So much has happened in the last six months - it seems a life-time ago since I last wrote for An Eventful Life about my time at the Olympics in Rio.
Since then I’ve managed to survive three months of extreme veterinary study, pass the most intense examination I have every experienced, move 10,000 miles to the other side of the world and start a new job. And still somehow managing to spend as much time at the end of a cross country course as humanly possible.
Study Time
Ever wondered how vets get all those fancy letters at the end of their name? And what they all mean?
In basic terms, the letters after a vets name are abbreviations representing their qualifications. All vets must have successfully graduated from a veterinary school and are thus able to have display the letters representing what veterinary degree they obtained. For example I graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science; as such I have BVSc at the end of my name.
But each university veterinary school is slightly different. If you graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in London you would get BVetMed, or from any of the American Vet Schools you get DVM at the end of your name. Any letters after these initial qualifications indicate post graduate qualifications, usually by examination, and often indicate a particular veterinary specialty.
My journey to lots of fancy letters at the end of my name started when I joined Randwick Equine Centre to commence my residency in Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. After almost three years of specialist training I was ready to submit my paperwork to the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation – the main governing body for the veterinary speciality of sport medicine – in order to be eligible to sit an exam to become a “Diplomate” of their specialist college.
After being accepted (whilst in Rio) I started a three month solid block of intense study that almost broke me. I have never studied so hard and for so long in my life – it was exhausting. The volume of knowledge required was at times over whelming; 946 veterinary journal articles (with an average of 4 pages each) and 12 textbooks, with the three core textbooks being over 1,000 pages long!!! All to be read and learnt in the space of 12 weeks to prepare for a 400 question exam.
Words can’t truly explain how tough it was at times – forcing myself to keep on plugging thru, page after page, hour after hour – it was the single most un-fun thing I have ever done. Fortunately I manage to retain my sanity by occasionally escaping my study dungeon to vet at Wallaby Hill and Adelaide 4* - both of which were absolutely fantastic as always. Special thanks to Alex Townsend and the whole team at Wallaby Hill for allowing me the privilege to be the official Veterinary Delegate for their first CCI*** event. I had an awesome time and know how lucky I am to be associated with such a great event.
Thankfully I passed my exams and on the 20th February 2017 I became a fully-fledged Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. I am now allowed to put DipACVSMR at the end of my name and feel very privileged to join a select group of less than 100 equine vets worldwide with this specialist qualification.
Moving back to the UK
When I left Australia at the end of January heading over to Florida for my exams I had no job, nowhere to live and no solid plans. It was pretty scary but surprisingly liberating. Would I pass my exams? Will I move back to Aus? Will I get a visa to go work in the UK? Will I start my own practice or work for someone else? So many questions, so many options…
As it turned out, I passed my exams, got a working visa for the UK and have joined Lambourn Equine Vets (LEV) in West Berkshire.
Lambourn Equine has a long and proud history of being considered one of Britain’s leading event horse veterinary clinics. It was founded by Jenny Hall in 1996 (Jenny was the British Eventing Team Vet from 1999 to 2009, the Veterinary Services Manager for the London 2012 Olympics, Cross Country control veterinarians at Rio 2016 and Veterinary Delegate at Badminton Horse Trials on numerous occasions, including this year), then Liz Brown, another Lambourn Equine Vet, took over from Jenny as the British Eventing team vet in 2009 and continues to work with the team as they prepare for Tokyo 2020.
Caroline George, the current Director of Lambourn Equine is the newly appointed British Equestrian ‘Podium Potential’ team vet with the other Director Peter ‘Spike’ Milligan being the British Junior Eventing team vet since 2015. As you can see, LEV has an amazing pedigree as renowned eventing vets and is one of the main reasons I have returned to the UK.
Lots have people have asked me since I arrived “Why did you ever leave Australia?” “Are you crazy?”
Australia is by far the most wonderful country in the world to live for so many reason. Australia will always be my home, and I will always be proud to be Australian. But working as a sport horse vet here in the UK is something special. The quantity, quality and density of sport horses is amazing, and as an equine vet here in the UK and can spend days and days on end seeing nothing but eventing horses. Something that I simply couldn’t do back in Australia. For example, I’ve only been here in the UK for 8 weeks and I’ve already vetted at 5 horse trials.
My standard answer to “Why did you ever leave Australia?” is “The same reasons why so many of our Australian event riders live here”. And my answer to “Are you crazy?” is “Well… Yes, just a little”.
Plans for 2017
As with everyone starting a new job, it always takes a while to get used to things and adjust to a new working culture. But fortunately my new bosses are very supporting and thanks to the long standing heritage of Lambourn Equine Vets in British Eventing I’m getting heaps of time out on Cross Country. This weekend is Badminton which is fantastically exciting – I will be in the finish area helping my boss ‘Spike’ look after all of our clients and their horses. I can’t wait!
Looking at the rest of the year almost every weekend is already booked – if I’m not on-call at work I will almost certainly be eventing somewhere in Britain. We are the treating vets for Barbury International, I will head back up to Blair Castle as always and I have a bunch of other events book in to look after our LEV clients.
Oh, and I’ve been invited to be a vet for the FEI at the Asian Indoor Games in Turkmenistan! “Whaaat?” I hear you say. “Turkmenis-whoo?” I know, I have never heard of it either. Honestly, go google “Turkmenistan” – it’s totally worth it. I promise, it’s actually a real country…
Anyways, it’s nice to be back writing for An Eventful Life
As always, please stay safe out there
Bring you and your horse home safe and sound
Chris
