Sponsored Rider: Sarah Gadd Update…

Sarah Gadd is one of our brilliant sponsored riders and a Global Herbs fanatic! She had fantastic results with Sarc-Ex when she fed it to her ex-racehorse Still Learning (Roxie) and she now uses many of our products to keep her three Eventers in top shape.

All her horses are fed GlobalVite for all round vitamin and mineral support and Roxie, her top horse, is also fed FriskyMare Plus and MSM. Sarah recently took her to a 2* and 3* Training Clinic. Keep reading to see how she got on and for more info on how her horses benefit from Global Herbs.

“We had a great day at Knowle Farm on Sunday for the 2* and 3* Training Clinic with Gill Watson! Both Roxie and I learnt lots and also met some great people.

We started off the day meeting in the coffee room all stood round the fire to keep warm. We had a breif talk before going and tacking up, ready for our first lesson, which was Dressage. We warmed up and worked on some 2* and 3* movements before running through the 2* A Dressage test, which was judged by Gill and the other people that weren’t riding. When I had to judge Hannah’s test with Roweena it made me realise how quick the Dressage judges have to think as each movement / mark comes up so quickly!

Once we had all ridden we went and sat back around the fire to defrost and have a bite to eat. Whilst we had some lunch we watched our tests back on the TV after Alice had very kindly videoed them all for us. Gill went through our marks whilst we were watching the tests so it was very interesting hearing from Gill what the judges are really looking for in each of the movements. We all took down many notes whilst listening too! After we had watched our videos we had a talk with Robin Balfour on FEI rules. This was very interesting and we all realised that we didn’t know as many as we proably should and the British Eventing rules are quite different to the FEI Eventing rules…..some bedtime reading for me then!

After lunch we went and tacked up again to begin our Show Jumping lesson. Before we started jumping we did lots of work on getting them really listening to the riders aids. To do this we worked them on serpentines in trot and canter, each time we crossed the centre line we changed the pace, either through walk, trot or by doing a flying change. This really helped get Roxie nice and supple and listening to me. During our Show Jumping lesson we worked on related distances, some slightly short distances, some slightly longer distances and some on the correct striding. To finish off we linked them all together as a small course and had to react very quickly on landing after each fence making sure we had the correct canter needed for the next line of jumps.

We have lots coming up in the near future so keep checking back for regualr updates on what’s going on at Sarah Gadd Eventing.

So, until next time,
X”

Check out some more pictures from Sarah Gadd Eventing below.

Diamond Mill (Milli) is Sarah’s 4 year old home bred and is a very exciting prospect. She is now starting to go out competing and Sarah has started feeding her Muscle Up to help support her development and build top line. We are looking forward to bringing you ‘Before and After’ pictures to show you just how well it works.

Dress Sense (Sabrina) is also an ex-racer, and started affiliated Eventing last year. She benefits hugely from SuperCalm not only when being ridden, but also on the yard and in the field. A relaxed and happy horse will perform better!

Shona Brearley & Jasper’s Story

My horse Jasper is a bit of a Global Herbs junkie! He is on Movefree Plus, Airway Plus, SupaHOOF, Mud-X and Endure. He’s 22 this year and is off to do his first 30k endurance ride of the season next Sunday and is looking and feeling fab! He recently won the best Veteran Plus horse at our regional endurance group .

As you will see in one of the pictures he is cantering past a field of oilseed rape – without his Airway Plus that would have been impossible as he is allergic to flowering oilseed rape and used to cough constantly when it was flowering. I’m firmly of the opinion that the herbs are keeping him going !!!!

Leap-Plus with Jazpa and Becci Leigh Harrold!

Thanks to our sponsored rider Becci Leigh Harrold for this great video featuring Jazpa the 10 year old Jack Russell. Jazpa shows off the effects of Global Herbs pet product Leap Plus…

“Absolutely amazed at the effects of Leap-Plus. My Jack has never looked or been able to walk so good.  Recommend to anyone! ” – Becci

Amy Collingwood’s Story – Movefree Plus

“Caesar is a 7 year old, 15.2hh TB. I have had him about 18 months, and I took him on as a challenge – he has a sore back, and his owners had lost their confidence with him. Incidently, 4 days before I took him on, I injured my back, and so the first 3 months was spent working him inhand and getting to know him. Over the next 12 months though we went through a cycle of me riding him for 4-6 weeks, before him having bucking fits, and behaving badly through a sore back, and having to go back to square one. Typical symptoms included rearing, bucking, throwing his head, and biting and kicking, and being difficult to handle out when on the ground. Which was all out of character as he is actually a really friendly, honest, well mannered horse.

