Have you ever wondered what it would be like working for a leading global brand feed company? Here Paddy Gerety, one of UK team, gives you an insight into a typical day as a part of the RED MILLS team.
Following an equine background revolved around horses and a lifetime passion for horse racing, I have worked for Connolly’s RED MILLS for 4 years as a Thoroughbred Feed Specialist covering the South East region. Based in Newmarket, the home and central hub of horseracing, the majority of my work is with Thoroughbreds and with over 50 training stables and 3500 horses in training, what better place is there to be located.
Although the majority of my day is spent on the road visiting new and existing clients, every day is varied and full of new challenges to keep me on my toes. 6:00am my day begins with the sound of the alarm (along with the odd tap of the snooze button!). I am lucky enough to keep my hobby going alongside my work and so off I head to a local point-to-point yard to ride a couple of lots before the real work begins.
Back home for a quick shower and change before starting the day with a phone call to my local stockists to discuss the orders that have been placed. All our stockists play a huge role in the continued success of the company, consistently providing an excellent customer service and ensuring the vast quantities of feed on order is delivered efficiently. With the huge volume of horses and surprisingly large number of yards and feed rooms that are secretly tucked away in the middle of Newmarket town centre, you can imagine this is not always an easy task!
The way horses are trained and the preference by trainers and owners on how they like their horses to be conditioned varies from yard to yard. Each training yard will stable horses on varying workloads; they may have just brought yearlings from the sales ready to break in, some may be on a rehab program following an injury perhaps and then there are of course the horses in full training racing from week to week. Connolly’s RED MILLS offers a wide range of feed products to suitably match the needs of each and every individual horse and my main role is to meet with clients to discuss the products on offer, and help ensure each horse is on the most appropriate feed to optimise their performance.
So off I go to begin my long list of yard visits for the day. Meetings are often pre-arranged to fit in with my client’s hectic schedules and I am lucky that most of my travel is within a couple of hours of home. For trips further afield I bring along my whippet Matilda as co-pilot; it seems to be mainly a one way conversation with her but it is company nevertheless!
Once the road trips are complete I head home for my least favourite part of the day…the admin, and I am sure my manager will agree this is not a strong point of mine! Before the day is finished and I can put my feet up and relax I log all my calls, check racing results and form and sending off forage samples collected earlier in the day.
