Just a quick update for all...

We have some excellent news for those of you who wanted to apply but thought we were full. We have just had a student pull out due to some rather unforeseen circumstances; therefore we now have one spot left for our 2010 course. So get you applications in to us ASAP. You can get an enrollment form by contacting us through our contacts page. I’m sure this last spot is going to be filled really quickly so if you’re interested please contact us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!
Things are going smoothly at the BSET Academy and Rehab centre. Beth played in the curtain raiser match at the BMW Polo International on Sunday. The horses went really well. Beth lent one of her main string, Lincolndale to Juan Sanchez Elia, one of the visiting Canadian Polo players who played her in the test and she went like a dream for him!
Mandy and I took our two youngsters to the Spurwing showjumping show on Sunday. We had an excellent show with both horses going clear in their respective classes and bringing some rosettes home to our collection.
The students have been working hard and progressing really well with their rehab horses, particularly the racehorses. The weather has been really windy of late, and working fit youngsters in the wind is never easy but the girls have been coping really well.
As it’s nearing the end of polo season the barn is starting to quieten down with most of Beth’s main string being turned out for a well earned holiday. We now get to concentrate on the younger polo ponies, which brings added interest to the students as they bring with them a different set of problems for the students to assess and work on
The Students have a busy few weeks coming up; they have a test today on the Respiratory, Circulatory and Lymphatic system. They have projects due on Friday on the use and success of Deep IM cortisone versus the homeopathic equivalent. Next week they have a research project due on Haematomas, three treatments and how they work.
We also have some dissections planned with the vet for next week or the week after; these are really great fore teaching the students about anatomy.
Again just remind you, if you are keen to join us for our 2010 course, we have one space left so get in touch with us ASAP.
Until next time.
Take care
Leigh
(Principal – BSET Academy )

I apologise for the huge gap in time between my last news update and this one.

So much has happened since I last wrote so I will do my best to write about everything.

Since the Sibaya sales and the July Handicap the yard has been busy as usual with lots of rehab horses coming in for treatment.

The students went on holiday for 2 weeks and came back looking really rested and ready to get back to work. 

We’ve had some great success with our rehab horses, some have taken longer to come right than others but I suppose that’s how rehab works.

The racehorse we had in Rehab that was brought to us because she had injured herself getting cast in the stable has improved fantastically. Mandy has done excellent riding work on her and having got through a few hiccups with her (one or two enormous bucking bronco episodes!) has now got her doing great ¾ pace work and she’s due to return to training on Monday.

The quarter horse we treated, returned home and 2 weeks later went on to win Reserve Champion at the big Winter Western riding show held nearby.

The show horse improved greatly and was returned working much more freer through her shoulders and back, and less resistant to the saddle.

We had some great success with our Rehab polo ponies, especially one that had been incredibly sore through her back. She couldn’t trot out at all and her canter work was really stiff and short. One of our students, Ashleigh, spent many patient hours working with the Transeva on her back and progressing slowly with the riding. We were very pleased to send her back stopping; spinning and doing excellent canter work.

Dr Tanya Hughes came and spent the morning doing x-rays on various horses. The students got to help and watch the entire process and have written some interesting study cases, which I have included at the bottom of my update.

Another interesting case that we were called out to was an old show jumping mare that was in retirement but had managed to injure her neck. The students had to assess the horse themselves, and with a little nudging from me, used various techniques to diagnose where her problem was. What they found was that she had injured the right side of neck (at about C5 and C6) and was struggling to eat and graze. The students treated her with the Transeva and after treatment we were very happy to find that she could graze and stretch her neck down with comfort. Excellent work girls!

Beth always gets presented with interesting cases out in the field, but the following two I felt were really interesting, and the results Beth got were outstanding;

(1)   Beth was called out to see a 2yr old Jetmaster colt that was being broken in for racing. The owners were finding it difficult to break him in and felt that as he was such a beautifully put together colt, there must be something else troubling him, maybe a back issue? Beth treated him and found that he was spasm in is illiospsas on both sides. Beth also noticed however that he was starting to build a bulldog type frame, ie building big deltoid muscles and then flat across the wither and really chunky upfront. The client phoned Beth a week later to say that the colt was now broken in but that they were finding it hard for him to stride out in canter. Beth returned and once again treated him with the Transeva. He was tight through his Deltoids and triceps but spasming through his near fore trapezius, in front of his scapula. When Beth went to do her follow up treatment a week later the horses wither appeared to have popped up. The thoracic vertebrae between the scapulas had pushed up and the horse was no longer level across his shoulder, no longer had the bulldog shape and was much improved in his canter work.

