12 SIDELINES AUGUST 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Continued on page 14
seeds, brewer’s yeast and oranges — all certified organic and non-
GMO, all high in arginine. The bars also contained organic ginger
extract, used in Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine, for
greater increase in circulation. She formed bars and dehydrated
them. After about three weeks on the new bars, Lionheart looked
so much sounder that she called Dr. Ober to re-examine her
horse. The verdict: Lionheart was ready to dance again.
Tigger and her horse trained and competed into the following
year. When Lionheart began struggling with one-tempis Tigger
decided that it was time to retire her gallant horse. A diagnosis
of kissing spine supported her decision. Lionheart had taken
Tigger from Training Level to Grand Prix.
Lionheart, now 27, continues to enjoy his
life of leisure at Tigger’s farm.
BioStar is Born
Tigger and Dr. Ober tested the whole
foods theory by providing the bars inspired
by Lionheart to a number of horses that
showed no response to pharmaceuticals or other therapies. At the
end of the Florida show season, Dr. Ober told Tigger she should
make the “Furnace EQ” bars available to all horses.
She wasn’t keen about getting back into the supplement
business, but she couldn’t ignore the results achieved by
Lionheart’s bars. She dealt with the usual start-up details of
funding and figuring out how to expand her kitchen operation of
sprouting and dehydrating without losing valuable nutrients. With
a group of friends, she formed High Spirit Equine Products, LLC,
aka Theracell, but in 2010 Tigger changed the public name to
BioStar.
“All of our ingredients are USDA Certified Organic or Non-GMO
Project Verified,” Tigger said. “Organic is not a marketing term
although it is used as such. Organic means that the soil has not
been exposed to chemical fertilizers or sprayed with RoundUp®
or DEET or 2,4-D, a derivative of Agent Orange. Organic means
that the soil has been taken care of in a way that enhances the
micro-biome of the soil. That, to me, is the most important part of
organic. They can’t use GMOs or industrial sludge or pesticides
or herbicides.
“Organic is the way we manage the soil to make sure that the
crops harvested have the healthy bacteria, enzymes, minerals
and fungi — the ecological community of micro-organisms found
in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the GI tract of horses and
dogs,” Tigger continued. “For me, that’s probably one of the most
important reasons to buy organic — healthy food from healthy soil
supports a healthy gut, which is essential
for a resilient immune system.”
After her “awakening” to the importance
of real food, Tigger experimented on
her own horses, working with organic,
non-GMO food components — Speedi-
Beet (non-GMO beet pulp sourced from
England), alfalfa cubes, flax seeds, oats
and barley — to provide the right balance of fiber, protein, fat and
carbohydrates. When called in to consult on a former Olympic
horse suffering from gastric and hind-gut ulcers, she observed
that the horse was listless, withdrawn and totally oblivious to his
surroundings and suggested that they feed this horse beet pulp,
alfalfa cubes and flax seeds. The following day the vet on the
case called to let her know that the horse loved the food and was
hanging his head out of the stall, interested in the activity in the
barn.
“That horse was a great teacher about the powerful effect of
whole foods — I didn’t expect him to respond that quickly,” said
Tigger. “Feeding horses is really pretty simple. What I’m doing
isn’t new or revolutionary. My grandfather fed whole food. We’ve
been feeding oats to horses for hundreds of years. Back in the
Lionheart’s bucket of feed
components
Photo by Tigger Montague
BioStar products
Photo courtesy of BioStar
“What we eat, what we
feed the horses and the
dogs, is critical to health.”
— Tigger Montague
Making BioStar bars
