Meet Cyndi R. and Knight

I learned to ride on a neighbor’s Shetland pony named Stormy a long time ago. After Stormy, I moved up to a Welsh/Connemara cross named Angie. At 10 years old, I did lots of trail riding and started showing in local shows and the Southern Anne Arundel County Junior Riding Club – an organization that’s over fifty years old and is one of the oldest continuous show series in the state of Maryland! After I outgrew Angie, my parents bought me my own horse, an Appaloosa mare named Cheetah, who I rode all through middle and high school. We had access to about 1000 acres of parkland, and we would go out for the whole day to hang out and trail ride. She was my therapist during those tough teenage years, and it was so very hard when I lost her.

After about a 10-year break, I decided I was really missing something in my life, and that something was horses. I took a lesson at a hack stable, and that’s where it all began again. At this barn I met Knight, a beautiful black Thoroughbred. He quickly became my favorite and for a couple of years, I took out trail rides with him as my guide horse. When the facility was closed and everything was being sold, I bought Knight. I have owned him for about 13 years now and I’m so glad I made the decision to purchase him so long ago.

After I purchased Knight, I moved him to another barn. They had too many horses for them to deal with individual buckets of supplements, and I decided SmartPaks had to be easier than filling baggies all the time. That was in 2005, and I haven’t stopped using them since! Knight’s supplements are automatically delivered directly to the barn (for free!) so I never have to worry about running out. Plus, they’re labeled with his name and the contents.

Knight’s SmartPaks include SmartHoof Pellets and SmartGut Pellets. Before I started Knight on SmartHoof Pellets, his feet were a mess. They were soft and spongy, and shoes didn’t stay on. Since he’s been on the supplement, I’ve been happy with the quality of his hoof growth and he now holds shoes well. Whenever people ask me how Knight’s feet look so good, I tell them about SmartHoof Pellets.

I added SmartGut Pellets to his SmartPaks after we moved to our current barn. The barn is busy and has a lot of children and activity during the day, which is way different than what he was used to. I could tell that he was getting stressed and grumpy, so I decided to give SmartGut Pellets a try to help his stomach cope with the stress. He’s in the first stall of the barn, and now he loves all the attention that he gets and is his happy self again!

Knight is now over thirty years old, but he’s still going strong and enjoying retirement. I miss not being able to go on rides with him, but I’m very lucky to still have him in my life, and for all the memories we’ve made together.