Good Horses and Good Food in Louisiana!!

I had the wonderful opportunity this past weekend to visit our friends at Live Oak Arabians in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Live Oak http://www.liveoakarabians.com/ was having one of their regular sales, and featured in the sale were some horses that had been raised completely on Ultium Growth. Phil Witter, the fourth generation owner of the family farm helped us with the preliminary testing of Ultium Growth before it was available to our customers. After extensive research at our facility (literally years) we go to the field and find professional top rate farms that are willing to help us test the diets in the "real world". Mr.Witter and Live Oak were willing to put approximately 40 young horses on a test in 2008, feeding Ultium Growth and a control diet, and raise them completely on those diets to maturity. All the while allowing our research team access to his farm and horses to monitor their growth and health. You can see some of the test horses and work we did here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_eCLPk8Idc along with Mr. Witter's comments. The horse business group at Purina truly feels like doing the right thing for the horse is what will make us successful in this business, Ultium Growth is an outstanding example of that philosophy. It shows how we can grow healthy, strong, vibrant, young horses better than ever. The fact that people like the Witter's are willing to trust Purina with their foals on a brand new diet is inspiring to say the least, and they help make the world a better place for the horse because of it! In the picture above are some of the people that made it happen, we are presenting Mr. Witter with a plaque of appreciation at the beginning of the sale. Dr. Appleton is a nutritional consultant that was present throughout the test, Dan Robichaux is the Purina District Sales Manager for the area, and Buster Smith owns the local Purina dealer that helped handle the feed- Dodge City Farm Supply in Denham Springs Louisiana. Each one of the people in the picture were absolutely instrumental in getting this test to work, from checking on the horses (Thanks Stacie!) to making sure the feed was where it needed to be when it needed to be there (Thanks Buster and Dan!) The biggest thanks goes to the Witter's for opening up their door and helping Purina do the job the right way! In the picture left to right: Phil Witter (holding the plaque); Dr. Stacie Appleton (also holding the plaque); Me!; Dan Robichaux; Buster Smith.