Amerigo and Saracen join forces
Amerigo and Saracen join forces
Leading equestrian brands Saracen Horse Feeds and Amerigo joined forces with Wadswick one of the South West’s largest retailers to invite their customers to west Wilts Equestrian Centre for a day of fascinating discussions and demo’s.
The topic of the day was enhancing the performance of the Event horse and from the outset it proved to be captivating for all attending.
Lizzie Drury Head Nutritionist from Saracen Horse Feeds kicked off the proceedings With 3Feeding the Eventer” explaining the feeding regimes for sports horses, what to do and what not to do and gave plenty of top tips.
Following on from this Dr Charlotte Sinclair from B&W Equine vets gave an interesting talk on “Optimising Equine Performance” including looking at stress related conditions such as ulcers and how to combat them.
After a break for lunch as the temperatures soared, Peter Menet from Amerigo saddles based in Switzerland gave an in-depth look at the physiology and anatomy of the horse and how this affects the fit of the Amerigo saddle and how he measures for a correct fit. The guinea pig for Peter’s demonstration was one of Carl Hester’s young horses, an 8yo called Barolo. Lizzie gave the audience an insight as to how this horse was fed to manage it’s rather sharp temperament and then Peter pointed out the weak areas of the horse and where problems areas may occur without correct saddle fitting.
Then the assembled guests were treated to a lecture/demo from Gold medal winning Olympian and Saracen Ambassador Carl Hester. Carl trains many event riders and he proceeded to give leading eventer Nick Gauntlett, riding The Court Jester a great informative session. He started by looking at the horses basic paces, its working paces and then asked Nick to worked on asking the horse for more collection which would then give it more elevation and cadence in its work to gain the higher marks.
Carl then followed this demo by teaching Sam Thurman-Baker on the horse we had previously seen Barolo. This elegant chestnut we were told was very naughty as a young horse spinning around and bolting if another horse came towards it after being crashed into and frightened as a youngster. After it being sold, it came back to Carl a few months ago and they were beginning to start advanced training now the problems had been resolved. It was usually the ride of Charlotte Dujardin so for Sam Thurman-Baker it was quite a difficult task to ride such a sharp horse that she never ususally rides in front of a crowd.
Barolo had lovely basic paces and then when asked for more collection you could see why Carl had high hopes for this fabulous if a bit quirky red head! You could see that by moving the horse backwards and forwards within the paces you could add more lift and cadence.
They gave the horses and riders plenty of breaks as working in the indoor arena on a day when the temperatures reached over 30degrees was quite tiring for all concerned.
The day ended with a Q&A session with Carl and the other professionals and with a free yard visit and feed check for everyone who attended, pus a prize draw and superb lunch the lucky Wadswick customers went away feeling inspired ready to tackle their own eventing.