NICK HARTOG: Hello, my name is Nick Hartog; I am President of Grand Meadows. Grand Meadows
manufactures and sells high quality horse supplements made with natural ingredients.
One of the topics I receive many questions about are equine joint supplements. People
frequently ask how do joint problems occur, what preventative steps can I take, how does
a joint supplement work, how long will it take for my horse to be healthy. I will try
to answer some of those questions in this video.
Unfortunately, many horses suffer from joint problems, young and old alike, and it causes
them great discomfort. Indications of a joint problem can be swelling, favoring one leg
over another, stiffness, to name a few.
What causes joint problems? Your horse can have a genetic predisposition, it can come
as a result of unintentionally overworking your horse, or as a result of injuries that
were not properly identified and healed, or it can come about as your horse ages. No matter
what the cause, a good joint supplement will help to reduce the risk of problems and help
repair or minimize existing joint issues.
So what happens physically when a horse’s joint is compromised. I think the most common
physical event is the break down in viscosity of the synovial fluid in the joint that causes
the cartilage tissue to degrade. Now there is no blood flow to cartilage, so all the
nutrients to keep the cartilage tissue healthy comes from the synovial fluid. If the synovial fluid
has lost its viscosity, it won’t be effective in maintaining healthy cartilage tissue. Now
this in turn increases the risk of pitting, which if left unchecked, can ultimately result
in bone on bone contact. If you can image a big warm blood landing jump after jump,
or a reining horse coming to a sliding stop repeatedly, you can see how important it is
to be proactive with your horse’s joints. Now supporting the repair of a damaged joint
obviously takes time for healing. This is why I get infuriated when I see companies
making claims for instant results for their products
So, please plan on it taking at least a couple of months for the real function of a joint
supplement to occur. You may see improvement prior to that, but it is important to understand
that the real function of a joint supplement does not occur in a few days.
If you need a joint supplement consider Grand Flex. Grand Flex has received a lot of positive
third party endorsement over the years. In fact, Horse Journal, which is a publication
that does not accept any advertising and editorializes its reviews, has repeatedly recognized Grand
Flex as a great joint supplement over the years. Comments like "Grand Flex has been
our top recommendation." "Grand Flex performed very well with strong ratings." "Old favorite
Grand Flex shows long term benefits." Most importantly, Horse Journal reported that the
protein content, color, and viscosity of joint fluid had improved with Grand Flex, 1 year
to 18 months after starting it, despite the fact that these thoroughbreds continued to
race and had existing joint problems.
Now this study was significant, because all the other research has strictly been gait
evaluation, which can be tricked by pain blocking agents. William Fox Pitt, currently ranked
number 1 in the world for Three Day Eventing, has been using Grand Flex and has this to
say: “My horses have been competing very well, and it is great to have the confidence
in Grand Meadows to provide a supplement that helps them deal with the rigors of eventing
so successfully.”
I like to mention this because any company can claim that they have the best product,
but very few companies have this consistent level of the third party endorsement. We do
have three other joint products, so I am confident that whatever the circumstances of your horse,
we will have a solution, and we welcome your calls and questions and will be more than
happy to help you determine which will be the most effective supplement to tackle your
horse’s specific problem.
A number of the world’s top riders are using our products, and believe me, they have a
lot of choices.