Whether it be horses or humans, diet is at the centre of one’s health. A recent Governor of Victoria Export Award-winner, Hi Form Australia has been at the forefront of nutrition for the better part of three decades – and their products have gained recognition locally and abroad.

“We’re just blown away and so humbled by it; for a small Australian company to achieve this is quite incredible,” says Antoinette Foster, founder and managing director of Hi Form Australia. Her business took out the 2021 Governor of Victoria Export Award in the Agribusiness, Food and Beverages category, providing well-deserved recognition for a company that has been her labour of love for the past 30 years.

“We really didn’t think that we would have a hope of winning, because we were up against some quite sizable companies,” she says. However, the lengthy application process paid off, and the win meant that Hi Form was a finalist in the 59^th Australasian Export Awards.

Hi Form, an Australian owned and run human, canine and equine supplement company, was founded by Antoinette in 1990 and has slowly but surely expanded since then. “Many people are not aware of Hi Form’s large export market into several countries, which include the UK, France, Scandinavian countries, and the UAE,” Antoinette explains. “Exporting throughout Covid-19 last year was a huge challenge, however our ongoing support to our distributors internationally, on what was often a weekly basis, achieved astounding results. Prior to Covid-19 we were making regular visits to the UK and Europe.”

For Antoinette, the company’s expansion internationally has come about through persistent networking over the years. It was at the very first Equitana in 1999 (Antoinette has been a regular educator at Equitana since its inception) that she met Jeanne Sand (Down Under Company) through her daughter Pernille Hogg and good friends Frank and Jan Librio; Jeanne was to become the company’s Scandinavian connection. “We got talking over a period of 12 months; she had a very difficult Grand Prix horse at the time, and we sent her some products that worked exceptionally well, and the horse was able to return to full work and begin competing again. Jeanne became a distributor in Denmark in 2002 before expanding into other Scandinavian countries.”

Hi Form’s entry into France and the UK sprung from a meeting at the British Equestrian Trade Fair in 2010. “We met a couple of French businessmen in Birmingham who were interested, and in 2011 they started to bring some products into France,” explains Antoinette. “We also made a couple of contacts in the UK, but nothing actually eventuated at that time.”

Patience paid off, and in 2014 when Antoinette took a trade stand at SPOGA in Germany, she met what was to become the other half of their UK distributors. “We got talking, and when we had a stand again in 2016 we reconnected and that’s where it started. From 2017, the UK market began and what we thought was going to be a slow growth process was not; the growth was quite astronomical.” In 2020, Hi Form’s UK market actually grew by 20%, and they had quite good growth in Denmark and France as well.

“It may well have been a bit of a slower road to get to where we are,” muses Antoinette. “But to our knowledge, we believe that we’re one of only a very small number of companies that do export equine supplements to the UK and Europe from Australia.”

A FOCUS ON EDUCATION

“From day one, our products have remained unique to the world market and that was very much the reason why we started all those years ago,” declares Antoinette. “We’re unique in the way that we always use oral grade ingredients; they’re approved for human consumption, as opposed to industrial tech grade or stock feed grade versions. We align ourselves with the human health market and the quality standard that’s been set there. All of the ingredients that we use are listed with the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia, which means there’s rigorous testing and supported scientific data required. We have always maintained that difference, and we’ve always kept that natural therapy approach.

“Our practitioners, including myself, are all human practitioners; we do human health, as well as canine and equine. So, it’s a real priority for us to make sure that the ingredients we’re using are not only scientifically backed, but obviously are for use in humans as well.”

Antoinette explains that the ethos behind Hi Form has always been to educate rather than promote; by educating via her team of experts, customers naturally come their way. “We would rather educate horse owners, so they have the knowledge to make really good choices independently.” Hi Form used to regularly hit the road to visit clients and their horses, however, Covid has seen this shift more towards online education – something that has been well-received.

When it comes to helping horse owners, Antoinette says the biggest issue she sees is simply a lack of understanding when it comes to the equine diet. “I say this without being disrespectful to the horse owner, because the horse owner has got many other wonderful attributes; they have the ability to look after their horse, to ride and train their horse and so forth. But I think many health-related problems come down to a lack of understanding and clear knowledge of the species as being a strict herbivore. Horses have evolved to only eat one way, and that means a high natural roughage diet and that doesn’t mean feeding by-products. Most commercial feeds unfortunately do not contain what is necessarily suitable for a horse.

“A horse in the wild, in terms of their anatomy and physiology, is exactly the same as it was thousands of years ago, it’s just that it’s a lot bigger. It’s still the same design, and it’s not a very good design… as we all know, horses have a lot of issues with gut microbiome imbalances, intestinal problems, ulcers, and the worst-case scenario of colic.

