On Course for Scone Horse Trials
05-Oct-2011  |
Scone Horse Trials is amongst the flagship Australian CNC One Day Events with outstanding prize money and an attractive, challenging and appealing cross country course.
Scone Equine Hospital (SEH) was a first-time sponsor at this year's event which was held on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September at Bloomfield, Gundy.
Dr. Jo Holt and Dr. Penny Dow [pictured above] provided on course attention for the 470 horses who competed across the 2 days.
"Given the increasing prestige and attractive prize money on offer at the Scone Horse Trials a lot of eventers do really set their horses for this competition and a number of them see it as a good lead up to the Adelaide 4-Star competition," reported Penny, a seasoned event rider in her own right as well as an accomplished eventing vet.
Commenting on the cases she and Jo encountered across the 2 days Penny said: "We had to look at 3 horses on Saturday that the dressage judges had concerns with in terms of their soundness prior to going cross country. We also had to attend to a horse with superficial wounds after a horse and rider fall on course. But fortunately the injuries were only minor.
"The horses competed in ideal conditions given that the temperature didn't get past 18 degrees and generally the fitness of the horses at the event was good.
"There was a terrific thunderstorm in the early hours of Sunday morning and we were a bit concerned that we might have seen a few injuries from that, but fortunately all the horses were fine."
Scone Equine Hospital recently unveiled a full service practice specifically for performance horse clients. The practice offers a comprehensive 365 day a year service for all levels and disciplines of performance horses provided by dedicated experts who have a strong interest in performance horse medicine. The practice is supported by Australia’s largest veterinary hospital and a support team consisting of some of the country’s finest surgeons, nursing staff, pharmacy staff, radiographers, and diagnosticians utilising state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.
"In addition to routine veterinary care, performance horse clients have specific needs and we have built this new practice around that," says Jo who heads the performance horse team. "We can provide high performance pathways and programmes for each horse canvassing nutrition, conditioning, dentistry, pre-purchase examinations, lameness, infectious disease threats, injury management and rehabilitation, routine reproductive care and artificial breeding. It's the full package. Whether your goal is the Olympics, a 3-Star event, or the local agricultural show - we've got you covered."
