Dr Warwick Vale BSc BVMS (Hons II)
Warwick graduated from Murdoch in 1989 and is one of the founding partners of the Valley Equine Veterinary Centre. He has a special interest in sport horse medicine particularly in regards to performance (fitness) and soundness. He is very experienced in assessing performance horses for pre-purchase as well as being an experienced horse surgeon.
After graduating, he joined the Midland and Bullsbrook Veterinary Services group as a mixed practitioner. These early years in practice were fun times dealing with calvings, deer velveting, piggery consultancy visits and the many seasonal sand colic’s that characterize the veterinary horse work in the district. Warwick became a practice partner after 3 years, and started to grow the horse medical and surgical case load of the practice, where after 6 years he followed his passion and became 100% focused on horse practice. Over the last 26 years Warwick has had the opportunity to work in many parts of the world, traveling to work with horses in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, New Guinea, South Africa and England. These travels have often been under the guise of Equestrian Sport Officiating, on most occasions either as an FEI Veterinary Delegate or Medication Testing Veterinarian. Warwick has had the opportunity to officiate at two Olympics (Sydney & Beijing), the South East Asia Games in 2011, as well as many other international and national Championship events. Warwick has been an Equine Veterinarians Australia (EVA) member for many years as well as having held key executive roles such as treasurer and EVA President. He has also been heavily involved in the management of the Equestrian Australia (EA), being first Vice Chair and then Chair of the Equestrian Australia (WA Branch) for 6 years. Warwick was the director of the EA National Board for 4 years as well as the National Chairman of Equestrian Australia from 2013 - 2015. During this time, he was intimately involved in the governance of Equestrian and FEI sports in Australia and helped review and implement many programs that have developed the sport over the last 15 years. Outside of work (it is hard to believe he has any spare time!) Warwick loves to take time away with his two children (Ethan & Taylor) and of 18 years Sandra. Warwick also tries to find time to follow his interest in music and computers. He enjoys an esoteric music collection of world music – Qwaali, Arabic and Persian, mixed with music from Australian flavoured music and is well known for “torturing” the many students that see practice with him each year, by subjecting them to his “wailing music” as they drive from property to property. Warwick has a selection of over 4000 cds with which he used to “impress” any naive listening. It is not uncommon for Warwick to be seen at local and interstate music concerts. Warwick is also quite unsuspecting in his other interests: he collects mounted butterfly specimens, loves to cook (he is a certified Thai Chef!) and also owns a business selling novelty beanies called “earwigs”. For us at the Valley, Warwick is more than just a boss to his staff or a vet to his clients... he is our father, mentor, best mate and makes every day at work enjoyable with his bright outlook on life a great sense of humour! |