November 12, 2025 • 48 mins
What happens when Cara's dancer’s instincts meet a sensitive horse on a training day that finally clicks? We start with a small miracle—hips and shoulders aligning, cues clearing up, and a horse who stops guessing and starts trusting—and follow that thread straight into the messier arena of aging, body image, and the weight we carry. The dance floor, the round pen, and the kitchen table all ask for the same thing: clarity.
We get candid about menopause, insulin resistance, and why “eat less, move more” can fail a body that’s fighting its own chemistry. Sandy took part in the Semaglutide human study and learned the real upsides and risks—significant weight loss, a quieter appetite, and the very real threat of dehydration when she didn't respect the basics. Cara navigated hypoglycemia and thyroid swings, discovering how hunger can drown out good intentions. Tools like Ozempic and tirzepatide can help, but they’re not magic; hydration and realistic movement still matter. We also question the food system that stacks the deck against health while asking us to try harder anyway.
The heart of the episode discusses the nightmare of a young mustang mare who foundered after getting into sweet feed. We walk through months of care, fleeting hope, and a final decision rooted in compassion. It’s a hard story, but it sharpens the bigger lesson: quality of life is the metric that counts—for our horses and for us. From there, we let go of “the number” and choose capacity instead: ride the hills, enjoy the clothes that fit, keep the strength you need to live the life you love, and measure success by what your body and your horse can do together.
If you’re navigating weight loss medications, metabolic puzzles, or a tough call with a beloved horse, this ride is for you. Tap follow us on Saddle Talk with Sandy and Cara, share this episode with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more riders find the show. What capacity are you building for the life you want?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Flip flip goes, the trail sun is rising.
Two thousand seven meets the bigevent's sky.
Laughing and chatting as adesert rolls on by.
It's Saddle Talk.
Come along for the ride.
SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
Welcome, listeners, to Saddle Talk with Sandy and
Kara.
Whether you're here to laughwith us, learn, or just ride
along, you're in for a reallygood time.
So go grab your helmet or yourpooper scooper and settle in
with us as we discuss life,horses, of course, and all the
unexpected turns along thetrail.
And hey, whether you're aseasoned cowgirl or you're still
learning, remember we're sharingour own stories and opinions
(00:44):
based on decades of personalexperience.
Always ride safe and check witha professional before trying
anything new.
Now let's go ride.
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
Hi, Kara.
Today has been quite the day.
Oh, yeah, it has.
Yeah.
So you had a really good lessonwith Armani.
You were gonna give us an updateon how he's doing.
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
Swarmani is moving up the levels of Perelli very
quickly.
Nice.
My trainer was recalling back towhen we started, and she can't
believe how fast he's comealong.
And it's really cool to be ableto talk to someone about
(01:32):
Perelli, but her and I can havethese very high-level
discussions about horsepsychology.
SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
Well, I think because intuitively you are a
trainer, so you're already at adifferent level than, say, a
novice that hires a trainer.
SPEAKER_02 (01:45):
Yes.
And I've been at a differentlevel for a long time.
I enjoy conversations with herbecause I feel like I'm
splitting hairs in a reallypositive way.
I can have these high-levelconversations and I feel like
we're exploring and comparingnotes, and it's really fun to do
it with my own horse in realtime.
(02:07):
Right.
Just notices the nuances that Inotice and a look or a movement
or a hesitation.
I've always noticed those littlethings in a horse and recognized
it as body language.
Right.
And I think what her and Italked about today, which was
really interesting, and we haveto stop ourselves during the
(02:29):
lesson.
We literally have to stop andtalk and make sure we get back
to training.
SPEAKER_03 (02:34):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
Because we get sucked in.
Yeah.
But today I was telling herhumans aren't that different.
And that the four personalitiesof the Pirelli world are a lot
like people.
Right.
And so she started talking abouther mom and how her mom was a
right-brained introvert.
But I thought she was talkingabout a horse.
(02:55):
So I had to pause her, say, isthis a horse or a human?
Right.
And then it was just really neatbecause I realized also after
this conversation that mybackground in dance has been the
reason why I've been sosuccessful with horses.
Really?
Yes.
How's that?
There's a relaxed zone that youget into in dance where
(03:20):
everything you do, everymovement means something.
Oh my it sounds so stupid.
I'm gonna cry.
Ugh, so menopausal right now.
Yeah, so anyone who's oh I'mliterally gonna cry.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Anyone who is Well, don't cry, because I'm on the
verge of crying anyway, which isan entirely different reason.
Anyway, I'm sorry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (03:44):
I think as an ex-dancer, there's this, there's
this feeling that you get aphysicality that you cannot
describe to another human.
The only people who recognizethat feeling are other dancers.
And dancers in a roomautomatically have this crazy
bond.
And it's a lot like horsepeople.
(04:07):
If you meet a random ass horseperson and you're chilling and
you're talking, you canrecognize that horse person
right away, have an amazingconversation and never talk
about the shit that's going onin the world or politics.
Right.
And I don't care what yourpolitics are because we're horse
people talking about horses.
And dancers are just as crazy aswe are and have the same exact
(04:28):
nuances.
And I think that my upbringingin dance prepared me for a world
of observation of horses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:40):
Yeah.
That's a really neat connection.
Thanks.
unknown (04:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
The littlest things mean the biggest in dance.
A turn of a head means a changeof emotion in the story that's
playing out on stage.
The same thing happens when I'mwatching Armani, and today we
had the saddle on and he wasgetting lunged, but it's not
called lunging because it'sleading.
And I had to recognize in myselfwhat I was doing wrong.
(05:08):
I had him out on the lunge.
This is almost at the end of ourlesson.
So we've had this full, richlesson, and then I realized that
my body was saying conflictingthings.
Right.
My upper body was telling him tomove forward, and my hips were
rotated the wrong direction, andI was pushing him with my hips.
Wow.
(05:28):
And asking him to go forwardwith my upper body, and it
clicked when I shifted my hipsand my shoulders in the same
direction.
SPEAKER_01 (05:39):
So when your body was in alignment, he understood
what you were asking him to do.
Yep.
And when they were not inalignment, what the fuck?
He was like, I don't know whatyou're asking.
SPEAKER_02 (05:49):
And he was kind of like, fuck you, is this right?
I don't know.
Fuck you.
I think you're yelling at me.
Right.
Yeah.
And I wasn't yelling.
SPEAKER_01 (05:55):
No, no.
I mean, I was.
I was yelling.
But but still, though, and Ididn't mean to.
And and in relation to yourdance metaphor or analogy, when
you're a dancer, your body hasto be in alignment.
You can't have yourself going inone direction and your feet are
pointing in the other direction.
And it's gonna throw you offbalance.
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
Yeah, and it means something else to the audience.
Like you have to be clear aboutyour communication on stage.
And here I was, and he's myaudience.
And I was being very unclear,and it clicked in that moment
how my clarity was not workingout for either of us.
SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
Well, that is amazing.
That is really great.
SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
I miss dance.
I will always miss dance.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:37):
I think that's one of the um crack.
SPEAKER_01 (06:40):
I think that's one of the hardest things about
getting older.
Oh my gosh.
This leads into something.
Uh Michael and I went to one ofour local casinos, and there was
this woman.
She had to be a hundred.
Walking up on her walker.
Okay.
People are getting out of herway.
She walks straight up to thatdance floor.
(07:00):
She gets herself centered, andshe starts to boogie.
Oh, it's gonna be me.
With her little arms.
Oh my god.
And her little frail body.
She didn't give a fuck.
And did not care.
It was amazing to watch.
Good.
So I'm looking at this woman andshe's just up there dancing her
little heart out.
She had to be 95.
Maybe she was younger.
Just lived a long life.
(07:20):
Yeah.
She was having the best side.
And she had a beer.
Good for her.
She had a beer.
I'm like, I want to be you whenI'm your age, whatever your age
is.
I think you should get back outthere and dance.
Why aren't you dancing?
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Oh, it's not the same.
As time goes by, your body justmakes these changes and you
can't carve out three hours aday to dance.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
No, and then there's menopause.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
And then there's menopause.
And I I that's not to say that Icouldn't get back into that
dancing shape, but I think everydancer knows when you hit a
point.
And probably every woman knowsyou hit a point and you look
back and you think, will I everdo that activity?
The answer is no.
That's how I feel about skiing.
(08:03):
That's how I feel about fuckingMount, whatever.
What's the big one?
I don't know.
Mount Everest?
Yes.
Never.
I will never even climb to basecamp of Mount Everest.
I climbed Mount the big one inWhitney.
Whitney.
That's it.
I climbed Mount Whitney and Ithought that's good enough.
It's kind of like when I ran amarathon, I only did a half.
(08:25):
And I thought that's goodenough.
SPEAKER_01 (08:27):
I walked a marathon.
A whole, I think.
Or a half.
SPEAKER_02 (08:30):
A half?
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Not a whole one.
I don't think I did a whole.
SPEAKER_02 (08:33):
No, I did a half and it was flat by the ocean and it
was beautiful, but I'll neverneed to ever do a full 26 miles.
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
But but that's how I feel about skiing.
I skied when I moved toCalifornia.
It's so funny, I grew up inVirginia, and I didn't learn to
ski until I moved to California.
And I really enjoyed it.
And I don't want to ski anymore.
Yep.
I just don't.
I just want to ride horses.
That's all I'm doing.
Yeah, I know, me too.
Yeah, I just want to ride.
SPEAKER_02 (09:00):
What is left that I still need to do with my life?
Riding.
This is the physical activitythat I want to put on the
pedestal and move towards.
SPEAKER_01 (09:10):
And this leads us into our topic for today, which
is Ozempic.
In whatever form.
SPEAKER_02 (09:16):
Because there's so many different types.
Why don't you explain that?
Because I don't know ifeveryone's aware.
SPEAKER_01 (09:21):
Well, I say Ozempic, that's the brand.
Semaglutide is the generic nameof the drug.
I always called it semaglutide.
Doctors don't really care.
About seven years ago now.
I was overweight.
I'm five feet tall.
I was about 170, which isconsidered obese.
(09:44):
So I met this woman on the trainwhen I would go into downtown
LA.
I worked at SoCal Gas.
And she worked at this uh clinicthat catered to people with uh
diabetes.
They did testing.
And I told her, I said, Well, ifyou guys ever do a test or a
(10:06):
trial where the person doesn'thave to have a diabetes, but
they're overweight, let me know.
And about a year later, shesaid, Sandy, guess what?
So I was very excited and I wentto her clinic and I had to
qualify.
It's really funny because thisis the first time I went home
and I found out that I qualifiedand I went to my husband and I'm
(10:29):
like, guess what?
I qualified for the study.
He said, Oh, what were thequalifications?
Well, I have to be obese and notdiabetic.
And I qualified, and he didn'tknow how to be happy for me.
Because if he acknowledged thehappiness, then he's
acknowledging I'm obese, right?
And most women, what you think II wasn't gonna do that to him.
(10:50):
I gave him the out.
I said, It's okay.
It's okay right now.
It is.
I said, right now it's okay foryou to acknowledge that I'm
obese.
unknown (11:00):
I get it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:01):
So it was a really great study.
It was a year and a half.
I got paid.
I got$100 every time I went in.
And in the first, I'd say fouror five months, I went in every
week.
So I was making an extra$500.
SPEAKER_02 (11:14):
Of course.
SPEAKER_01 (11:14):
But in SoCal, that just paid my electric bill.
Literally.
So there you go.
So it was a year and a halfstudy.
I went from 170 pounds to 117.
