Joint Essentials and Glo-N-Go to everything we haul. They’re awesome products.”

This year, a new Formula 707 product, Gastro Essentials, came out, solving a long-standing problem for one of the Segelke’s 30-odd horses.

“We got Hotshot’s Girl as a three-year-old off the race track and we’ve had her for nine years,” Vickie said. “She’s always been kind of a hard keeper. By the beginning of July she’d get thin and dead-haired and go off her feed on the road. She worked but she wouldn’t really clock. She just always seemed unmotivated and full of stress. We were just sure she had ulcers.”

Because horses in the wild graze constantly, the parietal cells lining a horse’s stomach secrete more than six cups of concentrated acid an hour to aid in digestion. Particularly for horses in high-stress training and performance situations, high-energy feed is quickly consumed and quickly digested, but the acid continues to flow. In many horses, this results in painful ulcerations of the stomach lining. Poor appetite, diminished performance and meager condition may all be signs that a horse is feeling the effects of his unnatural lifestyle in his gut.

Vickie said they took Hotshot’s Girl to the vet in Greeley and tried putting her on GastroGard, but even though it helped, as Vickie said, “That’s $30 a day, and we just didn’t have that kind of money.”

When she heard about new Formula 707 Gastro Essentials, she decided to give it a try.

“It’s like she’s a different horse,” Vickie said. “She’s just been on fire this year. She eats on the road, keeps the weight on and her coat looks good. She used to have problems where she’d tie up as much as a couple of times a month, and that’s all gone. And she’s winning!”

Unlike expensive ulcer medications, Gastro Essentials has been specifically formulated with an effective combination of natural soothing herbs, essential amino acids and minerals to aid digestion and mitigate the effects of acid on the stomach lining. Just four ounces of Formula 707 Gastro Essentials mixed in with the feed twice a day will maintain a healthy digestive tract and help keep horses in top condition.

“Hotshot’s Girl used to look and act like she just didn’t feel good,” Vickie said. “Since feeding Gastro Essentials, she maintains a healthy appetite, both at home and on the road, and is running better than ever. Thank you, John Ewing Company.”

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