Peek in Our Paks: Katrina C. & Baylee
Ever wish you could take a sneak peek inside our horses’ SmartPaks? Now you can! Check out the supplements we love, for the horses we adore.
This Month’s Pick
Staff Member: Katrina C.
Department: SmartBarn Services Team
Horse: Baylee, 16 yo Quarter Horse mare
Discipline: Western All-Around
Growing up I tried a few different disciplines before I found my love for Quarter Horses. I fell in love with their versatility and great minds. Fast forward 20 years and I found myself searching for the perfect horse for my daughter who was 5 years old at the time. My daughter had her own pony but I made the mistake of buying a green pony, thinking I would have the time to finish her – I didn’t. We leased out the pony and I knew I needed the quiet minded baby-sitter type horse, also often referred to as a “Small-Fry horse”.
My definition of a small-fry horse is horse that knows that its job is to take great care of their tiny rider while their rider learns the ins and outs of riding. Small fry horses that are patient and suitable for the show ring are hard to find. I found that many of them were “been there, done that” horses but finding the right one was a challenge. However, when I found her I knew. I saw videos of her and pictures, looked up her show record, and googled her show name, and I knew right away she was the one. After a pre-purchase exam we drove to New York and my daughter rode her for the first time, and within a couple of hours she was on a trailer headed home with us.
SmartGI Ultra Pellets
Baylee is a 16-year-old Quarter Horse who has definitely been there and done that. I was lucky enough to talk with not only her previous owner that I purchased her from, but also another former owner. Through my conversations I learned that she was prone to ulcers so I knew I wanted a supplement to help prevent gastric upset so I treated her for Ulcers and started her on SmartGI Ultra Pellets. I picked this formula because it is backed by research and after spending money to treat her ulcers, I wanted to make sure that I did everything I could to try and prevent the return of that stomach discomfort. I also picked SmartGI Ultra because I wanted to enroll her in ColiCare!
Smart & Simple Turmeric Pellets
As an older horse who has had a lot of wear and tear on her joints, I chose Smart & Simple Turmeric Pellets because my sister had used them for her horse and was happy with the results. I tried them for a month and saw a visible improvement so I have been hesitant to change anything – she looks great!
CocoSoya Ultra SP
I also recently added the CocoSoya Ultra SP for Baylee because she has patches of dry skin so I wanted to feed her a skin and coat supplement but she is really very picky about what she eats. I had heard that the Cocosoya Ultra SP is very palatable for horses and so far, so good – she loves it!
Why Katrina uses SmartPaks:
I feed SmartPaks because there are about 65 horses at the barn where I keep Baylee and I can’t imagine them having to feed out of buckets for each horse! Especially where Baylee gets different supplements than any other horse, she would have to have 3 buckets of supplements! SmartPaks enable me to customize her SmartPak while keeping it simple for the barn manager. I also get peace of mind knowing that Baylee’s SmartPak is shipped directly to the barn every month since I can’t always make it to the barn.