About Drs Annette van Weezel Errens
Annette, veterinarian and horse lover, won the HIP ‘changemaker’ award for the equestrian sector in 2019 with her ‘New Feeding Concept’ and her dedication to horse welfare.
As a child, Annette loved animals, and she grew up with a particular passion for horses. That love and the wish to better understand the animals and work with them on a professional basis led to a study in veterinary science. During her study she worked as a groom for various sport stables. It was here she first encountered the vast amounts of supplements and other substances that riders and veterinarians used for their horses.
During her veterinary study, her passion for the horse remained, but more and more doubts started to creep in about the secondary stakes entwined in regular veterinary medicine. For Annette, this was a reason not to graduate as a qualified veterinarian, but to graduate with a free field of study in veterinary medicine. Her subject was animal ethics and ‘doping in the equestrian sport’.
In the course of the research she did during her study in this area and the plethora of supplements she was confronted with in her work as a groom, she understood the time had come for change. If Annette was not able to see the wood for the trees, how must the average well-meaning horse owner be feeling? In addition, Annette firmly believes that when horses experience too much stress combined with insufficient nutrients, veterinary and behavioural problems are waiting to happen. And so her quest for making a positive contribution to the improvement of horses’ lives started.
