As we drove into the camp site of Walnut Hills at Staunton Virginia, we noticed a advert for a German restaurant nearby and decided that, as we'd been driving all day, we would treat ourselves to a night out and hopefully a good beer?

Once we had got the RV parked up and everything sorted we set off to find the Eidelweiss restaurant, which was billed as offering ‘authentic Black Forest region dishes'. Well, maybe we got the chef and server on an ‘off' night, but I am sorry to say that the evening was very disappointing. We will not be adding this restaurant to our "Good Food Guide" list! Overnight we had horrendous storms and torrential rain which kept up for most of the following day when we were travelling through the Appalachian Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Shenandoah valley. We managed to get a couple of photos when it stopped raining to try and show the fabulous scenery and lovely autumn colours.

 Appalachains in autumn

We arrived at the next venue, the Meadow Event Park in Doswell, Virginia, for the Equine Extravaganza. The Meadow has a wonderful and fascinating history. In recent years, having been bought by The State Fair of Virginia Inc., which is a not-for-profit organisation that receives no state aid, relying totally on charitable donations. www.meadoweventpark.com the Meadows were found to be the site of Native American tribes dating back to 8,000 .B.C! Archaelogists excavated the site and found fire rings, arrow heads, and evidence that confirmed that the area had been the site of tribal gatherings for many of the native American tribes for thousands of years.

One of the other claims to fame for the Meadow is that it is where the legendary racehorse Secretariat was bred and raised by Penny and Cristopher Chenery. Secretariat, who was also known as' Big Red', won the elusive Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing in 1973, the first horse in 25 years to do so, and he did it in such a way as to become regarded as America's greatest horse. His history-making day was in the Belmont Stakes, a mile and a half race for 3 year olds, which he won by an astounding 31 lengths in a record 2.24 minutes flat, a world record that has as yet to be broken. Secretariat, who was born in March 1970, was a legend and as such is the star of a new film just released in the US by Disney (add Disney website address) that tells the amazing story of how the Chenery family came to own this horse through the toss of a coin.

The venue is excellent and has all the facilities needed to put on a horse show, including stabling and excellent show rings. Unfortunately the Chenery family is no longer here and their fabulous family mansion was demolished many years ago. More recently however the SFVA has rebuilt the mansion house which was the venue for a ‘Denim & Diamonds' VIP dinner on Friday night with entertainment provided by Waylon Jennings' brother, Tommy, and Bobby Plough.

The setup was very difficult, not because of access but because temperatures had rocketed with a daytime temperature of 90 F, with 90 per cent humidity, and only dropped to 80 F during the night. Tony was in a muck sweat by the time he had made the first trip with the trolley from the RV to the booth location. The organisers have tried really hard to put on a good show and there are lots of good speakers and exhibitors here, so let's hope the show really draws the crowds.

Friday dawned bright, sunny and very cold! After a heavy thunder storm which rattled the wine glasses on the table in the RV, the weather had changed literally overnight, dropping a massive 30 degrees. The first day was fairly slow but the visitors were interested in our products and we did a number of sales to clients of our friend Joyce Harman DVM www.harmanyequine.com who has an extensive knowledge in the treatment of horses with Lyme's disease, and recommends our Digest Plus and Digest Support (GastriX) to help support the horse's digestive system when they are having heavy doses of powerful antibiotics as part of their conventional treatment.

Our stand at the Equine Extravaganza

Our booth is located right across the aisle from Cashmans, we have seen their stands at a number of other shows, and they always have massive displays of products for stable, farm, and barn. The Cashmans crew had driven 600 miles from Columbus, Ohio, to be here and had come straight from the AQHA convention which runs over 21 days. It is an enormous show, attracting people from all over the US and it is where the finals of all the Quarter Horse competitions take place.

Cashmans' stand

Cashmans

We were hopeful that Saturday and Sunday would prove to be busier but unfortunately, despite excellent weather, the crowds stayed away. This could have been a combination of the slow economy and Halloween however we do hope that the organisers persevere as everyone here felt that the show had great potential and could really grow. So its back in the RV and we head back to Pennsylvania where we can restock before we have to leave for Plymouth, Massachusetts, where we will be doing two training sessions with all the sales people at SmartPak.

We then move onto Springfield, Mass, in time to set up our booth for the Equine Affaire, our next show which starts on Thursday the 11th November.