(2)   One of Beth’s regular racing clients had a horse in training that tied up on the Friday morning during its workout. They dripped her with a solution provided by the vet to rehydrate her and to help flush toxins from her muscles. Friday afternoon they gave her a light canter and Beth treated her with the Transeva using a light quick pulse. Beth was very relieved to find that she got some huge releases through the fillies gluteal medial). They treated the filly on Friday evening and Saturday morning with an omega laser, concentrating on the spots of muscle injury. On Saturday afternoon the filly ran 2^nd over 2000m! An excellent result!

At the moment the students are busy working on two racehorses that both have arrived with very different injuries and are proving to be interesting study cases. We also still have 5 other Rehab horses in work as well as Beth’s string of 15 or so polo ponies.

Welcome to our BSET Academy News page.

We’ve had an overwhelming number of prospective students and interested horsy people sending e-mails enquiring what we are up to. So we decided to take down the forum and  put up this news page instead. If you want to send any comments or questions, please send them via our contacts page
We will have regular updates once or twice a week, keeping everyone informed as to what is happening at the academy.

The last few weeks have been really busy and with Beth, the Students, Mandy and I being rushed off our feet. We’ve had up to 14 Rehab horses in at the academy over the last month, as well as Beth’s 20 or so horses. Interesting cases we’ve been working on have been, a young quarter-horse used for reining who was struggling to rein back, a show horse who had lost a huge amount of movement in her back and shoulders, a race horse who had got herself cast in the stable and couldn’t even walk straight when she got here and a polo pony with a mystery shoulder lameness that the vets couldn’t diagnose. As you can imagine this has kept us all busy with the machine and from a riding and ground work point if view as well….but it’s been fantastic to be so busy!

The July handicap (one of the biggest race meets of the year) was held on the 4th of July in Durban and Beth was hectically busy working on horses who were taking part. 7 of Beth’s Equine patients were running in different races on the day and were all paced 1st, 2nd or 3rd which is a fantastic result for Beth. The most exciting part of the day is obviously the big race, the July Handicap, and Beth had one of her Patients running, a horse called ‘Big City Life”, trained by Glenn Kotsen. There was great excitement before the race and I think we all collectively held our breaths…….and ‘Big City Life’ won!! Fantastic news for Glenn Kotsen and for Beth for being a part of this great success!

The Students went down to Durban with me on the 3rd of July to the Sibaya Yearling sales (a big thoroughbred sale) as I had yearlings going under the hammer. But as always the students were put to work and were given their conformation practical exam to complete at the sales complex. Really interesting for the girls, as they had 300 yearlings to look through to complete their paper. I was really excited with the results as the marks were well up in the nineties! Excellent work girls. It was also great fun for the students, as they got to see horses they had worked on (a yearling with Sweeney that they had worked on for two months prior to the sale for a client and who ended up selling for R130 000-00! a real feather in the girls cap for persevering as he could be a bit tricky!) The girls also got to rub shoulders with clients that they had done work for and got an insight into how the whole thoroughbred breeder’s world works. All in all it was a great day.

On Monday the 6th July the students had a grueling day of exams at the academy. They had 4 practical exams, veterinary, anatomy, lameness in-hand assessment and a ridden lameness assessments, with myself and Dr Hughes, and then 8 theory exams to write. It was a long day! They started at 9 am and completed the last written paper at almost 7pm!
Luckily for them it was off on holiday the next day for a whole two weeks.

Mandy and I have been busy while the students have been away making sure that everything runs smoothly and that the Rehab horses are worked 7 days a week. Rehab work is definitely hard work but it’s a labor of love and well worth it when you see the results at the end of the day.

