While most show goers are asleep, Dr David Woodward, one of the Equine Vet’s for the Sydney Royal Easter Show could be up treating a horse. He sleeps in the veterinary stables underneath the main arena.
“My days starts at 6 am”, he says but “I’m on call 24/7”. Just last night he was up at midnight treating a horse that was “laying down and rolling around in pain” – case of colic. Colic which is treated with pain relief. Lameness is another, it “is when a horse gets a sore leg and it’s limping. Horses commonly get lameness. That’s one of the ailments they get because of the strenuous activity that they do “he says.
Dr David Woodward comes to the show every year, taking leave from his job as a vet in the rural NSW town of Young.
The nightly rodeo adds another layer of excitment, and not something he sees in his everyday practice “as vets we observe, watch. While the riders are getting injured, we’re watching the animals. And if there’s a bucking horse or a bucking bull that’s become injured, then we’re actually, after the animal’s taken off the show ground, required to assess that”. He said it was not common for an injury to the animal but more for the riders.
One of the things that David enjoys about the show is the daily meeting with all the vets (for the cattle, dogs, horse vets) at the show each day to discuss the cases of the day. David says “It’s cosy, it’s noisy, but it’s all about the show”.
