Rehabilitation for equine athletes

There’s no horsing around for steeds with injuries at the NY Equestrian Center

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Before the New York Equestrian Center opened its Horse Gym, Spa & Rehabilitation Center in West Hempstead a few months ago, the nearest facility offering physical therapy for horses was three hours away, in southern New Jersey. “Horses would have to ride in trailers for three hours to get treatment,” said Alex Jacobson, who has owned the equestrian center for nearly 10 years.

So, with virtually no competition, his business’s proximity to two major racetracks and a Long Island horse population of nearly 35,000 (according to the Nassau-Suffolk Horsemen’s Association), a horse rehabilitation center sounded like an excellent business venture to Jacobson.

Around the same time, Cornell Equine Ruffian Associates, a horse hospital, opened across the street from Belmont Park, where 1,200 thoroughbreds live year-round. “They didn’t have a place to send post-operative-care horses,” said Jacobson. “There was a real need, because they were doing a number of medical treatments.”

The hospital operates on nearly 800 horses a month from Belmont and beyond, according to Dr. Tom Yarbrough, its chief surgeon and medical director. Roughly 70 percent of the equine patients are racehorses; the remainder are privately owned. Yarbrough added that nearly 4,000 thoroughbreds live year-round at Aqueduct Racetrack, in Queens, and Belmont Park.

Jacobson was convinced of the need, and opened the center directly behind the Equestrian Center on Eagle Ave. in July for his own resident horses, and then to the public in September.

Two months later, Denali, a show horse with an injury similar to a human’s anterior cruciate ligament tear, arrived at the center for physical therapy. Denise Smith, general manager of the New York Equestrian Center, with the help of Kristen Folk, a veterinarian technician, works her out four times a week on a horse treadmill and aqua trainer.

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