Sustainable horse feeding - Interview with Isabel von Carevallo
Hello dear Isabel, first introduce yourself - who are you and what is Carevallo?
Hello, I am the founder of Carevallo. We have set ourselves the goal of making horse feeding easier for riders, healthier for the horses and more sustainable for the environment. With Carevallo we make horse feeding easier than ever, and the horse owner can always be sure that his horse is being supplied with all the nutrients it needs in the current situation.
Why did you decide to offer individual food and not a ready mix?
Every horse has unique needs and needs-based nutrition is one of the most important cornerstones of equine health. That's why we create an individual feed recipe for each horse, the components of which are all geared to the horse's needs to support its health. Because such needs-based feeding is, to be honest, quite complex to put together, we relieve our customers of the work. We take care of the procurement of the highest quality raw materials, the optimal dosage and provide the customer with an all-round carefree package. As a horse owner, you only need to draw from the individual feed bag for your horse and know that your horse is well taken care of. No more tedious re-ordering, weighing and mixing. Everything comes together in one mix and you can enjoy the time together with your horse instead of worrying about the food.
The inspiration for Carevallo was also my Irish Tinker mare Mandy, who accompanied me for 25 years. She also had her health problems and only after many examinations, allergy tests and the like did I finally find the cause - the feeding just wasn't perfectly tailored to her. Although I had bought the best possible products, diligently weighed and mixed them, but it didn't fit. There were many years of training and further education and after I had already helped my mare and some other horses with optimized feeding, I decided to make it possible for everyone to have horse feeding that meets their needs. As already mentioned, nutrition is a very important cornerstone for a healthy horse.
(Image source: photosarti.at )
How exactly does it work when someone decides to order individual feed for their horse from you?
So that we know which raw materials have to end up in the horse's tailor-made feed in order to provide the horse with the best possible care, the first step is always to create an individual nutrition plan. The nutrition plan not only contains the development of an individual recipe, but above all an analysis of the horse's energy and nutrient requirements. The horse owner receives a detailed nutrition plan in which he gets tips for daily husbandry and feeding management, explanations and assistance to find possible causes of symptoms, information what his horse should definitely find in his feeding trough. Because our approach is not to feed symptoms away, but rather to get to the bottom of the causes and then start here to find a long-term, sustainable solution for horse and rider. Once the nutrition plan has been created, the customer can reorder his individual horse feed via his customer account or take out an all-round carefree subscription so that he never has to worry about feeding again.
Where is the feed made and where do the raw materials come from?
The food is prepared by hand in our own small factory in Tyrol (Austria). You can really say prepared, because every feed goes through our hands several times. It is weighed, mixed, bagged, sewn up, labeled and finally sent to the customer by post. We obtain the raw materials as regionally as possible, mainly from Austria and Germany, but above all in the highest quality.
What is particularly important to you when selecting the raw materials?
As already mentioned, the most important thing is the quality. We mainly use organic and food quality. When it comes to minerals, we only use organically bound minerals, as they are much more digestible for the horse than inorganic ones. Here perhaps a brief explanation - the horse can absorb the organically bound minerals in a much higher concentration, which means that what we feed also reaches the organism. Because everything that we feed unnecessarily, the body also has to metabolize unnecessarily - that would not be sustainable. In addition, we completely dispense with fillers and waste materials such as peeled bran, artificial colors, flavors and added sugar.
(Image source: photosarti.at )
What does the word "sustainability" mean to you?
At Carevallo we live sustainability in all areas. The individual horse feed is designed in such a way that it sustainably supports horse health, packed in 100% paper to protect the environment. However, sustainability also means not buying new things, e.g. for the office, but relying on used equipment and sharing workstations. Use glasses instead of plastic where possible, even if it's more work.
For me personally, sustainability is a huge concept that I find difficult to put into words. My partner and I have been making our everyday life as sustainable as possible for a number of years and we continue to work on it every day. For me, sustainability means using things for as long as possible, producing as little waste as possible, buying as few new things as possible, and not buying anything that I don't really need. For me, it also means paying attention to sustainability when it comes to mobility (we only have 1 car together and that's an electric car). For me, when buying food, it means paying attention to regionality and organic quality in order to avoid long transport routes and the use of pesticides in our environment. Sustainability means reducing meat consumption or even doing without meat. I think I could tell a lot more... but that's enough now. :)
We hope you enjoyed the little interview! If your interest has now been aroused, it is best to visit Carevallo directly:
www.carevallo.com or on instagram at @carevallo - there you will get a great insight behind the scenes!
(Image source: photosarti.at )
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