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
And in a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
In a year and a half.
I looked awful.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
Yeah, you looked hungry.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
I looked hungry.
I had the turkey neck.
Which I have to laugh because Iremember when you and I went to
on a ride, and you're so honestand so like to the point where I
just want to strangle you.
But I said to you, I remember wewere standing at the trailer.
I'll never forget.
We were standing at the trailer,we're getting our horses out,
(11:54):
and I was talking about theweight that I had lost.
And I said, Yeah, but now I havethis like neck.
And you s and you looked at meand you went, Yeah, but it's
okay.
I was like, but you'reacknowledging my neck.
I couldn't just take thecompliment, right?
I was like, you're acknowledgingmy turkey neck.
They call it the azempic neck.
Yeah.
But it's not because of azempic, it's because it is, but
(12:15):
you were gonna get it anyway.
That's what my mom told me.
It's true.
She said, Sandy, you were gonnaget that anyway.
So welcome.
SPEAKER_03 (12:23):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (12:23):
Right.
But it's because you lose theweight so fast.
Yeah.
And your skin doesn't reallyhave a chance to get back into
the tightness.
Plus, you're older and you don'thave a collagen that you had
when you were in your 20s losingweight.
SPEAKER_02 (12:38):
So if you've been overweight for 30 years, it's
gonna be pretty shocking.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Right.
Even if it's just a littleoverweight.
I'm not even talking like Ididn't need to have skin removal
kind of weight.
And there are people that do.
So that's an entirely differentsubject.
I always was worried, I amalways worried, not was.
I'm always worried about myweight when it comes to my
horses.
Because I worry, I worry aboutbeing too heavy for them.
(13:03):
Are they carrying me?
How's it going to be different?
And when I was a teenager,between the ages of about 16 to
21, I was addicted to cocaine.
So I was very skinny and Ididn't have to worry.
I ate Doritos for lunch, and itwas a beautiful thing.
And then when I got smart andgot off the drugs, and I
(13:26):
consider myself a recoveringcocaine addict.
I, you know, always an addict.
Truth.
When I, you know, got clean andI was flying right, all of a
sudden a bag of Doritos didn'tmean the same thing, and I
couldn't eat it.
And I started gaining weight,and I would do everything I
could to lose weight.
I did laxatives, I did stupiddiets, I ate hot dogs all the
(13:49):
time.
I did my best to work out.
And then as you get older, thesethings they don't work the same.
And when you go throughmenopause, your chemistry is
changing, your body's changing,you can't lose that weight.
And so you need, I did thevitamin B shots.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
I completely remember us trail riding when we
were sort of at our peak trailriding months.
I remember you going on this onediet where you were adding drops
of stuff to your food.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Yes.
It was type of it wasn'techinace.
I don't know why that comes intomy mind, but thermogenic.
It was a thermogenic and theywere drops, and you would add it
to your food.
SPEAKER_02 (14:30):
I remember you trying everything.
SPEAKER_01 (14:33):
Everything.
SPEAKER_02 (14:34):
And then I remember you getting on the trial and you
were super excited.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
And I was happy for you.
Yeah, of course.
You know, because I want you tofeel good.
SPEAKER_01 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah.
And you're a friend and you'resupporting me.
And yes, there are people outthere that are in menopause and
can do.
I have a sister who hasstruggled with her weight.
Right now, she's probably at thebest weight she's been, and
she's nine years older than me.
And she has been eating healthy,watching what she's eating, and
her and her husband are both onthe same page, and they're
(15:01):
they're buying groceries, andthat's wonderful for her.
And I'm happy for her, but Idon't have that.
My husband could drop a fewpounds, but he's pretty good.
He doesn't have an issue withweight.
He doesn't, and I love himdearly.
He will buy me stuff.
(15:22):
And his feeling is just eat alittle bit.
You don't have to eat a wholething, but that's not me.
I feel that I have an addictivepersonality.
I don't think I I'm gonna say Ihave a cocaine addiction, right?
Because that was the addiction Ichose.
Right.
So yeah, no cocaine for me.
I don't think that I'm a cocaineaddict.
(15:45):
I think I'm an addict and Ichose cocaine.
I could have chosen alcohol.
I'm not an alcoholic.
And I know the first step isdon't deny it, right?
But I'm not.
Like it doesn't rule my life, itdoesn't control my feelings, I
don't live my life aroundforward to it.
No, no, no.
I just feel that I have anaddictive personality, so it
(16:06):
doesn't matter if it's sugar.
For me, I feel like I'm addictedto sugar.
SPEAKER_02 (16:10):
And that's it.
Truly.
Exactly.
I had to come off of sugar, andI am not joking you when I say
that I was jonesing.
I was literally shaking.
Yeah.
Because I was diabeting.
Oh, it was awful.
SPEAKER_03 (16:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
Oh, I got sick.
I was diagnosed pre-diabeticyears ago, and I thought I could
sort of control my metabolismand my body weight by
exercising.
And I thought that I didn't haveto do anything else.
And I thought, oh, I can handlethis, I can exercise away,
whatever the problem is.
And I kept all of these logs,and so I was diagnosed
(16:44):
pre-diabetic.
And then I tried to control it.
And within a few months, I wasliterally weighing more when I'd
been exercising and I couldn'tfigure it out.
Right.
And I had these crazy sugarcrashes, and I had this amazing
doctor, and I'll never haveanother doctor with that type of
relationship again because theyjust don't have time to spend
(17:07):
with me the way this doctor did.
And we figured out that I washeaded even more towards
pre-diabetic.
I was, what's the word?
Hypoglycemic, bad hypoglycemia,and I had a thyroid problem.
Right.
And she thinks that wheneverthey tested me, my thyroid just
happened to be high.
And so she did all this intensetesting.
And we thought that I was gonnaget better once she gave me the
(17:30):
thyroid medicine.
She said to me, Oh, you're gonnadrop 10 pounds pretty easy.
And no, I went back and I wastwo and a half pounds heavier,
and I kept all of the logs ofevery food I ate, of all the
exercise I was doing.
And then she said to me, Kara, Ithink you're in what horses go
through, which is insulinresistance.
(17:51):
Right.
And so she said, I think you'reinsulin resistant right now.
We're gonna test you.
And she said to me, Do you feellike you need to eat your fist?
Like you are so hungry all thetime.
And I said, You don'tunderstand.
I am starving.
And when I go to eat, I'm sohungry that I I just want to eat
something.
And and it doesn't matter ifit's healthy or not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:12):
And usually you choose the wrong thing.
Well, uh well, I'm sorry, notyou, but me when I do it, yeah,
I will choose the wrong thingbecause I'm so hungry, I don't
have time to like cooksomething.
SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
You it's true.
SPEAKER_01 (18:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
And that's a part of it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:26):
And because my husband doesn't have an issue,
he's got crap in the you know,in the cupboard.
SPEAKER_02 (18:31):
Pre-made food tastes amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (18:33):
Yeah.
The problem with the studythough, they tried to give us a
nutritionist to talk to.
It didn't really do anything.
He didn't really tell meanything.
I didn't already know what Ishould be doing, and it just it
was just silly.
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
And I feel like that's always the story we get
told as women.
You need to control your diet,you need to increase your
exercise.
And I think to myself, I have abest friend that's a
professional athlete, and shestruggles with her weight.
And she's a professionalathlete.
Who how am I a normal human witha full-time job?
American society is not based onyour physical health.
(19:13):
Everything is convenient,everything takes time.
How am I possibly gonna controlthis human body if she can't?
Oh, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01 (19:21):
Well, and then at the end of the store, they just
said, okay, bye.
And they just they just droppedme off.
And so here you were in 117.
Yeah.
And then you went to nothing.
Nothing.
And then I started gaining theweight back.
And I have to say, this is notan episode to dog Ozempic.
It's not.
I love somaglotite orstomaglutide or have it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:43):
I love what it's done for you and your friends.
SPEAKER_01 (19:45):
So I have now gotten back, but there are problems
with it.
There are serious things youhave to pay attention to, and
the biggest thing isdehydration.
You have to drink whatever thingyou think you're drinking in
water, double it.
Because at one point I wasn'ttaking it seriously, and I
remember getting up out of bed,passing out, and running into
(20:06):
the wall.
Or should I say, I blacked out.
I didn't actually pass out, Iblacked out.
I couldn't see where I wasgoing, and I ran into the wall.
And I went to the doctor, theycouldn't even get a needle in my
vein.
SPEAKER_02 (20:19):
Because you're so dehydrated.
SPEAKER_01 (20:20):
Because I was so dehydrated.
So that really woke me up towater.
But now I am, you know, I movedup here because all of that, of
course, I stopped the studyright at COVID when everyone's
at home sitting on their ass.
And I just gained it all back.
Even without just because youhave this insatiable hunger when
(20:42):
you come off of this product.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Like you can't get enough.
Oh.
You're hungry.
Yeah.
So there you go.
Uh.
And now here I am.
I so my waist started going backup again.
I knew I needed help.
I found a doctor, thanks to you,who is amazing.
He's a really nice doctor.
(21:03):
He's so sweet.
And he understood my struggle.
He understood that I'm inmenopause.
He understood that my chemistryis different.
And he's got me on a compoundformula of smagletide.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
And compounding just means lotion?
SPEAKER_01 (21:17):
Well, no, no, no.
What they do is a compoundingpharmacy.
So um, I know I say um all thetime, but this is appropriate um
because I'm trying to remember.
Nordono Nordisk is themanufacturer of Ozempic.
Okay.
They're the ones that came upwith semaglatide.
What they have the patent onthat.
(21:41):
I'm not really quite sure howall this works, but the compound
that I'm using, please Googlewhat I'm about to say because
I'm sure I'm getting part ofthis wrong.
But they're getting thebyproduct of the semaglatide
salt or something, and then theymake a an injectable from this
(22:03):
byproduct, which I don't knowhow that even works.
Like, how do they even get thatfrom novisk?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
And then they make a solutionout of it.
Sometimes they add vitamin B,sometimes they add other stuff.
Reminds me of cocaine when theywould uh Baytelux in it and all
(22:25):
of a sudden now they cut it.
Cut it, they cut it.
Or cutting it.
So they do, but that's what theydo.
They cut it.
They're cutting it and they'rebringing it together.
And I just did my injection thismorning.
I do it once a week.
It's an injection, it's no bigdeal.
And it's helping.
It really is helping.
I was gonna say, how's it going?
I'm not hungry because that'swhat it does.
It turns off that noise in yourbrain.
And it doesn't work foreverybody.
(22:46):
I have another friend that wasdoing it with me.
Her reaction to it was a lotdifferent.
She moved over to the Monjaro's,I think it's trazepotite, all
these things.
It's so crazy.
Anyway, that product works bestfor her, and she has done
amazing on it.
She's like beyond her goalweight into clothes she was
(23:08):
wearing in high school.
I haven't gotten there yetbecause you have to still
exercise.
This isn't a magic pill.
You you take it, it makes younot hungry, but if you're still
just sitting on your ass, youstill need to expend calories
more than you're bringing in.
So if you're expending zerocalories and you're eating 10
calories, that's 10 caloriesmore than you should be eating.
SPEAKER_02 (23:30):
You know, I 100% understand that.
One of, yeah, my athlete friend,we were just talking on the
phone, and she said it took hersix months to lose seven pounds.
And the way that she did it wasa calorie deficit.
Yeah.
She said the calorie deficit wassuch a slight margin, but she
knew that if she did it, shewould get to her goal weight,
and she was frustrated becauseit took that long, but she
(23:54):
understands her body isdifferent now because she's
getting older.
