THE QUEEN made a private visit to one of the country's leading horse hospitals last week to open a specialist diagnostic centre.

James Mortlock

THE QUEEN made a private visit to one of the country's leading horse hospitals last week to open a specialist diagnostic centre.

Bosses at Rossdale & Partners said they were honoured to welcome The Queen on Thursday, who is a keen horse woman and had previously visited the business near Newmarket to open Rossdales Equine Hospital in 1998.

Her Majesty toured the purpose-designed new building, which houses some of the most advanced veterinary diagnostic equipment available in the UK.

Afterwards, The Queen met members of Rossdales' staff who had gathered to greet her and was presented with a posy of flowers by five-year-old Daisy Bathe, daughter of Rossdales' partner, Andy Bathe, before unveiling a commemorative plaque and declaring the centre officially open.

Rossdales' Senior Partner, Sidney Ricketts, said: “Rossdale and Partners were honoured for The Queen to open our new Equine Diagnostic Centre, just ten years after she opened our then new Equine Hospital, at our Exning site.

“Her Majesty was very interested to see our newly completed facilities and how we have developed the latest imaging techniques for the benefit of our patients, including those at the Royal Studs. She met our teams of expert staff and expressed her pleasure in seeing where her horses undergo specialist diagnosis and treatment.”

Vets at the Exning centre said the new unit was the result of several years' planning and significant investment to enhance existing facilities. As an addition to existing digital radiography and nuclear scintigraphy (bone scanning) facilities, the new building houses three fully equipped examination rooms, used for cardiological, orthopaedic and internal medicine ultrasound scanning, and imaging suites for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography).

The CT scanner, the most advanced system of its kind in veterinary use in the UK, positions Rossdale & Partners as the only practice in East Anglia, and one of only a few equine veterinary hospitals in the world, to be able to offer CT as part of its extensive range of imaging services.