On The Road Again With An Old Horsewoman
Or
Adventures With The Thera-Tree
By
Marianne Taylor

More than two weeks ago, I packed my car to head to Capital Challenge Horse Show. I had a car full of clothes (for all weather types), Thera-Trees (made by Tad Coffin Performance Saddles,) a copper girth that discharges bad energy on horses with extra sensitivity to their all over body pain, and a ‘Freed Of Charge” (also made by TCPS) which discharges bad energy from all tack and riding equipment before it is put on the horse.

Three months ago, I would have never been able to make this trip but my health has improved so much in three months because of my use of the Thera-Tree that it was a breeze to make the three and a half hour trip.

I saw a lot of old friends in the time that I was at Capital Challenge plus leased all of the Thera-Trees that I had with me. It was great to see how much the Thera-Tree helped the horses and ponies that were now using it during the show. One of the horses was 17 years old, sore all over, and had stopped-out with his junior rider the last time they showed. With the use of the Thera-Tree, that horse won a class and ended up Reserve Champion in his Junior division. Several of the trainers took my advice and took it back to the hotel at night for themselves.

After 4+ days in Maryland, I packed up my car and headed home. I had a big new trip coming up. I stopped at Tad’s on the way home. He packed my car full of Thera-Trees, a copper girth, and a ‘Freed Of Charge’ and then I headed home to Charlottesville to do laundry, love on my dog and cat, visit with my roommate, Nancy Burnett, and then head out the next morning to Lexington, Kentucky for a week of my biggest adventures.

Keep in mind that at Devon on Memorial Day, I could barely get out of the bed and came home 3 days early. I’ve come a long way, baby! My improved health can be attributed to my use of the Thera-Tree.

I arrived in Lexington late on a Thursday afternoon. The next day the Keeneland Fall Race Meet started. I called Team Valor International's Barry Irwin on Friday to see how First Premio was improving since he started wearing a Thera-Tree two weeks earlier. The report was great.

Team Valor not only is the most successful stable of partnership-owned racehorses in the world, it is one of the most accomplished racing stables among all types of owners. Barry Irwin named Team Valor “after that aspect of equine character that he admired most in a racehorse”. Barry invited me to go to Saturday’s Keeneland races to watch First Premio run in the one-million-dollar feature race. WOW! I was treated like royalty. I parked in the Stakes Owners’ lot (literally 50 feet from the Keeneland clubhouse entrance) and lunched in the Stakes Owners’ dining room with Team Valor’s group. The food and company were out of this world! When one of the syndicate-owners commented, during lunch, on First Premio’s use of the Thera-Tree, I leased him one for his daughter’s American Saddlehorse mare – luckily, I just so happened to have one in my car. Thanks to the Thera-Tree, I was living the high-life.

First Premio had the reputation for being very fractious in the paddock and recently hadn’t been running up to his potential. It was found that he had Kissing Spine. When Tad spoke to Barry Irwin (after Tad getting Team Valor’s High Hours from The Winter Farm) and learned of First Premio’s condition, Tad suggested a Thera-Tree for the colt. IT WORKED! Not only did First Premio act like a saint in the paddock he then, after getting boxed-in at the head of the stretch, blasted down the final stretch like a bullet and ended up in a photo-finish for third (just a ½ length from the winner) in the million dollar race.

Tench, owned by Duncan Lloyd, Caroline Cooper and others, at Keeneland

The next four days in Lexington seem like a dream. I went to the most well-known farms and to various big trainers on the backside of Keeneland. I had my hands on beautiful Thoroughbreds and saw the improvement in each from the Thera-Tree. I didn’t think it could get any better. That was until…GODOLPHIN!

Godolphin is the global thoroughbred breeding operation and horseracing team founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Team Godolphin spans across four continents, from its home in Dubai to Europe, Australia, Japan, and America.

Johnny Burke at Godolphin rehab barn. Johnny is Godolphin’s head trainer at the rehab barn in Lexington.

I met with Johnny Burke at Godolphin’s Rehab Center on Wednesday morning. Johnny has been the head rehab trainer for Godolphin for more than 12 years. He’s a charming Irishman that is a superb horseman. Sheik Mohammed only buys and breeds the most beautiful and well-bred horses in the world so I saw stall after stall of the finest Thoroughbreds I have ever seen. Johnny and I had a really nice visit and I plan to see him again when I return in two weeks. The Thera-Tree will be a big asset to Godolphin’s program. Who knows but maybe they’ll put one with each of the Godolphin trainers.

My next and last stop before I came home was at KESMARC Kentucky. (Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center). “KESMARC Kentucky is the finest and most complete equine therapy and rehabilitation center in the world.” I met with the owner, Kirsten Joy Johnson, who showed me her fabulous facility which includes Hyperbaric Chambers, a massive indoor swimming pool, an indoor walker, and an indoor cold-water bath pool. I put the Thera-Tree on a Standardbred that was rehabbing. After several minutes, Ms. Johnson decided to keep the Thera-Tree. Among all of the world’s best treatments that KESMARC has, there is now a Thera-Tree in use.

On Thursday, I packed my car and headed back to Virginia. A long but successful trip to the Bluegrass in the books.

In two weeks, the Thera-Tree and I head to Kentucky, again. This time it will be for the National Horse Show and to visit some more trainers and farms. The week after that, I head to Raleigh for the Jump for the Children.

Plans are in the works for the Thera-Tree and me to make trips to Aiken, Camden, Ocala, Wellington, and the Florida tracks this Winter. Oh boy!

I’m having so much fun and best of all, the Thera-Tree is helping every horse and pony that it is used and it even helps old horsewomen like me.

On the road, again!