Yes.
And it was funny because we werecomparing notes, and I had lost
the same exact amount of weightin the same exact time period.
She was cutting her calories,and I've just been eating
healthier.
I have to modify my diet all thetime.
Right.
I know, I've been around you.
(24:14):
Is I just cut things I thinkaren't healthy, and then I eat
the stuff that I know is okaywith my body and I go with that.
It actually kind of scares mebecause I I feel like the amount
of food that I can eat and thevariety of foods that I can eat,
the list just keeps gettingsmaller and smaller.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
It does, it does.
SPEAKER_02 (24:32):
And so I worry about as I age just being able to keep
on weight.
I'm I'm still a healthy 175, andI think I'm 5'6.
SPEAKER_01 (24:42):
I was just gonna say, let's put that in
perspective because 175 on youlooks a lot different than on
me.
So yes.
SPEAKER_02 (24:49):
And I've always been a girl whose weight is spread
evenly throughout my body.
SPEAKER_01 (24:53):
I don't have a big butt and then and I feel like
that's my problem too, that Igain weight proportionately, and
I never realize how big Iactually am until I see myself
in a picture or riding a horse.
I hate pictures of me riding ahorse.
Oh, but you're beautiful.
SPEAKER_02 (25:10):
I look like I'm all ass and thigh.
And it's so funny because Idon't see that at all.
SPEAKER_01 (25:14):
I just I wish I could see me through your eyes.
I wish you could too.
I know.
I wish more people could seethemselves through the eyes that
other people have.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
Truly.
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
I wish it was like that.
I wish that we didn't have thisjudgmental lens of overweight,
not overweight, beautiful, notbeautiful.
Because I think it's bullshit.
I think for me, it's all aboutmy body's health.
And I grew up in a family whowere morbidly obese.
Most of my family members weremorbidly obese.
So for me to say 175 at five,five, and three quarters, I
(25:46):
think I look fan fucking tastic,especially being 48.
Right.
I just think, well, hell yeah,I'm rocking it out.
I can do all the things that Iwant to do.
Yeah.
If I feel like going hiking, Ican go hiking.
If I want to go biking, I can gobiking.
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
Well, there are people that are even more
overweight and they can do allthose things.
Absolutely.
Because it's not always aboutthe fat on your bones.
Yeah, it might take you longerto get there, but I know that
there have been people that havedone miraculous things that
aren't the typical Barbieweight.
(26:20):
You know, it's cardio and it'sendurance and it's stamina, and
I don't have all that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
I don't have any upper body strength.
And I I was just so sick for solong, and I'm just thankful.
And now I look at my body and Ithink she's beautiful and she
works and she wakes up every dayand I can do what I want to do.
Yeah.
And I I feel bad for where youlook at a body and you think
that something is overweight,and then there's this negative
(26:48):
connotation that goes with it.
I've never had that.
SPEAKER_03 (26:51):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
Because I grew up in a family where what limited you
was because you were so big youcouldn't sit in an airplane
chair.
You couldn't go through a door.
That was what the limitingfactor is.
And so I grew up with adifferent lens.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
And then I sometimes tell myself, when do I get to
not care?
Exactly.
When when can I be uh stopcaring right now?
No, really.
Well, but I want to continue tocare.
I know I I I guess I guess Ishould I should quantify that.
I it's not that I don't care.
I do care.
And mostly now it's because ofmy horse.
Right.
(27:23):
I want to be a good weight formy horse.
I don't want them to, I'm not, Idon't want to ask my horse to go
up a hill that, you know, now hehas to carry me and my fat ass
up that hill.
I want to be a good weight forthem.
Yeah.
So that kind of helps get methrough it.
I want to be at a point whereI'm not always on the scale.
SPEAKER_03 (27:47):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
And I've started doing that.
I don't weigh myself every day.
I used to.
Because a lot of the magazinessay, Oh, weigh yourself every
day, watch what you eat.
My husband feels that the secretto my issue is writing it down.
Because when I was on theprogram, I had to keep a journal
of what I ate.
And I actually had to text themmy weight every morning.
(28:10):
It was part of the program.
Okay.
So I would text my weight everymorning.
They in the beginning gave mefood to eat.
It was so funny too, because Iremember when I went home with
my first bag, I thought this wasbreakfast, lunch, and dinner.
And it's not.
It's all about calories.
So I ate almost everything inthe first couple days.
And I said, I'm out of food.
They're like, What the hell?
(28:31):
Well, we gave you enough foodfor a week.
And I said, No, you didn't.
They said, This is how manycalories you get, Sandy.
You get 800 calories a day.
SPEAKER_02 (28:40):
A day.
SPEAKER_01 (28:41):
It might have been a little bit more, I don't
remember.
But this is how many caloriesyou make Sandy.
Gave me enough calories for aweek.
And I was eating most of it in aday.
Because I was eating breakfast,lunch, and dinner.
And it took a while for theOzempic to make me not hungry.
Okay.
And then I was just not hungry.
And the other thing too is Iknow a lot of people who are on
(29:04):
this product and they they justdrink alcohol.
Alcohol.
Well, first of all, alcohol isgonna make you dehydrated.
So unless you're following thatup with a crap ton of water,
you're gonna get yourself introuble.
Second of all, I love myalcohol.
Don't get me wrong, it has thoseempty calories, and you need to
be careful.
Plus, if you're not eating asmuch and you're drinking, you're
(29:28):
gonna get drunk faster.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (29:30):
When I started the program, I was probably drinking
a bottle of wine a night.
And let me just tell you,there's three glasses in a
bottle, a regular bottle.
Yeah.
Three glasses of wine a night isnot a big deal.
I was not an alcoholic.
But when I went on the program,I really I didn't have the
desire to drink.
(29:51):
So I stopped.
I heard it has that effect onpeople.
SPEAKER_02 (29:54):
Yeah.
And it's helping people who arealcoholics.
Yes.
Which is amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
Yes.
So I really stopped drinking mywine and I'm I don't really
drink like I used to at all.
It really is a good product, butthere really are some issues
behind it, and there are healththings that can happen if you're
not on top of it.
It's not something to just go onas a hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (30:20):
It scares me if I'm being honest.
But please, yeah.
Yeah, I I'm We're nothing buthonest.
That is true.
With each other and to ourlisteners.
I understand where my body isand I I go through these weird
periods of the city.
You're not thinking about it,are you?
No.
Oh, I was gonna say not for you.
SPEAKER_01 (30:40):
Well, no, not at all.
And that's why I was gonna say Iwas hoping you weren't going
down that okay.
SPEAKER_02 (30:45):
Yeah.
But I I'll I do that.
And I'd be afraid you'reallergic to it.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
So I you know, the only needle I'm sticking in you
is your epi pen and you have ananaphylactic shot.
However, have you seen thecommercials for the nasal one?
I really would.
SPEAKER_02 (30:57):
Yeah, I'm actually really excited.
SPEAKER_01 (30:59):
I would love for you to get on that and take that on
trail with me because I wouldhave no problems sticking
something up your nose andsquirting as opposed to an epi
pen.
SPEAKER_02 (31:08):
So just you know, I'll get on that.
I need to see my doctor.
SPEAKER_01 (31:11):
Little PSA.
SPEAKER_02 (31:12):
If you're I do carry an EpiPen on the trail.
I have, just so that ourlisteners know, I have some
serious issues with food.
And I've always had allergies.
And then after 2020, afterCOVID, my allergies got
exponentially worse.
I cannot describe my body'sreaction post-COVID.
(31:33):
You've been in the world.
I've been hospitalized.
I almost died.
My colon almost died.
It was just some crazy times.
And what I figured out with myallergist, and I was so lucky,
this sounds crazy, but I was solucky to have anaphylaxis in the
allergist's office.
But what we figured out is myweird body's reactions were
(31:56):
allergic reactions to the foodin the environment.
And I was having such a hardtime post-COVID.
And I did a lot of studying andtrying to figure stuff out.
Anyways, my immune system iswhack.
And so new foods every year geton my do not eat list.
And it's I don't know how todescribe it, except that it's
(32:18):
like having a chronic disease.
It's exactly yeah.
So it scares me that we aregoing to this shot and that this
is the answer, and that insteadof looking at the ills of our
society and trying to fix ourfood chain system and trying to
(32:40):
fix what is actually at play,which is a land of plenty.
And then right, we have thisthis this uh amazing access to
so much good food and so muchbad food and so much wonderful
food.
And you look at other countrieswhose resources are so much
less, and yet they don't havethese same chronic diseases and
(33:03):
issues.
And I I'm afraid for thelong-term effects of a reliance
on a shot.
SPEAKER_01 (33:10):
Well, and what happens is all those things need
to be instilled into the youngergeneration growing up because
once you reach menopause andyour chemistry starts to change,
none of that matters.
You need intervention becauseall that other stuff doesn't
well, that's not true eitherbecause my sister's not using it
(33:31):
and she's losing weight.
So I, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:33):
I I I had to get out of insulin resistance in order
for my body to process caloriesat a normal rate.
So I was only eating 1200calories a day.
I was burning 2,500 a day on topof like normal metabolic
activities.
When I say I was exercisingevery day, I was a dance
teacher.
(33:53):
Plus, I would cycle twice a weekduring the week.
Plus, I would cycle on theweekends.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
When you say cycle, I think menstrual.
I'm like, you're cycling twodays a week?
Like, oh no.
SPEAKER_02 (34:03):
I was riding my bike on these beautiful rides, but
yeah, it didn't make adifference and I was starving
all the time.
And she said, I bet you'rehungry, and at 1200 calories a
day, you're going to gainweight, even though you're only
eating 1200 calories a daybecause my my metabolic issues
were just completely whack.
And so getting sick, I thinkhelped me in a lot of ways, but
(34:26):
it also, I mean, obviously mybody almost died, but it helped
me realize the power of eatinghealthy.
And it's been years, and I'mstill trying to eat healthy.
It is so difficult.
SPEAKER_01 (34:42):
It's hard for me to eat healthy, especially my
husband does the groceryshopping.
I am one of those lucky ladieswhose husband does all the
grocery shopping and thecooking, but in the same
respect, he's the one that buysthe food.
SPEAKER_02 (34:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
And he will buy ice cream.
SPEAKER_02 (34:56):
Oh, and I hate cooking.
I buy all the food.
SPEAKER_01 (34:58):
I don't mind cooking, but I always my cooking
always got judged.
So I was like, mm, do ityourself.
SPEAKER_02 (35:03):
I only cook for myself.
So I eat this really healthy,delicious food, but I don't
enjoy it.
I think if I wasn't workingfull-time and had a ton of
horses, I guess how this allties to horses is I had a horse
that was insulin resistant, andthat was awful.
Baby, baby, and call her baby.
(35:24):
I had a different name for her,but we ended up always talking
about her as baby, and she was aMustang that I adopted at two
years old.
Maybe she was less than two.
No, I think she was two.
She was two, and I had her untilshe was four, so I only had her
a couple years, and we were atthe point where I was gonna
start riding her, but I alwaysknew that there was something
wrong.
I always knew that there wassomething off, and I'm so glad
(35:49):
that I had that sense because Ithink if I had pushed her, I
think it would have been morepainful.
Right.
After having looked back on thewhole experience, I don't know
if there is anything I evercould have done to save her from
the fate she was headed towards.
SPEAKER_01 (36:06):
Eventually, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I think it would havetaken longer, but she got into a
bag of sweet feed and shefoundered.
And then from there, I could notget her metabolism under
control.
