The Rutland veterinary practice that played a part in the medal successes of last month's Olympic Games will be hoping to witness more medal glory this week.

Oakham Veterinary Hospital has two clients, rider Piggy March on horse Brookfield Innocent and Ros Canter on Allstar B, competing at the European Eventing Championships in Switzerland.

The cream of the eventing world will be involved in the prestigious event which takes place in Avenches, Switzerland, between September 23 and 26.

Oakham, which is part of IVC Evidensia Equine Vets, saw two equestrian clients come back from Tokyo with medals.

Oliver Townend was among the impressive Team GB haul of 65 medals with a team eventing gold with his horse Ballaghmor Class.

Andrew Hoy, who is based in the Midlands but rides for Australia, also picked up two medals at his eighth Games. The 62 year old rider won a team silver and individual bronze on his horse Vassily de Lassos, as well as writing his place in the record books as Australia's oldest Olympic medallist.

Andrew is one of the clients looked after by equine vet Alex Knott; with Alex being responsible for the championship horses' first aid, ensuring the horses are in prime position so they can train in the best shape. He admits he felt huge satisfaction at seeing Oakham's hard work contribute to the success.

Alex said: "We feel extremely proud and are very lucky to have some world class clients.We are just a part of a big team set-up but knowing that you have had a role to play in facilitating the result is a great feeling.

"Obviously the horse and the rider are the superstars, but it's really nice to be part of the backroom staff who make this vision and passion."

Oakham is one of the UK's leading equine hospitals and undertakes investigations, treatment and surgery for practices throughout the East Midlands.

And Alex says the horses they look after are just like the elite athletes taking to the track.

Alex continued: "The majority of the first aid we do with the horses is the management and prevention of lameness. These competition animals are athletes, and all athletes deal with a level of soreness.

"We'll look to make a diagnosis and then come up with a treatment that improves riders feel because the horse feels better."

While Olympic glories were certainly savoured by Alex and the team, there was little time to bask in such success.

"There is some downtime after big events but then the attention always switches to the next target, like Switzerland."

Owners and riders are already looking ahead to the next Olympics, now less than three years away in Paris.

Alex added: "We're already looking forward to events next year and, of course, Paris."