At Hassinger Farm, It's a Family Affair

At Hassinger Farm, everyone from 7 year old Evan and 16 year old Mary to mom and dad are involved in the comprehensive operations of one of the country’s foremost performance horse training and sports medicine facilities. Located on 60 acres in the beautiful sand hills of Southern Pines/Aberdeen, North Carolina, Amy and Jim Hassinger, DVM, have built a full-service facility that caters to the complete needs of the discerning horseman. The Farm offers many amenities including: full service care/training, equine sales/marketing, equine rehabilitation and a complete veterinary clinic in-house – the Hassinger Equine Sports Medicine and Imaging Clinic.

The latter, provides the most comprehensive private diagnostic imaging center on the central east coast. In combination, the standing MRI, ultrasound and nuclear scintigraphy (via North Carolina State University) at the Clinic, along with Eklin’s RapidStudy digital radiography system, are instrumental in providing clients with the most thorough lameness and performance evaluation offered at one location. In fact, the Hassingers were one of the first practices in the country to obtain the RapidStudy EDR3 DR system from Eklin.

“When we developed the sports medicine practice, we knew it was extremely important that we offer our clients and equine athletes state-of-the-art imaging capabilities,” said Amy. “When we saw the stunning image quality of the RapidStudy system and the ability to instantly store radiographs at the touch of the screen, we made purchase of the Eklin DR a priority – and it has lived up to and beyond our expectations.”

According to Jim, direct DR is key to assess bone structures in their equine athletes. The Eklin EDR3 delivers superior diagnostic images in as little as four seconds (horse side)! The system's high resolution consistently produces detailed diagnostic images that are unparalleled in the equine veterinary industry. As a referral imaging center, other veterinarians can send cases to Hassinger Equine Imaging for complete, diagnostic images that are forwarded directly as jpeg images to the referring veterinarian. The clinic also has a direct link with North Carolina State University radiologists and surgeons who can see images from the Eklin servers instantly if a surgical consult is needed.

“We train and rehabilitate a wide variety of equine athletes at the Farm, many of which have competed or will be competing in the Olympics,” said Jim. “Amy, Mary, Evan and I all participate in various performance competitions ourselves. We know how critical it is for our own and our clients’ athletes to have the best medical care available and that includes access to outstanding radiographic technology.”

The Hassinger Equine Sports Medicine and Imaging Clinic also participates in a number of continuing education courses throughout the year. On March 8-9, 2006, the Hassingers will be hosting a course entitled New Innovations in Equine Lameness Diagnosis which is being underwritten by Pfizer Animal Health.

» For further information on the Clinic’s services or seminars, visit www.hassingerequineservice.com.

» For information on Hassinger Farm, visit www.hassingerfarms.com.

All in all, this is one very busy family indeed!

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