Welcoming Bernardo Melo Franco

17th June 2024

Please join us in welcoming Bernardo Melo Franco to our vet team at Agnew Equine!

Bernardo is an experienced equine vet, and over the past 10 years since graduating from the University of Lisbon in 2014, he has added to his veterinary skills with additional specialist training. In 2017, under the supervision of Dr Sue Dyson at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, he spent a year’s internship concentrating on lameness and poor performance. The year before, he had completed a year’s internship at a world-class equine hospital in Belgium. In 2021, he was awarded a certificate in equine lameness diagnosis and therapeutics by the University of Liverpool after further intensive study alongside his day-to-day practice commitments. He has also completed a comprehensive ultrasonography course, mainly focusing on musculoskeletal apparatus of the horse. Bernardo is joining us after working for the past 6+ years as an ambulatory vet in the area.

Before qualifying as a vet, Bernardo was a competitive rider who particularly enjoyed show jumping. In 2012, he participated as a volunteer for the organising committee at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy where he had the privilege to help and rub shoulders with his show jumping idols. However, Bernardo considers it a privilege to look after ALL equines – horses, donkeys and mules – and whether his equine patients are sport horses or beloved family pets in retirement, he offers the same standards of care and commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes.

Outside of horses, Bernardo enjoys socialising, travelling, learning to play the piano (for relaxation!) and renovating his home. While considering himself truly at home in the North West of England and very much a native by now, Bernardo is happy to meet clients who prefer to converse in any of the 5 European languages that he speaks! He's a man of many talents!

Please welcome Bernardo to Team Agnew - we know you're going to like him as much as we do!