Story by Mike May | Photos by Abner Pedraza
Two Wellington-based equestrian businesses have taken one-stop shopping to a different level, making the shopping experience for equestrian customers even more convenient. The two retailers are Sport Horse Nutrition and GIT Barn Solutions. Both are located in the same building at 3080 Fairlane Farms Road in Wellington.
Sport Horse Nutrition
At Sport Horse Nutrition (www.sporthorsenutrition.com), located in Suite 5, the goal is customer satisfaction following every single transaction.
“Here at Sport Horse Nutrition, we provide you with the finest and most efficient horse products to keep your horse healthy,” General Manager Youssef Bargach said. “We are here to provide you with the finest selection of horse supplies and products to keep your horse in the best shape possible no matter what.”
Sport Horse Nutrition has a wide array of horse supplies available because this retailer has the room to stock all the necessary equestrian supplies.
“We have a 12,000-square-foot warehouse for the hay and feed, as well as two and a half acres out back where we store the shavings, our trailers, flat beds and box trucks that are used for deliveries,” Bargach said. “We make sure that we have at least 30 days of inventory of all products at all times.”
If you are in the market for hay, horse care supplies, horse feed, supplements or wood shavings, Sport Horse Nutrition has what you need.
In the hay category, customers have four varieties to choose from: Alfalfa, Green Meadows, Orchard and Timothy. In horse care supplies, Sport Horse Nutrition has a large number of categories that it sells, such as fly control, grooming items, hoof care, horse treats, horse first aid, poultice and clays, salts and minerals, and wraps. Many of those supplies are produced by trusted brands, such as Pyranha, Farnam and UltraShield.
Under the horse feed tab, there are six categories: Hubbard, Hygain, Manna Pro, McCauley’s, Tribute and Divers. In the area of supplements, Sport Horse Nutrition stocks seven different sub-categories, which include Calmers, Digestion and Ulcers, Hoof Supplements, Joint Supplements, Oils, Performance and Weight Control.
Sport Horse Solutions also sells four varieties of wood shavings.
According to Bargach, the lifeblood of Sport Horse Nutrition’s existence is its ability to get products delivered to its clients in a timely manner.
“At first, every customer comes to our store to check out our inventory and discuss deliverables,” Bargach said. “After that, they submit orders via phone or text.”
Once an order is placed, Bargach and his 13 employees focus on getting that product delivered as soon as possible.
“We strive for same-day deliveries or next-day deliveries,” Bargach said. “Our goal is to stock quality products and provide great customer service.”
Sport Horse Nutrition delivers to customers in Wellington, Loxahatchee, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Palm City and Okeechobee. Orders can be placed via text at (561) 634-5252 or e-mail at orders@sporthorsenutrition.com.
According to Bargach, he’s delighted to have a fellow equestrian business, GIT Barn Solutions, just a few yards away.
“They show support for us, as we show support for them,” he said.
In addition to enjoying working in the equestrian field, Bargach is also a fan of polo, dressage, racing and jumping.
“I’m a fan of all four equestrian sports,” he said.
GIT Barn Solutions
At GIT Barn Solutions (www.gitbarn.com), located in Suite 1, its specialty is collecting and disposing of horse manure, which is a major, year-round issue in Wellington and across Palm Beach County.
GIT aims to solve the horse manure concerns for its clients without the mess and the flies.
“By installing GIT plastic, closed, non-leaking dumpsters with lids, you avoid the flies and are using an environmentally friendly solution to manure removal,” said Jorge Falcon-Sillet, sales and customer care manager for GIT. “We also deliver super bedding pine shavings. Our drivers are friendly and prompt. Our goal is to serve you at the highest level.”
In addition to providing specific bins for the manure and shavings/bedding for the horse stalls, GIT Barn Solutions also sells top-quality hay from Canada.
“We store the hay in an air-conditioned facility,” Falcon-Sillet said.
The magnitude of the manure issue in Palm Beach County is eye-opening, he explained. During the high season, GIT Barn Solutions is picking up and disposing of 100 tons of manure a day, which is 200,000 pounds daily, if you do the math. It drops down to 30 tons a day in the off season.
Clearly, GIT Barn Solutions is doing a great job, as its business has grown from 50 systems with a handful of clients in 2016 to more than 400 accounts today — and there’s room for growth.
“Our business is growing 30 percent a year,” Falcon-Sillet said. “This is a big undertaking, which must be well organized. Some horse barns contain 40 horses, and that’s a great deal of horse manure every day.”
The biggest issue facing GIT Barn Solutions is purchasing enough land where it can dump and treat the manure by building its own compost. Right now, the company has to pay a third-party to legally dump the manure. That’s a charge that gets passed on to customers. There are three legal dumping locations in Palm Beach County that GIT Barn Solutions uses.
“If we can buy 30 acres, we can develop our own organic compost,” Falcon-Sillet explained.
Since manure accumulation is a daily issue, GIT Barn Solutions only takes off two days a year — Thanksgiving and Christmas. “We put out extra trucks the day before and the day after those holidays to pick up the extra manure,” Falcon-Sillet said.
The demand for shavings and bedding is also huge. Each week during the high season, four trailers of pallets containing shavings and bedding are delivered to GIT Barn Solutions from a factory in Leesburg, Florida. Each trailer has 28 pallets, and each pallet contains 45 bags of shavings/bedding.
To learn more about GIT Barn Solutions, call (561) 600-3407, e-mail sales@gitbarn.com, or drop by the office, which is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed on Saturdays, and open on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon during the winter season.
