UK Sport

Back Support - a behind the scenes look at British Equestrian - part two

Andy Thomas 21 August 2009

Andy Thomas is the Lead Practitioner for Human Science and Sports Medicine at the British Equestrian Federation (BEF). In this blog he talks about the preparation for the forthcoming FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships in Windsor from 25 – 30 August.

One week to go and the preparations for the riders and horses are being finalised. I am taking the lorry down to Windsor on Saturday to prepare and setup the treatment facilities for the week ahead. The mobile physiotherapy clinic will provide the facilities for our GB riders on site during competition and we will have two rooms set up; one in the dressage hotel and the other in the showjumpers hotel.

The facilities will be better this year as the Championships are at "home". The mobile clinic allows us a few more luxuries on site than normal. All the riders are used to this clinic so it provides an environment that they are used to seeing which can only be a positive!

Ideally there should be no injuries. The whole idea is that the work is done throughout the year to prevent reoccurring problems such as back pain in dressage and groin pain in the showjumpers. At the moment all are fit and well but when horses are combined with humans anything can happen at any time!

A number of the riders will be treated on a daily basis to prevent them getting tight muscles but also to stimulate their riding muscles before they ride. So you would see riders in their full riding attire coming out of the clinic just before they get on to compete. If things do go wrong and injuries do occur we would deal with this immediately. As I know all the riders very well I understand what helps and what doesn’t in their treatment needs. As I’ve said before we have an excellent team around us who will all pull together to provide an environment that breeds success even if things don’t go quite to plan!

This week we have had team training with the showjumpers, so they have all been checked. I will be visiting all of our dressage team prior to the championships beginning. We do this to finalise what they will need during the championship. Each rider knows what treatment they will need and when. Should anything alter with any rider we can deal with this swiftly as we have daily meetings with all staff and riders so that any changes made to a rider's routine are quickly communicated.

I love the preparation period - there is an air of excitement around the riders and staff, so roll on Saturday when the horses and riders arrive and we can look forward to the week ahead!

The FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships are held at Windsor Castle from 25-30 August 2009.

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