Sports medicine
We can support you in keeping your competition horses and racehorses healthy and injury-free.
About our service
Many of our patients are athletes who must be fit to compete at the highest level. Keeping your horse sound and injury-free is vital to success, and we have a great deal of experience in this area.
We will always work with you to understand your aims and believe this is vitally important. Our aim is to find the right treatment and management to keep your horse competing successfully and staying fit.
What is Sports Medicine?
Sports medicine is all about optimising performance, preventing injury and promoting recovery from injury. We use many different means to achieve this, including careful examination, ridden assessments, lameness diagnostics, assessment of exercise regimes and dietary management. Intra-articular disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs are often used, but sports medicine is so much more than just injecting joints. It involves:
- A thorough evaluation of the whole horse at the beginning of the competition season to ensure they are in optimum condition.
- Maintenance evaluations to provide any additional assistance during the season.
- Assessment after competitions/at the end of the season to ensure there are no signs of subtle injury that should be treated promptly to limit their impact.
Physiotherapy
We work together with our trusted chartered physiotherapists, who can play a vital role in maintaining your horses’ soundness. Our vets can help you identify physiotherapists in your area, and we may sedate horses when required to facilitate deeper treatment.
Farriery
Optimal hoof function and foot balance are important for performance, and excellent farriery is vital for keeping many horses sound. We have very good working relationships with many local farriers and frequently provide foot-balance x-rays to help them achieve this.
More Information
If you would like to talk to us about what we can offer, please feel free to ring any of our vets to discuss this further.