I got the vet, chiroprator, and saddler out, and everyone was perplexed. He is “cold-backed”, but the soreness he was displaying on being examined should not be the cause of the massive behavioural issues that I had been experiencing. He was essentially written off with behavioural issues and I should give him up as a lost cause. But I couldn’t. I persevered with physio and keeping up the exercise, but after another 6 weeks, the old behaviours returned and this time I ended up on my backside in the warm up arena for a dressage test…

So, I went to my local tack shop and the staff there suggested I try MoveFree Plus, combined with AlphaBute. Three weeks later, he was moving much more freely on the lunge. Before getting on, I thought it would be wise for me to have the chiropractor come out and check him out. She was amazed. I’d spoken to her about the issues I had been facing and she was expecting to find him seized up, and in a lot of discomfort. In fact, he was moving the best he had in 12 months and literally dragged me across the yard when we trotted up. He had very little tension, and needed far less work than he had done in the previous visits.

I arranged to have a lesson and got back on. And he worked really nicely – just in walk and trot, but we were not going to push it. Due to his on-off career, he is still very green, and needs a lot of training, but he is showing a lot of promise, and can freely bring his back up, and step underneath himself – he just lacks the confidence and strength to maintain it for more than half a dozen steps at the moment. And the best bit was, the next day, he was totally pain free! After such a session previously, he would be so sore that he would bite me just putting on a rug, and lash out with his back legs when picking them up.

It has only been about 6 weeks but his whole manner has changed – he seems to look forward to his work now, and is generally a much nicer horse to be around. Just walking to the field, I can see he is striding out with confidence. I just need to wait for the snow to clear so that I can crack on with everything. But I will be getting back on with the confidence that I can work him without worrying about whether his back will be sore the next day. I know I have a long way to go yet, but I’m looking forward to making into the actual main arena now at shows opposed to sitting on my bottom in the warm up!

I am now using the MoveFree with my 16 year old New Forest Pony – Jack - who is starting to get a bit stiff. I’m hoping to get him back to his old bouncy self too after having colic surgery in the summer.

I have never seen such a change in such a short amount of time. Totally converted to your products now!

Amy Collingwood (and Caesar and Jack)

P.S. -  I have just got back from riding Caesar, and for the first time ever I have managed to have a successful ride without needing to lunge him first. I cannot say enough howmuch of a difference this product has made to him!”

Sponsored Rider – Learna Frost Eventing

New to our ‘Reward Scheme’ is Learna Frost, a 16 year old amateur event rider based in Derbyshire. Learna owns one event horse, Maxamillion IV, which she currently competes at BE100/Novice level.

Learna says: “2011 was our first year competing affiliated and it was great fun! With all the preperation through this winter, I hope 2012 will be an even better year!

I have been using the ‘Endure’ supplement for about a month and a half now. I have found that in preparation for the eventing season ‘Endure’ has helped out a lot, allowing Max to recover fast from training hard and enabling us to get on with our job! I would recommend this product to people with horses in intense work!”

We wish Learna the best of luck for 2012 and look forward to sharing her news with the Global Herbs blog  readers!

Team Global Herbs – In the snow!

On Monday we asked Team Global Herbs fans to send in their horsey snow pictures from the weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who tweeted, facebooked and emailed us with your brilliant photos! Here are some of our favourites!!

Jacqui Hopkinson and Jo Jo – Diareeze

“Hi to all at Global herbs, just wanted you to know that I think your product ‘Diareeze‘ is absolutely fantastic. I was a bit hesitant to buy it at first as I have tried so many other products which haven’t worked. I thought I would be throwing more money down the drain but the girl in the store was so positive about your product that I decided to buy it.

I am so glad I did because within a couple of days my old mare had stopped scouring which meant no more having to wash her back end and legs down in zero temperatures which has not been pleasant for either of us.

I’d better tell you about her. I have had her since she was 4 years old and she’s now 28. Every winter over the last three years or so she has scoured really badly, November to March. I think it’s just due to her age as she’s wormed regularly and healthy in all aspects. It seems to be when there is no grazing through the winter and her hay intake is greatly increased, she’s worse on haylage.

She doesn’t drop too much condition and is fine again once she’s back on spring grass. However it is such a pain for both of us as she needs washing everyday and it makes her sore / chapped, especially this weather. So I am extremely delighted with the results your product has given us!!!!

Success at last!!!

Many thanks and a big well done to the Global Herbs team.

Jacqui Hopkinson