The show opened its doors once again to horsey folk around the UK eager to grab themselves a bargain and Equesure was prepared! After the success of last year's event the team, headed up by Rosie this year, packed up the van and was on the road heading for Stoneleigh park.
We were blessed with the weather and it made setup a little less eventful with the milder temperatures on our side. Hall 3 proved to be a fun hall to be in with the Blue Cross and Super X Country as neighbours and we were glad to see them back this year.
The team were lucky enough, in between chatting with visitors to the stand, to see some of the show's highlights. Charlotte Dujardin wowed the audience with some great training tips and the celebrated Sir Lee Pearson shared insights into his training routine.
Main Arena aside, there was plenty going on in the Rescue Centre, where you could meet and greet Hovis the famous equine blogger and Ben Atkinson explored groundwork for a more responsive horse in the Country & Stable Arena.
Over the course of the three days, Equesure offered everyone the chance to win a First Aid and Treat hamper in our free prize draw and we have to say, the younger visitors were very impressed with our offering!
Who doesn't like a free goodie bag?!
We recently embarked on a new partnership with THAROS™ and we were delighted to welcome them onto our stand this year. Here's a bit of background on what THAROS™ can offer horse owners:
THAROS™ was born out of collaboration between Dr Rosemary Waring (Honorary Reader of Toxicology, Birmingham University) and Professor John Hunter (Consultant Emeritus in Gastroenterology, Addenbrooke's Hospital) in the area of gut health, malfermentation and the microbiome. Tharos is rooted in evidence-based research and nurturing big ambitions.
The Company was founded in 2016 with the objective of finding scientific solutions for Animal Gut Health and produces and sells EquiNectar which is a natural feed supplement that is scientifically proven to rebalance gut health, maximise benefits from feed and improves your horse's overall condition.
As with the year before, the chocolates went down a storm and we had great fun handing out free Equesure saddlecloths to everyone who purchased equine insurance from us, white seemed the colour of the year!
It was once again a great success for the Equesure team and the girls loved every moment and even had a chance to go bargain hunting themselves.
All that's left to say is see you again in 2020!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.