Senator Heffernan opened Central West Equine at Springside on Saturday, the horses’ birthday, which will provide lameness diagnosis, emergency medicine, dentistry, stem cell therapies and reproductive services.

He said the industry had faced challenges with equine influenza and Hendra virus in recent years and emphasised the importance of vaccination.

“Part of maintaining the viability of the industry is for people to appreciate the pleasure of horses, whether they’re racehorses or show ponies, and to have the veterinary back-up ... will really help,” he said.

Central West Equine veterinarian David Searle made the move from the South Coast to start the business and believed there was need in the industry.

“Dressage is getting bigger and there’s a lot of trotting horses at Blayney, so it’s big in the area,” he said.

“A lot of it is about problem solving - a horse can’t say ‘my leg’s killing me’, it just limps, so you’ve got to work out where they’re lame.

“Education and prevention is better than cure, so that’s what our focus is.” 

He said also he enjoyed the artificial insemination side of the practice.

“That foal might go on to compete, so it’s very satisfying,” he said.

Senator Heffernan said the main threat to agriculture at the moment was the potential of importing mad cow disease into Australia through cattle from South America via the US.

“The US doesn’t have life to death track-abililty and the idea we would let in their beef for them to take more of our sugar is outrageous,” he said. 

danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au