In Memoriam: Peter M. J. Bedding, PhD

I am sad to report that Dr. Peter Bedding passed away on Christmas Day, 2010.

Peter Michael John Bedding, PhD, was the original developer of the SUCCEED® formula and an integral part of our business. He was a world-renowned biochemist and equine nutritionist, living in Devon, England. He also happened to be my friend.

In his career, Peter worked for some of the top pharmaceutical companies and later consulted with many equine feed companies. Perhaps the best way of allowing everyone to appreciate Peter’s immense knowledge is to tell our story.

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I was privileged to meet him shortly after I started back with horses in 2000. While I hadn’t been around a horse for 35+ years, I did grow up with them in a little English village. I assumed that all the changes I saw were for the better, yet Peter explained patiently that “convenience feeds” and modern husbandry were not necessarily best for the horse.

Eventually, this led to SUCCEED®. Following Peter’s direction, we changed our feeding practices at my own farm, back to methods employed 100 years ago. I showed these approaches to others who also achieved great results, but they all said “too much work, too complicated!”

Meanwhile, our vet, Frank Pellegrini, DVM, had started his groundbreaking work on the discovery of colonic ulceration in horses. I asked Peter if he could provide “Dr. Green in a bottle”: some concoction that would be all-natural, that would allow a horse to digest naturally even though we feed and keep them very unnaturally for the most part. My hope was for a simple additive that would hopefully allow the horse to avoid both gastric and colonic ulceration, and eventually colic.

Peter laughed at my idea. He said, “There isn’t a silver bullet, but I’ve been patiently developing my ideas for 20 years, making mistakes along the way, and I think I’m close. I’m about to run a new trial so let’s talk in 6 months.” So, after the trial, Frank and I traveled to England to meet Peter, and soon SUCCEED® was borne.

We have all learned so much from and about Peter in the past 10 years. He was known world-wide in his field, yet he remained modest and self-deprecating. He was quite remarkable in his knowledge of horses and especially their biochemistry. He was far more concerned about doing the best by the horse than about receiving any personal accolades. He could take amazingly complex issues of digestion and reproduction and reduce them to manageable challenges with simple, gentle solutions that really work. He could talk easily and lucidly with the most senior equine gastroenterologists in the world and then turn around and help a family with their daughter’s pony, all for the love of the horse.

From all of us at Freedom Health, we offer our sympathies to Peter’s family, and our profound thanks to Peter for his contribution to our business, for his friendship, and for the education he provided to me along the way. All of these are immeasurable and leave us forever in his debt.

Peter will be greatly missed by all and especially his widow, Silva. But he will live on in SUCCEED®.

John Hall
President, Freedom Health, LLC
January 11, 2011