An equestrian entrepreneur will be facing the dragons in tonight’s episode of the BBC programme Dragon’s Den.
Kay Russell from Dorset is behind Equi-N-icE and Physicool — products to cool horses and human’s limbs after strenuous training.
Kay was approached by the BBC to pitch her idea to the dragons in May.
The filming took four hours and Kay had to wait in the green room for three days before being called in to pitch her product to the panel of Duncan Bannatyne, James Caan, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis, looking for an investment in the business.
“It was totally terrifying facing the dragons,” said Kay. “But once I got over the initial nerves it was quite fun, very exhilarating.
“I didn’t have time to do a huge amount of preparation though as we began filming in June.”
Kay founded cooling product Equi-N-icE six years ago.
“I was in America and saw evaporating alcohol pads being used to cool limbs after exercise and thought it would be a good idea to use on horses,” she said. “There is no mess, it is instant, lightweight and your horse doesn’t have to hooked up to expensive equipment.”
Equi-N-icE works by drawing heat away from the horse’s leg. “It is ideal after hard work, so is especially good for racing and cross-country,” added Kay.
“Event riders Rodney Powell and Jeanette Breakwell and trainer David Elsworth all use Equi-N-icE.”
Physicool grew out of the idea as Kay noticed people — including jockey Andrew Thornton — using Equi-N-ice on themselves. She launched it at the 2007 London marathon.
But Kay won’t be watching tonight, “I’ll be in bed with a book probably, I’m not looking forward to seeing myself on TV,” she said.
To see how Kay gets on pitching to the dragons tune into BBC Two tonight (Wednesday 26 August) at 9pm.
