Well, this was never my plan, it happened organically while looking for a solution for my own horses. 15+ years ago we had 20+ horses, breeding mini & Welsh Cobs, and were looking for a supplement to suit laminitis prone & good doer ponies.
We had tried everything on the (very limited) market & nothing gave our ponies a shiny coat or healthy hooves. They weren’t suited to the Australian environment and they weren’t balanced. We found that they all contained high levels of iron, which is typically not needed in Australia, and they were too low in copper and zinc.
We tried the Pat Colby diet (as it was all the rage at the time), but found that the lick the horses didn’t eat was washed away in the rain, it was very time consuming, and missing essential nutrients our horses needed. Our feed shed looked like a science lab during this period!
Finally, I decided to have a custom lick made for my horses, and was lucky enough to meet my manufacturer at a local ag show who had a waterproof loose lick! What they had still wasn’t going to meet our needs as it too had iron but was low in copper and zinc, but our horses did love it and looked well.
We worked together with their lead animal nutritionist to develop a custom loose lick for our horses in Tasmania. We collated many local soil and pasture samples, and from testing these found the most common deficiencies found in our state. From here we put together custom specs for a Tasmanian weatherproof loose lick.
As we couldn’t possibly go through the one ton minimum order quantity, I asked if I could sell the extra to my equine touch clients, and they said yes! We have continued to perfect the product through minor changes over the year.
The rest is history! The results were amazing, clients were reporting shiny coats, no more ‘clicking’ joints and above all, happy horses and happy owners. Vets and farriers started asking what clients were feeding their horses because they looked so healthy. People started recommending the product to friends and family and the orders just took off.
Word got through to other states thanks to the internet, so we developed a customised version for each state along the east coast. Then customers started wanting similar products for their dogs and cats, so off we went into development again! The end result was our Canine Health Supplement, which is based on similar supplements used in zoos combined with raw meat diets to keep canine species healthy.
We also keep our prices affordable, as we know first hand how expensive animals can be to keep! We’re so proud of how this arm of our business has evolved over time.
