The Natural Release® Origin Story!
Many of our animal health customers don’t know that we also have “Natural Release® Muscle & Joint” for Humans.
This is the “Natural Release® Muscle & Joint” Story
In 2013, Kathleen Busfield, the creator of all Four Oaks Products, and the owner of Four Oaks Farm Sport Horse Recovery Center was told by a Southern California top vet that one of the horses in her training program needed to be retired. The horse had muscle and tendon issues in the leg, which prevented further show jumping.
For you horse people, here is a little more context… The horse had been getting hock injections for years. Over time, as typically happens, those injections stopped working. For you non-horse folks, this is the equivalent of getting knee injections to alleviate pain.
So Kathleen, who is well known to go into Mad Scientist mode when she receives news like this, researched and tested and researched for several months, ultimately creating the first generation of Natural Release®. It was, of course, all-natural, as that has always been one of her personal mandates when creating new products.
Read More About Natural Release
She began applying her creation to the horse’s legs. (Back then Natural Release® was simply called, Kath’s concoction). She used it aggressively for 10 days, and then called the vet back for another evaluation.
After months of lameness, and to everyone’s astonishment, the horse passed a full vet check. After only 10 days! No pain, no lameness. Everything checked out perfectly. With a confused shrug, the vet officially released the horse back into light work.
Long story short, due to Kathleen’s outside-the-box thinking, this horse spent another 5 years in the arena as a Hunter Jumper – instead of being retired and sent out to pasture.
Fast forward two years:
By now, Kathleen had done on-the-ground testing with hundreds of horses with incredible results. As she tested, she found more and more uses to add to those she had already witnessed. Initially, she knew it worked great on muscle stress, strain and fatigue – as well as tendon stain/sprains. Somewhat later she discovered it worked to reduce inflammation and joint pain unlike anything she had ever used.
Be sure to stop back by soon. We will go through a LONG list of all the things we know for a fact that Natural Release helps. Some of them you would never guess!!
SO WHAT ABOUT THE HUMAN LABEL?
Funny answer. After years of tens of thousands of horse owners using Natural Release@ on their horses and themselves (All horse owners will try products on themselves before putting them on their horse. I guess you can consider this reverse animal testing, HA!) people started gifting a bottle to their non-horse owner friends. Well, that friend would receive the bottle in the mail, and quite understandably confused, would ask, “Hey Bob…. Why did you send me horse stuff?”
So, after answering literally thousands of Facebook and Instagram inquiries, asking “Can I use the stuff for horses on my [ insert various issues like knees, back, arthritis, plantar fasciitis, etc],” We decided to go through the process to get the human label on the market.
That is now done and Now you have heard the rest of the story.
Cheers.
Heath, VP
