Monday Morning Feed from SmartPak

HN’s new advertising manager Molly Gasiewicz makes a seriously solid case for taking advantage of SmartPak’s Colicare Program.

From Molly:

If any of you have experienced a bad colic, or even colic in general, with a horse – you know that gut wrenching feeling when your horse hits the ground to roll incessantly.

I remember my traumatic experience like it was yesterday. I was 15 years old and I had just shipped my horse, Paddy Go Lucky, from California to Jackson Hole, WY (back when there was still an event there right below the picturesque Teton Mountains). This was my first long trip with a horse and I was very ignorant to any sort of anything really when it came to preparation and maintenance during travel.

On the day of dressage my OTTB seemed eXTRAordinarily calm – especially for such a change of scenery. Turns out he had a massive case of the colic. It took my mom running to the mobile tack store and bargaining with the clerk that she won’t get him in trouble for selling butte, and every possible dose of Banamine once the vet got there to my poor Paddy with the addition of Pepto Bismol (yes we tried everything…) to decide it wasn’t going to pass on its own.

Seeing as I’d hitched a ride with another barn up to JH we quickly found a local hauler because my horse had to be taken to Idaho for the surgery. It was the longest trip I’ve ever taken with a horse but luckily the trailer ride wiggled and bumped everything loose and Paddy managed to escape the table. However, I’ll never forget how important it is to maintain my horse’s digestive health, especially when traveling.

So, if you’re anything like me who hits panic mode when I see a horse drop to the ground, and god forbid, sleeping while lying down… SmartPak has introduced a program that actually might allow you some sleep. They’ve introduced ColiCare, a program that will back the use of their SmartDigest® Ultra with $7,500 of colic surgery reimbursement – because there are things we humans can do to prevent colic.

SmartDigest® Ultra offers everything your horse needs for a healthy hindgut. This innovative formula contains specialized ingredients backed by clinical research. But you don’t have to take their word for it.

SmartPak is so confident that SmartDigest® Ultra will keep your horse’s digestive system healthy, that they’ve backed it with this reimbursement program. All right, all right… what’s the catch SP?

To be eligible, your horse must reside in the United States, be between five months and twenty-five years old, be under the direct care of a licensed veterinarian, not had previous colic surgery, experienced colic in the last twelve months, or have a history of chronic colic.

The program requirements are: year-round, daily administration of SmartDigest® Ultra (maintenance dose of 30g) in SmartPaks, an annual physical and dental exam from your veterinarian, annual vaccinations from your vet, annual participation in veterinarian-directed deworming program that includes at least one fecal test and two annual deworming administrations.

All-in-all, pretty simple. Just add SmartDigest® Ultra to your existing SmartPaks or sign up for SmartPaks, then do what the average horse person usually does annually and you can be rest assured in the event of colic surgery SmartPak’s got you covered. Just enroll in the ColiCare Surgery Reimbursement Program and let them do the rest.

The slogan “like a good neighbor, SmartPak is there” comes to mind with this program – and hopefully by using SmartDigest® Ultra you won’t have to close our eyes and chant this phrase to be relieved of a colic-surgery situation.