Westgate Labs is a small family run business, with a purpose built lab and an award winning team of expert SQP/RAMA on hand to answer customer queries and guide them through the worming maze!
Following the most up to date veterinary guidelines and keeping abreast of the latest developments, the experienced team at Westgate are on hand to answer customer queries and guide them through the worming maze.
DAVID & GILLIAN Booth
Founders of Westgate Labs
Westgate Labs was started by husband-and-wife duo David and Gillian Booth. They set out with a huge mission to improve the knowledge and practice of horse worming in the UK from their farm in Northumberland. They're still very much involved as non-executive directors, in between tree planting, dog walking and creating cakes and bakes for the team!
CLAIRE shand
Director of Marketing & Communications - EQUINE & POULTY SQP/RAMA
Claire Shand, daughter of founders David and Gillian, is passionate about driving behaviour change to make a lasting difference to horse health. She is highly regarded throughout the industry, especially with the amazing amount of work she has put into her role on the Core Steering Group for CANTER, heading up the CANTER Communications Subgroup. Claire was awarded Equine SQP of the Year in 2023.
KRISTY Hodgson
Director of Operations - EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Kristy is our longest standing employee and has been part of the team since 2009. She won Outstanding Customer Service Award in 2020 and Equine SQP of the Year in 2019 and loves a parasite puzzle, particularly in youngsters and helping customers with their horses worming issues.
Sarah Ince
Finance & Data Officer - EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Sarah has been working at Westgate for 7 years and runs all of our finances. She is the woman with the numbers and deals with all of our research data and monitoring stats in charts and tables, with a great eye for detail. As well her horse being in the field the other side of the lab, Sarah runs a family of 3 children and furry children when she isn’t crunching numbers.
Sarah Mitchinson
Office Manager - EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Sarah is outstanding at organising the team and making sure the lab runs smoothly with a happy and motivated team. She's usually the one at the end of the phone and replying to direct messages from customers needing help with their results. Always up for having fun and looking glam, her sparkly personality is infectious and it's Sarah enthusiasm that ensures the success of our team events, such as fund raising charity walks for World Horse Welfare.
katrina pedlar
project Manager
Katrina works behind the scenes on projects such as subscription services, newsletters, website and social media content plus working together with our Ambassadors to promote best practice parasite control. She gets a real buzz from helping people with their horse's health every day and loves meeting our amazing customers at events such as the National Equine Show and Your Horse Live.
EMily DAGG
Team Leader - EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Emily’s responsibility is to oversee the laboratory protocol and ensure that quality and accuracy are achieved throughout the testing process. Previous to Westgate Emily studied English Literature at University to gain a BA and decided to take a different path determined by her love of horses.
EMMA Caldow
Lab Technician
Emma joined Westgate in 2023 on a part time basis mostly as a laboratory assistant and progressing into admin assistance. Emma has 2 little boys at school hence the part time role, and manages to squeeze a lot of work, care and dog walking into her days. Emma is always looking to learn more from Westgate and up skill herself so will no doubt be chatting to our customers soon enough.
Isla DAGG
EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Isla (sister to Emily!) comes to Westgate with a love of all things farm and the passion to share this whilst we develop our farm animal testing at Westgate. She is currently revising for her Farm and Equine SQP qualification which will enable her to further her knowledge in the farm animal department and enable us to encourage more farmers to test to help with the rise in animal wormer resistance.
EMMA DAVISON
Lab Technician - EQUINE SQP/RAMA
Emma joined Westgate in 2018, using her knowledge and experience from previously working in Veterinary practice. Emma is always keen to gather as many CPD points as possible and will gather more information and knowledge from there to help in her job role and help with customer queries.
Jessica Fawcett
Lab Technician
Jess, aka Westgate's mermaid, is a Biochemist student and animal lover, including a very cheeky TB. She thrives on the range of experience gained from working at Westgate and is great fun to be around. As she says - "it's hard to be serious when you work with poo on the daily!"
Nikki GarFoot
Lab Technician
Nikki is quite new to the Westgate team, only joining at the beginning of February, but she is passionate about horse welfare. She has been a horse owner for over 30 years and enjoys going for rides on her horse Molly and long walks with her husband and dog at the weekends.
Nathan Kindred
Lab Technician
Nathan has been with us since Autumn 2023 and has come to us with a wealth of knowledge from a science background, having previously studied bio medical science and neuro science and is always sharing his previous skills with us. Nathan will be studying for his SQP this year so will be striving to better his skills at Westgate and further develop his knowledge in animal welfare.
Morgan Purvis
Lab Technician
Having graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in Biochemistry, Morgan moved home to began her career at Westgate. Outside work she spends most of her time with dog Finn and her nose in a good book!