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Equinalysis, the equine health and performance specialists, are pleased to announce a relationship with Tendon Works, an organisation offering a unique form of tendon treatment which manipulates cellular behaviour in damaged ligaments and tendons. Equinalysis recently worked with Tendon Works to assess War of Attrition, the famous 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup Winner who suffered a serious foreleg tendon problem in March 2007. Equinalysis’ Managing Director, Walter May, commented: “We are please to partner with Tendon Works to enhance the service they provide to their clients. The racing industry is an area we expect to grow into rapidly, not only for rehabilitation, but also for performance enhancement,” he added.
Tendon Works operates ‘in-patient’ treatment centres, with an existing centre in Kent and a new one in Fethard, Ireland, opening soon. Horses undergo ten week programmes of biomechanical and clinical assessment before treatment and rehab.
The combination of Equinalysis’ locomotive assessment and Tendon Works’ cell regeneration treatment, which boosts the damaged tendon’s electro-chemical signalling process, means equine healing and recuperation can be accelerated. “War of Attrition presented with an obvious and significant tendon injury to the right fore superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), and early signs of damage to the SDFT on the contra-lateral side,” says Dr David Chapman-Jones of Tendon Works. “Following as assessment on the treadmill, in my opinion it was clear his front limb loading and hindquarter action were also not right. Russell Guire of Centaur Biomechanics assessed the horse using Equinalysis video-based screening, and the results surprised us all by showing a problem with the horse’s left fore and also a problem in his pelvis.
“We assessed the horse holistically and decided to change his saddle to one with a carbon fibre tree and air flocking, which reduced the pressure on his back. We also adjusted his shoeing, which made a difference to the strain on the forelimb flexor tendons, and used specific exercises to ensure he engaged his back end more productively, which reduced the fore limb loading and gave the tendon treatment the best chance to work. War of Attrition is now back with trainer Mouse Morris in Ireland, and I estimate that his tendon injury is nine tenths recovered – he is currently undergoing an appropriate training regime to manage stress to the limb.”
Equinalysis technology records and collates physiological aspects such as a horse’s stride length and joint flexion, providing owners with a baseline of data; the screening is performed by trained clinicians and data is quantified using a laptop and digital camera. It is available to all horse owners, and is recommended for ‘benchmarking’ a horse to assess its locomotion when sound.
Tendon Works will be offering Equinalysis screening to their clients in the form of injury prevention / evaluation at the new Fethard Equine Hospital. Please visit: www.equinalysis.co.uk for info about the screening technology, or www.tendonworks.com for details of Tendon Works’ service.
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