Meet Sarah Fulwood, Equine Specialist at Wynnstay Lancaster

By Stephanie Kydd
5 Jan 2023
0 Comments

Meet your Sarah Fulwood, Equine Specialist at Wynnstay Lancaster

Wynnstay has a dedicated team of RAMAs, fully trained and legally qualified through AMTRA, (Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority) to advise, prescribe and supply certain veterinary medicines. In this issue, we meet Sarah Fulwood, the Equine Specialist at the Lancaster store. Never one for standing still, or certainly not sitting behind a desk, it took a six-month unpaid leave period from her graduate role to trigger Sarah’s career working with animals and animal health.

Taking time out to travel to New Zealand and decide her next move, Sarah took up work milking cows and that gave her just the inspiration she needed. On her return to the UK, she began work relief milking on farms local to her Lancaster base, before eventually becoming a herd manager for five years. With very little free time given the demands of managing the good-sized herd, Sarah eventually moved back to relief milking on a self-employed basis, before taking up a role as receptionist at a local veterinary practice, specialising in farm animals. It was here she took the opportunity to gain her AMTRA RAMA qualifications in the farm and pet modules, although found her skills largely unused as clients preferred to speak to the vets, rather than seek Sarah’s qualified guidance.

I support the RAMA qualification and enjoy the CPD, but felt that if I wasn’t using my skills daily, they would quickly go rusty. I, therefore, decided to personally pay to complete the equine RAMA module, before pursuing the next step in my career.

A retail environment seemed to tick the boxes, and when an opportunity arose at Wynnstay’s Lancaster store, Sarah did not look back and is now one of five RAMAs in the store team.

As Equine Specialist, Sarah is the primary contact for all equine-related advice, as well as being responsible for ordering in and receiving all the equine and pet-related stock, and providing feed advice to equine customers.

I take a great deal of time getting to know my customers and their animals. Trust is so important. If I can provide sound advice and knowledge to customers, they are likely to return to us again. Our customers are really receptive to the advice we give them. They know that we are trying to help them care for their animals in the correct manner, using our RAMA skills and knowledge and that we are not trying to push a sale just for the sake of it.

The main challenge Sarah faces when dealing with equine customers tends to be around the topic of worming, and she is gradually trying to change mind sets. “There are still too many horse owners trying to worm their horses more often than is needed, with no worm egg-counting being undertaken, rather than following correct worming protocols.

Moving through the winter months, worming will remain a constant topic of conversation with customers, but another huge issue over winter is body condition scoring of horses, according to Sarah.

As is often the case with pet owners, many customers try to humanise their horses rather than treat them as the species that they are, unintentionally causing health issues through kindness and over-feeding. I use winter to help overweight horses get trim before they go on the spring grass. I will be checking on equine diets, offering advice on how to body condition score, as well as working with feed companies to ensure each equine customer is receiving the diet they require.

It is this level of understanding and qualified advice Sarah is keen for her customers to appreciate.

I think the title Registered Animal Medicines Adviser (RAMA) reflects the job we do. It is important customers are aware of the qualifications we hold, enabling us to work with them to provide the best advice and prescribe and supply the best medicines for their specific requirements.