The Equine Sports Medicine Clinic

10/05/2024

And then there were 3! He kept us waiting for a sleepless couple of weeks but eventually arrived at a very sociable 7pm, a strong and striking chestnut c**t by New Senator.

09/05/2024

Foal number 2 arrived last week - a perfect little filly by Glamourdale out of our own Calliope, who was runner up in the Price Supreme In-Hand final at HOYS last year.

18/04/2024

Foal number 1. How utterly gorgeous. He's by Crowns Ace of Pearl. Walter! 💛💛😍

Still a few select spaces for foaling mares down this season 💙

15/04/2024

First arrival of the foaling season in the small hours of the morning at the ESMC, a beautiful, big, buckskin c**t by Crowns Ace of Pearl. Both mum and foal doing well.

15/03/2024

I’ve sufficient vaccine in stock for a further 2 horses if anyone else is interested. PM for more info.

I’m just putting together a batch of horses that get sweet itch who might benefit from a course of the Insol vaccine before the fly season starts. Just need to recruit a few more to justify ordering a pack of jabs. Drop me a message or give me a call for more info. P

11/03/2024

Busy week in the offing, first lot of in foal mares arriving this week ☺️☺️

Still some selected availability for foaling livery, contact us for dates. 🩷🩷🩷🩵🩵🩵

Top class facilities, insomniac vet on site! 😝🍎
North Yorkshire.

28/02/2024

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22/02/2024

I’m just putting together a batch of horses that get sweet itch who might benefit from a course of the Insol vaccine before the fly season starts. Just need to recruit a few more to justify ordering a pack of jabs. Drop me a message or give me a call for more info. P

09/01/2024

We have limited spaces available for this season, so please get in touch if you want a foaling livery with a vet on site.✨✨✨✨✨✨

19/12/2023

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and clients! We hope you all have a lovely time over the festive period!

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR OPENING HOURS.

The clinic will be providing an emergencies-only service from 1230pm Friday 22nd December. Normal service will resume at 9am on Tuesday 2nd January 2024!!!

If you have a horse needing urgent veterinary attention then please call the usual number 07540 050716. If you would like some advice or to book an appointment for the new year then please leave a message or send a text or email and I'll respond in due course.

Thank you for all your support in 2023 and Merry Christmas!!

(With thanks to Norman Thelwell)

14/12/2023

The intervals for the primary courses of equine vaccines are changing for the BEF disciplines (BS, BD, BE, riding clubs, pony club) in line with BHA regulations from 1st January 2024.

The interval between 1st and 2nd vaccine is now 21-60 days (3 weeks to 8 weeks 4 days).

The interval between 2nd and 3rd vaccine is now 120 - 180 days (4 to 6 months)

If both the first and second vaccines were given before 1st January 2024, old intervals are fine. The third vaccine must be given in line with new intervals
If only the first vaccine is given before 1st January, the second vaccine must be given according to new intervals.
Horses that have completed their first 3 vaccinations in line with old intervals before the end of 2023 do not need to restart.

So far for 2024 only the BHA, BHRC and FEI require the continuation of 6 monthly boosters.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

01/12/2023

Few spaces still available for our bespoke, all-inclusive, foaling livery package for the 2024 season. Happy to take maiden and difficult mares for a range of boarding stays to suit your needs. Vet resident on site. Calm and professionally ran yard that horses settle into quickly and well. Beautiful, purpose built yard of Monarch stables for those all important post-natal photos! Take the worry and stress away from foaling - book in now!!

06/11/2023

Horses are generally content and compliant animals—unlike humans, they don’t typically have “bad days” that negatively affect their personalities due to emotional duress. Furthermore, as a prey animal they are cognitively designed NOT to show stress or injury, or else they will be recognized as a target by a predator, or bumped down the herd hierarchy.

If a horse is acting differently, it is almost undoubtedly due to a medical issue. We can appreciate this as lameness, but typically the behavioral signs preclude an obvious gait abnormality. Sometimes these behaviors seem chronic (e.g., “He/she always pins their ears when we tighten the girth, or bites at my leg when I ask for more effort.”), but it is important to remember that many horses live with chronic pain. It is rare that a horse is angry or cranky as a result of its genetic nature. Admittedly, some horses “train” their people to back off if they demonstrate a particular behavior, but pain absolutely should be ruled out before coming to this conclusion.

