A rider who suffered a “catastrophic” and very painful knee injury said she will never complain of being busy again – after she had a treatment commonly given to horses.
Katie Gilmour was already suffering from soft tissue damage when some dogs ran into her at a clinic “sending my kneecap spinning to the other side”. She underwent surgery but said she was still in too much pain to enjoy her normal life.
But thanks to a treatment used for equine joint issues, Katie, who has four children, four horses, dogs, cats and chickens, is now back in the saddle and back to normal.
She said her issues started in 2021, when she was leading her daughter and pony Clover at a show.
“The ground was hard and unlevel and I was wearing heavy country boots,” she said. “I felt a tearing in my knee and heard an internal pop. Being a typical horsewoman, I ignored it, but it didn’t go away and my knee got progressively more unstable and painful. Eventually, I sought physio and was referred to an orthopaedic consultant, who diagnosed patella tendinopathy.”
Katie had shockwave treatment and steroid injections but matters worsened in February 2024, when she had just ridden in a clinic.
“I was standing chatting when my dogs knocked into my knee, sending my knee cap spinning to the other side, tearing pretty much everything inside my knee in the process,” she said.
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“It was incredibly painful and came at a time when we were in the middle of renovating and rebuilding our house. After 11 weeks of further dislocations and subluxations, it became obvious that it wouldn’t heal by itself and I underwent an MPFL repair and arthroscopy.
“The arthroscopy showed significant loss of cartilage, and the pain I experienced was bone on bone. Despite the surgery, I began to walk with a limp and still experienced too much pain to live my ‘normal’ life. Having been so active all of my life, I found being confined to little exercise damaging to my mental health and wanted to resolve the pain and stiffness without further surgery.”
Katie has always had horses, and has worked with them, and so was aware of Arthramid, which is designed to reduce pain and swelling and help the joint heal.
“I asked my vet if he could give it to me!” she said. “He thought I was joking but I wasn’t; I started researching the equivalent for humans; a hydrogel injection called Arthrosamid, backed by scientific data and manufactured by the same company.”
Katie had the injection in January and followed the six-week rehab programme.
“Within two weeks, I noticed that my knee was less painful,” she said. “A couple of weeks later, my limp faded away. At my recent 12-week check-up, my pain score has drastically reduced. I am now able to live a life almost as active as it was before my injury.
“It’s not perfect, but Arthrosamid has been a game-changer for me. I do experience knee pain at night and if I’ve had a particularly busy day, but the relief that I am able to be much more active is palpable. I’m back to my normal routine – and I’ll never complain about being busy again!”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
