Equine Hospital Niederlenz AG

State-of-the-art facilities

The small town of Niederlenz in the heart of the canton Aargau is around half an hour’s drive from Zürich and is home to one of Europe’s most advanced equine hospitals. Founded in 1981 as Pferdeklinik Neugraben AG, even then the practice enjoyed an outstanding reputation. In late 2019, the hospital moved from its idyllic but somewhat confined premises in the centre of Nieder-
lenz to a newly built and markedly more spacious facility at the town’s outskirts. As a true logistical feat, the move was successful thanks to the efforts of the entire team – as Dr Christian Czech, one of the hospital’s senior vets, emphasises. Dr Czech is accompanied by two other partners: Markus Schmidt, who joined the clinic in 2008, and Dr Theo Tschanz, whose time at Niederlenz goes back to 1988. The team also comprises five vets, an equine dentist, eight veterinary assistants, plus four administrative staff, a specialist staff member responsible for the pharmacy and goods management, a site caretaker, and two stable assistants from Eritrea. A truly international team.

Born in Lower Saxony in Germany, Dr Christian Czech has worked at the Niederlenz practice for 15 years and became a partner
in 2010. After completing his studies, he wrote his dissertation in the USA before following the advice of Dr Matthias Baumann – German equine specialist veterinarian and team eventing gold-medallist at the Seoul Olympics – and made the move to Niederlenz. The rest, as they say, is history.
Dr Christian Czech has two children with his wife, Dr Dory Czech, who is also a vet at the Pferdeklinik Niederlenz. When not with his family, caring for patients or devoting himself to continuous medical education, he tends to create big plans. Building a new hospital was one of those plans, and indeed
a very impressive example.

The imposing yet ultra-modern main building, riding hall and stables are set on premises spanning almost 7,000 square metres. At the heart of the site is a unique covered trotting area, including two lunging rings with hard and soft floors as well as an undulating, slip-proof surface to assess horses’ coordination skills and back mobility. All of these facilities have been carefully considered into the smallest detail.

Our services for you:

• 25 stalls are available
• three can house outpatients in case of waiting times prior to treatment
• two isolation stalls
• four stalls for horses recovering from scintigraphy
• a generously proportioned treatment room adjoined by three smaller treatment rooms
• a separate X-ray and scintigraphy room
• special areas for computed tomography and magnetic-resonance imaging
• a diagnostic room for emergency patients that doubles up as an operating theatre for procedures on standing horses
• a separate area for the blacksmith which can also act as a treatment room

Two stalls are located directly adjacent to the operating theatre – one pre-op stall
and one recovery stall. Staff prepares horses before they reach the operating theatre to ensure they are as sterile as possible upon arrival, thereby reducing the risk of complications due to infection.
The stables, outdoor areas and separate recovery and intensive-care stalls are permanently video-monitored, allowing all vets to access a live stream using their smartphones at all times. This ensures that patients are closely monitored around the clock.

Modern technology plays a crucial role throughout this equine hospital in northern Switzerland. Large flatscreen monitors are omnipresent, reflecting the importance and complexity of the diagnostic imaging facilities at the Pferdeklinik Niederlenz – which are state-of-the-art. Even at first glance, it is clear this is not an ordinary equine hospital. Consequently, the staff in Niederlenz is not only encouraged to take continuous medical training, “it is a requirement”, emphasise the partners Czech, Tschanz and Schmidt. The trio, of course, sets an example in this regard.

While the Pferdeklinik Niederlenz AG also provides a mobile vet service with a small fleet of fully equipped vehicles – each equipped with ultrasound devices, endoscopes and mobile X-ray devices – the clinic is, first and foremost, a referral hospital. Its patients are by no means limited to the local area. As FEI veterinarian, Dr Czech supervises prestigious competitions, treats numerous championship horses, and also manages their health to already prevent issues. As a result, the hospital’s vets do not only work in Switzerland but also travel regularly to Germany, Austria and France to see patients. After studying in Bern, Dr Tschanz earned his doctorate by exploring potential enhancements to scintigraphic imaging technologies under the guidance of Prof. Ueltschi. Since then, he became a well-known and highly respected equine vet in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and not only for racehorses and polo ponies. “My personal favourite horses are the charismatic, athletic ones,” says Christian Czech. That said, Niederlenz is by no means reserved for elite-level horses trained for Olympic competition; the team displays the same care and dedication whether their patient is a racehorse, a Western-trained horse, a poly pony, a leisure pony, or a donkey. The hospital’s philosophy is: “We always strive to achieve the highest standards of medical care which is accompanied with our passion for our profession and the empathy for horse and rider going hand-in-hand. Taking this as our basis, we aim to find the best solution for every horse in each individual case.” In Niederlenz, this philosophy is more than mere theory: every member of the team visibly embodies its guiding spirit.