The Passion of Pavo employee Silke van de Weijer

In addition to their work at Pavo, many Pavo employees have a huge passion for horses. Time to find out a little more about this. We interviewed product marketer Silke van de Weijer who is active in dressage in her spare time. "Because I am active in equestrian sports and have horses myself, I know what situations and problems you can encounter as a horse owner and I can put myself in the customer's shoes."

It was in 2018 that Silke took her first steps within Pavo. At the time, she was doing her internship for the Equine Sports & Business programme at the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in Wageningen. "I did a marketing internship, and then I actually stuck around," says Silke.
As is often the case in the horse world, Silke had a good wheelbarrow with which she came to Pavo. "My neighbor, who has since sadly passed away, worked at Pavo. She introduced me here. She used to teach me with my very first pony I owned." 
For Silke, the horse the passion for horses is clearly in her genes. Both parents also used to ride horses. "For as long as I remember, I've wanted my own pony. At first, when I was six years old, he was a stubborn Shetlander. I couldn't really drive that. Later I got a C-pony and I also started riding competitions."

Sports performance

Silke is currently starting with two horses in Z1 dressage. She certainly does not do that without merit. At the regional championships of the province of Brabant she finished fourth and sixth in the Z1. With this, she qualified for the National Championships with eight-year-old Lea Finn. Here too she managed to put down a nice performance with a ninth place. 

Silke: "We bred both horses ourselves and our sire is Desperado, they are full sisters. You wouldn't say that in terms of character, by the way. Muse is seven years old and has a very small heart. You really have to win her over. She feels like working every day and if you go into the ring with her, it's a show ball, then she goes the extra mile. Eight-year-old Lea Finn is truly the sweetest horse in the world. She may not be the most spectacular, but she is really nice to ride. She'll do anything for you."

Perfect combination

According to Silke, having a passion for horses and her work as a product marketer at Pavo is the ideal combination. "I know how it works and what situations and problems you can encounter. As a result, I can put myself in the customer's shoes." 
Of course, there is also Pavo in her own feed cart at home. "My sport horses get Pavo Performance because they have to make quite a reasonable effort. So this is a very good sports kibble. I supplement this with Pavo FibreBeet to ensure that they maintain a good weight and get some extra protein. They are also given a dash of Pavo Ahiflower®Oil over their feed to ensure that they recover well and quickly after training." 

Finally, Silke tells us what she likes most about her work at Pavo: "I like to make the complexity of horse nutrition as simple as possible. To explain it in such a way that it is understandable and applicable for everyone."