We were lucky enough to be invited to the Saracen Trade Seminar at The Corse Lawn Hotel in Gloucester on the 28th of March 2024. The event promised to be a mix of educational feed advice to pass onto our Redpost customer base, and a once in a lifetime yard visit and demonstration with Olympian Carl Hester MBE. As you can imagine, we were thrilled to be given this opportunity.
Why choose Saracen Horse Feeds?
To start the morning talks, we were introduced to some of the team at Saracen, and began learning all about the differences between Saracen Horse Feeds and other leading equine feed brands.
Notable differences include:
- Low feed rates
- Scientifically proven
- Innovators
- Fixed Formulation
- Sustainability
- No NIS (Nutritionally Improved Straw)
- 20kg bags
- Highly palatable
What’s in the Bag?
Saracen’s Senior Registered Nutritionist, Lizzie Drury MSc, then took the reins with an in-depth breakdown of ingredients and technologies used to create each product.
All raw materials in a bag of Saracen Horse Feed undergo stringent quality control procedures to fall in line with UFAS (universal Feed Assurance Scheme), and NOPS (Naturally Occurring Prohibited Substances). Current regulations on feed are far more rigorous than those of supplements, and restrict the use of medicinal claims unless there is thorough research to support them.
All ingredients are listed on the label of the bag, from the most prominent materials to the least. The label also includes information of the batch number and best before date, allowing any issues to be traced back to production. Therefore, it’s really important to keep your feed bag handy, or keep note of the batch number for a couple of months in case of problems (which occur very rarely).
What New Balancers do Saracen Produce?
Lizzie’s talk then followed onto information regarding the new balancers, Shape-Up and Competition-Fit-Balancer, that Saracen have introduced.
Shape-Up, the low calorie option for good-doers has had positive effects on horses with EMS when used in conjunction with a calorie-controlled diet and exercise. (Available on Click & Collect).
The Competition-Fit-Balancer is aimed at elite performance horses that still struggle with their weight. The inclusion of Palatability Plus, alongside a new encapsulated red apple flavour, stimulates appetite, encouraging the horse to eat even in stressful environments. Live yeast and Acid Buf support an optimum stomach environment and help manage those horses with compromised digestive function. (Please contact us to order).
What did you do at Carl Hester’s Yard?
After the Saracen talks, we headed over to Carl’s yard. We were greeted by Carl and his friendly dogs, and he showed us into his indoor school for the start of the demonstration.
First up was Charlotte Dujardin and her lovely 5 year old, Secret Agent (AKA James). Carl talked us through their warm up, with James working in a lovely loose frame. They then moved into a more connected frame, where we could really see how powerful this horse will become in the future. Carl expressed his excitement about the pair, and we’re looking forward to following their progress.
We felt highly privileged to witness this stunning young horse at the beginning of his career, as we could see his fabulous paces and attitude to work were incredible for such a young stallion, coupled with Charlotte’s inspirational riding.
Next, we were joined by Jayden Brown and his Grand Prix chestnut 10 year old gelding, Quincy. Jayden, a very talented Australian rider, is training with Carl in the hope of being selected for the Australian team at the Paris Olympics. Carl explained to us that Jayden needs to be scoring around 73% to secure his place on the team. He compared this to the GB team, which are currently around 77%.
We were shown by Jayden and Quincy some of the more complicated elements of a Grand Prix test, including canter pirouettes, passage, half pass, and changes, which were talked through by Carl. He highlighted what the judges are looking for in each movement. He also took us back to basics with walk, halt, and rein back, explaining how important these elements are at every level. We really hope Jayden makes it to Paris, and look forward to catching him on the TV.
Finishing this once-in-a-lifetime visit, we were introduced to two equine celebrities. Valegro and Uthopia, now both in their early 20s, were looking in incredibly good health, as you’d expect on this Olympic yard.
We were offered the opportunity to meet and have photos taken with the pair, creating a memory we’ll cherish forever. They were both total gentlemen, and clearly used to all the attention.
Lizzie, Saracen’s Nutritionist explained how privileged she has felt over the years, knowing she’s played a part in keeping these two Olympic horses in great health.
We then said goodbye to Carl and his team, and headed back to the Corse Lawn Hotel to complete the day.
How do Saracen ensure even the fussiest horses will eat their products?
A really important part of equine nutrition, is palatability. Saracen have had a great deal of experience in creating foods that horses want to keep coming back to.
The first flavour introduced was to the Re-Leve, where a blackcurrant flavour was added. The results of this adjustment were very positive, so Saracen looked into other flavours which could be incorporated in some of their other products.
Camels are known to be incredibly fussy eaters, and never come back for a second try if they don’t like the smell or taste of a product. Their keepers shared with Saracen’s Lizzie that the camels loved bananas and dates. When presented with a bucket of banana-flavoured feed, the camels responded positively. Therefore, banana favouring was added to feeds such as Saracen’s Re-Covery Mash.
Since then, Saracen have infused multiple products with new flavours, and we had the opportunity to smell a variety of these.
Event Round-Up
In short, the Saracen Trade Seminar was an educational, informative event. We look forward to exploring the Saracen range with our own horses in the near future. We’d like to express a big thank you to Saracen and Redpost for giving us the opportunity to learn all about the products, and visit the wonderful yard of Carl and his team. #FeedTheDifference
Thanks for reading,
Alli & Maddie Leishman