She just would not stop theinflammation stage of laminitis.
And she foundered in all fourfeet.
And it was months and months andmonths of drugs and comfort and
(36:32):
changing up her hay, trying tofigure out what the best hay was
for her.
SPEAKER_01 (36:37):
It was it was hard.
SPEAKER_02 (36:39):
It was so hard, and it was a journey, and it was
awful.
And I don't think that her bodywas ever going to be in line
with living the way adomesticated animal lives.
She was used to starvation.
Her metabolism was used tostarvation.
SPEAKER_01 (36:53):
Was built for that.
SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
Was built for that.
Her body was beautiful.
Her body was made for nature.
That horse never got hawkssores.
She never was bothered by flies.
I never had to groom her.
She was glowing.
It was the weirdest thing tohave this animal that was
basically perfect in so manyways.
I thought the way her body wasstructured was fantastic.
(37:16):
I just thought you were one ofthe most athletics.
SPEAKER_01 (37:18):
And she's a devil's garden must say, right?
SPEAKER_02 (37:19):
Devil's Garden.
And I fell in love with her onFacebook.
And then you and I went and gother.
She was perfect.
But after that found her, Icouldn't get her back.
SPEAKER_01 (37:30):
She was downhill.
SPEAKER_02 (37:31):
She had this weird way that she would always lie in
shavings.
She used to lie down all thetime, and I would make this nest
for her.
And I I thought of it like anursery.
But you know, looking back, Idon't know that she wasn't in
pain.
And that's why she was lyingdown all the time.
Yeah.
Because the Devil's Garden, ifyou go on the Devil's Garden
(37:52):
Facebook page, there are horses,they have a page you can follow.
A lot of them talk about how thehorses nest.
And if you put down shavings,that they get super psycho about
it and happy.
That was her gig right from thebeginning.
There's so much regret tied inwith her foundering and her
laminitis.
SPEAKER_01 (38:09):
I wish I could take that away from you.
I know, I do.
Because I don't think that youhave, in my opinion, from my
purview, that you have anythingto regret.
You didn't do anything wrong.
You didn't provide her with thesweet feed.
She got in there.
SPEAKER_02 (38:29):
And it was Bob's.
It was Bob's sweet feed.
SPEAKER_01 (38:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (38:32):
And it was his um his senior feed, and he was, you
know, at the end of his lifecycle.
SPEAKER_01 (38:36):
And he ate And but here's the thing
not gonna say normal, adomesticated horse, say one of
mine, one of them gets intosweet feed and eats half the
bag.
SPEAKER_02 (38:48):
Bob ate the other half.
SPEAKER_01 (38:49):
They're probably gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_02 (38:50):
Yeah, Bob was fine, she wasn't.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
They shared it together.
SPEAKER_01 (38:54):
So that's but that's my point.
That's why I wish I could takethat burden away from you.
And then and once you realizedyou you called the vet.
SPEAKER_02 (39:02):
You you had our stomach almost kind of pumped,
right?
Oh, we had both our stomachspumped.
We pumped hers first, and it wasgnarly.
It was 17 degrees out, and wewere out there for three hours.
SPEAKER_01 (39:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:13):
It was horrible.
SPEAKER_01 (39:14):
So you took every action that you should have
taken.
SPEAKER_02 (39:18):
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01 (39:18):
You know, when she all of a sudden became laminitic
and she started having issues,you you were on it.
You were on it with the thyroidmedicine.
I remember I remember feedingfor you when you had to go away
and all the stuff that you didfor her.
I mean, you did everything,everything possible.
SPEAKER_02 (39:37):
So many different types of interventions we tried
and nothing worked.
SPEAKER_01 (39:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
And I couldn't get her back to normal.
SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
No.
SPEAKER_02 (39:45):
I want when I say normal, I couldn't get her back
to pain-free living.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
And so I made Because when I looked at her, I
thought she looked fine.
And I that's just myinexperience with that sort of
thing.
And you kept telling me, no,feel this.
You know, you could feel the umthe pulses, you know, in all
four feet.
And oh my god.
SPEAKER_02 (40:03):
And they would always rage and they would rage
and not rage and rage and notrage.
And it was so difficult to it,and when I say difficult, I mean
harrowing.
It was a harrowing experience.
There wasn't any one thing thatever lasted long enough.
There was this one day when itwas her last day of meds, and
she was on some NSAIDs.
(40:25):
It worked for whatever reason.
This one day she felt fantasticand she was galloping and
playful.
And I just thought, that's myhorse.
That's the horse I remember.
That's the horse that I fell inlove with.
And the next day she was notherself.
And I knew this is never gonnaget better.
No matter what I do, there'salways gonna be this pain
(40:46):
factor.
And I didn't think that I couldtell the difference between her
being super okay and her beingin pain because she was always
in pain.
There was never gonna be a daywhen I could work her and feel
comfortable.
And so I called it and I let hereat alfalfa that morning.
She was so skinny at that pointbecause we were trying to cut
(41:07):
back on our feed.
So she was so happy.
She was so skinny, and we puther down, and it was not
something that I took lightly.
I oh, I'm gonna cry again.
As an equestrian, this was likethe worst, this isn't every
equestrian's nightmare.
Yeah is they get into the sweetfeed.
And in 40 years, I'd never had ahorse get into the sweet feed.
And you hear about these horrorstories when I was a teenager
(41:30):
growing up of all thesedifferent animals that had done
this.
And back then we knew less aboutlaminitis than we do now.
So my nightmare happened, andthen I had to let her go because
I wasn't gonna watch her be justokay for her whole life and then
go through periods of laminitisand foundry.
I'm not gonna do that to her herwhole life.
She was only four.
(41:50):
Right.
Imagine like a lifetime of pain.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (41:53):
Like that's like 12 more years, you know, if she
lived to 26, right?
SPEAKER_02 (41:57):
Yeah, no, thanks.
SPEAKER_01 (42:00):
Or 16.
My math is off.
SPEAKER_02 (42:02):
Okay.
But a couple months later, myfriend called me from SoCal, and
she was going through the sameexact thing.
Her horse, however, waslaminitic from cushions, and
he'd been diagnosed crazily.
He was diagnosed as aseven-year-old with cushions
within a month of my horse beingdiagnosed with cushions.
(42:23):
But my horse was a late teen.
He was 17 when he was diagnosed.
So as a seven-year-old, it wasreally weird to get that
diagnosis.
And then a few years had goneby, and at this stage, he was
14.
And so she had to call it.
And call it, I mean put himdown.
She reached out to me, and thenwe had a conversation, and I
(42:44):
said, Is he ever gonna not be inpain?
And she said, No.
And I said, Well, then you haveto figure it out.
You know, how do you want tomove forward?
How do you want your horse tolive?
What's the quality of life?
And I watched her videos, and Ifelt like I was watching me
going through my saga with baby,and she decided to let him go.
SPEAKER_01 (43:04):
You both made the right decision.
SPEAKER_02 (43:05):
There was nothing we could do.
No, and we had a conversationabout how the doctor was
actually thinking of putting herhorse on a zimpic.
And so then she said to me, youknow, it's not labeled for
equine use, but it was a risk,but they were gonna try it
because they had no idea whatelse to do.
SPEAKER_01 (43:26):
Yeah, but it's expensive, it's expensive.
SPEAKER_02 (43:27):
And she said to me, I can't afford it for myself,
and here I am gonna put my horseon it once a month.
Is that realistic?
And I was like, you know what?
There comes a time, and it'ssuch a difficult decision.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
It is.
Well, that's just horses ingeneral.
I mean, at what point do youlook at your pocketbook?
I mean, really, can you affordwhat it's gonna take?
SPEAKER_02 (43:50):
So you gotta do the right thing.
And it's hard.
It's so hard that we are boundby a pocketbook, but we are.
We are paying a pocketbook.
SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
On that lovely note.
unknown (44:01):
Sad note.
SPEAKER_01 (44:02):
So I guess the moral of this episode is what?
SPEAKER_02 (44:07):
For you.
What's the moral for you?
SPEAKER_01 (44:08):
The moral for me is be healthy.
I'm sick of worrying about anumber.
I'm really not caring about whatthe number is.
I'm currently at 161.
I have lost uh 20 pounds.
When I started, I was about 100and oh, okay, my math is off
again.
I was probably 170, so I've lost10.
(44:29):
About 10 pounds, not 20.
Wishful thinking.
Uh, but I don't want to worryabout that.
I want to fit into my clothes.
I want to be a good weight frommy horse.
I don't want to worry about anumber.
And yes, I am using a compoundof semaglide, air quote
zozempic, to help keep my weightin check.
(44:51):
I just feel like that's the bestroute for me.
SPEAKER_02 (44:54):
That's your health decision.
SPEAKER_01 (44:55):
It's my health decision.
And one day, and one day Iprobably will stop.
And I'm gonna have to realizethat I could gain the weight
back.
And I have to figure out how doI not gain the weight back.
And I don't know when that'sgonna be.
It's just an ever-changingjourney.
So, whatever journey you guysare on out there, you know, just
be authentic to yourself and beon your journey and don't worry
(45:18):
about what other people say.
Don't worry about, you know, thearticles in the you read online
that say, Oh, you're gonna getthe isempic neck.
You know what?
You were gonna get the neckanyway.
So just don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (45:27):
Rock on.
SPEAKER_01 (45:28):
Yeah, just rock it up.
Just rock it.
Yeah, rock the neck.
SPEAKER_02 (45:31):
I think the moral for me is to be continuously
thankful.
Oh my crayon.
To be continuously thankful forthe the health that I do have.
Yes.
Because I'm scared that if I getskinny, that I'm gonna have
another hospital visit where Ilose 30 pounds and I won't have
(45:53):
anything left.
Right.
I won't have any reserves.
And I know part of what got methrough a couple years ago was I
did have 30 pounds to lose.
And when I lost it, I I felt mybody eating itself, literally
consuming itself.
And I was so thankful that I hadthat reserve.
Yeah.
And now I'm worried about whatif I don't?
(46:15):
And this happens again.
And it could happen at anymoment, literally, with all of
my allergies.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (46:21):
So which worries me every time I don't hear from
you.
You're so confident.
That's why, because I texted youthis today and I said, Are you
ready for me?
And I didn't hear anything.
And I was like, screw it, I'mjust gonna go everywhere.
SPEAKER_02 (46:33):
She might be sick.
She might be dead.
Yeah.
But I think the moral of thestory for me is to do what I've
been doing, which is enjoy myphysicality at this stage of my
life.
Yeah.
And to know that the physicalityI have now is still very
capable.
Yeah.
And it's not the physicality ofmy 20-year-old body.
SPEAKER_01 (46:53):
No, and who cares?
The 20-year-old is gone.
No, I loved her though.
SPEAKER_02 (46:58):
We had so much fun together.
I know.
But I'm gonna keep enjoying thelevel of movement that I have
and be thankful for it.
SPEAKER_03 (47:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:07):
And I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna be sorry for or
shamed.
No.
Or, you know, the way that wefeel so much shame over our own
bodies.
SPEAKER_03 (47:17):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:18):
I fucking hate that.
I'm never gonna feel that wayabout my own body because she
does what I ask her to do.
SPEAKER_01 (47:24):
Yes.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (47:25):
And I'm thankful for what she can do.
SPEAKER_01 (47:28):
Yes.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
Well, toodles, everybody, andhave a wonderful week.
And we'll talk to you again.
Yep.
Toodles.
Toodles.
SPEAKER_02 (47:39):
Hey friends.
