Huge support for planned horse surgery aiming to tackle "desperate need"

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Plans to build an equestrian surgery in Trinity have been met with a swell of support from islanders as well as vets and JSPCA and the British Show Jumping Association's Jersey branch.

Comments in support of the plans included a letter from a vet who claimed the facilities would avoid horses with colics having to be put to sleep.

The site at La Geonniere, on Rue des Platons in Trinity, is already home to stables with nine boxes, a sand school, tack room, as well as toilets, a kitchen and a car park. 

The proposals outline how Jersey is "desperately in need" of a dedicated facility to conduct X-rays, lasers, ultrasounds and more procedures on horses, as well as a rehab facility for injured horses.

Plans include an operating theatre, recovery boxes, controlled grazing areas and a water treadmill (which allows horses to train by walking in water).

Pictured: a visualisation of the proposed new facility in situ, next to the building already in place

A letter from a local vet in support of the project read: "As fas as I'm aware, I, assisted by Max Allan, am the only one to have successfully carried out open abdominal surgery under general anaesthetic in the horse, here, in Jersey.

"My patient was a four-year-old fit farm mare... My diagnosis was a torsion of the caecum - the equivalent of our appendix - but a very large organ in the horse!

"What I would have given for the sort of facilities that Mr Rault described to me!"

They described how at the time of the surgery, around 40 years ago, they had to use a fishing line to close the horse's abdomen and use chloroform anaesthetic - but the mare "led a full working life".

"Most bad colic cases do not have such a happy ending," they wrote. "Most often having to be 'put to sleep' because of a lack of surgical facilities."

A letter from the CEO of the JSPCA added: "This is a much-needed facility, which would support horse owners in Jersey and Guernsey.

"The introduction of this facility would avoid the need to transport horses to the UK, often when they are suffering pain and in distress."

They added that colics, as well as potential delays due to bad weather, made the journey to the UK particularly unpleasant for the animals.

Islanders commenting on the project were supportive of it, too, writing how it is for "a much needed service for the local equine community" and that it is "long overdue".

One commenter stated they had problems with the cost of travelling and the uncertainty of sea travel, with 14-hour long trips with a sick horse in the trailer.

"Having this facility in Jersey would mean the horse wouldn't have to travel and would also be able to recover in familiar surroundings with familiar people looking after them," she wrote.