AMVMA Conference - Saturday 23rd October - Monday 25th

The first day at the AHVMA conference went very well, with lots of interest shown in all the products. I was surprised at what a large percentage of the attendees were female, as I am sure that in the UK the percentage of male vets would be far greater than female. When I quizzed one of the vet students at the conference on this subject, she told me that of the 90 students in her year at Cornell University 80 of them were women!

We had the great pleasure of bumping into our old friend, Joyce Harman DVM.  Joyce and I did a ‘double act' in Vienna, at a veterinary congress a few years ago, when we presented a couple of lectures on herbal treatment for horses. Joyce specialises in Chinese herbs and acupuncture for horses, she has been battling with cancer for several years and it was so great to see her looking fit and well.

Tony and I had decided that rather than go straight back to the campsite when the show closed at 5.30, we would treat ourselves and eat out for a change! We did have an an ulterior motive because the campsite was having a two hour ‘trick or treat'" session that evening - horror of horrors all those kids banging on the RV door asking for candy with menaces just didn't bear thinking about!

I had found details of a great restaurant just one block away from the convention centre that specialised in using local organic produce, called Chalk Food & Wine, located in Greenup street in the borough of Covington, in Cincinnati. The place was great with a wonderful atmosphere, really friendly servers and the most fabulous food! Our server, Melissa, really took really good care of us, making some great food and wine recommendations. We got back to the campsite around nine, having missed the Trick or Treat session, and called it a night.

Sunday at the conference was busy and I managed to sit in on two of the lectures by Greg Tilford, the herbalist from Animal Essentials. Greg and I sit on the NASC Scientific Advisory Commitee together and I have long been an admirer of his extensive practical knowledge of herbal medicine. He has an easy manner and some great anecdotes which make his lectures both informative and fun. During one of his lectures he pointed me out and introduced me, making several compliments which was very embarrassing, however, after the lecture one of the conference's organising committee approached me to ask if I would be prepared to speak at their 2011 conference in San Diego - this would be a great opportunity for Hilton Herbs and an honour for me!

Monday was the last day of the conference for all the vendors. The various attendees had obviously been looking at the literature they had collected from the booths over the previous two days and now came back to place orders and to discuss how they could obtain our products in the future. We had a busy time answering questions, as well as taking orders from a number of them. We have been very pleased with the response shown by these professionals and will certainly be attending the next conference in 2011 when hopefully we will be able to meet up with customers both new and old. Then it was time to break down the stand and load up the RV because we had a 650-mile drive ahead of us to our next venue, where we would be setting up for The Equine Extravaganza, a four-day public horse show in Doswell, near Richmond, Virginia.

My ‘ole Kentucky home - Monday 18th October - 22rd October

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and so it was with our brief stay on the Ohio river. We took the opportunity to go back to the Amish township of Marion that was nearby to stock up with fresh farm milk (and I mean fresh - straight from the cow, unpasteurised, as it comes!) and some fresh farm eggs. The Amish were gathering in their pumpkins and chrysanthemums ready for the harvest celebrations. It was wonderful to see them out in the fields with their heavy horses, farming as it used to be, working with nature and having minimum adverse impact on the land.

Amish harvesting 'Mums'

What a lotta pumpkins!

We took our leave from the peace and quiet of the countryside and headed north through Kentucky to Cincinnati, in Ohio, where we were booked into the Winton Woods State Park campground, 20 miles from the city centre. What a culture shock awaited us as, of course, we'd forgotten it is fast approaching Halloween, the event, second only to Christmas, in the American holiday calendar!

The campsite is located alongside a large lake surrounded by trees and by the time we arrived on the Wednesday there were already a number of RVs and campers set up with Halloween themed decorations, ranging from inflatable pumpkins and ghosts, to huge stacks of real pumpkins and gourds with pots of crysanths or "mums" as they are called. On further inspection of the notice board we quickly realised that we had picked the very weekend when the park was running a "Creepy Camping" extravaganza with scary hay rides, and competitions for the best Halloween campsite display.

Ghosts & Ghouls!

We spent Thursday setting up our booth for the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association's Annual Conference which is being held at the convention centre in Cincinnati over three days. This is the first time we have exhibited at this event, but we are hopeful that these veterinarians, who have already embraced complementary and natural therapies, will find our products of interest. This congress will give us access to over 250 holistic veterinarians from all over the USA - where else can you find so many like-minded people all in one place?