That's the end of today's ride.
We hope you enjoyed listening.
Don't forget to follow SaddleTalk with Sandy and Kara
wherever you get your podcasts.
Please leave us a review, shareus with a friend, and saddle up
with us next time as we ridethrough more stories, questions,
and our wild tangents.
Till then, friends, keep yourboots dusty and your hard hats
(48:01):
on.
We hope to see you out on thetrail.
SPEAKER_00 (48:03):
Danny and Kara stirrups swinging free.
Talking about life and love andmystery.
From coyotes to coffee, they'llcover it all with the sagebrush
blowing and the wild birds callsoast and shut up your boots.
We're hitting the track,saddletalks on, and we're not
looking back.
Flip flip goes, the trail sun is rising.
Two thousand seven meets the bigevent's sky.
Laughing and chatting as adesert rolls on by.
It's Saddle Talk.
Come along for the ride.
SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
Welcome, listeners, to Saddle Talk with Sandy and
Kara.
Whether you're here to laughwith us, learn, or just ride
along, you're in for a reallygood time.
So go grab your helmet or yourpooper scooper and settle in
with us as we discuss life,horses, of course, and all the
unexpected turns along thetrail.
And hey, whether you're aseasoned cowgirl or you're still
learning, remember we're sharingour own stories and opinions
(00:44):
based on decades of personalexperience.
Always ride safe and check witha professional before trying
anything new.
Now let's go ride.
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
Hi, Kara.
Today has been quite the day.
Oh, yeah, it has.
Yeah.
So you had a really good lessonwith Armani.
You were gonna give us an updateon how he's doing.
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
Swarmani is moving up the levels of Perelli very
quickly.
Nice.
My trainer was recalling back towhen we started, and she can't
believe how fast he's comealong.
And it's really cool to be ableto talk to someone about
(01:32):
Perelli, but her and I can havethese very high-level
discussions about horsepsychology.
SPEAKER_01 (01:38):
Well, I think because intuitively you are a
trainer, so you're already at adifferent level than, say, a
novice that hires a trainer.
SPEAKER_02 (01:45):
Yes.
And I've been at a differentlevel for a long time.
I enjoy conversations with herbecause I feel like I'm
splitting hairs in a reallypositive way.
I can have these high-levelconversations and I feel like
we're exploring and comparingnotes, and it's really fun to do
it with my own horse in realtime.
(02:07):
Right.
Just notices the nuances that Inotice and a look or a movement
or a hesitation.
I've always noticed those littlethings in a horse and recognized
it as body language.
Right.
And I think what her and Italked about today, which was
really interesting, and we haveto stop ourselves during the
(02:29):
lesson.
We literally have to stop andtalk and make sure we get back
to training.
SPEAKER_03 (02:34):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
Because we get sucked in.
Yeah.
But today I was telling herhumans aren't that different.
And that the four personalitiesof the Pirelli world are a lot
like people.
Right.
And so she started talking abouther mom and how her mom was a
right-brained introvert.
But I thought she was talkingabout a horse.
(02:55):
So I had to pause her, say, isthis a horse or a human?
Right.
And then it was just really neatbecause I realized also after
this conversation that mybackground in dance has been the
reason why I've been sosuccessful with horses.
Really?
Yes.
How's that?
There's a relaxed zone that youget into in dance where
(03:20):
everything you do, everymovement means something.
Oh my it sounds so stupid.
I'm gonna cry.
Ugh, so menopausal right now.
Yeah, so anyone who's oh I'mliterally gonna cry.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Anyone who is Well, don't cry, because I'm on the
verge of crying anyway, which isan entirely different reason.
Anyway, I'm sorry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (03:44):
I think as an ex-dancer, there's this, there's
this feeling that you get aphysicality that you cannot
describe to another human.
The only people who recognizethat feeling are other dancers.
And dancers in a roomautomatically have this crazy
bond.
And it's a lot like horsepeople.
(04:07):
If you meet a random ass horseperson and you're chilling and
you're talking, you canrecognize that horse person
right away, have an amazingconversation and never talk
about the shit that's going onin the world or politics.
Right.
And I don't care what yourpolitics are because we're horse
people talking about horses.
And dancers are just as crazy aswe are and have the same exact
(04:28):
nuances.
And I think that my upbringingin dance prepared me for a world
of observation of horses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:40):
Yeah.
That's a really neat connection.
Thanks.
unknown (04:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
The littlest things mean the biggest in dance.
A turn of a head means a changeof emotion in the story that's
playing out on stage.
The same thing happens when I'mwatching Armani, and today we
had the saddle on and he wasgetting lunged, but it's not
called lunging because it'sleading.
And I had to recognize in myselfwhat I was doing wrong.
(05:08):
I had him out on the lunge.
This is almost at the end of ourlesson.
So we've had this full, richlesson, and then I realized that
my body was saying conflictingthings.
Right.
My upper body was telling him tomove forward, and my hips were
rotated the wrong direction, andI was pushing him with my hips.
Wow.
(05:28):
And asking him to go forwardwith my upper body, and it
clicked when I shifted my hipsand my shoulders in the same
direction.
SPEAKER_01 (05:39):
So when your body was in alignment, he understood
what you were asking him to do.
Yep.
And when they were not inalignment, what the fuck?
He was like, I don't know whatyou're asking.
SPEAKER_02 (05:49):
And he was kind of like, fuck you, is this right?
I don't know.
Fuck you.
I think you're yelling at me.
Right.
Yeah.
And I wasn't yelling.
SPEAKER_01 (05:55):
No, no.
I mean, I was.
I was yelling.
But but still, though, and Ididn't mean to.
And and in relation to yourdance metaphor or analogy, when
you're a dancer, your body hasto be in alignment.
You can't have yourself going inone direction and your feet are
pointing in the other direction.
And it's gonna throw you offbalance.
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
Yeah, and it means something else to the audience.
Like you have to be clear aboutyour communication on stage.
And here I was, and he's myaudience.
And I was being very unclear,and it clicked in that moment
how my clarity was not workingout for either of us.
SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
Well, that is amazing.
That is really great.
SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
I miss dance.
I will always miss dance.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:37):
I think that's one of the um crack.
SPEAKER_01 (06:40):
I think that's one of the hardest things about
getting older.
Oh my gosh.
This leads into something.
Uh Michael and I went to one ofour local casinos, and there was
this woman.
She had to be a hundred.
Walking up on her walker.
Okay.
People are getting out of herway.
She walks straight up to thatdance floor.
(07:00):
She gets herself centered, andshe starts to boogie.
Oh, it's gonna be me.
With her little arms.
Oh my god.
And her little frail body.
She didn't give a fuck.
And did not care.
It was amazing to watch.
Good.
So I'm looking at this woman andshe's just up there dancing her
little heart out.
She had to be 95.
Maybe she was younger.
Just lived a long life.
(07:20):
Yeah.
She was having the best side.
And she had a beer.
Good for her.
She had a beer.
I'm like, I want to be you whenI'm your age, whatever your age
is.
I think you should get back outthere and dance.
Why aren't you dancing?
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Oh, it's not the same.
As time goes by, your body justmakes these changes and you
can't carve out three hours aday to dance.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
No, and then there's menopause.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
And then there's menopause.
And I I that's not to say that Icouldn't get back into that
dancing shape, but I think everydancer knows when you hit a
point.
And probably every woman knowsyou hit a point and you look
back and you think, will I everdo that activity?
The answer is no.
That's how I feel about skiing.
(08:03):
That's how I feel about fuckingMount, whatever.
What's the big one?
I don't know.
Mount Everest?
Yes.
Never.
I will never even climb to basecamp of Mount Everest.
I climbed Mount the big one inWhitney.
Whitney.
That's it.
I climbed Mount Whitney and Ithought that's good enough.
It's kind of like when I ran amarathon, I only did a half.
(08:25):
And I thought that's goodenough.
SPEAKER_01 (08:27):
I walked a marathon.
A whole, I think.
Or a half.
SPEAKER_02 (08:30):
A half?
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Not a whole one.
I don't think I did a whole.
SPEAKER_02 (08:33):
No, I did a half and it was flat by the ocean and it
was beautiful, but I'll neverneed to ever do a full 26 miles.
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
But but that's how I feel about skiing.
I skied when I moved toCalifornia.
It's so funny, I grew up inVirginia, and I didn't learn to
ski until I moved to California.
And I really enjoyed it.
And I don't want to ski anymore.
Yep.
I just don't.
I just want to ride horses.
That's all I'm doing.
Yeah, I know, me too.
Yeah, I just want to ride.
SPEAKER_02 (09:00):
What is left that I still need to do with my life?
Riding.
This is the physical activitythat I want to put on the
pedestal and move towards.
SPEAKER_01 (09:10):
And this leads us into our topic for today, which
is Ozempic.
In whatever form.
SPEAKER_02 (09:16):
Because there's so many different types.
Why don't you explain that?
Because I don't know ifeveryone's aware.
SPEAKER_01 (09:21):
Well, I say Ozempic, that's the brand.
Semaglutide is the generic nameof the drug.
I always called it semaglutide.
Doctors don't really care.
About seven years ago now.
I was overweight.
I'm five feet tall.
I was about 170, which isconsidered obese.
(09:44):
So I met this woman on the trainwhen I would go into downtown
LA.
I worked at SoCal Gas.
And she worked at this uh clinicthat catered to people with uh
diabetes.
They did testing.
And I told her, I said, Well, ifyou guys ever do a test or a
(10:06):
trial where the person doesn'thave to have a diabetes, but
they're overweight, let me know.
And about a year later, shesaid, Sandy, guess what?
So I was very excited and I wentto her clinic and I had to
qualify.
It's really funny because thisis the first time I went home
and I found out that I qualifiedand I went to my husband and I'm
(10:29):
like, guess what?
I qualified for the study.
He said, Oh, what were thequalifications?
Well, I have to be obese and notdiabetic.
And I qualified, and he didn'tknow how to be happy for me.
Because if he acknowledged thehappiness, then he's
acknowledging I'm obese, right?
And most women, what you think II wasn't gonna do that to him.
(10:50):
I gave him the out.
I said, It's okay.
It's okay right now.
It is.
I said, right now it's okay foryou to acknowledge that I'm
obese.
unknown (11:00):
I get it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:01):
So it was a really great study.
It was a year and a half.
I got paid.
I got$100 every time I went in.
And in the first, I'd say fouror five months, I went in every
week.
So I was making an extra$500.
SPEAKER_02 (11:14):
Of course.
SPEAKER_01 (11:14):
But in SoCal, that just paid my electric bill.
Literally.
So there you go.
So it was a year and a halfstudy.
I went from 170 pounds to 117.
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
And in a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
In a year and a half.
I looked awful.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
Yeah, you looked hungry.
SPEAKER_01 (11:33):
I looked hungry.
I had the turkey neck.
Which I have to laugh because Iremember when you and I went to
on a ride, and you're so honestand so like to the point where I
just want to strangle you.
But I said to you, I remember wewere standing at the trailer.
I'll never forget.
We were standing at the trailer,we're getting our horses out,
(11:54):
and I was talking about theweight that I had lost.
And I said, Yeah, but now I havethis like neck.
And you s and you looked at meand you went, Yeah, but it's
okay.
I was like, but you'reacknowledging my neck.
I couldn't just take thecompliment, right?
I was like, you're acknowledgingmy turkey neck.
They call it the azempic neck.
Yeah.
But it's not because of azempic, it's because it is, but
(12:15):
you were gonna get it anyway.
That's what my mom told me.
It's true.
