Behind the Scenes at Blenheim: Advice, Talks & Meeting Customers

In September, several members of our nutrition, sales and marketing teams enjoyed spending time on our stand at the Agria Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, which this year played host to the FEI Eventing European Championship.

We were kept busy from Wednesday through to Sunday, giving feed advice and meeting lots of lovely new and existing Dengie customers, as well as catching up with some of the Dengie supported riders who were competing at the event. It was fantastic to have so many visitors come to the stand to tell us how well their horses are looking on their Dengie feeds.

Probably the most common nutrition enquiry over the week, and one which has been echoed a lot recently on our feedline, is the concern about a potential forage shortage for the upcoming winter. Some of the top tips we discussed were:

• Weighing your horse’s forage to gauge appetite and reduce waste
• Utilising a combination of forage sources, such as replacing a portion of the hay with straw for good doers or overweight horses
• Using options such as Dengie Meadow Lite with Herbs or Hi-Fi Lite to replace 1-2kg of hay and help extend supplies
• Slowing the rate of eating by dividing the forage and forage replacers between as many small meals as possible
• Using a large football or some very large smooth pebbles on top of the chopped fibre to slow the rate of consumption

For those keen to learn more, Tracey Hammond and I have since hosted a webinar on all things forage, and the recording is available to watch here.

In addition, I was grateful to be asked to take part in two of the panel discussions in the BETA Equestrian Hub Live tent on the Friday, alongside Dengie’s Technical Manager, Dr Katie Williams. The first event was a careers panel where I was joined by Michael Darley, an equestrian agent from Country Direct; Rhea Freeman, an equestrian PR and social media adviser; and Jackie Potts, a professional groom. It was fascinating to hear their stories and background to how they got into these roles.

Up next was a nutrition session, during which Katie and I were joined by Ruth Bishop, who is chair of the BETA Feed Committee, to talk about feeding the competition horse and reducing the risk of prohibited substances. Katie also gave advice on seeking reliable nutrition guidance for horse owners, and shared details of the new Equine Nutritionist and Feed Adviser Register (ENFAR) which is currently open to applications and will be launching soon (watch this space!).

Thank you to everyone who attended the talks and visited the Dengie stand over the week; we hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did!