Isabel Heuck studied at Hymers College from 2005 until completing her A Levels in 2016.  She then went to Oxford Brookes University for 3 years, living in East Oxford, where she studied a BSc in Equine Science.  This involved learning things from anatomy and disease, veterinary treatment to nutrition, and land management.

She graduated in June 2019 with First-class honours and a 75% in her dissertation about dichromacy in horses and how this affects their welfare in the show jumping world.

Between June 2019 and September 2020 she took a year out for her health but still worked three jobs before Covid hit. She worked on an equine competition yard, a rescue kennel, and in retail.

She then decided to pursue a part-time Masters in Veterinary Physiotherapy at Writtle University, a rural university in Essex. It’s a 3-year program and she has just successfully completed her 2nd year, making her a qualified veterinary physio and gaining a postgraduate diploma.

Isabel told us more about her studies for the course:

The first year is a lot of microbiology of disease and injury and a lot of study on anatomy of both horses and dogs. I travelled to Chelmsford every other weekend for 3 days for in person practical lectures and dissections.

Having passed all my first year assignments and exams, I progressed to the second year of my masters degree which is the clinical year where I travelled down to Essex every other weekend and some months every weekend. The clinical year involves learning all the practical aspects of physio such as massage, rehabilitation exercises and being examined on both knowledge and practical skill of electrotherapies e.g. therapeutic ultrasound, laser and pulsed magnetic therapy.

From January 2022 to September 2022 I sat all my official clinical examinations and passed them all. It has been a tough 2 years, especially working part time throughout, but I’m ecstatic that I’m finally qualified and I will spend a year practicing and gaining experience before I head back to university to gain my full MSc.

Whilst at Hymers I received fantastic support after coming back after my period of illness which really helped me get to university and then to my postgrad study. I don’t think I every thanked all my teachers for their support during my illness but I hope they know how much of a difference they made!