A Successful Badminton for All
It was lovely to be back at Badminton Horse Trials again this year, slightly dryer underfoot than last year with deck shoes being the footwear of choice rather than wellies! Having studied at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and spent many a day following the Beaufort hounds around the beautiful Badminton estate, it always feels slightly nostalgic being back. The Horse Trials is a great opportunity to catch up with old ‘Ciren’ friends who come back each year to watch the eventing…or in some cases spend the weekend shopping and enjoying a Pimms or two without managing to see a horse at all!!
Badminton Horse Trials is one of the biggest 5* events in the eventing calendar and is a fantastic opportunity to watch top class riders from all over the world. We were particularly proud of Dengie supported rider Alex Bragg and Quindiva who, after a fantastic cross-country round and being one of only three to go clear in the show jumping, climbed from 51st place after dressage to finish on the podium in 3rd place. Quindiva is fed on Dengie Alfa-A Oil with a balancer, which obviously gives her plenty of slow-release energy to compete and just goes to show, horses can compete at the top on a fibre-based diet!
Working on the Dengie stand is always a great place to chat to customers, both old and new, offering nutrition advice for a wide range of different horses and ponies as well as some other species too. Dengie Meadow Lite with Herbs, which we launched at the end of last year, was very popular and it was fantastic to hear how well customers had been getting on with it.
During the quieter part of Sunday when the final ten were show jumping, we gained a new temporary team member ‘Ozwold’ who belongs to a friend of mine who went in to watch the jumping. He definitely brought the cute factor to the stand and thoroughly enjoyed all the attention and posing for photos!
There were some great bargains to be found in the shopping village with us all taking home goodies for ourselves and our horses. Food is always a strong talking point amongst the Dengie team and we enjoyed some brilliant brownies from the Pudding Waggon, who we visit each year at both Badminton and Burghley.
As a bit of a side note, I’d like to give a big shout out to the lady on the Sunday who was armed with baby wipes and helped when I managed to cover myself in duck sauce while trying to eat my lunch… Thank you!!
Thankfully, the traffic home was kind to us as we were all a little tired by Sunday evening and very much looking forward to being back to our own beds. Thank you to the team at Badminton for all their hard work that goes into organising such a fantastic week. I can’t wait to go back again next year!
