A trail ride during a family camping vacation in Tennessee ignited Brianna Brubaker’s passion for horses. She was 3 then and “I talked non-stop about horses from that moment on.”
Today, Brianna has turned that passion into a profession – Double B Performance, LLC, in the Northwest Ohio town of Fayette. A Quarter Horse owner and fan, Brianna offers boarding, care and training in basic horsemanship and riding, plus barrel racing, pole bending and roping.
Experimenting with horse care supplies and products that help her own horses led her to represent them to clients and other horse owners.
Arabian Initiation
Brianna’s first horses were two rescued Arabians. They were brothers and lived in the family’s backyard, where Brianna’s engineer father built a small stable. She was only 6 then, but caring for the horses became part of her daily responsibility. “My parents helped out and showed us how to do things, but mainly it was our responsibility.”
A few years later, Brianna furthered her knowledge and horsemanship skills through the wonderful youth education programs offered by 4-H. She was riding Quarter Horses by then and segued successfully into the high school rodeo circuit with two of the four horses she still owns.
As she focused on making a career of her equestrian passions, Brianna realized that her own horses’ experience with good products was an ideal way to introduce them to fellow horse owners. And Double B Performance, LLC, was born.
Airlite Premium Cardboard Bedding was one of the first products Brianna took on. She had not heard of cardboard bedding before encountering it at a competition. “I’d never seen it and it looked unusual,” she confesses.
Sharing Insights
“I had horses with breathing issues and the dust and everything else in their environment was really getting to them,” Brianna explains. “I tried all these different beddings – from pellets to pine shavings – and nothing really suited them.
“Airlite turned out to be just what I needed, so I called Green Horse Brands to get some at home.”
She noticed a difference in her horses’ behavior and health right away. “I have one horse who likes to sniff the bedding and coughed a lot. When we first switched, he stopped coughing and just all-around acted better and seemed to be breathing better.”
Which is not surprising. Along with hay, bedding is the biggest source of tiny dust particles that cause respiratory problems for horses. When in a bedded stall, horses spend much of their time with their nostrils nestled in the bedding.
Whether they’re eating, nudging around for food or resting their head while lying down, they are inhaling invisible dust particles that irritate and inflame their respiratory tract. Walking around in their still stirs up dust particles that float into and linger in their breathing zone.
Less Dust = Better Breathing
Reducing dust in the horses’ environment is veterinarian’s #1 recommendation for preventing or managing equine respiratory issues like asthma. Made of clean, pre-consumer cardboard, Airlite bedding is virtually dust-free. It also neutralizes ammonia odors that are another harmful respiratory irritant commonly present in the barn.
Airlite’s respiratory benefits are boosted by its durability and value. “I notice a lot of difference between Airlite and other bedding,” Brianna reports. “One of my horses is a terror in the stall! He pees, poops and circles so much that he goes through other bedding really fast. I’ll put it down and it’s gone the next day.
“When we switched to Airlite, I could go a week or two,” Brianna continues. “Because it’s so absorbent and it doesn’t break down to tiny particles.”
Brianna is also a fan of Airlite’s companion product, Thymox Botanical Disinfectant. “I love it! I use it in my barn to clean all the buckets and equipment, so no disease-causing viruses can spread. I used it to clean out the mangers in my horse trailer – which were a little disgusting with hay and green gunk. Thymox took everything away!”
The young horsewoman has discovered Thymox to be a great household cleaner, too. “I love that it doesn’t have a strong, weird scent. It has a good scent.”
Entrepreneurial Endeavors
Double B Performance, LLC, also represents Equilix and Equipride products and Flair Nasal Strips. Like Airlite and Thymox, Brianna took them on after seeing their benefits firsthand with her own horses.
She’s also started a side business with 02 Buckskin Boutique of novelty clothing, apparel and gifts.
From that first fateful trail ride, Brianna has put her horse owning and caring experience to the best use of helping others provide the best for their equally beloved animals.