Having finished the set-up we drove back to the campsite and, WOW, what a transformation had taken place in our absence! The campsite was full to bursting point and ‘creepy mania' had taken over! Everywhere there were amazing scary displays with each camper desperately trying to outdo their neighbour, a bit like the Griswold's Christmas lights, or the competitions that take place in the UK between neighbours who try and add just one more illuminated Santa Claus or reindeer sleigh to their front garden.

Halloween lights

The kids were all very excited and the parents had brought in pick up loads of firewood to keep the camp fires blazing into the wee small hours of the morning! Opposite our own site there was an 8-foot hight figure that was motion-activated, so that every time someone went passed the figure would let out a blood curdling scream and lift its severed head clean off its shoulders. I just can't imagine what is going to greet us when we get back from the show tomorrow On Saturday which is billed as the big day?

Watch this space for more terrifying adventures!

The last day of the Backer Christmas Show was quiet, but we still had some good solid enquiries, and several people came back to the booth to once again confirm interest in our products. All in all we are very happy with the way the show has gone and the amount of genuine interest in the range.  We have made some good contacts and are looking forward to meeting them again at the AHVMA (American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Association) congress later this month.

Breakdown went well and our load out went fine, with the union guys doing a great job, Tony managed to find a good place to park the RV, and by 7pm we were loaded and ready to get on the road heading south. We figured that we just couldn't face spending another night in the marshalling yard which had become even noisier because Chicago's O'Hare airport had changed its runway plan and the jets were landing literally over our heads. It reminded us of the scene in "The Good Bad and the Ugly" Clint Eastward film, where he is asking a toothless old timer for information on a notorious bandit. They are in the old timer's shack alongside a railway line which rattles every time a train goes by! The RV literally vibrated as the planes flew over and the wine in our glasses bounced around with the vibrations. So onward and upward (or downwards??), we headed south!!

Our riverside RV park in Kentucky

After a stopover in our friendly Wal Mart car park we arrived at the campsite that was to be our home for the next six days. Well, talk about going from the ridiculous to the sublime - this place is heaven. Located in the southwest corner of Kentucky, just above the area known as "The Land Between the Lakes", we are camped alongside the Ohio River which empties on down eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.

It is so peaceful here with just the noise of the water, the birds, wildlife (including a local coyote pack), and the occasional throb of the engines of the huge barges that transport coal, lime, and heavy industrial goods down the river. We started our first day visiting the local Amish community in nearby Marion. The folks were so friendly, welcoming us to their various farms where we bought beautiful fresh farm eggs, vegetables, and a great supply of firewood so Tony could build his evening campfires.

So what is Halloween anyway???

Sunset over the Ohio River

We are able to fish from the banks of the river right behind the RV and have already caught catfish (for dinner tonight), bass, carp and blue gill. We have made friends with a couple of full-timers here and tomorrow plan to return to the Amish commune and take the ferry across to Illinois to see the Cave in the Rock, which was the location for "How the West was Won".

 Come on fishy, fishy, little fishy!

 Mine's bigger than yours!

 Sadly on Tuesday we have to move on to Cincinnati to prepare for our booth at the American Holistic Veterinary Congress - watch this space!

Well things are definitely looking up! We had a trouble-free journey to the Donald E Stephens convention centre in Rosemont, Chicago, where the Backer Christmas Show is being held. The hall is unionised and we'd been worried about how we would organise getting all our gear into the hall. Well we needn't have worried, the guys were really helpful and quickly unloaded everything out of the back of the RV onto a couple of pallets and whizzed them into the hall ready for us to start building the stand.

When we'd finished setting up we went off to find the parking area for the RV, where we would be spending the next five nights. This turned out to be the marshalling yard for the convention centre freight trucks and the yard, although not crowded, is located right alongside one of America's busiest highways, the Interstate 90 which that is busy 24/7 and is also directly below the main flight path into O'Hare airport, so definitely not the quiet rural locations we are used to! The good news is that we will not be spending much time there, using the RV only to sleep and eat in.

Our not-so-rural campsite!

The busy I-90 runs right next door!

