NSC Equine Students Assist at Grand National

Oswestry, United Kingdom, April 14, 2016 --(PR.com)-- On the Grand National Festival weekend, five Equine students from North Shropshire College’s (NSC) Walford Campus and Equine Lecturer, Rebecca Pritchard, went to Aintree to be part of the wash down team. The team were responsible for rapidly cooling the horses following the races as they can become very poorly from heat stress should they not be cooled off very quickly, Aintree is the only racecourse in the country which employs this technique of aggressive cooling in response to the concerns of the 10 million strong viewing public. Since its introduction five years ago, no horses have been lost due to heat exhaustion during the three day festival.

The cooling procedure involves applying ice cold water to the large muscle groups including the neck, back and hind quarters. The horses are then walked for a minute before the now warm water is scraped off and more ice cold water is applied. The idea is to bring body temperature down to normal quickly as high temperature can lead to collapse and even death of the horse. NSC student Jade Evans worked with Grand National Winner “Rule the World.”

Lecturer, Rebecca Pritchard, commented, "My students worked incredibly hard, were extremely proactive and professional and were involved in the treatment of a number of ‘at risk’ horses, they were a credit to themselves and the College and earned a heartfelt well-done and thanks from the horse's jockeys, owners, trainers and stable hands along with the British Horseracing Authorities representative, RSPCA welfare officers, attending vets and clerk of north west racing and Aintree racecourse. I cannot express how proud I am of these students and they have secured a return invite for themselves and next year’s 2nd year students."

For more information about Equine courses at NSC or to apply, please go to www.nsc.ac.uk. You can also call the College Admissions Team on 01691 688080 or email admissions@nsc.ac.uk.