Therefore, if your horse is acting differently, or comes out stiff or lame, it is necessary to consider medical reasons for this behavior, even if your equine friend “works out of it.” As pain is generated, the horse’s body releases pain modifying agents in order to perform its job—which once again goes back to being a prey animal.

As the guardians of these magnificent animals, it is imperative that we “listen” to what the horse is trying to tell us and at the very least get a medical expert’s non-biased opinion about what could be going on, in order to rule out injury or illness as a contributing factor. We owe it to the horse.

Brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee
•
Want to learn more? Watch the documentary based on Dr. Sue Dyson’s groundbreaking work on signs of pain in the ridden horse here: https://equimanagement.com/news/dr-sue-dyson-featured-in-new-equine-documentary-on-the-24-behaviors-of-the-ridden-horse-in-pain/

28/10/2023

A month to soon is better than a moment too late 💔

A tough topic about an even tougher decision.
It would be easier if they just made the decision for us. Laid down to rest one warm fall afternoon surrounded by their herd mates, never to wake again.
Easier also is in the face of dire emergency, where the only choice is clear, the path to quick mercy.
Unfortunately for us as horse owners, there are blessed few who have that decision made for us. Most of the time, it’s up to us to make that last call.
The majority of us are left with the horses who served us well right up until the end, maybe even enjoying years of retirement. When you see them out in the pasture and wonder, “is this the end, or just a bad day? A bad few days?” “Oh – they look perky today, maybe things are looking up. What I thought I had to think, I don’t have to – today. It’s a good day.”
But the writing is on the wall. Their eyes are less bright, their weight hard to keep. Their gait shuffled, surviving, but no longer thriving.
All symptoms of the fact you have the hardest decision of your life to make, and soon. I wish it on no one and grieve the day I have to make the decision I advocate here for; the decision to let them go on a good day.
We are having a blessedly long and beautiful fall, but time is waning if you are only beginning to contemplate whether your trusted partner can face another barren, brutal, frostbitten winter.
You are the only advocate your horse has. His health is and has always been in your hands. In loving him as hard as you have for all these years, I hope you can love him hard enough to let them go on a good day, while there is still time.

08/10/2023

What an amazing accolade for our new sports horse breeding enterprise here at ESMC! Foundation broodmare Calliope (Renkum Calliano x Lauriston) standing second in the Price Family Supreme In-Hand final at Horse of the Year Show with her beautiful Grafenstolz c**t foal at foot! As first-timers in the class too! Huge thank you’d to everyone that helps to make these dreams happen!

Saracen Horse Feeds
Coligone

Our current roster of quality youngstock include four year olds, filly by Future Illusion (ex Renkum Calliano/Lauriston) and gelding by Jardonnay (ex Tenerife/Iroko); two year old fillies by Je T’aime Flamenco (ex Handel/John O Gaunt) & Merlot (ex Flemmingh), a two year old gelding by Amour G (ex Rubin Royale); stunning c**t foals by Grafenstoltz (ex Renkum Calliano/Lauriston), Grafenstoltz (ex Renkum Rock and Roll/Illico de Reve) & Renkum Calliano (ex Renkum Valentino/Lauriston), and a gorgeous filly foal by Quintero (ex Kannan/Fergar Mail). We have high hopes for them all - maybe one of these will take us back to HOYS?

This year’s tricky breeding season has resulted in confirmed and exciting pregnancies by world champion dressage horse Glamourdale (Van Olst Horses) and Scott Brash’s recently retired Hello Vincent so watch this space! Thank you to Stallion AI Services for their continued excellence and reliability. All our homebred stock are registered with Sport Horse Breeding (GB) so you can be assured of their DNA tested pedigree and provenance!

30/08/2023

Offering 2024 foaling livery 🩷💙

💙Purpose built foaling down yard
🩷24hr Vet supervision
💙Individual post and rail paddocks
🩷Packages include IgG bloods, mare and foal health checks, microchip and drawings for passport registration.
💙Please get in touch for more info

05/08/2023

Very pleased to report the final safe arrival for the 2023 season. Congratulations to happy owners and thank you for trusting us with them. We’re now taking bookings for the 2024 season.

