Olympian eventer Megan Jones is a huge fan of KER EquiShure. It’s a tried and tested staple in her equine health tool box.
Megan Jones is one of Australia’s top event riders. Among her many successes is a 3* win at the 2005 Melbourne International Three Day Event on Kirby Park Irish Jester; followed by a 4* win at the 2005 Adelaide Horse Trials; team bronze at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen; team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics; and selection for the London Olympic Games, but she was unfortunately unable to compete due to an injury to her horse.
She also held the world No.3 spot in the FEI’s event rider rankings (an outstanding achievement for an Australian-based rider) and now calls Hallmark Farm home, where they produce high performance horses for competition and sale.
Megan is a huge fan of EquiShure, a KER product that promotes normal digestive function by aiding in the maintenance of an optimal hindgut environment. It has been formulated for horses suspected of suffering from, or who are at risk of developing hindgut acidosis, which many horses are prone to. The demands placed on sport horses and breeding animals necessitates significant quantities of energy-rich feed. Overconsumption of either high starch concentrates or pasture rich in fructans (sugars) is thought to cause disturbances in the normal hindgut environment, leading to hindgut acidosis. This causes a change in the hindgut’s bacterial population, which in turn leads to digestive disturbances and reduced digestive efficiency.
EH: Megan, how long have you been using EquiShure?
MJ: Years! A very long time. All of my horses are on it all of the time.
EH: What prompted you to first start using it?
MJ: Well, that’s quite an amazing story. I had a young horse I was competing on and he was very talented. When we moved to Kirby Park, we started to stable him because it was wet and cold. And he went from being this beautiful horse to an unrideable monster. He would go so ballistic that you couldn’t even get off him. He was rearing and bucking – he was crazy. He was actually a dangerous horse.
So I gave him a break, turned him back out but nothing changed. I finally started him on a product designed to treat and prevent gastric ulcers. He was really good on 6mls – I could ride him out in the paddock – but when I got him down to 4mls he reverted to crazy again, absolutely bonkers!
We then went through the process of trying to find out what was going so wrong. We had him scoped for ulcers and although there was some scaring in there, there were no fresh ulcers. So we thought the problem might be in the hindgut. We turned him out and started him on round bale, KER Equi-Jewel, and KER EquiShure as a buffer for his hind gut and he was a completely different horse. He literally turned around within days to being the perfect pony again.
By then the time had come to sell him and a young rider came from Victoria to look at him. I told her not to stable him and what to feed him, including EquiShure. I made her ride him so much that day! I wanted to get him tired, a little bit angry even; I wanted to make sure that none of that behaviour would come back out. Anyway, she bought him and went on to do dressage, show jumping and Pony Club. They competed at Boneo and although he’s been sold on to someone else now, he’s still a beautiful horse.
EH: So he’s still on EquiShure?
MG: Yep, I told her not to change his diet in any way and he’s fine. Now all of my team are on it and what I love about EquiShure is that it’s a time-released buffer that targets the hindgut and helps to neutralise acid. The way it works is that the horse’s feed travels from the stomach into the small intestine and then into the hindgut. If starch hasn’t been properly digested in the small intestine, it can cause acidosis and other problems.
As EquiShure travels through their digestive system, it stays intact until it reaches the hindgut where it delivers sodium bicarbonate to neutralise the acid and settle down the hindgut. And that helps prevent the pain of acidosis. It makes horses so much happier.
Guhr (aka Barbie) and RLE Barina (aka the Bush Weasel), two of my great 4* horses, have been helped tremendously by EquiShure and also Sucralox*. For Barina particularly, this has been a complete game changer for her front gut. Because of the ulcer problems we’ve had with our horses we have them scoped regularly. Barina had a scope a couple of weeks ago, and she had the most beautifully healthy, clean stomach that we’ve seen so far with her.
* Note: The primary ingredient in KER Sucralox is sucralfate, a shielding agent that binds to ulcerated areas and safeguards the lining of the stomach from the effects of gastric acid. Available only from your vet.
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