The first day of the show was fantastic with loads of interest in the products from the stores, the new Kitty range was really well received, and we took several orders. The show has a specific 'natural' products area, which has grown bigger year-on-year and reflects the enormous growth in natural healthcare products for pets.

The Hilton stand at the Backer Christmas Show

Not a product out of place!

Kitty products

We are hoping that the next two days will be as good and that the Backer Christmas Show turns out to be a real winner!

Hilary's Blog - US Trip No. 3

Well, where do i start with our tale of woe?

Here we are back in the States for another seven-week visit, during which we will be exhibiting at The Backer Pet show in Chicago, the American Holistic Veterinary Congress in Cincinatti, the Equine Extravaganza in Virginia, and finally the Equine Affaire public show in Springfield, MA.

We arrived at our usual first night stop, the Holiday Inn in Quakertown PA and it was like deja-vu because there was a violent storm going on with eight inches of rain falling in under 12 hours! We had visions of a repeat performance of the horrendous storms we had experienced earlier this year!

Well, the weather improved but our luck certainly didn't. We were due to collect our RV and start driving to Chicago, but discovered that the RV company had ordered a recall on our rig, so we had to delay our departure, while a motor in the RV was replaced.

We finally set off on Saturday 2nd October on the I-80, this is an amazing road that runs all the way from New York on the east coast, right across the country to San Francisco on the west coast. It must run for at least 3000 miles! We travelled through Pensylvania, Ohio, Indiana, (past the factory that made our Keystone Raptor ‘toy hauler'), and on into Illinois heading to the north of Chicago.

During the last 100 miles of the drive our truck had started to lose power and we thought we might have picked up some dirty fuel. So at the moment we are sitting in a Ford dealership in Marengo, just outside Chicago, while they change the two fuel filters that had become blocked!

In addition to the problems with the pickup, the work that had been done on the RV before we left had not been done correctly, and, as a result, the legs that drop down at the front of the RV when you unhitch it from the pickup, had become bent, which meant that we had to call in a mechanic and wait four hours while he sourced replacement parts and fitted them.

Let's just hope that this hasn't set the tone for the rest of our trip and that things improve from now on! Stayed tuned for more adventures of Hilary and Tony in the Herbmobile!

The 'Herbmobile'

Everyone at Hilton Herbs is very excited as we've been been shortlisted for the prestigious West Country Business Awards 2010, in the International Trade Category.

The awards are open to companies from all sectors, based in Devon, Cornwall, South Somerset, West Dorset or the Isles of Scilly, and the winners will be announced at a black tie awards dinner to be held at St Mellion Golf Club on October 21st 2010.

Hilton Herbs has been shortlisted from hundreds of entries over the five categories, of which only 55 received a preliminary site visit, and this list was then whittled down to 16 businesses who were invited to give a presentation to the independent panel.

The judges were looking for evidence of the company's versatility, imagination, and persistence, as well as product innovation in trading with existing and overseas markets.

The other two finalists in the International Trade category are Goodridge Ltd and Swallowfield PLC, with annual turnovers in excess of £30million and £50 million respectively. With this in mind Hilton Herbs is privileged to be flying the flag for the equestrian and animal supplement industries and feel extremely proud to have made the final three.

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We've just heard that our sponsored Endurance rider in France, Selena de Wasseige, has won an individual Bronze medal and team Silver at the Open Junior Endurance Championships at Kreuth, in Germany. The championships were run over 120kms and the "open" competition was won by a rider from the UAE. Individual gold medallist in the European Championships was Laetitia Pegaz from France, with another French rider taking individual silver.

Nineteen year old Selena, who lives near Moye, in the northeast of France, was riding for the Belgian team as she holds Belgian nationality, although she is permanently resident in France. Hilton Herbs has sponsored Selena for five years now and we have enjoyed enormously watching her progress her career in endurance.

Selena was crewed at Kreuth by her father, Patrick, and he reports as follows:

"We are back from Kreuth, where the Junior European Endurance championships have just been held and the results are attached. Selena won the individual Bronze medal and team Silver, with her Arab mare Kalah Grey, averaging 19.8kms over the 120kms.  This course was fairly hilly and very technical and the average speeds were fast, with the last leg being run at around 25kms an hour.  This was a great result for this horse as she caught an infection the Sunday prior to the ride and had eaten virtually nothing for two days"

Selena (Bib no 10)  & Kalah Grey at Kreuth

The Scottish Endurance Championships were held at Perth Racecourse over the weekend of 16th - 18th July . This year saw a large entry in classes ranging from 22kms pleasure rides to the two-day 160kms Scottish Championship class. The event kicked off on Friday 16th with an afternoon Pleasure Ride which was very well received, with around 30 people taking part.

