The Mad Scientist Behind Parkmore

Most people know him as Gordon.

Those who know him well call him "Beaker."

To the horse world in Ireland, he is the founder of Bryan Equine.

What many don't know is that the foundations of both Bryan Equine and Parkmore Supplements were built during one of the most difficult periods of his life.

A serious injury brought an abrupt end to the riding career he had spent a lifetime building.

Many people would have accepted defeat.

Not Gordon.

Unable to continue down the path he had planned, he simply found another one.

His horses still needed feeding.

The bills still needed paying.

The passion for horses remained as strong as ever.

So he turned his attention to solving problems.

Like most business owners, he was constantly looking for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing quality.

The reality is that every business has a ceiling relative to price.

You can only charge so much for a horse.

You can only charge so much for training.

You can only charge so much for a service.

The money that sustains a business is made on the front end through efficiency, careful management and good decisions.

So Gordon began asking a simple question:

How do I have my horses looking and performing as well as possible on a realistic budget?

Every part of the operation was examined. Not the important things, of course. Great veterinarians, farriers, physiotherapists, hay suppliers and good staff remained non-negotiable.

But one area stood out above all others.

Nutrition.

For more than twenty years, Gordon had been inventing and innovating within the horse industry. In fact, he often sold the production rights to his ideas to help finance what he jokingly referred to as his "horse habit."

Research became trials.

Trials became testing.

Testing became refinement.

And eventually all of that work led to a product that would become the foundation of what is now Parkmore Supplements.

SVMS.

The funny thing is, it was never intended for sale.

It was designed exclusively for his own horses.

After months of development, he contracted a manufacturer to produce it to his specifications because it was simply the most economical and practical solution for his own operation.

Then a friend borrowed some.

A few weeks later he came back and said:

"This is fantastic. There is nothing on the market that compares to it."

That single conversation changed everything.

Word spread.

One product became two.

Two became several.

Gradually a philosophy evolved around a simple principle: support the foundations first.

Build the horse from the inside out.

Pay attention to the basics.

Good feeding.

Good management.

Good care.

Attention to detail.

Common sense.

Those things still matter.

Then life threw a similar challenge at me.

After a career-ending injury of my own, I found myself facing many of the same questions Gordon had faced years earlier.

What now?

What comes next?

How do I keep moving forward when the path I had planned no longer exists?

What I didn't realize at the time was that Gordon had already answered those questions.

He had lived them.

And more importantly, he never stopped believing there was another chapter waiting for me.

For years he encouraged me to bring the products to America.

For years I resisted.

For years he kept asking.

Eventually, I gave in and agreed to give it a try.

Looking back now, that decision changed my life.

The products became Parkmore Supplements.

The business grew.

The mission expanded.

And what began as one horseman's determination to overcome adversity became an opportunity to help horses, dogs and their owners across the country.

With the best will in the world, you can spend a fortune on horses and still have very little to show for it.

Equally, if you spend nothing, it is unrealistic to expect exceptional results.

The key is not how much money is spent.

The key is how wisely it is spent.

That belief has guided the development of every Parkmore product from the very beginning.

Whether you are a commercial producer managing a large operation or simply a devoted owner wanting to do the very best for one special horse, the goal remains the same:

Invest where it matters.

As our grandfather often said:

"Never gallop a horse to make him fit. Make him fit to gallop."

Looking back, perhaps that lesson applied to more than just horses.

Neither Gordon nor I galloped to get fit.

Life saw to that.

Instead, we both had to become fit enough to gallop again.

The path wasn't always the one we had planned.

The progress wasn't always quick.

But progress, however incremental, is still progress.

And perhaps that's the real story behind Bryan Equine, Parkmore Supplements and everything that followed.

Not supplements.

Not horses.

Not business.

Resilience.

The willingness to adapt.

The determination to keep moving forward when life has other ideas.

And the belief that when one path closes, another can always be found.

After all, good horsemen know that the journey isn't over simply because there's a fence in front of you.

Sometimes you just have to find another way across.