She said, Sandy, you were gonnaget that anyway.
So welcome.
SPEAKER_03 (12:23):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (12:23):
Right.
But it's because you lose theweight so fast.
Yeah.
And your skin doesn't reallyhave a chance to get back into
the tightness.
Plus, you're older and you don'thave a collagen that you had
when you were in your 20s losingweight.
SPEAKER_02 (12:38):
So if you've been overweight for 30 years, it's
gonna be pretty shocking.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Right.
Even if it's just a littleoverweight.
I'm not even talking like Ididn't need to have skin removal
kind of weight.
And there are people that do.
So that's an entirely differentsubject.
I always was worried, I amalways worried, not was.
I'm always worried about myweight when it comes to my
horses.
Because I worry, I worry aboutbeing too heavy for them.
(13:03):
Are they carrying me?
How's it going to be different?
And when I was a teenager,between the ages of about 16 to
21, I was addicted to cocaine.
So I was very skinny and Ididn't have to worry.
I ate Doritos for lunch, and itwas a beautiful thing.
And then when I got smart andgot off the drugs, and I
(13:26):
consider myself a recoveringcocaine addict.
I, you know, always an addict.
Truth.
When I, you know, got clean andI was flying right, all of a
sudden a bag of Doritos didn'tmean the same thing, and I
couldn't eat it.
And I started gaining weight,and I would do everything I
could to lose weight.
I did laxatives, I did stupiddiets, I ate hot dogs all the
(13:49):
time.
I did my best to work out.
And then as you get older, thesethings they don't work the same.
And when you go throughmenopause, your chemistry is
changing, your body's changing,you can't lose that weight.
And so you need, I did thevitamin B shots.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
I completely remember us trail riding when we
were sort of at our peak trailriding months.
I remember you going on this onediet where you were adding drops
of stuff to your food.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
Yes.
It was type of it wasn'techinace.
I don't know why that comes intomy mind, but thermogenic.
It was a thermogenic and theywere drops, and you would add it
to your food.
SPEAKER_02 (14:30):
I remember you trying everything.
SPEAKER_01 (14:33):
Everything.
SPEAKER_02 (14:34):
And then I remember you getting on the trial and you
were super excited.
SPEAKER_01 (14:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
And I was happy for you.
Yeah, of course.
You know, because I want you tofeel good.
SPEAKER_01 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah.
And you're a friend and you'resupporting me.
And yes, there are people outthere that are in menopause and
can do.
I have a sister who hasstruggled with her weight.
Right now, she's probably at thebest weight she's been, and
she's nine years older than me.
And she has been eating healthy,watching what she's eating, and
her and her husband are both onthe same page, and they're
(15:01):
they're buying groceries, andthat's wonderful for her.
And I'm happy for her, but Idon't have that.
My husband could drop a fewpounds, but he's pretty good.
He doesn't have an issue withweight.
He doesn't, and I love himdearly.
He will buy me stuff.
(15:22):
And his feeling is just eat alittle bit.
You don't have to eat a wholething, but that's not me.
I feel that I have an addictivepersonality.
I don't think I I'm gonna say Ihave a cocaine addiction, right?
Because that was the addiction Ichose.
Right.
So yeah, no cocaine for me.
I don't think that I'm a cocaineaddict.
(15:45):
I think I'm an addict and Ichose cocaine.
I could have chosen alcohol.
I'm not an alcoholic.
And I know the first step isdon't deny it, right?
But I'm not.
Like it doesn't rule my life, itdoesn't control my feelings, I
don't live my life aroundforward to it.
No, no, no.
I just feel that I have anaddictive personality, so it
(16:06):
doesn't matter if it's sugar.
For me, I feel like I'm addictedto sugar.
SPEAKER_02 (16:10):
And that's it.
Truly.
Exactly.
I had to come off of sugar, andI am not joking you when I say
that I was jonesing.
I was literally shaking.
Yeah.
Because I was diabeting.
Oh, it was awful.
SPEAKER_03 (16:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
Oh, I got sick.
I was diagnosed pre-diabeticyears ago, and I thought I could
sort of control my metabolismand my body weight by
exercising.
And I thought that I didn't haveto do anything else.
And I thought, oh, I can handlethis, I can exercise away,
whatever the problem is.
And I kept all of these logs,and so I was diagnosed
(16:44):
pre-diabetic.
And then I tried to control it.
And within a few months, I wasliterally weighing more when I'd
been exercising and I couldn'tfigure it out.
Right.
And I had these crazy sugarcrashes, and I had this amazing
doctor, and I'll never haveanother doctor with that type of
relationship again because theyjust don't have time to spend
(17:07):
with me the way this doctor did.
And we figured out that I washeaded even more towards
pre-diabetic.
I was, what's the word?
Hypoglycemic, bad hypoglycemia,and I had a thyroid problem.
Right.
And she thinks that wheneverthey tested me, my thyroid just
happened to be high.
And so she did all this intensetesting.
And we thought that I was gonnaget better once she gave me the
(17:30):
thyroid medicine.
She said to me, Oh, you're gonnadrop 10 pounds pretty easy.
And no, I went back and I wastwo and a half pounds heavier,
and I kept all of the logs ofevery food I ate, of all the
exercise I was doing.
And then she said to me, Kara, Ithink you're in what horses go
through, which is insulinresistance.
(17:51):
Right.
And so she said, I think you'reinsulin resistant right now.
We're gonna test you.
And she said to me, Do you feellike you need to eat your fist?
Like you are so hungry all thetime.
And I said, You don'tunderstand.
I am starving.
And when I go to eat, I'm sohungry that I I just want to eat
something.
And and it doesn't matter ifit's healthy or not.
SPEAKER_01 (18:12):
And usually you choose the wrong thing.
Well, uh well, I'm sorry, notyou, but me when I do it, yeah,
I will choose the wrong thingbecause I'm so hungry, I don't
have time to like cooksomething.
SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
You it's true.
SPEAKER_01 (18:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
And that's a part of it.
SPEAKER_01 (18:26):
And because my husband doesn't have an issue,
he's got crap in the you know,in the cupboard.
SPEAKER_02 (18:31):
Pre-made food tastes amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (18:33):
Yeah.
The problem with the studythough, they tried to give us a
nutritionist to talk to.
It didn't really do anything.
He didn't really tell meanything.
I didn't already know what Ishould be doing, and it just it
was just silly.
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
And I feel like that's always the story we get
told as women.
You need to control your diet,you need to increase your
exercise.
And I think to myself, I have abest friend that's a
professional athlete, and shestruggles with her weight.
And she's a professionalathlete.
Who how am I a normal human witha full-time job?
American society is not based onyour physical health.
(19:13):
Everything is convenient,everything takes time.
How am I possibly gonna controlthis human body if she can't?
Oh, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01 (19:21):
Well, and then at the end of the store, they just
said, okay, bye.
And they just they just droppedme off.
And so here you were in 117.
Yeah.
And then you went to nothing.
Nothing.
And then I started gaining theweight back.
And I have to say, this is notan episode to dog Ozempic.
It's not.
I love somaglotite orstomaglutide or have it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:43):
I love what it's done for you and your friends.
SPEAKER_01 (19:45):
So I have now gotten back, but there are problems
with it.
There are serious things youhave to pay attention to, and
the biggest thing isdehydration.
You have to drink whatever thingyou think you're drinking in
water, double it.
Because at one point I wasn'ttaking it seriously, and I
remember getting up out of bed,passing out, and running into
(20:06):
the wall.
Or should I say, I blacked out.
I didn't actually pass out, Iblacked out.
I couldn't see where I wasgoing, and I ran into the wall.
And I went to the doctor, theycouldn't even get a needle in my
vein.
SPEAKER_02 (20:19):
Because you're so dehydrated.
SPEAKER_01 (20:20):
Because I was so dehydrated.
So that really woke me up towater.
But now I am, you know, I movedup here because all of that, of
course, I stopped the studyright at COVID when everyone's
at home sitting on their ass.
And I just gained it all back.
Even without just because youhave this insatiable hunger when
(20:42):
you come off of this product.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Like you can't get enough.
Oh.
You're hungry.
Yeah.
So there you go.
Uh.
And now here I am.
I so my waist started going backup again.
I knew I needed help.
I found a doctor, thanks to you,who is amazing.
He's a really nice doctor.
(21:03):
He's so sweet.
And he understood my struggle.
He understood that I'm inmenopause.
He understood that my chemistryis different.
And he's got me on a compoundformula of smagletide.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
And compounding just means lotion?
SPEAKER_01 (21:17):
Well, no, no, no.
What they do is a compoundingpharmacy.
So um, I know I say um all thetime, but this is appropriate um
because I'm trying to remember.
Nordono Nordisk is themanufacturer of Ozempic.
Okay.
They're the ones that came upwith semaglatide.
What they have the patent onthat.
(21:41):
I'm not really quite sure howall this works, but the compound
that I'm using, please Googlewhat I'm about to say because
I'm sure I'm getting part ofthis wrong.
But they're getting thebyproduct of the semaglatide
salt or something, and then theymake a an injectable from this
(22:03):
byproduct, which I don't knowhow that even works.
Like, how do they even get thatfrom novisk?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
And then they make a solutionout of it.
Sometimes they add vitamin B,sometimes they add other stuff.
Reminds me of cocaine when theywould uh Baytelux in it and all
(22:25):
of a sudden now they cut it.
Cut it, they cut it.
Or cutting it.
So they do, but that's what theydo.
They cut it.
They're cutting it and they'rebringing it together.
And I just did my injection thismorning.
I do it once a week.
It's an injection, it's no bigdeal.
And it's helping.
It really is helping.
I was gonna say, how's it going?
I'm not hungry because that'swhat it does.
It turns off that noise in yourbrain.
And it doesn't work foreverybody.
(22:46):
I have another friend that wasdoing it with me.
Her reaction to it was a lotdifferent.
She moved over to the Monjaro's,I think it's trazepotite, all
these things.
It's so crazy.
Anyway, that product works bestfor her, and she has done
amazing on it.
She's like beyond her goalweight into clothes she was
(23:08):
wearing in high school.
I haven't gotten there yetbecause you have to still
exercise.
This isn't a magic pill.
You you take it, it makes younot hungry, but if you're still
just sitting on your ass, youstill need to expend calories
more than you're bringing in.
So if you're expending zerocalories and you're eating 10
calories, that's 10 caloriesmore than you should be eating.
SPEAKER_02 (23:30):
You know, I 100% understand that.
One of, yeah, my athlete friend,we were just talking on the
phone, and she said it took hersix months to lose seven pounds.
And the way that she did it wasa calorie deficit.
Yeah.
She said the calorie deficit wassuch a slight margin, but she
knew that if she did it, shewould get to her goal weight,
and she was frustrated becauseit took that long, but she
(23:54):
understands her body isdifferent now because she's
getting older.
Yes.
And it was funny because we werecomparing notes, and I had lost
the same exact amount of weightin the same exact time period.
She was cutting her calories,and I've just been eating
healthier.
I have to modify my diet all thetime.
Right.
I know, I've been around you.
(24:14):
Is I just cut things I thinkaren't healthy, and then I eat
the stuff that I know is okaywith my body and I go with that.
It actually kind of scares mebecause I I feel like the amount
of food that I can eat and thevariety of foods that I can eat,
the list just keeps gettingsmaller and smaller.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
It does, it does.
SPEAKER_02 (24:32):
And so I worry about as I age just being able to keep
on weight.
I'm I'm still a healthy 175, andI think I'm 5'6.
