Wellness Wednesday - The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Center Focuses on Ocala, While PBIEC Serves Competitors with Equine Conditioning Center

Ocala, FL – The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Center of Ocala, Florida is renowned for its world-class treatments and therapies, which have been used to rehabilitate and condition horses competing and winning in a variety of disciplines. Over the past three years, The Sanctuary has offered its services to horses competing on the south Florida circuit through collaboration with the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) but the two parties have decided to discontinue this partnership as the focus on the show grounds shifts to exercise and conditioning competing horses.The former Sanctuary satellite facility at PBIEC will remain open under new management as the Equine Conditioning Center. “The business on the show grounds has evolved to focus on conditioning and injury prevention”, explained Meg Krueger of Equestrian Sport Productions. “It was a natural progression,” added Tom Grabe, Managing Partner of The Sanctuary, “We partnered with show grounds with the intent of helping them develop, outfit, and manage a facility to offer conditioning and rehab services to horses showing at the Winter Equestrian Festival. The demand for a gym-like conditioning facility was born from the show client’s needs and now after three years of learning from our staff, we are confident that the Equine Conditioning Center can fill that need for their competitors”. Grabe added that The Sanctuary was pleased to be the catalyst in the development of the Equine Conditioning Center at the show grounds in Wellington and said, “we wish them great success”.

Horses from South Florida will continue to have access to the Sanctuary’s Ocala campus, a multi-million dollar facility designed to provide the absolute epitome of conditioning and rehabilitation for equine athletes. Not surprisingly, the Sanctuary has an unparalleled success record for returning horses back to work. In addition, the Ocala facility coined the term ‘prehab,’ to describe their preventative conditioning treatments designed to reduce the risk of injury for high performance horses.

As a premiere full-service therapeutic facility now located solely in Ocala, the Sanctuary has also branched out to offer mobility to their clients. Their state-of-the-art mobile unit will continue to travel to various shows across the country this summer to ensure that the equine athletes competing there have the absolute best in terms of rehabilitation and conditioning services. The cutting-edge, advanced technologies, based on therapies used by professional athletes, will be accessible to competition horses wherever the Sanctuary mobile unit is onsite.

In addition to offering the most cutting edge and effective treatments, The Sanctuary is unique in that its technicians have years of experience and specialize in specific treatments, These certified technicians are experts in using the state of the art equipment, and work in tandem with supervising veterinarians to provide customized, individual programs for each horse.

“Our goal, first and foremost, is to send every horse home in the best condition possible as well as physically and mentally sound,” explains Brenda McDuffee, the Sanctuary’s General Manager. “The Sanctuary is well named because it is a haven for horses with all kinds of issues, from lacerations, chronic pain, joint, tendon, or muscle injuries, fractures, or basically any other ailment.  No matter the problem, The Sanctuary will have a treatment to benefit the animal and a certified technician on hand to administer that treatment”.

With their rare combination of equipment, experience, knowledge, and training, The Sanctuary provides the most comprehensive and effective care for equine athletes. Savvy equestrians from a multitude of disciplines have quickly recognized the Sanctuary as the finest, most comprehensive facility of its kind in the world. The Sanctuary offers the ultimate care for the rehabilitation and conditioning of our Equine partners. With recent technology, the Sanctuary has developed supplemental training courses for their technicians to match the advances in the industry and bring those advances to the horse. 

The Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Center’s campus is located in Ocala, Florida. The 30-acre, state-of-the-art facility is a multi-million dollar rehabilitation and conditioning facility that features the most advanced conditioning and equipment available in the world today. The Cold Saltwater Leg Spa is the ideal treatment for legs. The 35-degree turbulated saltwater eliminates pain, reduces swelling and inflammation, removes heat, increases circulation, relieves sore feet, and speeds healing. The Sanctuary also offers an Equine Hyperbaric Chamber, which is a box stall type for freedom of movement while therapy is administered, an Aqua Pacer Water Treadmill - the safest, most effective water treadmill available, a 110 foot long, 14 foot deep inline equine swimming pool with therapeutic water, a 5/8 mile race track, two Eurocisers with therapeutic tracking surface – one covered and one outdoors, Solariums, and a temperature-controlled veterinary inspection area with semi-surgical lighting, and rubberized surfaces in most areas.   

For more information on the Sanctuary Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Center visit www.sanctuaryequinerehab.com