Photo: Sanctuary Manager, Brenda McDuffee, watches as Dr. Vernon Dryden, DVM, of the Rood & Riddle Podiatry Center, works on a horse at The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation Center in Ocala. The Sanctuary has joined forces with Rood & Riddle and opened a Rood & Riddle Podiatry Center at The Sanctuary, offering horse owners the optimum in foot care. (Photo courtesy of the Equine Chronicle)
Ocala, FL (June 8, 2010) – Horse owners in Florida are raving about the Rood & Riddle Podiatry Center located in The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation Center in Ocala. The Sanctuary and Rood & Riddle joined forces earlier this year to offer clients the optimum in hoof care at The Sanctuary’s world-class facility and Florida horse owners statewide are taking advantage of this amazing opportunity.
“Horse owners often wish they could meld their vet and farrier into one person, and now they can,” said Johnny Robb, a South Florida dressage rider who recently took her two horses to the Rood & Riddle Podiatry Center at The Sanctuary to be evaluated and shod by podiatry veterinarians. “Dr. Vernon Dryden worked on both of my horses and it was truly like watching a master at work. It is amazing to have this level of farrier care available and I am so grateful to The Sanctuary for bringing this to Florida.”
Thanks to the new partnership between The Sanctuary and Rood & Riddle, veterinarians from Rood & Riddle come to The Sanctuary twice a month to provide advanced podiatry consultation and treatment services. “We are able to provide around the clock care to the podiatry patients that are receiving services from the Rood & Riddle vets as well as keep the Rood & Riddle staff informed about how the horses are doing on a daily basis,” said Brenda McDuffee, General Manager of The Sanctuary. “We also have several horses who come in for ‘out patient’ shoeing.”
Dr. Vernon Dryden, DVM, CJF, said he is pleased with calling The Sanctuary his “home away from home.” Dryden added that he considers The Sanctuary a great facility and said the staff offers an amazing level of care for the horses. “We were approached by many of our clients that we already had in Florida to come down and have clinics and provide consultations on horses that we already service,” Dryden said. “We thought it was a great opportunity to work with The Sanctuary.”
Dryden said becoming a podiatry veterinarian was a path he followed naturally in his life. “I grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona and my father and older brother were both blacksmiths,” Dryden said. “I always knew I wanted to be a vet, but I went to farrier school in Oklahoma when I was 17 and then shod horses through college and vet school. Then I went to Rood & Riddle and did an internship in surgery and podiatry and then stayed on.”
Rood & Riddle’s Podiatry Team is recognized around the world for their cutting-edge work on horses with feet problems. “The Sanctuary is proud to be able to bring this advanced consulting service to horse owners in the Southeast,” McDuffee said. “The Podiatry Team from Rood & Riddle comes to The Sanctuary every other weekend to see patients and provide podiatry services under the supervision of a licensed Florida veterinarian. Appointments fill fast so it is important to schedule an appointment for your horse, which can be done by calling the Sanctuary Team at 352-369-4325. The upcoming dates that the Podiatry Team will be at The Sanctuary include: June 12 &13, June 26 & 27, July 17 & 18, July 31 and August 1.”
Located on 30 acres in Ocala, The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation Center is a multi-million dollar facility dedicated to the healing, conditioning and well being of all equine athletes. The Sanctuary offers the latest in technological equipment designed to promote safe and rapid advancement for horses recovering from injury or in need of peak conditioning.
For more information on The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation Center, visit their website at www.sanctuaryequinerehab.com. Consulting veterinarians are not licensed in Florida as of this time. All diagnosis and treatments performed under the supervision of a licensed Florida veterinarian.
For more information contact:
Tom Grabe
The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation Center
www.sanctuaryequinerehab.com
1-352-369-HEAL (4325)
Newsroom Associate
Staff Writer
support@horsesinthesouth.com