Dr. Holly Blue has been consulting on horse health, in particular the effects of worm-related diseases in horses, for over a decade and is so passionate about the health of horses and the education of owners around effective, evidence-based deworming strategies that she now brings Worm-Ed to the NZ horse world.
As one of a select few to be recognised as an Entrepreneur in the Rural sector by MPI, and with a strong motivation to protect our pastures from dangerous worm resistance, Holly has developed this evidence-based, scientific approach to a deworming strategy, and provides long-overdue, worthwhile horse-health services to owners all around the country.
Growing up with horses, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be a member of the NZ Pony Club system, competing to representative level in dressage and breeding my own horses, so an equine career was possibly always inevitable. With a valuable family farming background, in both Merino and commercial Angus sectors in NZ and Australia, I graduated from the University of Melbourne Veterinary School in 2005 before moving to the Hawkes Bay. Becoming involved in agricultural research with Veterinary Services Hawkes Bay, my future passion was set in motion preparing samples for research on drench resistance in lambs and beef cattle.
A keen interest in genetics evolved with research into the ability of sheep and cattle to fight off worms naturally. I decided to apply these principles to horses. Surveying hundreds of horses across Hawkes Bay, Canterbury, Southland and Auckland, I was able to support my theory that the same genetic spread also applied to horses and that we should be using significantly less dewormer than most farms are presently using. Communication with international colleagues at the time in both Europe and America highlighted the same findings in their research, giving me the confidence to develop programmes tailored specifically to NZ conditions.
In 2010 I settled in Auckland, eventually developing Blue Blood Equine, a boutique breeding and foaling facility near Karaka. I maintained an extremely strong interest in parasitology however and began fine-tuning the programmes I was offering to clients, developing more effective programmes through specific targeting of FEC and treatments. I became increasingly concerned about the development of dewormer resistance in NZ as we have limited products available for effective treatment of worms and no new products are entering the market anytime soon! Looking at trends internationally where some farms are experiencing complete failures to all available dewormers, I became more motivated to protect our farms from the same fate.
A study conducted in 2018 in the South Auckland district of Franklin found dewormer resistance on approximately 70% of farms surveyed! Blanket treatments such as "six weekly deworming" contributes to this. I remain dedicated to minimising the risk of drench resistance by providing the ability to test horses as individuals and tailor programmes specifically suited to each horse and farm.
Get peace of mind and get in touch to reduce worm burdens and drench resistance, making for happy healthy horses...and farms!
No more hit and miss worming or blanket treating the farm. Worm-Ed takes the guess work out of parasite management for busy horse owners.
