Equine Products (UK)
I have had the pleasure of working with Equine Products for the past 3 years. They were my first ever sponsor!
They came on board when I was in the middle of my mad shopping spree around Europe, USA and Australia to find a suitable string of horses to qualify for the Olympics. One by one we found the right horses, and they arrived from the four corners of the world into the maelstrom that was our Olympic preparations.
Each horse was an amazing individual, but the demands on each were extreme...to recover from mammoth transportation: Jean and Chico seperately spent over 24 hours travelling in a lorry from Germany, Adam from Italy, Magenta and Fiddle seperately from USA; to work calmly and confidently with myself-a rider completely new to this level of competition and this quality of horse; to acclimatise to the hive of activity that was the Fredericks yard; to reach the major level of fitness required for our qualification programme which took us yet again to every corner of Europe within a period of several months.
Looking back, it is truly amazing how well each horse coped. Much of it was down to the amazing support we received from Justin Ridley and his team. We needed a very careful feeding plan for each horse, and Equine Products came up trumps in everyway:
-FBW Chico-
Transvite, Flexivite, Biotrition, Everyday Electrolytes
Now that he is 14 years old, Chico has reached his performance peak which means that from now on, everything could become more and more difficult for him. Last year, we cleared 1.75m in the Highjump competition at Barbury Horse Trials and lead the dressage at Hartpury CIC***. As he develops in years, his joints could become stiff. I believe that a daily maintanance dose of Flexivite HA helps keep Chico supple and elastic and will keep him at the top of his game for a good few more years - he has certainly come into 2010 in even better form than I have known him!
-Jeans-
Transvite, Flexivite, Biotrition, Everyday Electrolytes
Jeans has a box foot. Although there was no concern at his vetting and he has never had a lame step since we have had him, we believe that prevention is better than treatment. Biotrition provides the correct nutrition for healthy hoof growth and my farrier has noticed a marked difference in his quality of foot since he started.
-Magenta-
Transvite, Flexivite, Biotrition, Haemavite B Plus, Selenavite, Premier E, No Ties, Everyday Electrolytes
For all of Maggie's brilliance, she is very lazy. Haemavite B Plus gives her a boost by assisting maximum levels of essential blood nutrients she needs when she's in hard work. On Haemavite B Plus she is much more lively and spritely, making my life much easier!
She is also a mare and so is prone to tying up. Having tied up once, we now have to be incredibly careful about her feed and work routine and on veterinary advice she is on Selenavite, a selenium supplement, and Premier E, a vitamin E supplement. We also add an acid based balancer, No Ties, which acts as a buffer to prevent the build up of lactic acid in the blood and muscles which leads to Azoturia. So far, since the first and only incident, we haven't had any issues with her.
-ESB Irish Fiddle-
Transvite, Flexivite, Biotrition, Everyday Electrolytes
Fiddle is quite a stressy horse. When we first had him he regularly went off his food and hay. For a long time, we agonised about his lack of appetite, however, since starting him on Transvite, a pro-biotic, he appears to have turned the page completely. Now he bangs his door louder than all the others first thing in the morning and stuffs his face at any opportunity. All of my horses get a scoop of Transvite in every feed.