13/05/2023

We are currently full with foaling liveries. If you're thinking of booking in for 2024 be quick as places are already filling up fast.

Picture of two day old Goose💙🧡

06/05/2023

Pleased to welcome the first arrival of the season, a beautiful black filly, from visiting mare Foxy. Mother and daughter are doing well. Congratulations to Charlotte Belbin and thank you for trusting us with delivery of your baby!

04/06/2022

08/03/2022

British Eventing have made the decision, based on equine welfare best practice, to reintroduce the Equine Self Certification form requirement. This will mean that with immediate effect all entries will require that a completed form be submitted prior to arrival at the events.

𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘
https://www.britisheventing.com/news/british-eventing-reintroducing-ehv-equine-health-self-certification-for-events

23/02/2022

Matches my clinical experience exactly. Getting fed up trying to tell vetting clients that they are wasting their money to gain a false sense of security by taking strangles bloods in lieu of basic biosecurity!

Premovement strangles testing dilemma
Summary- use of an (ELISA/ antibody) blood test is no longer recommended for screening asymptomatic horses for strangles before moving to a new yard.

We have just seen another case where a horse had a negative strangles blood test before moving to our client and then, just after moving, developed a nasal discharge and tested positive for strangles- a total nightmare for the new owner and yard.

One small benefit of the pandemic is that everyone now understands a bit more about testing for infectious diseases, particularly that no test is perfect. The strangles blood test was recently assessed for its ability to detect chronic carriers (horses that have had the disease that remain infectious, but do not show clinical signs) and could only detect 1 in 3 of these. The fact that antibodies do not remain high in chronic carriers may be part of the mechanism why these horses become carriers- antibodies are one of the body’s immune defences to fight off infections that have been met before, and failure to maintain them long enough may prevent horses clearing the infection from their guttural pouches.

If a negative test isn’t very helpful, does a positive result for a horse without signs or recent history of exposure tell us something? Unfortunately, being positive on the antibody blood test is extremely common in the general horse population. The vast majority of these horses, when the “Gold standard” guttural pouch wash is performed, are found not to be infected. These horses may have been exposed many years before and their body has the kept antibodies ready to help fight a new infection if they meet it again.

So, if a negative result does not tell us much, and can give a false sense of security, and a positive result is very commonly a false positive, is there any circumstance we should use the test? And, if we can’t rely on a blood test, how do we prevent carriers causing strangles outbreaks on our yards?

Horses that have been recently infected are likely to have a high and, particularly, increasingly high level of antibodies (if two samples are done). So, if we have a group of horses on a yard where a strangles outbreak has occurred, the test can be used after the end of the outbreak to help to identify horses that have been exposed (even horses that will become carriers usually will have a high value early on) for further testing by guttural pouch washes.

But that doesn’t help us with trying to identify infected horses before moving to a new yard. One option would be to guttural pouch wash every horse before moving but this is expensive and, more importantly, invasive, and so we cannot recommend it routinely. Failing development of a better test, isolation for a minimum of 14 days and ideally 21 (or even 28 days) is the best we can do. Isolation needs to be in a separate air space from other horses and consideration not to transmit disease with objects such as tack and buckets and hands/clothing needs to be made. Taking daily temperatures and looking for any signs of disease are key.

Reference
Durham AE, Kemp-Symonds J. Failure of serological testing for antigens A and C of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi to identify guttural pouch carriers. Equine Vet J. 2021 Jan;53(1):38-43. doi: 10.1111/evj.13276. Epub 2020 May 20. PMID: 32374892.

05/08/2021

Important Information for anyone wishing to export horses to the EU or Northern Ireland (NI) from 21st August 2021.

The new EU Animal Health Regulations mean that we will soon have to start using new export health certificates (EHCs) to export horses from GB to the EU and NI. The new EHCs will come into effect on 21st August 2021.

The new certificates require the premises/establishment from which any horse is exported to have a registration number issued by the competent authority. In England, this will be the CPH number issued by APHA. You will need to apply for a CPH number for your premises in advance of attempting to export any horse/horses from your premises. The new EHC’s cannot be completed without one.

