Healthy horses goal of new business

With an official opening Saturday afternoon, Aurora Wind Feeds has set up shop in Barwick to supply healthy feed to the district’s horses.
Jo Woolsey is the first dealer of the horse feed label, Buckeye Nutrition, in Canada and hopes to share her success she has had using the company’s equine-oriented feeding programs on her own Arabians.
“People who come here and look at my horses say, ‘What have you done for your horses’ but any feeding program can do it,” said Woolsey. “I want people to have their horses reach their full potential.”
Woolsey stressed the importance of supplementing the main staple of a horse’s diet–hay–with the proper minerals, vitamins, and nutrients that may be lacking.
“I’m just as guilty as anybody. I’ve learnt in the last three years how to feed my horses,” she admitted.
At her home business, located north of Barwick on McCulloch Road, Woolsey will help customers put together a feeding program for each individual animal based on its needs and quality of available hay.
“The only thing left when you walk out my door is you need to buy hay,” she noted. “It’s a complete feed store as far as horses are concerned. We develop a feeding program to complement their hay.
“My goal is really to educate people on the nutrition of their horses, whether I sell them the product or not,” she added. “Some of the things we’ve been doing is bad for their constitution.
“Visually, we can see changes in horses in less than a month.”
With 18 horses on her property, Woolsey is in business as a means of reducing her own costs as a wholesaler as well as introducing the feed to the rest of Ontario.
“In the long run, if we can make it more efficient and cost-efficient, that’s the goal,” she said.
Aurora Wind Feeds is one of only five international distributors for the Ohio-based Buckeye Nutrition. But Woolsey is hoping she can find other brokers in the province to sell the feed and spread the idea of specific equine feeding programs.
“The week before Christmas, we signed an international agreement. We’re looking at signing on other distributors in Ontario,” said Woolsey, who also hosted a seminar featuring a sought-after American veterinarian who discussed the merits of the programs.
“It was very informative and the education is what we’re shooting for,” she noted.
Saturday’s open house kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Rainy River Future Development Corp. board members who helped Woolsey establish the business. It also attracted a number of horse-owners from the district.
Woolsey has been around horses for as long as she can remember.
“All my life I had them, since I was very very young, but it’s taken me until now to learn how to feed them properly,” she admitted. “The more I’m learning, the less I think I know.
“It’s the first fully equine-specific program. What they’re doing right now is constantly filling in the holes of what’s out there, what’s missing.”
Woolsey is co-owner of Aurora Winds Arabians, and buys and sells pure-bred Arabians across North America.
“Aurora Winds Arabians all eat Buckeye feeds,” she stressed.