14 SIDELINES AUGUST 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
1970s, we experienced the
rise of the Profit Food Industry.
Slowly, but steadily, GMOs
and synthetic supplements
derived from petrochemicals
and coal tar invaded every
aspect of human and animal
food production. Soybeans,
corn, wheat and sugar beets
are major GMO crops. If
people understood the process
that makes corn oil, giving it
the nutritional equivalent of
used motor oil, would they
still feed it to their horses?
We’re stressing the horse’s
GI tract, making it work very
hard to digest substances
that aren’t bio-available, and
that compromises the horse’s
entire system.”
Supplemental Background
Tigger spent years in the
human supplement industry.
When the idea took root to
start an equine supplement company, she developed and tested
five equine supplements. In 1988 Tigger launched Equi-Genesis,
a division of Solgar, the vitamin company. For the next 10 years,
Equi-Genesis supplements sold in the U.S.A., Canada and
Europe.
In 1998, American Home Products bought Solgar and Equi-
Genesis. Tigger signed a non-compete agreement and redirected
her time and energy to focus on training and competing Lionheart.
Two years later, Tigger had her first serious exposure to whole
food nutrition when she took a consulting job with Mega Food in
New Hampshire.
“At first, I was skeptical.
It sounded good in theory,
but I had been trained in
nutrients that were made
in a lab,” said Tigger.
“They looked the same
under a microscope as
a nutrient from food and
I questioned if there
was any real difference
— until I learned that
the lab nutrients were
manufactured
from
petrochemicals and coal
tar derivatives and had no
relationship to food.”
Tigger
wanted
to
know more, especially
after her work with Mega
Food introduced her to
the raw food movement.
Research led her to a
world health specialist
whose study of viruses
supported the fact that
viruses thrive in an
acidic environment. The
typical American diet of
highly processed foods
increases blood acidosis.
“My evolution from nutrients
made in a lab to nutrients from
food began when I started
applying what I was learning
to my own life, ” said Tigger.
“I started eating a raw, organic
diet with sprouted seeds and
snacks from my dehydrator.
I lost a few pounds and I felt
really good. Changing my
personal eating habits to whole
food nutrition and finding the
acid/alkaline balance in my
own body led me to take a
close look at our industrial
food system. Research led me
to GMOs and the herbicide
Roundup®, but I hadn’t
yet made the connection
between processed foods
and the chemical ingredients
in horse and dog feeds and
supplements. My teacher
for that turned out to be
my Hanoverian gelding,
Lionheart.”
You Are What You Eat
When Tigger was studying the raw food business out in
California, she spoke with a marathon athlete who said that the
body only heals itself when it’s at rest. “But when you feed the body
‘stressed food,’ you increase stress on the GI tract, which means
that the body has less time to heal and repair itself, because it
must work harder and longer to digest that food,” Tigger said. “The
health of the GI tract is connected to the health of the liver, immune
system, the joints — everything starts with digestion. What we eat,
what we feed the horses
and the dogs, is critical
to health.”
Tigger
cited
the
increasing awareness
about food and how
even medical doctors
are beginning to tell
patients,
let’s look at
your diet and see what
you’re eating.
This is a
welcome change from
prescribing yet another
drug or advising surgery.
The continuing rise in
digestive disturbances
in humans and animals
raises red flags about
what’s being ingested.
“It’s been a slower
awakening on the equine
side, because we’ve
been indoctrinated by
feed companies that we
can’t possibly feed our
horses without them
— that’s just not true,”
Tigger said.
Concern about GMO
Tigger and her horse Pi (now retired).
Photo courtesy of Tigger Montague
Tigger Montague
Photo courtesy of Tigger Montague
