BLACKDOWN EQUINE CLINIC - Key Persons
Amber joined the practice in summer 2019 after completing a diploma in Horse Management at Merrist Wood College. She splits her time between working part time in the office and her other passion as a dressage trainer and confidence coach. In her spare time Amber loves to ride her young dressage cob, Bob.
Emma joined the practice in 2018, having been known by Bruce and lots of our polo clients for many years. Outside of work she enjoys cycling, watching polo and walking her two dogs.
Jane joined the practice at the start of 2010. She enjoys competing her beloved mare Swansong (Swannie) in all the local hunter trials and taking her to the beach in the summer.
Kirsty grew up in rural south west Scotland and spent much of her childhood riding horses. Upon leaving school she travelled to Australia and had her first experience of polo- working on a stud farm in New South Wales. She gained a great deal of experience working with youngstock, assisting with breeding programmes, training young horses and managing strings of horses. From then on polo became the driving force behind her travels and over the next 5 years she worked in Australia, New Zealand and England.
Having worked with horses for years she then embarked upon a Veterinary Degree and graduated from Nottingham University with First Class Honours. Kirsty was known to the practice and local polo community and joined Blackdown almost immediately. She has a keen interest in sports horse medicine with a passion for polo ponies.
In her spare time she enjoys riding her own horses, running and travelling to sunnier climes whenever possible!
Lucy joined the practice in 2021. Having worked in Equine Veterinary practices before she quickly settled in. Outside of work she runs a sign-writing company with her husband and owns a special smiling rescue dog called Lucky!
Olivia is a Royal Vet College graduate who grew up in the Hampshire / Surrey area. After graduating she spent her first 10 months teaching anatomy at the Royal Vet College before joining an equine vet practice in Bookham. Olivia subsequently joined another equine practice in the area where she developed an interest in sports horse medicine and dentistry.
Away from work Olivia has a passion for motorbikes and off roading. She enjoys running and competes in the adventure sport of Canicross trail running with her energetic dog Friday! Olivia is also kept busy as supermum of two boys, Dylan and Myles.
After graduating from Bristol, Rochelle has worked her way around the world, gaining experience and passport stamps! An internship in Canada was followed by a residency and Masters degree in Virginia, USA, both whilst working as a full time equine vet. The call of the Great White North brought her back to Canada after 3 years, where she worked as clinical faculty at the Western College of Vet Medicine, and combined clinical teaching with a busy sporthorse and racetrack practice.
The next stop was New Zealand (via France for a snow season) where she has spent the past 5 years working for a general equine practice in the beautiful South Island, servicing racing, sporthorse and polo horses (and encountering many familiar faces from the UK polo scene!).
Rochelle is an FEI Veterinary Delegate and Permitted Treating Vet, and has been lucky enough to work at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, World Cup Series Showjumping in Beijing as well as Dressage at Hickstead and a number of New Zealand National Eventing championships.
In her spare time, Rochelle enjoys spending time with her big fat horse Rosie and attempting to play polo. A keen traveler for pleasure as well as work, she also loves catching up with friends (and making new ones) all around the world, and in the few winters she sees tries to get out on her snowboard as much as possible.
Vicki joined the practice in 2004. She has two lovely horses of her own, Scoops and Oliver and makes the most of her free time riding them as much as possible.