Saturday morning saw the start of the one-day 120kms endurance race (ER) at 6.30am and all four competitors headed off together. Sadly one was vetted out at VG (vet-gate) 2, but the remaining three finished in great form and the winner was Jill Calder with Khebir Shahir. Also finishing in this class was Marjorie Grant with Trailtrow Eriskay, a Highland Pony, the first Highland Pony in SERC to complete this distance.

Following hot on their heels were the starters in the two-day 160kms. The three entrants in this class were Helen McFarland from Northern Ireland (defending last year's title), with J St Jake, Lorna Templeton from Nairn, with Redarn Connon, a homebred Highland/Arab cross, and Katie Keith from Aberdeenshire with purebred Arab Jakiri. All three rode together until the end of day one when Katie Keith sadly vetted out.

Day two saw the remaining two competitors leave together but Helen and Jake pulled ahead after VG1 and finished well ahead of Lorna and Connon. This is the second year running that Helen has won this trophy, and she will be back in Scotland at the end of August representing Ireland in the Home International competition being held at Burgie, Morayshire, at the end of August.

The one-day 80kms ER, with eleven starters, was the largest of the ER classes and was won, with a spectacular racing finish, by Karen Shotton from Cumbria with Patchwork Polly, from Sarah Norris and Genghis Ibn Charisma. Both horses looked fantastic and full of running after 80kms.

Other classes over the weekend included a two-day 120kms, a two-day 80kms, and 60 kms ride, which was by Donna Hemmings and Cumbria Sameh. Additonally there were 50kms Novice and Open CTRs (competitive training ride), 40kms and 30kms CTRsm and of course pleasure rides on all three days.

This is the second year the event has run at this fantastic venue and the whole event was a great success but could not have taken place without the support of its sponsors so many thanks to
Hilton Herbs for sponsoring the event!

Helen McFarland, winner of the Scottish Championships

About eighteen months ago whilst exhibiting at Global Pet in Orlando, Florida, we were approached by a company called Mud Bay, who have a chain of pet stores in and around the Puget Sound (Seattle) area. They were very enthusiastic about taking the doggy products but despite following up the contact after the show nothing more came of it.

At Global Pet 2010 the folk from Mud Bay came on the stand again. They explained that they'd gone through a bit of restructuring and introduced two new colleagues who had joined Mud Bay from senior positions with Starbucks - so we guessed they were serious about growing their business!

One thing lead to another and by May we were seriously discussing the prospect of sending someone out to do a product presentation to their store managers and to visit some Mud Bay stores and present the products to staff members. By June the trip was confirmed and ‘yours truly' (Heather Giles) had got the job! Coincidentally we also had a free business class flight to use which had been awarded to us by UKTI on the back of winning Somerset's "Exporter of the Year 2009".

By about a week before I was due to leave we still hadn't had a confirmed order from Mud Bay, so had to wind them up a little bit. Imagine our surprise when we received a $25K order by return, bearing in mind they are taking only canine products it was pretty ambitious for a ‘starter' order!

Once the order had come in I started to plan my trip! Flights had been booked and I had decided to stay on for a few extra days to get in some sight-seeing, especially as Puget Sound is well known for whale watching!

I flew out on July 6th from Heathrow and my first business-class flight was a mostly pleasant experience, despite the British Airways cabin crew who in general are perfectly polite and helpful whilst still leaving you with the impression they'd rather be doing something else! My neighbour in business-class was the General Manager of the Waterford Castle Hotel & Golf Course and as I gave him plenty of free advice about what to feed his dog, I may call in the favour if ever I get to visit Ireland!

I arrived at Seattle airport at the end of the day feeling rather jaded and was pleased that my hotel, the Radisson, was right opposite the entrance to the airport complex. I settled myself in my very comfortable hotel room and decided to go straight to bed in so as to be rested for the following day's work.

Radisson Gateway, SeaTac