SPEAKER_01 (24:42):
I was just gonna say, let's put that in
perspective because 175 on youlooks a lot different than on
me.
So yes.
SPEAKER_02 (24:49):
And I've always been a girl whose weight is spread
evenly throughout my body.
SPEAKER_01 (24:53):
I don't have a big butt and then and I feel like
that's my problem too, that Igain weight proportionately, and
I never realize how big Iactually am until I see myself
in a picture or riding a horse.
I hate pictures of me riding ahorse.
Oh, but you're beautiful.
SPEAKER_02 (25:10):
I look like I'm all ass and thigh.
And it's so funny because Idon't see that at all.
SPEAKER_01 (25:14):
I just I wish I could see me through your eyes.
I wish you could too.
I know.
I wish more people could seethemselves through the eyes that
other people have.
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
Truly.
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
I wish it was like that.
I wish that we didn't have thisjudgmental lens of overweight,
not overweight, beautiful, notbeautiful.
Because I think it's bullshit.
I think for me, it's all aboutmy body's health.
And I grew up in a family whowere morbidly obese.
Most of my family members weremorbidly obese.
So for me to say 175 at five,five, and three quarters, I
(25:46):
think I look fan fucking tastic,especially being 48.
Right.
I just think, well, hell yeah,I'm rocking it out.
I can do all the things that Iwant to do.
Yeah.
If I feel like going hiking, Ican go hiking.
If I want to go biking, I can gobiking.
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
Well, there are people that are even more
overweight and they can do allthose things.
Absolutely.
Because it's not always aboutthe fat on your bones.
Yeah, it might take you longerto get there, but I know that
there have been people that havedone miraculous things that
aren't the typical Barbieweight.
(26:20):
You know, it's cardio and it'sendurance and it's stamina, and
I don't have all that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
I don't have any upper body strength.
And I I was just so sick for solong, and I'm just thankful.
And now I look at my body and Ithink she's beautiful and she
works and she wakes up every dayand I can do what I want to do.
Yeah.
And I I feel bad for where youlook at a body and you think
that something is overweight,and then there's this negative
(26:48):
connotation that goes with it.
I've never had that.
SPEAKER_03 (26:51):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
Because I grew up in a family where what limited you
was because you were so big youcouldn't sit in an airplane
chair.
You couldn't go through a door.
That was what the limitingfactor is.
And so I grew up with adifferent lens.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
And then I sometimes tell myself, when do I get to
not care?
Exactly.
When when can I be uh stopcaring right now?
No, really.
Well, but I want to continue tocare.
I know I I I guess I guess Ishould I should quantify that.
I it's not that I don't care.
I do care.
And mostly now it's because ofmy horse.
Right.
(27:23):
I want to be a good weight formy horse.
I don't want them to, I'm not, Idon't want to ask my horse to go
up a hill that, you know, now hehas to carry me and my fat ass
up that hill.
I want to be a good weight forthem.
Yeah.
So that kind of helps get methrough it.
I want to be at a point whereI'm not always on the scale.
SPEAKER_03 (27:47):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (27:47):
And I've started doing that.
I don't weigh myself every day.
I used to.
Because a lot of the magazinessay, Oh, weigh yourself every
day, watch what you eat.
My husband feels that the secretto my issue is writing it down.
Because when I was on theprogram, I had to keep a journal
of what I ate.
And I actually had to text themmy weight every morning.
(28:10):
It was part of the program.
Okay.
So I would text my weight everymorning.
They in the beginning gave mefood to eat.
It was so funny too, because Iremember when I went home with
my first bag, I thought this wasbreakfast, lunch, and dinner.
And it's not.
It's all about calories.
So I ate almost everything inthe first couple days.
And I said, I'm out of food.
They're like, What the hell?
(28:31):
Well, we gave you enough foodfor a week.
And I said, No, you didn't.
They said, This is how manycalories you get, Sandy.
You get 800 calories a day.
SPEAKER_02 (28:40):
A day.
SPEAKER_01 (28:41):
It might have been a little bit more, I don't
remember.
But this is how many caloriesyou make Sandy.
Gave me enough calories for aweek.
And I was eating most of it in aday.
Because I was eating breakfast,lunch, and dinner.
And it took a while for theOzempic to make me not hungry.
Okay.
And then I was just not hungry.
And the other thing too is Iknow a lot of people who are on
(29:04):
this product and they they justdrink alcohol.
Alcohol.
Well, first of all, alcohol isgonna make you dehydrated.
So unless you're following thatup with a crap ton of water,
you're gonna get yourself introuble.
Second of all, I love myalcohol.
Don't get me wrong, it has thoseempty calories, and you need to
be careful.
Plus, if you're not eating asmuch and you're drinking, you're
(29:28):
gonna get drunk faster.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (29:30):
When I started the program, I was probably drinking
a bottle of wine a night.
And let me just tell you,there's three glasses in a
bottle, a regular bottle.
Yeah.
Three glasses of wine a night isnot a big deal.
I was not an alcoholic.
But when I went on the program,I really I didn't have the
desire to drink.
(29:51):
So I stopped.
I heard it has that effect onpeople.
SPEAKER_02 (29:54):
Yeah.
And it's helping people who arealcoholics.
Yes.
Which is amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
Yes.
So I really stopped drinking mywine and I'm I don't really
drink like I used to at all.
It really is a good product, butthere really are some issues
behind it, and there are healththings that can happen if you're
not on top of it.
It's not something to just go onas a hobby.
SPEAKER_02 (30:20):
It scares me if I'm being honest.
But please, yeah.
Yeah, I I'm We're nothing buthonest.
That is true.
With each other and to ourlisteners.
I understand where my body isand I I go through these weird
periods of the city.
You're not thinking about it,are you?
No.
Oh, I was gonna say not for you.
SPEAKER_01 (30:40):
Well, no, not at all.
And that's why I was gonna say Iwas hoping you weren't going
down that okay.
SPEAKER_02 (30:45):
Yeah.
But I I'll I do that.
And I'd be afraid you'reallergic to it.
SPEAKER_01 (30:48):
So I you know, the only needle I'm sticking in you
is your epi pen and you have ananaphylactic shot.
However, have you seen thecommercials for the nasal one?
I really would.
SPEAKER_02 (30:57):
Yeah, I'm actually really excited.
SPEAKER_01 (30:59):
I would love for you to get on that and take that on
trail with me because I wouldhave no problems sticking
something up your nose andsquirting as opposed to an epi
pen.
SPEAKER_02 (31:08):
So just you know, I'll get on that.
I need to see my doctor.
SPEAKER_01 (31:11):
Little PSA.
SPEAKER_02 (31:12):
If you're I do carry an EpiPen on the trail.
I have, just so that ourlisteners know, I have some
serious issues with food.
And I've always had allergies.
And then after 2020, afterCOVID, my allergies got
exponentially worse.
I cannot describe my body'sreaction post-COVID.
(31:33):
You've been in the world.
I've been hospitalized.
I almost died.
My colon almost died.
It was just some crazy times.
And what I figured out with myallergist, and I was so lucky,
this sounds crazy, but I was solucky to have anaphylaxis in the
allergist's office.
But what we figured out is myweird body's reactions were
(31:56):
allergic reactions to the foodin the environment.
And I was having such a hardtime post-COVID.
And I did a lot of studying andtrying to figure stuff out.
Anyways, my immune system iswhack.
And so new foods every year geton my do not eat list.
And it's I don't know how todescribe it, except that it's
(32:18):
like having a chronic disease.
It's exactly yeah.
So it scares me that we aregoing to this shot and that this
is the answer, and that insteadof looking at the ills of our
society and trying to fix ourfood chain system and trying to
(32:40):
fix what is actually at play,which is a land of plenty.
And then right, we have thisthis this uh amazing access to
so much good food and so muchbad food and so much wonderful
food.
And you look at other countrieswhose resources are so much
less, and yet they don't havethese same chronic diseases and
(33:03):
issues.
And I I'm afraid for thelong-term effects of a reliance
on a shot.
SPEAKER_01 (33:10):
Well, and what happens is all those things need
to be instilled into the youngergeneration growing up because
once you reach menopause andyour chemistry starts to change,
none of that matters.
You need intervention becauseall that other stuff doesn't
well, that's not true eitherbecause my sister's not using it
(33:31):
and she's losing weight.
So I, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:33):
I I I had to get out of insulin resistance in order
for my body to process caloriesat a normal rate.
So I was only eating 1200calories a day.
I was burning 2,500 a day on topof like normal metabolic
activities.
When I say I was exercisingevery day, I was a dance
teacher.
(33:53):
Plus, I would cycle twice a weekduring the week.
Plus, I would cycle on theweekends.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
When you say cycle, I think menstrual.
I'm like, you're cycling twodays a week?
Like, oh no.
SPEAKER_02 (34:03):
I was riding my bike on these beautiful rides, but
yeah, it didn't make adifference and I was starving
all the time.
And she said, I bet you'rehungry, and at 1200 calories a
day, you're going to gainweight, even though you're only
eating 1200 calories a daybecause my my metabolic issues
were just completely whack.
And so getting sick, I thinkhelped me in a lot of ways, but
(34:26):
it also, I mean, obviously mybody almost died, but it helped
me realize the power of eatinghealthy.
And it's been years, and I'mstill trying to eat healthy.
It is so difficult.
SPEAKER_01 (34:42):
It's hard for me to eat healthy, especially my
husband does the groceryshopping.
I am one of those lucky ladieswhose husband does all the
grocery shopping and thecooking, but in the same
respect, he's the one that buysthe food.
SPEAKER_02 (34:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
And he will buy ice cream.
SPEAKER_02 (34:56):
Oh, and I hate cooking.
I buy all the food.
SPEAKER_01 (34:58):
I don't mind cooking, but I always my cooking
always got judged.
So I was like, mm, do ityourself.
SPEAKER_02 (35:03):
I only cook for myself.
So I eat this really healthy,delicious food, but I don't
enjoy it.
I think if I wasn't workingfull-time and had a ton of
horses, I guess how this allties to horses is I had a horse
that was insulin resistant, andthat was awful.
Baby, baby, and call her baby.
(35:24):
I had a different name for her,but we ended up always talking
about her as baby, and she was aMustang that I adopted at two
years old.
Maybe she was less than two.
No, I think she was two.
She was two, and I had her untilshe was four, so I only had her
a couple years, and we were atthe point where I was gonna
start riding her, but I alwaysknew that there was something
wrong.
I always knew that there wassomething off, and I'm so glad
(35:49):
that I had that sense because Ithink if I had pushed her, I
think it would have been morepainful.
Right.
After having looked back on thewhole experience, I don't know
if there is anything I evercould have done to save her from
the fate she was headed towards.
SPEAKER_01 (36:06):
Eventually, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I think it would havetaken longer, but she got into a
bag of sweet feed and shefoundered.
And then from there, I could notget her metabolism under
control.
She just would not stop theinflammation stage of laminitis.
And she foundered in all fourfeet.
And it was months and months andmonths of drugs and comfort and
(36:32):
changing up her hay, trying tofigure out what the best hay was
for her.
SPEAKER_01 (36:37):
It was it was hard.
SPEAKER_02 (36:39):
It was so hard, and it was a journey, and it was
awful.
And I don't think that her bodywas ever going to be in line
with living the way adomesticated animal lives.
She was used to starvation.
Her metabolism was used tostarvation.
SPEAKER_01 (36:53):
Was built for that.
SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
Was built for that.
Her body was beautiful.
Her body was made for nature.
That horse never got hawkssores.
