Equine Sports Medicine & Performance
Helping your horse perform at their best
Whether your horse competes at the highest level, spends the occasional weekend in the show ring, or simply needs to stay comfortable and active, performance depends on soundness, conditioning, and good veterinary care.
At Bartley Equine Veterinary Services, we approach sports medicine with the understanding that every horse has different demands placed on its body. A dressage horse, jumper, barrel racer, saddle seat horse, and pleasure horse may all experience different types of stress and injury based on their discipline, workload, and goals.
Our job is to understand what your horse does, identify what may be limiting their performance, and develop a plan that helps keep them healthy and doing what you ask of them.
Pre-Purchase Examinations
Buying a horse is a significant investment, and a pre-purchase examination can provide valuable information before you make that decision.
BEVS can perform equine pre-purchase examinations designed around the horse's intended use.
A horse being purchased as a high-level performance prospect may require a different evaluation than a horse intended for breeding, trail riding, or adding to a lesson program.
The examination may include:
Comprehensive physical examination
Musculoskeletal evaluation
Gait and lameness assessment
Digital radiography when indicated or requested
Additional diagnostic testing based on the horse and intended use
The purpose of a pre-purchase examination isn't to tell you whether you should buy the horse. It's to provide you with objective veterinary information so you can make an informed decision.
State-of-the-Art Mobile Digital Radiography
BEVS brings state-of-the-art mobile digital X-ray technology directly to your farm or facility, allowing us to evaluate your horse without requiring a trip to the clinic for every diagnostic study.
Digital radiography can be an important part of evaluating:
Lameness
Joint and bone abnormalities
Traumatic injuries
Hoof and lower-limb concerns
Performance-related problems
And more! Because the equipment is mobile, diagnostic imaging can also be incorporated into a farm-call examination when appropriate.
Lameness Evaluation & Injury Rehabilitation
Lameness can range from an obvious limp to subtle changes that only become apparent during work. We encourage owners to involve their veterinarian early rather than trying to determine on their own whether a problem is related to the hoof, a joint, soft tissue, or another structure.
A lameness evaluation may include a physical examination, gait assessment, diagnostic imaging, and other diagnostic techniques as indicated. When appropriate, we can work alongside your farrier to determine whether a change in hoof care may be part of the solution or whether additional veterinary diagnostics are needed.
Getting a horse back to work after an injury requires more than simply waiting until the horse looks sound.
A thoughtful rehabilitation plan considers the original injury, the horse's current condition, the demands of their discipline, and how gradually they need to return to work.
We can help guide owners through the recovery process and determine when additional evaluation is appropriate as the horse progresses.
Health Certificates & Travel
Performance horses and other traveling horses often need veterinary documentation before they can cross state lines or attend events.
BEVS can provide health certificates, Coggins testing, and other travel-related veterinary services as appropriate.
If you and your horse are traveling, whether for a competition, sale, breeding, or anything else, contact us ahead of time so we can help you understand what testing and documentation will be required.
Understanding the Horse Behind the Athlete
Every discipline asks something different of the horse.
Dr. Bartley's experience with saddleseat, hunter-jumper-type, and dressage horses, combined with her broader background in the horse industry, helps inform the way she evaluates performance patients.
Understanding what a horse does matters.
The physical demands placed on an eventing horse aren't the same as those placed on a barrel racer. A dressage horse's performance concerns may look very different from those of a saddle seat horse.
The better we understand your horse's job, the better we can understand what their body needs to do that job well.
Keeping Your Horse Healthy for the Long Run
Sports medicine isn't just about getting a horse back into the ring.
It's about helping horses remain comfortable, sound, and capable of doing the things their owners ask of them.
Whether you're addressing a new lameness, investigating a subtle change in performance, managing an injury, preparing to purchase a horse, or simply want to establish a performance baseline, Bartley Equine Veterinary Services provides experienced, equine-focused care designed around your horse's individual needs.
Performance Starts With the Whole Horse
A change in performance isn't always an obvious limp.
Sometimes it's a horse that doesn't want to pick up a lead, feels different under saddle, loses impulsion, resists a movement they previously performed easily, or simply isn't acting like themselves.
These subtle changes can be important.
A performance evaluation gives us the opportunity to look at the horse as a whole and determine whether a change in movement or behavior may be related to pain, lameness, conditioning, conformation, or another underlying issue.
Our goal isn't simply to find something to treat. It's to understand why your horse isn't performing the way they normally do.
Is Your Horse Performing Differently?
Don't wait for a small change to become a bigger problem.
Give Bartley Equine Veterinary Services a call to schedule a performance or lameness evaluation.