I will post an update soon and let you know how all the Rehab horses are doing and keep you all up to date on the Students progress. If you have comments or questions don’t forget to send them on our contact page. We look forward to hearing from you all!

Keep Well

Leigh Smith
Principal
BSET Academy

SWEENEY SHOULDER

Sweeny is muscle wastage caused by damage to the nerves that supply that muscle. It is characterized by localized wastage and loss of muscle mass.

 In the shoulder, there are several nerves that wrap around the scapula, and these can be damaged relatively easily because of their position over the scapula, by a fall, kick or other blow to the shoulder.

CASE STUDY

NAME Trimontium
AGE AND BREED T/B yearling filly
INJURY: Sweeny of the near fore shoulder.
REASON FOR TREATMENT: Her owners were concerned that she would not fetch a good price at the sales in June.

TREATMENT PLAN

Treatment with ferradic therapy three times a week for three weeks.
She was loose lunged once to assess her movement. The injured shoulder did not move correctly, and she had some stiffness of the hind quarters caused by this incorrect movement.
Therapy included treatment of the quarters and top line to improve the elasticity of the muscles and to help the muscles of the top line and quarters to move correctly.
Treatment centered on the damaged shoulder. Therapy was used through out the shoulder and into the neck. The infraspinatus muscle was wasted, forming an indentation of the muscle. Treatment was aimed at building the muscle thathad been wasted and activating the nerves that had been damaged.

RESULTS

At first, therapy produced a lot of nerve excitement through the shoulder. Trimontium would twitch her shoulder almost constantly during treatment. The indentation itself was weak and poorly muscled with little to no movement through it. Her shoulder was tight, with incorrect movement of the muscles. The quarters were also tight, particularly the off hind. There was little movement at the lumbar sacrum.
As treatment progressed, Trimontium became more tolerant of the treatment, and the nerve action became less pronounced. The elasticity of the quarters and top line improved and there was a better pulse through the lumbar sacrum. The elasticity f the shoulder muscles improved. The indentation was less pronounced, and by the time she left there was muscling through the indentation, which contracted well during treatment.

ILLIOPSOAS INJURY

The Illiopsoas muscle attaches from the vertebrae of the second last rib to the femur in the hip region. This muscle is used to pull the hind limb from the resting position slightly upwards and forwards.

Injury is caused by the straining of the muscle possibly during exercise, when the horse over extends the hind leg during a slip or possibly during a fall.

The “dropping” of the affected quarter, and/or the twisting of the entire quarters to the unaffected side generally characterize this type of injury. This can be present in more than one gait i.e. in walk and trot. The actual muscle may be seen to have receded and forms a groove between the fascia and gluteal muscles.

CASE STUDY

NAME: Magson
BREED:  T/B
TYPE OF WORK THE HORSE IS EXECTED TO DO: Eventing
INJURY ACUTE OR CHRONIC: Chronic near hind Illiopsoas injury
GENERAL INFORMATION: Treated by Beth Shaw coming up to and during the 2008 jumping season.
                                                                        : won the 2008 South African Junior Championships
                                                                         : went on 6mths paddock rest
                                                                         : During rest, loss of muscle fitness and mass resulted in the reoccurrence of the original injury
                                                                         : treated at the beginning of the year and brought to the BSET rehabilitation centre for further treatments and rehabilitation riding to prepare for the upcoming season

TREATMENT PLAN

Treated three times  week with faradic therapy to improve the elasticity of the muscles, near hind Illiopsoas and stiffness in associated muscles due to compensation
Ridden three times a week in a frame, extended frame to promote the use of the back and hindquarters to strengthen and build the affected muscles. The use of raised trotting polls to promote the correct movement and contraction of the Illiopsoas muscle. Transition work to improve the pushing with the hind quarters and balance of the horse
Track work and hill work to improve fitness and build muscle mass twice a week

RESULTS 

During the first two weeks, due to treatment and work requirements stiffness resulted. Once the required release was obtained the horse’s quality of work improved and the horse appeared to be more willing to stretch lower over the neck and back during work.

Muscle mass improved significantly and the horse became more lively. The horse gained weight well over the course of the rehabilitation work.

The owner was pleased with the results and subsequent work in lessons.