This workshop is designed for those who, perhaps, do not spend all their professional time working with horses. Previous delegates have ranged from new graduates, wishing to extend their reach with regard to equine practice, right through to senior members who have felt the need to update their knowledge. The subject covers an area, which has caused much concern in recent years, hence the inclusion of a speaker from the Veterinary Defence Society. The practical programme will include examining horses with particular reference to wind, eyes, heart, ageing, flexion tests, conformation, intended use and much more.

This course has been updated and expanded for 2008 covering such new areas as deep uterine insemination, embryo transfer and fetal sexing. The course is designed to benefit those with a range of experience in reproductive and foal ultrasonography. The main emphasis of the course is practical sessions involving mares, foals and clinical cases. There will also be lectures to supplement and reinforce the practical sessions. The first day of the course will include a practical session designed to provide information enabling optimum setting of the machine controls to maximise processing of the image. In addition to the full range of BCF Technology machines available, delegates are welcome to bring their own machines to this session. This will be followed by three lectures to illustrate the general principals of ultrasound and its use in the normal and subfertile mare. The final session will be a workshop style presentation on embryo transfer. The following day will be spent in three groups, two groups examining six mares at a stud farm in conjunction with one of the tutors. The third group will visit a different stud farm to work though a number of mares as routinely presented to a stud farm. This group would suit the more experienced delegate. Rotations will allow plenty of time for discussion of the findings in each mare. There will be demonstrations of mare endoscopy and preparation of the AV as well as flushing the fluid-producing mare and smear preparation. After the practical sessions there will be lectures on the gynaecological investigation of the barren mare, use of fresh-transported and frozen semen in the mare and a DVD illustrating the ultrasound features of early pregnancy and embryonic death in the mare.

The final day will begin with three lectures covering the use of ultrasonography in the late pregnant mare and foal. There will then be a similar rotation of groups as for the previous day as well as demonstrations of techniques in both mares and foals.