She never was bothered by flies.
I never had to groom her.
She was glowing.
It was the weirdest thing tohave this animal that was
basically perfect in so manyways.
I thought the way her body wasstructured was fantastic.
(37:16):
I just thought you were one ofthe most athletics.
SPEAKER_01 (37:18):
And she's a devil's garden must say, right?
SPEAKER_02 (37:19):
Devil's Garden.
And I fell in love with her onFacebook.
And then you and I went and gother.
She was perfect.
But after that found her, Icouldn't get her back.
SPEAKER_01 (37:30):
She was downhill.
SPEAKER_02 (37:31):
She had this weird way that she would always lie in
shavings.
She used to lie down all thetime, and I would make this nest
for her.
And I I thought of it like anursery.
But you know, looking back, Idon't know that she wasn't in
pain.
And that's why she was lyingdown all the time.
Yeah.
Because the Devil's Garden, ifyou go on the Devil's Garden
(37:52):
Facebook page, there are horses,they have a page you can follow.
A lot of them talk about how thehorses nest.
And if you put down shavings,that they get super psycho about
it and happy.
That was her gig right from thebeginning.
There's so much regret tied inwith her foundering and her
laminitis.
SPEAKER_01 (38:09):
I wish I could take that away from you.
I know, I do.
Because I don't think that youhave, in my opinion, from my
purview, that you have anythingto regret.
You didn't do anything wrong.
You didn't provide her with thesweet feed.
She got in there.
SPEAKER_02 (38:29):
And it was Bob's.
It was Bob's sweet feed.
SPEAKER_01 (38:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (38:32):
And it was his um his senior feed, and he was, you
know, at the end of his lifecycle.
SPEAKER_01 (38:36):
And he ate And but here's the thing
not gonna say normal, adomesticated horse, say one of
mine, one of them gets intosweet feed and eats half the
bag.
SPEAKER_02 (38:48):
Bob ate the other half.
SPEAKER_01 (38:49):
They're probably gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_02 (38:50):
Yeah, Bob was fine, she wasn't.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
They shared it together.
SPEAKER_01 (38:54):
So that's but that's my point.
That's why I wish I could takethat burden away from you.
And then and once you realizedyou you called the vet.
SPEAKER_02 (39:02):
You you had our stomach almost kind of pumped,
right?
Oh, we had both our stomachspumped.
We pumped hers first, and it wasgnarly.
It was 17 degrees out, and wewere out there for three hours.
SPEAKER_01 (39:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:13):
It was horrible.
SPEAKER_01 (39:14):
So you took every action that you should have
taken.
SPEAKER_02 (39:18):
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01 (39:18):
You know, when she all of a sudden became laminitic
and she started having issues,you you were on it.
You were on it with the thyroidmedicine.
I remember I remember feedingfor you when you had to go away
and all the stuff that you didfor her.
I mean, you did everything,everything possible.
SPEAKER_02 (39:37):
So many different types of interventions we tried
and nothing worked.
SPEAKER_01 (39:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
And I couldn't get her back to normal.
SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
No.
SPEAKER_02 (39:45):
I want when I say normal, I couldn't get her back
to pain-free living.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
And so I made Because when I looked at her, I
thought she looked fine.
And I that's just myinexperience with that sort of
thing.
And you kept telling me, no,feel this.
You know, you could feel the umthe pulses, you know, in all
four feet.
And oh my god.
SPEAKER_02 (40:03):
And they would always rage and they would rage
and not rage and rage and notrage.
And it was so difficult to it,and when I say difficult, I mean
harrowing.
It was a harrowing experience.
There wasn't any one thing thatever lasted long enough.
There was this one day when itwas her last day of meds, and
she was on some NSAIDs.
(40:25):
It worked for whatever reason.
This one day she felt fantasticand she was galloping and
playful.
And I just thought, that's myhorse.
That's the horse I remember.
That's the horse that I fell inlove with.
And the next day she was notherself.
And I knew this is never gonnaget better.
No matter what I do, there'salways gonna be this pain
(40:46):
factor.
And I didn't think that I couldtell the difference between her
being super okay and her beingin pain because she was always
in pain.
There was never gonna be a daywhen I could work her and feel
comfortable.
And so I called it and I let hereat alfalfa that morning.
She was so skinny at that pointbecause we were trying to cut
(41:07):
back on our feed.
So she was so happy.
She was so skinny, and we puther down, and it was not
something that I took lightly.
I oh, I'm gonna cry again.
As an equestrian, this was likethe worst, this isn't every
equestrian's nightmare.
Yeah is they get into the sweetfeed.
And in 40 years, I'd never had ahorse get into the sweet feed.
And you hear about these horrorstories when I was a teenager
(41:30):
growing up of all thesedifferent animals that had done
this.
And back then we knew less aboutlaminitis than we do now.
So my nightmare happened, andthen I had to let her go because
I wasn't gonna watch her be justokay for her whole life and then
go through periods of laminitisand foundry.
I'm not gonna do that to her herwhole life.
She was only four.
(41:50):
Right.
Imagine like a lifetime of pain.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (41:53):
Like that's like 12 more years, you know, if she
lived to 26, right?
SPEAKER_02 (41:57):
Yeah, no, thanks.
SPEAKER_01 (42:00):
Or 16.
My math is off.
SPEAKER_02 (42:02):
Okay.
But a couple months later, myfriend called me from SoCal, and
she was going through the sameexact thing.
Her horse, however, waslaminitic from cushions, and
he'd been diagnosed crazily.
He was diagnosed as aseven-year-old with cushions
within a month of my horse beingdiagnosed with cushions.
(42:23):
But my horse was a late teen.
He was 17 when he was diagnosed.
So as a seven-year-old, it wasreally weird to get that
diagnosis.
And then a few years had goneby, and at this stage, he was
14.
And so she had to call it.
And call it, I mean put himdown.
She reached out to me, and thenwe had a conversation, and I
(42:44):
said, Is he ever gonna not be inpain?
And she said, No.
And I said, Well, then you haveto figure it out.
You know, how do you want tomove forward?
How do you want your horse tolive?
What's the quality of life?
And I watched her videos, and Ifelt like I was watching me
going through my saga with baby,and she decided to let him go.
SPEAKER_01 (43:04):
You both made the right decision.
SPEAKER_02 (43:05):
There was nothing we could do.
No, and we had a conversationabout how the doctor was
actually thinking of putting herhorse on a zimpic.
And so then she said to me, youknow, it's not labeled for
equine use, but it was a risk,but they were gonna try it
because they had no idea whatelse to do.
SPEAKER_01 (43:26):
Yeah, but it's expensive, it's expensive.
SPEAKER_02 (43:27):
And she said to me, I can't afford it for myself,
and here I am gonna put my horseon it once a month.
Is that realistic?
And I was like, you know what?
There comes a time, and it'ssuch a difficult decision.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
It is.
Well, that's just horses ingeneral.
I mean, at what point do youlook at your pocketbook?
I mean, really, can you affordwhat it's gonna take?
SPEAKER_02 (43:50):
So you gotta do the right thing.
And it's hard.
It's so hard that we are boundby a pocketbook, but we are.
We are paying a pocketbook.
SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
On that lovely note.
unknown (44:01):
Sad note.
SPEAKER_01 (44:02):
So I guess the moral of this episode is what?
SPEAKER_02 (44:07):
For you.
What's the moral for you?
SPEAKER_01 (44:08):
The moral for me is be healthy.
I'm sick of worrying about anumber.
I'm really not caring about whatthe number is.
I'm currently at 161.
I have lost uh 20 pounds.
When I started, I was about 100and oh, okay, my math is off
again.
I was probably 170, so I've lost10.
(44:29):
About 10 pounds, not 20.
Wishful thinking.
Uh, but I don't want to worryabout that.
I want to fit into my clothes.
I want to be a good weight frommy horse.
I don't want to worry about anumber.
And yes, I am using a compoundof semaglide, air quote
zozempic, to help keep my weightin check.
(44:51):
I just feel like that's the bestroute for me.
SPEAKER_02 (44:54):
That's your health decision.
SPEAKER_01 (44:55):
It's my health decision.
And one day, and one day Iprobably will stop.
And I'm gonna have to realizethat I could gain the weight
back.
And I have to figure out how doI not gain the weight back.
And I don't know when that'sgonna be.
It's just an ever-changingjourney.
So, whatever journey you guysare on out there, you know, just
be authentic to yourself and beon your journey and don't worry
(45:18):
about what other people say.
Don't worry about, you know, thearticles in the you read online
that say, Oh, you're gonna getthe isempic neck.
You know what?
You were gonna get the neckanyway.
So just don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (45:27):
Rock on.
SPEAKER_01 (45:28):
Yeah, just rock it up.
Just rock it.
Yeah, rock the neck.
SPEAKER_02 (45:31):
I think the moral for me is to be continuously
thankful.
Oh my crayon.
To be continuously thankful forthe the health that I do have.
Yes.
Because I'm scared that if I getskinny, that I'm gonna have
another hospital visit where Ilose 30 pounds and I won't have
(45:53):
anything left.
Right.
I won't have any reserves.
And I know part of what got methrough a couple years ago was I
did have 30 pounds to lose.
And when I lost it, I I felt mybody eating itself, literally
consuming itself.
And I was so thankful that I hadthat reserve.
Yeah.
And now I'm worried about whatif I don't?
(46:15):
And this happens again.
And it could happen at anymoment, literally, with all of
my allergies.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (46:21):
So which worries me every time I don't hear from
you.
You're so confident.
That's why, because I texted youthis today and I said, Are you
ready for me?
And I didn't hear anything.
And I was like, screw it, I'mjust gonna go everywhere.
SPEAKER_02 (46:33):
She might be sick.
She might be dead.
Yeah.
But I think the moral of thestory for me is to do what I've
been doing, which is enjoy myphysicality at this stage of my
life.
Yeah.
And to know that the physicalityI have now is still very
capable.
Yeah.
And it's not the physicality ofmy 20-year-old body.
SPEAKER_01 (46:53):
No, and who cares?
The 20-year-old is gone.
No, I loved her though.
SPEAKER_02 (46:58):
We had so much fun together.
I know.
But I'm gonna keep enjoying thelevel of movement that I have
and be thankful for it.
SPEAKER_03 (47:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:07):
And I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna be sorry for or
shamed.
No.
Or, you know, the way that wefeel so much shame over our own
bodies.
SPEAKER_03 (47:17):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:18):
I fucking hate that.
I'm never gonna feel that wayabout my own body because she
does what I ask her to do.
SPEAKER_01 (47:24):
Yes.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (47:25):
And I'm thankful for what she can do.
SPEAKER_01 (47:28):
Yes.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
Well, toodles, everybody, andhave a wonderful week.
And we'll talk to you again.
Yep.
Toodles.
Toodles.
SPEAKER_02 (47:39):
Hey friends.
That's the end of today's ride.
We hope you enjoyed listening.
Don't forget to follow SaddleTalk with Sandy and Kara
wherever you get your podcasts.
Please leave us a review, shareus with a friend, and saddle up
with us next time as we ridethrough more stories, questions,
and our wild tangents.
Till then, friends, keep yourboots dusty and your hard hats
(48:01):
on.
We hope to see you out on thetrail.
SPEAKER_00 (48:03):
Danny and Kara stirrups swinging free.
Talking about life and love andmystery.
From coyotes to coffee, they'llcover it all with the sagebrush
blowing and the wild birds callsoast and shut up your boots.
We're hitting the track,saddletalks on, and we're not
looking back.
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