“Just like with human health, a lot of the time conditions that horses have developed are nutritional based. The nutritional status is becoming really, really important for people to understand and appreciate. If you look at ulcers, for example, we know that it’s directly related to diet and we know that the percentage of ulcers being diagnosed is astronomical in performance horses that are generally hard fed – and even higher in racehorses.

“In most cases where there’s an issue, we can go back and look at what is being fed to the horse as being the major contributing factor. We do a lot of gut microbiome testing, and it is ridiculously crazy to see the imbalances that both horses and humans have. The key there is to look at what is being fed; it’s the starting point for anything that we do.

“When it comes to horses, scientifically it’s been proven everywhere all around the world, however, people are really starting to wake up to the fact that, ‘Hey, this is a horse and it really should only be fed one way – which is not complicated, it’s actually very easy to feed a horse correctly.”

THE TEAM

Antoinette is a qualified human and equine nutritionist and herbalist (Bachelor of Nutrition, Diploma of Nutrition, Equine Nutritional Therapist, Medical Herbalist, Advanced Diploma Nutritional Therapy & Genetics) with experience stretching back more than 35 years, and she is well equipped to formulate her own products and help owners to better manage their horses’ health via diet.

A horse lover from day dot, Antoinette grew up around horses and as a teenager worked with Quarter Horses – even spending time in the US riding reining and cutting horses. Returning to her English roots, she had an amazing Quarter Horse x Thoroughbred for many years and more recently purchased a Fidertanz/Belcam Calandra gelding, Coffee, to pursue a love of dressage. Coffee is currently being competed by her coach, David Boyle, while Antoinette explores “a hankering to have a crack at reining”. Her partnership with Yarraleigh Lethal Maximus is in its infancy, but her trainer David Norbury speaks highly of the horse’s reining talents. For Antoinette, the switch from dressage to reining has left her scratching her head at times – “I can’t quite understand how they ask for flying changes with reining horses; but I am sure I will learn!” – however she loves the sport’s sense of camaraderie and can’t wait to learn the ropes.

Hi Form’s all-female team has no shortage of knowledge and experience: “We actually have really amazing practitioners within the company that can really make life changing benefits for both you and your horses,” declares Antoinette. Erin Romanin is a clinical nutritionist who’s also completing her bachelor’s degree in naturopathy, while Karyn Campbell is an equine herbalist and naturopath. An integral part of the team, Antoinette’s “right hand, left hand everything-hand person”, Vanessa Gillett, works as the operations manager and is a company shareholder, while Hi Form’s warehouse manager, Sheridan Healey, is also a part-time nurse in aged care. Finally, Jane Gordon does the company’s social media, marketing and sponsorship. As an FEI athlete, she’s also one of Hi Form’s sponsored riders alongside the likes of up-and-coming international show jumping star Sameh El Dahan, Paralympian Emma Booth, dressage star Emma Weinert O’Rourke, and champion campdrafter Pete Comiskey, just to name a few.

GAINING PACE

Hi Form has some exciting programs and products in the pipeline for the year ahead. “We are developing a rider and horse health program – which we believe will be the first of its kind – as we feel there’s an absolute need for this. People who’ve got horses tend to forget about their own health and wellbeing; Covid has impacted not only what they put into their body, but also their mental state of mind as well,” says Antoinette, adding that the company is also launching a short course on equine nutrition for EQUEAL members (a not-for-profit organisation), and expanding a ‘tele-health’ type service for horses and humans.

On the product side, horse owners can look forward to a new hoof health product, a supplement and feed to support horses living with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (including Cushing’s/PPID, insulin resistance and other associated conditions, which have become an ever-increasing problem here in Australia and even more so in the UK), and an update to the company’s popular BioEquus Synbiotic formula.

Antoinette is also hopeful they’ll be undertaking some all-important research into gut health. “In partnership with Smart DNA and a vet we are looking at getting our ulcer study up and running. It’s been a long time coming but we’re getting there!”

It’s a busy year ahead for the team at Hi Form, as winning the export award has also given the company inroads into other markets. “It was pretty amazing (to win the award) and it certainly has opened more doors internationally for us. At the moment we’re looking at getting into Germany, South East Asia and the USA,” says Antoinette of her hopes for further expansion.

While the company might have been a “slow starter”, over the past three decades Hi Form has built a strong reputation amongst those in the know who have sought to educate themselves and better the health of their equine friends. This approach has seen the company build steadily over the years, working towards the well-deserved recognition it received in December. Now, the world is their oyster – and the real winners are the horses. EQ

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