Grassroots: Graham Potts

Graham Potts (or ‘Pottsy’ as he prefers to be called) fromCastlemorton in Worcestershire is a figure we all recognise within racing and point-to-pointing and his presence on a racecourse as a vet is a familiar and reassuring one. He has a busy schedule working as an equine practitioner at Three Counties Equine Hospital, a part-time BHA Veterinary Officer and is the BHA veterinary advisor to the Point-to-Point Authority. It is no wonder ‘Pottsy’ is such a popular and well-known figure. He also works as a racecourse veterinary surgeon at Chester, Worcester, Haydock, Bangor and Aintree and is the Senior Racecourse Vet at Ludlow where he has been on the vet team for 26 years.

Born and bred in North Devon, Potts had no family involvement with either horses or farming growing up but living in a rural area close to Exmoor he had a lot of school friends who were farmers and spent his younger days helping out on local farms. Potts says: “I am not a ‘townie’ but I wasn’t lucky enough to have been brought up on a farm, and my parents could not afford ponies, my Great Grandparents farmed near Crediton in Devon so perhaps it was always in the genes!”

An interest in becoming a vet from a young age led to him spending a lot of time gaining experience from local vets, mainly in the farming sector. His mentor Brian Crawford was an Irishman with a deep love and understanding of horses and he credits Brian with his subsequent journey into the equine world.     

He tells me: “I trained at the Royal Veterinary College in London and my first job was in Ludlow in farm practice. Some time later I was keen to enter into the equine side and with little equine experience I went to work for Peter Thorne at Ratley Lodge, Edgehill, near Banbury. Of course Peter’s brother was John Thorne and they were a family hugely involved in racing and point-to-pointing, naturally many of the clients were racing and pointing people so my interest in that was instant; I remember my first job with Peter was to go to see West Tip who had recently won the Grand National.”

A move to Sydney, Australia in the late eighties took Potts on a new journey, working in purely equine practice in largely flat racing, as well as a lot of domestic and sports horses. Upon his return in 1990 he joined Chris Rea and Liam Kearns and helped to set up Three Counties Equine Hospital.

He tells me: “I was always particularly interested in colic surgery and lameness evaluation. I enjoyed surgery and that goes back to my time with Peter Thorne. Back then, there were only a handful of operating theatres within equine practices and Peter had one at Ratley Lodgeand was innovative in performing routine equine surgery andencouraging more practices to have an operating theatre.”

The time spent in Australia led to him working with the Australian Equestrian team as their UK-based vet travelling to all the major three day events in the UK and in Europe and he says: “Becoming a team vet for the Australian Equestrian Team once I was based back in the UK was wonderful, I travelled the world with horses, I did five Olympics and six World Games. It all came about because many of the Australian riders were UK and Europe based and it made sense to have a vet similarly situated.” He continues: “Rio was my last Olympics and having seen the teams winning Gold, Silver and Bronze medals over my 20 years it was a natural time to step away.” 

It was at this time that Potts joined the BHA as a part-time Veterinary officer; one job replaced the other. He says: “My passion is jump racing and due to my background enjoying point-to-pointing I wasobviously suitably experienced to become the veterinary advisor to the Point-to-Point Authority.”

Of his BHA role in general he says: “It is a regulatory position; rules, integrity, welfare and anti-doping rather than ‘hands on’ veterinarywork.” 

This conversation leads Potts to tell me more about his involvement in point-to-pointing: “From a welfare perspective I am passionate that Point-to-Pointing must continue to provide the same standards of care to our equine participants as is available to those racing under Rules.This is obviously a challenge to fixtures who only run one meeting per season but the challenge MUST be met. It is also important to remember that the general public often don’t realise the difference between pointing and racing under-rules so we need to ensure we maintain public support for our sport and at the same time protect the reputation of jump racing in general,”

The introduction this season of a Compression Boot being readily available to be used, should a horse require it, is a positive move and Potts explains: “Essentially a compression boot looks like a ski boot. Every licensed racecourse has them and they come in a large and a small size. They fit to the lower limb to offer instant stability and pain relief to a major soft tissue or orthopaedic injury. They are very practical and easy to apply on course enabling an injured horse to betransported back to the vet box/lorry park or to hospital for further evaluation. The PPA have purchased one boot for each region and these will all be available next season. Paul Miller’s ongoing and tireless horse welfare efforts also include the purchase of sets of screens for each region to ensure that Vets and Doctors can work in privacy.”

Last weekend saw soaring temperatures and there were procedures put in place to ensure the well-being of the horses at all meetings. Potts was the Senior Vet on duty at Chaddesley Corbett on Monday and says: “We have hot weather protocols. We work closely before the meeting with the Chief Steward, Clerk of Course and Incident Controller to put everything that is required in place. A lot of water is required and in the appropriate places, mobile water, buckets, extra volunteers. The stewards brief the jockeys on how to behave in the circumstances and parade ring times are reduced. I was so impressedwith everyone on Monday, it was a fantastic reflection of the sport. Jim Squires and his team did a superb job. Even the jockeys were met on course with water and had transport back up to the weighing room.”

He surmises: “My job is to guide and educate people and I want to make the sport as safe as possible for our horses and present a positive welfare image to the public. With some effort and ongoing educationwe are capable of doing this. From a veterinary perspective having a committed team of suitably trained helpers to work with is a necessity.”

I was intrigued to learn of any hobbies Potts has and he told me: “My job is my hobby. I played rugby a lot when I was younger but I eventually broke down badly! I ruptured my Achillies. I know how a horse feels – it is basically the same injury as when a horse breaks down. I love the game and I refereed Rugby Union until my late thirties.” He adds: “In fact, ironically that has helped in my job asbeing a veterinary regulator is much like being a referee!”

I had one last question, have you ever ridden? Potts laughed and said: Yes, badly on and off all my later life but I am probably nothing short of dangerous. I have only ever jumped little jumps, I had ambition to do more but I didn’t have the bottle! I have, however, done a dressage test, just once, an Intro B about eight years ago.” Potts won’t mind me saying I found this hilarious and was probably the least likely thing I thought he was going to tell me!

There is no doubt he has the best interests of all participants as a priority and as a sport we collectively owe a huge thank you to this veterinary genius guiding us through.