An application form will soon be available on the gov.uk website and APHA will be issuing a press release and providing information to stakeholders at that time. We don’t yet have a date for when this will happen.

If you are planning or likely to be exporting horses to the EU or NI on or soon after 21st August 2021 and do not already have or have not applied for a CPH please contact Claire Goodban, Export Secretary in our Newmarket office on 01638 663150 or [email protected], for information on how you can apply for a CPH in advance of the APHA’s press release.

29/03/2021

Thank you for your support and patience since my recent surgery. I’m doing well and feel ok now to get properly back to it! Chemo is pending but I’m sure I’ll rock that too!!
Looking forward to seeing everyone!
P.

17/01/2021

The clinic will be closed until March 2021 whilst I isolate prior to and recover from cancer surgery. During this period I will be unable to see any horses but will be able to give telephone advice and dispense many medicines remotely where appropriate, and will maintain supply of ongoing medications.

If your horse requires urgent veterinary attendance in the meantime then emergency cover is being kindly provided by Hambleton Equine Clinic (01642 723132) and, in the Middleham area, by Neil Mechie (07791 578394) and colleagues at Bishopton Equine. Other neighbouring practices are also aware of the situation.

It is hoped that I will be able to resume light duties in early-mid March and gradually return to normal in the weeks following.

Thank you for your continued support, patience and understanding.

17/12/2020

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR OPENING HOURS.

The clinic will be providing an emergencies-only service for registered clients from 5pm Wednesday 23rd December. Normal service will resume at 830am on Monday 4th January 2021.

If you have a horse needing urgent veterinary attention then please call the usual number 07540 050716.

Please ensure you have sufficient stocks of ongoing medications and that any vaccines due in the meantime are booked in to be done before Christmas.

If you would like some advice or to book an appointment for the new year then please leave a message or send a text or email and I'll respond in due course.

Merry Christmas!!

24/11/2020

This needs taking note of immediately if you intend competing under FEI rules in 2021. Whiskers, eyelashes (and potentially hair inside ears) will have to be allowed to regrow if they’ve been clipped off already this autumn.

The ban will come into force in FEI events next summer

02/11/2020

COVID19 Lockdown November 2020 -

The government has indicated so far that they expect veterinary surgeries to remain open as normal. Elite sport, including horseracing, is also unaffected so those horses will have need of continuity of routine care.

As far as I am concerned, unless advised otherwise by RCVS, all routine appointments are still possible as long as we maintain social distancing. This has proven perfectly possible in recent months and there is no reason why it should not continue. In the light of recent events and increasing Covid19 prevalence however I would ask that we redouble our efforts in this respect including:

- the limitation of attendants present at a consultation to 1 per horse
- allowing me to work alone in stables on a previously tied-up animal (and increased use of sedation to facilitate this)
- communication of task lists, history, and treatment plans via telephone or messaging to limit face to face contact
- the use of ppe (masks, gloves etc) by handler and vet in emergency and difficult situations where distancing cannot be maintained

As we maintain our full range of services through this lockdown please be aware we will be doing everything we can to keep everyone safe and we ask for your cooperation in achieving this. Please respect social distancing at all times as it is essential that I am protected from any close contact potentially identifiable by ‘Track and Trace’ at all times if I am to ensure continuity of care and emergency services.

For further information or enquiries please contact Phillip on 07540 050716 or [email protected]

28/10/2020

This compound has revolutionised the treatment of arthritis in my patients - it is truly a game changer compared to traditional intra-articular steroid injections. I believe I have more experience of using it in more different joints than any other UK vet, and really rate it’s likelihood of success in many different scenarios - better result without analgesia, longer lasting, better ethics - this would be my first choice of treatment for nearly every joint injection I perform. Nupsala Dispensary

Arthramid Vet 2.5% PAAG; The future of arthritis treatment. This quick medical animation shows how the gel integrates into the joint itself where it treats j...

05/10/2020

Six monthly booster amnesty coming to an end!

An amnesty on six-month equine flu vaccination requirements by British Dressage ended on 30 September, with British Eventing’s amnesty ending 31 October