Horse quencher goes to the 2008 olympics
"All I can say is WOW! The little ‘horsey cocktail’ that started out in the feed room of a small barn in New Jersey has proven itself to be of Olympic calibre!"
Read on to hear what the US Olympic 3-Day Eventers have to say about Horse Quencher.
"Whenever I travel with my horses I worry that they won't drink enough. Thankfully, with Horse Quencher I had one less thing to worry about on the long flights to the UK and Hong Kong for the Olympic Games. McKinlaigh drank like a champ! Horse Quencher will definitely travel with us from now on."
Gina Miles, American event rider and Olympic Silver Medallist
"You need to call the other groomers and tell them Carol-Anne says this stuff is amazing! You really CAN make a horse drink!"
Carol Anne Parker, groom for Stephen Bradley, USA 3-Day Event Team
"King Pin drank the best of any horse on the Canadian team that travelled to the Olympics using Horse Quencher. We love it! We used it on the plane and also every day in Hong Kong. His hydration test was routinely the best on the team too. So glad we have it and can't wait to keep using it at home. I have recommended it to other team members for drinking problems. Thanks so much!"
Kelly Cazier, groom for Mike Winter, Canadian 3-Day Event Team
"I couldn't believe my eyes. I was hopeful he'd drink more than usual. Never did I expect him to drink it ALL! I guess maybe that's the last time I should add it to such a LARGE amount of water for one horse."
Bonnie Mosser, USA 3-Day Event Team (after adding it to a small tub in one of her paddocks).
Susan Page tells the story of how Horse Quencher got to go to the Olympics in 2008
The one thing I've always liked about 3-Day Eventers is they are an adventurous group and not afraid to try anything at least once! So, that wonderful trait combined with all the pre-Games press about the heat concerns in Beijing and Hong Kong, led to the brainstorm me and my marketing cohort Holly came up with several months ago. We had been hearing for months from riders who've tried Horse Quencher (fondly referred to as HQ by those of us on the inside) with fabulous results.
So, that got us thinking. With the massive heat and hydration concerns the Olympic teams were facing at the 2008 Games, we felt that every horse whose hooves hit the ground in Hong Kong should have HQ in their tack boxes, right? Seemed like a no-brainer to us. So I grabbed my phone and started ringing up every rider on the US and Canadian event teams that I could track down. Thanks to my buddy, Jan, at the United States Eventing Association (USEA) for your help making these connections, and to Emily Daily for giving us some awesome pictures to use!
Back to eventers being adventurous, I was amazed at how receptive every last one of them was to giving this little product a try. So I packed up boxes of samples and shipped them out one after the other (and got to know the folks at my local post office quite well in the process). We even shipped some out to Germany for the US dressage riders (yes, they snuck out of the country early on me. OK, I was just too busy calling the eventers and somehow completely missed the fact that the dressage team was heading out to Germany before the eventers left - oops).
OK, back to the eventers. Lo and behold, not long after my shipping mania the phone started ringing. Gina Miles called to say how pleasantly shocked she was when McKinlaigh sucked down his bucket of HQ water and licked the bottom. So I promptly shipped off enough to keep him in HQ up to and through the Games. She touched base with me again after arriving in England for the mandatory outing to say that McKinlaigh "is drinking a lot. He is definitely taking in more water overall than he normally would." (In case you didn’t know, Gina ROCKED at the Games, taking home the individual silver medal).
Max Corcoran, who grooms for the O'Connors, called just before shipping off to the UK wanting to know if I could get them a quick shipment of mint for their horses and Amy Tryon's horses. They were concerned about keeping the horses hydrated for the long, stressful flight overseas, and although I had shipped them a huge supply, I had not sent any mint, which apparently was their favourite. So, not wanting to disappoint Maniba and Poggio, back to the post office I raced with my last minute supply of mint HQ. Good news, it made it in time for the flight, and last I heard they were happily sucking down their buckets of water.
Jennifer Wooten and Bonnie Mosser had similar experiences to Gina. This ‘suck the bucket down and lick it clean’ response is what we're hearing from most of the riders whose horses have tried the product. They are really flipping over it. Bonnie tested it at home by adding it to a large water tub while one of her young horses was turned out. This horse is a fussy drinker by nature, so she figured he'd be a good tester. She later was on a ride in the same field, went past the water tub and noticed the entire thing was empty. "I couldn't believe my eyes," laughed Bonnie. "I was hopeful he'd drink more than usual. Never did I expect him to drink it ALL! I guess maybe that's the last time I should add it to such a LARGE amount of water for one horse." Yeah, I think whoever mucks out your boxes would probably agree!
Stephen Bradley's groom, Carol Anne Parker, was one of our first testers and insisted I call every one of the grooms with instructions to "tell them Carol-Anne says this stuff is amazing! You really CAN make a horse drink!"
Hawley Bennett, seeing the benefit of having HQ on hand for the long journeys the eventers were now taking in their stride, requested a last-minute shipment prior to her horse's long journey to Rebecca Farm in Montana for the World Cup Qualifier (sadly she didn't make the final cut for the Canadian team, so she was off to Rebecca instead). I think she was nervous I'd say no since she didn't make the team. But how could I turn her down? So off I raced to my new friends at the post office with literally two minutes to spare before they locked the doors on me. I sometimes wonder how much entertainment I provided them during those many weeks, always racing in under the 5pm cut-off, stressed to the nines, balancing boxes of product and juggling kids! But the HQ made it, and it was off to Montana with Hawley.
I could go on and on, but I'm thinking that you're getting the picture by now. Our little hydration product was a big hit!
Fast forward to the beginning of August. Now that everyone was in Hong Kong, my frantic shipments of product had been wrapped up (I wonder if they miss me up at the post office?) and I expected things to be quiet until after the Games, when I'd start to call everyone again to see how HQ worked for them. Imagine my surprise when I started getting text messages from the riders in Hong Kong. Okay, I'll admit, this is one of the more fun aspects of my job! Samantha Taylor, who rides for Canada, texted me that Livewire was happily consuming his HQ every day. Then a text hit my inbox from Kelly Cazier, who grooms for Mike Winter. "King Pin has drunk the best of any horse (on the Canadian team) that traveled using Horse Quencher. We love it! We used it on the plane and also every day here. His hydration test is routinely the best on the team too. So glad we have it and can't wait to keep using it at home. I have recommended it to other team members for drinking problems. Thanks so much!"
All I can say is WOW! The little "horsey cocktail" that started out in the feed room of a small barn in New Jersey has proven itself to be of Olympic calibre!
So that's my story as to how Horse Quencher got to go to the Olympics last year. It was a blast working with all of the riders, those who made the final teams and those who didn't. And the crew at HQ is really proud to be able to help support our North American horses at such a prestigious event.
Cheers!
Susan Page, Sponsor & Public Relations, Horsefly Creative