Formula 707 Featured User
A conversation with Stran Smith
Stran Smith is not your typical tie-down roper. For one thing, at 37, he’s no spring chicken. For another, not every cowboy on the circuit is married to a former Miss Rodeo America nor travels with his family to rodeos in a luxury tour bus. And for a third, not many tie-down ropers come back from a potentially career-ending stroke to be an eight-time qualifier for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Stran is currently ranked fifth in the world standings with earnings of $32,463, so it looks like he’s well on his way to another appearance at NFR.
In addition to his accomplishments as a roper, Stran is well known as a horseman’s horseman – twice having his mounts named AQHA Horse of the Year – who believes in doing everything he can to keep his horses in top condition. We caught up with him in between rodeos in Huntsfield, Texas and Laughlin, Nevada to talk about Formula 707 and the care and feeding of performance horses.
How long have you been in rodeo?
16 years, professionally. My daddy was a rancher and I grew up on a ranch, though, so in a lot of ways I’ve been around it since before I was even born.
You’re married and have a couple of kids don’t you?
Yes sir. Two boys. Stone is four and Scout is two.
Do they travel with you?
Oh yes, we have a big bus that we tour in. My wife and boys go pretty much everywhere with me. It’s a lot of fun. Home is wherever we are. I’m on the road 200 days out of the year.
Do you raise horses?
I have had a few young horses and whatnot, but as busy as we are and as much as we’re gone, no, I don’t. Every once in awhile I’ll keep a young horse around but it’s so tough — you know, you have to be there where you can have hands on and be there to ride them pretty much daily.
How many horses do you keep in your string?
I usually have three that are number ones. And then I try to keep at least one that’s coming along, so I’ll usually have anywhere from three to five.
Right now my main one is Destiny, she’s my mare, she’s 15. Then I got two more horses right behind her – Rooster, he’s a 10-year-old – he’s what you might say right at the beginning of his career. Then I have another older horse, he’s 16, and his name’s Rock.
I remember you talking about Rock the last time we talked. So you’ve had him for awhile?
I’ve had him for about three years.
These are all Quarter horses?
All registered Quarter horses. A Quarter horse is the only thing for my bit.
How did you get started using Formula 707?
Well, I’ve always been a person that tries to take better care of my horses than I do myself, and it just seemed like to me that Formula 707 had all of the things that I was looking for. It’s easy to be confused, you know, like looking at vitamins and things for yourself, but it seemed to me that 707 was an honest product that had what I was needing and wanting.
Is it the quality of ingredients?
It’s more than just the ingredients – it’s the actual explanation of what I was looking for. For example, with the Thiamax. I wanted a calming agent that was not a drug but was a natural calming agent. They explain very specifically what helps calm a horse and take a little bit of the nervousness and edginess off them.
In my event, the calmer and more natural a horse can be the better. They’re put in some real high pressure; really highly intensive stress situations for nothing more than to thrill the crowd. You know, they turn the music up and there are people there right behind them and it’s loud and they’re in unfamiliar surroundings – even and old veteran horse can get nervous in these situations. And those are usually big money situations, where I might be a bit more tight myself, and a horse can read that. If you can have something that makes them just a little bit calmer and takes just two percent of the edge on them off, that’s what I was looking for and that’s what I found in Thiamax.
And then you go right on. The Calming Essentials that they’ve just come out with is a great product. It’s not a drug, so it works naturally. It’s a great alternative to something like Ace which is a drug that takes away their motor skills. Now, you need all their motor skills – they need to be at the top of their game – which I think they can be [with Formula 707]. But using Calming Essentials with Thiamax means you get even more of a calming effect, so those are two products I’m real high on.
What other Formula 707 products do you use?
Of course the Joint Essentials. I never let them come off the Joint Essentials. Even when they go home, it’s something they get every day no matter what. I feel like that’s so important because they are giving you 100 percent every day, so I want to make sure that I’m doing everything I can do to keep them feeling as good as I possibly can.
Is there anything else you use on a daily basis?
I use the Biostride Trainers Formula, you know, for their feet. So I give them that to keep their hooves in shape. And occasionally if one of them is having a tough day, you know with changing climates, or if one of them has gotten hot and done a lot of sweating, or if you’re hauling hard, I’ll hit them with Restore for a couple of days in a row. I like the tube because it’s more like a shot – you know they’re getting it.
This is the cowboy logic behind it. They’re put in some pretty tough situations – I know it’s tough on me – and they can’t talk to me and tell me if something’s wrong. So it’s a precautionary deal – I don’t want to put them in a position where they do dehydrate, because they are all athletes, you know, highly muscled-up, highly tuned, and I just don’t want to take a chance on them colicking. A day off with them is no good for me. If they can’t go then I’m in trouble.
I also use the Glo-n-Go every day. When I bought my mare, she didn’t look very good — her coat was dull; her hair was a little bit long and kind of dead-looking. I started using the Glo-n-Go and I’ll tell you she looks like a halter horse now. I can’t believe the comments I get from people – the way she looks is just unbelievable. I really think it’s come from the Glo-n-Go. That stuff works.