Winter 2008
Hello and welcome to the winter edition of Dengie Club Quarterly.
Winter is still upon us but at Dengie we are already firmly looking towards the spring and, hopefully, some dry, sunny weather after so much rain!
Christmas is a welcome cause for celebration during the dark days of winter and the London International Horse Show at Olympia always manages to capture the festive mood. In 2007 the show celebrated its centenary and what a fabulous show it was - for spectators and British equestrian sport. If you were not lucky enough to be there, you can read about the highlights in our report.
In the last issue of DCQ I announced the great news that Dengie has been asked to be an official supplier to Hartpury College in 2008 and just before Olympia the college hosted its first top class show jumping event in the fabulous new international indoor Hartpury Arena. It was a spectacular success, with spectators enjoying a host of other attractions as well, including scurry driving, the Circomedia Air Trapeze, the Longdole Polo Club, the Sussex Lusitanos and the Independent Horse Display Team demonstrating their unique combination of horse riding and extreme sports - which included galloping blindfolded across the arena! The show was a triumph for Girl Power with mares winning all the major classes including the Puissance, Bronze, Silver and Gold Tours. Special congratulations go to Gloucestershire rider Angie Thompson, who became the first woman to win a Puissance for 25 years when she and her home-produced mare, Oksana W, cleared 2.08m to win the Dengie-sponsored class on the second day of the show. Angie feeds all her horses Dengie Alfa-A Oil and it was great to see her winning ‘our’ class on her brave little mare, whose diminutive stature and huge heart reminded me of Lucinda Fredericks’ Badminton winner Headley Britannia. One of the darkest moments of the winter was seeing the pictures of the neglected horses rescued from a farm in Amersham. Cruelty to animals is always distressing and this was one of the worst cases, with 31 horses found dead. The RSPCA, Horse Trust, ILPH, Blue Cross and Redwings Horse Sanctuary — with the help of commercial horse transporters — carried out a massive rescue operation to recover the remaining 111 animals, many of which were in a critical condition. Although three had to be put down the rest are reportedly recovering slowly. Equine charities rely on public support and funding and as equine welfare is close to our hearts Dengie has made a donation towards the care and rehabilitation of the rescued horses and ponies. Hopefully there may be changes in legislation that will prevent anything like this happening again. As I have already mentioned, at Dengie we are focussing on the spring and in this issue we provide some advice on how to ‘spring clean’ your horse’s diet and deal with the problems that can occur both during the winter and the transition to spring.
In the last issue of DCQ our head of nutrition Katie Williams explored some of the confusion that surrounds the subject of carbohydrates and this time she turns her attention to protein in our regular feature Everything Explained. Don’t forget, if you have any queries about equine nutrition you can contact our award-winning Feedline on 0845 345 5115.
The days may still be too short to allow for riding after work (unless you are lucky enough to have the use of a floodlit school!) but don’t worry - spring and the lighter evenings are just around the corner.
Emma
