Wesley Newlands rides her mount Wieminka B at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
Wesley Newlands Finds Her Road To Recovery In Wellington
Story by Emily Riden • Photos courtesy Starting Gate Communications
With any sport comes the inherent risk of injury. In equestrian sports, which adds another, often unpredictable, living being into the equation, that risk can be particularly high. Fortunately for the thousands of equestrian athletes based in Wellington, the village is home to renowned physical therapy specialists skilled in helping riders quickly rebound from an injury Show jumping competitor Wesley Newlands found the help she needed to do just that at Athletes Advantage, located off Pierson Road in Wellington. In September 2016, the 29-year-old Canadian was riding in Belgium, simply walking to cool down her horse after a training session, when the horse tripped and fell. As the horse went down, Newlands’ leg became stuck underneath, shattering her ankle. At a hospital in Belgium, where the staff spoke limited English, making communication difficult, they opted to put Newlands in a cast for 12 weeks rather than perform surgery. Upon returning home to Canada three weeks later, Newlands’ doctors advised that they would have elected to do surgery at the time of her injury. However, since her leg had already been set in a cast for three weeks,
they elected to continue with the recovery plan determined in Belgium. When Newlands arrived in Wellington in late December with plans to compete at the Winter Equestrian Festival, her ankle had been non-weight-bearing for months. Despite the removal of the cast after 12 weeks, she was still experiencing several problems with her foot. “My foot was turning purple, and I was having a lot of swelling,” Newlands explained. “I couldn’t really walk.” That’s where Wellington-based experts Dr. Nicholas Sama and Ed Smith of Athletes Advantage came into play. Sama, an orthopedic and trauma surgeon, X-rayed Newlands’ foot and recommended that she begin working with Smith and Athletes Advantage for physical therapy. wellington the magazine | july 2017
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