Barbaro's Other Vet

There's a nice post on Bloodhorse.com about Dr. Kathy Anderson, the vet who is President of the Fair Hill Condo Association (and who helped it become a financially successful training center) and was, when he was stabled at Fair Hill, Barbaro's vet.

I had the opportunity to visit Fair Hill and see Kathy in action as well as speak to her at numerous events during the Barbaro adventure and she is one of my favorite people. An honest and gifted practitioner, a caring and gracious person, Michael Matz is her partner in her practice which is based at Fair Hill, Equine Veterinary Care Clinic. In case you ever visit there, her office has the only ladies room on the premises!

She and Matz have a special relationship--I believe she takes care of all his horses--and it was readily apparent during Barbaro's stay at New Bolton. It was a delicate wire for her to walk during the time that Barbaro was at New Bolton and she did it with extreme grace. After all, it was not her place to interfere or make recommendations since she was only the "referring" vet (and actually Barbaro was never sick for even one day since before his accident, which in itself was remarkable), yet she cared deeply about the horse and visited him often.

On one occasion when I was with both her and Matz, they were discussing the possibility of Barbaro being released to her care at Fair Hill. She volunteered that she could do everything for Barbaro at her facility that was being done at that time at New Bolton. Of course this was before the complications from laminitis started to multiply, but she was eager, at the time, for the "art" of medicine to take over from the "science" of medicine. Of course, she never got that opportunity.

I don't think that Kathy's "telepathy" with horses has to do with her gender, although it may be true that women and horses do have a special bond. I think it has to do with her style as a vet and the amount of time she spends with and around horses. So many aspects of taking care of animals is based on careful observation, I think it is important to find and trust a vet who lets the horse "tell him/her where it hurts."

The best veterinary medicine is probably a combination of art and science and I think between Dean Richardson and Kathy Anderson, Barbaro got the best of both kinds of care.