AECs, Fred, Scruffy, a Bee… and the Day Off That Wasn’t

Well, the AECs are over for another year, and what a week it was.

There were horses everywhere, old friends, new friends, customers we hadn’t seen in far too long, plenty of laughs and, naturally, an awful lot of conversations about what was going on with horses.

And then there were Fred and Scruffy.

I’m fairly certain those two had a better AEC than any of us.

Fred took her role as Parkmore Am’Basset’or very seriously, while Scruffy happily worked the crowd alongside her. Between them, they accepted an entirely unreasonable amount of attention and generally behaved as though the whole event had been organized for their benefit.

Honestly, they may still believe it was.

Sometimes the Horse World Is About Three People Wide

There were some lovely reminders of just how small the horse world really is, too.

Scruffy got to see TJ, a very special horse I sourced for his family six years ago, now competing at the AECs with his new owner.

Then the trainer who now has Howie in her barn was chatting with me at the booth when another horse’s name came up.

I told her that horse had also originally been sourced by Parkmore for a very nice, talented young lady — and later ended up joining the same family as TJ and Scruffy.

Sometimes I swear the horse world is about three people wide.

Then I met a lady whose best friend owns one of the very first Parkmore babies, bred from the old man himself, Parkmore Pride.

His name is Liam.

Twenty-two years later, Liam is still going strong and still with his mom.

That one stopped me for a minute.

Long before Parkmore Supplements, there were Parkmore horses.

And all these years later, in the middle of one of the biggest eventing championships in the country, a little piece of that history wandered right back into my life.

Horses have a funny way of doing that.

And Then There Was the Bee

Of course, because apparently I’m incapable of attending a horse show without some form of drama, there was also the bee.

Yes.

A bee.

After a lifetime around horses, dogs, farms, trailers, and all the other perfectly sensible ways I could injure myself, a small flying insect managed to send me to the hospital.

The bee won that particular round.

Alas, I survived and was back in action that same day.

An apparent discussion in the show office was later repeated to me:

“Thank God it was Fleur. She’s tough enough to handle it.”

LOL.

I’m still not entirely sure that was a compliment.

Moving swiftly on.

The Day Off That Wasn’t

After AECs, I announced that I was taking a day off.

Those of you who know me can stop laughing now.

But then a customer needed something.

Somebody else had a question.

Another conversation started.

One thing led to another, and suddenly my “day off” looked remarkably similar to every other day.

Apparently I need more practice at this resting business.

But all those conversations reminded me of something important.

What Customers Remember

One of our longtime customers from Louisiana was telling stories about when she first met me in 2021.

Without missing a beat, she told the story of how I helped her get a horse rescued when it needed help.

Then she pointed out something completely different that had stuck with her:

Our Detox is still the same price today as it was back then.

I was floored that, five years later, those were the things she remembered.

And that, to me, is what a real customer review is.

It isn’t us telling you how wonderful we think we are.

It’s somebody who has actually been around Parkmore for years telling you what they remember.

• The products.
• The results.
• The horses.
• The conversations.
• The things that worked.
• And even the ones we couldn’t help.

Those stories matter too.

It also made me realize how many experiences like hers are sitting in texts, emails, Facebook messages, and conversations where nobody else ever gets to see them.

So we decided to do something about that.

Introducing the Parkmore Review Reward

We’ve introduced our new Review Reward.

Here’s how it works:

Purchase a Parkmore product, use it, and then come back to our website and tell us honestly what you thought.

Good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Leave a review for that product and you’ll receive $10 off your next order of that same product.

The reward isn’t for leaving us a glowing review.

It’s for taking the time to leave an honest one.

Yes, it’s our way of saying thank you.

But more importantly, your experience might be exactly what another horse or dog owner needs to read when they’re trying to decide what to do next.

Because sometimes hearing from someone who has actually been there is far more useful than hearing from the company selling the product.

And if AECs reminded me of anything, it’s that there’s always a story.

• Behind the horses.
• Behind the people.
• Behind the products.
• And behind this slightly mad little company we’ve built.

And at Parkmore?

Behind every order, there’s a Basset and a Border.

Fred and Scruffy wouldn’t have it any other way.

Reset. Reboot. Rebuild. Restore.

Until next time, be kind.

Be the person you needed when you were starting out.

— Fleur
Parkmore Supplements

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