It’s all about Your Horse LIVE!

November! My favourite month, not only is it my birthday but its also the month I get to fly down south and visit team Honeychop!

We had a fantastic time at Your Horse LIVE 2019. The event was jam packed with fantastic shows and demonstrations, shops with amazing bargains and all the feed stalls to offer all the feeding information and advice you could ever wish for! Team Honeychop set up stand on Thursday and then we headed out for my birthday tea! Friday is normally the quieter day of YHL, but this year proved to be anything but quiet! We spoke to so many of you about your horses, of all shapes and sizes, offering advice and free samples of our range. By the Sunday – we were all exhausted! We just hadn’t stopped chatting to you all, its really lovely hearing about all of your horses! We also had a whopping 550 competition entries on the stand – so many so that we ran out of entry forms on the last day! We also ran out of samples of lite & healthy. This product just seems to be flying out like hot cakes at the moment, check it out if you havent already (its molasses free!) https://www.honeychop.com/our-horse-feed/honeychop-lite-healthy-2/ Teddy the Shetland came to visit us at the show, and needless to say he couldnt wait to get his nose stuck into a bag of Lite & Healthy – maybe he told all his friends and it was his fault we ran out of samples!

At the show I managed to sneak away and got the chance to watch one of Charlotte Dujardin’s demos, she rode the lovely chestnut, Pumpkin. When watching Charlotte you really cant be anything but in awe of such a fantastic horsewoman. At the end of the demo they brought in the legend that is Valegro! and….I TOUCHED HIM! So many people will never appreciate how special that horse is, and it really made my year to have patted his wee nose! That was a special moment for me for sure. I also watched Ben Atkinson – he was demonstrating with some of his young horses and he too, gave a truly remarkable performance.

We also got to meet the newest addition to team Honeychop, Lauren. Lauren is working in amongst the action in the Honeychop office, and will be on the other end of the phone or the website live chat. She brings great nutritional knowledge to the team, we’re really lucky to have her!

Gerry went into horspital for another lameness work up at the start of the month. Would you even believe he trotted up sound? Cause I couldn’t! The week before he was there he could hardly walk at all so to have him trotting up pretty sound on the lameness machine was wild! We discussed whether we should just head home and start bringing him back into work, but I decided since I had taken the day off and brought him to the hospital for his work up we should do some scans to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. Right enough, on the first few xrays we could see his bone splint looking, shall we say, ropey. From the first few scans it was hard to tell whether the piece of overgrown bone was still attached to the splint bone or not. They then took some ultrasound scans but really struggled to get clear views of the injury. Some humming and haying and mention of taking him to Edinburgh for an MRI, they decided to take some differently angled views with the xray machine again. We got a clear answer in the end, the piece of bone is not attached! So poor Gerry has a 4x1cm piece of bone floating about in his leg, which needs to come out! His surgery is booked for the first week in December, and he’s happy enough out in the field with his friends, sound for now 😊 The only part I am worrying about for his surgery is going to sleep and getting back up again, but we always think the worst, I just have to hope it all goes well. Theres no other option for the piece of bone – it needs to come out! They reckon he will only need a couple of weeks boxrest after the surgery until the stitches come out, so heres hoping that’s the case.

Gerrys in at nights now for the first winter since I’ve had him, the last 2 he’s lived out with bales in the field. He seems happy enough and thankfully his dust allergy isn’t causing any issues, we found out it wasn’t really an issue earlier in the year with all his boxrest! I do worry about his arthritis, and his legs fill up really badly (even with magnets on) so I just have to hope he isn’t too badly affected with the nights stuck in his box.

With the lack of grass and frozen fields a regular now, Gerrys feeds have been upped. Ive swapped him onto Honeychop senior, in its lovely pink bag! Just to give him that little extra help with condition as we head into the cold winter. The senior is a really lovely product, its soft short chop would make it really easy for the oldies to eat, It’s a blend of chopped oat straw with added alfalfa, mint, oil and a very low sugar dressing. Gerry’s loving it. Alfalfa is higher in protein than grass and hay, making it ideal to improve condition. It is also a rich source of calcium and has a higher overall vitamin content than regular grass or hay. The inclusion of oil helps horses and ponies maintain strong hooves, glossy coats and better all-round condition. It is a great source of natural Omega 3 and an important aid to digestion. It is also known to have beneficial effects for horses with stiff joints. Mint is germicidal and a breath freshener. It takes care of oral health by inhibiting harmful bacterial growth inside the mouth by cleaning the tongue and teeth. Mint is a good digestive aid and an excellent appetiser making it very appealing to fussy feeders. Honeychop Senior also contains limestone flour, which is a calcium supplement for horses and vital for healthy growth, strong bones, teeth and hooves. I am so fortunate to be a part of team Honeychop and really appreciate all the help and feeding advice they offer for Gerry.

Can you believe next blog will be about Christmas time! How has that happened, this year has just flown by. I really hope next blog I will be able to give you all a positive update about Gerrys surgery, and that he will be well on the way to recovery 😊

Cross your fingers for us!!

Grace & Gerry x