IT'S all right for Rolf Harris on the telly with those vet programmes in which cats, dogs and guinea pigs are operated on by a vet.

But what do you do when you get a really big animal like a horse?

Horse owners in Craven have more to be thankful for than perhaps they realise for, in a corner of Rathmell's Equine Centre is the home of Dalehead Veterinary Centre's equine hospital.

Settle-based Dalehead is one of the few practices in the area to have a specialist equine centre and it takes animals from across Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Lake District.

The centre contains a fully equipped operating theatre with a modern anaesthetic system based on gas, allowing long procedures to be carried out at minimal risk.

There is also a dual-purpose padded induction and recovery room. The facility is also equipped with an X-ray unit and examination and treatment room and a dedicated team of three equine specialist vets, backed up by two other Dalehead practice vets who also do small animal and farm work.

And it was to the operating theatre that our photographer Stephen Garnett ventured to capture the experts at work.

A bay mare had come in for treatment for the removal of sarcoids - small skin tumours commonly found in horses.

After being sedated and anaesthetised, the horse is hoisted into position on the table.

She was in the theatre for about an hour and was operated on by vet Michael Davis, assisted by trainee veterinary nurse Kayleigh McIntyre.

Then hoisted back down to recover, the bay was back in action without a problem.