A NEW spa near Cupar is helping horses get back on track.

Equelite Equine Spa, run by physiotherapist Gillian Copland, opened recently and has already attracted a high-profile customer.

The spa, at Cults Mill Farm, has a giant tub for horses which fills up with cold salted water, which helps horses with leg injuries. It is one of only two spas of its kind in Scotland.

Gillian said, “The spa is open to anybody who wants to use it for their horses and we’ve already had some satisfied customers.”

One of the high-profile visitors to the spa was Hopes are High, owned by Sandra Low-Mitchell of Leven.

Sandra first owned the horse along with the late John Hamilton years ago when he was brought over from Ireland.

After winning novice national classes in Scotland, Hopes are High was sold to Olympic rider David Broome and won the King George V Cup, the Grand Prix in Dublin and Jerez and the Du Maurier Show Jumping Classic in Spruce Meadows, Calgary.

He also jumped at the World Equestrian Games in Rome, and although it was planned he would take part in the Sydney Olympics, he broke a bone in his foot and couldn’t go.

Hopes are High then went to David Broome’s son Mathew and was a team gold medallist at the Junior European Championships.

Gillian said it was great to have such a well-known horse as one of her customers.

“He has now done a full circle and returned back to where his career began in Leven with his original rider Sandra Low-Mitchell,” she said.

“As well as being carefully looked after with lots of slow work and specialist products for his joints and stomach, we are keeping him free of leg injuries—common in show-jumpers of his age—by frequent use of the spa.”