There is a new patient at New Bolton Center these days. Paynter, the winner of the Haskell was shipped there earlier this week with reoccurring fevers ever since his Haskell win at the end of August. He had been hospitalized in upstate New York where he was diagnosed with both colitis and laminitis, and managed to overcome both.

Despite this recovery, the horse still experienced fevers and the Zayats, devoted owners of Paynter, decided to ship him to New Bolton Center for examination by specialists. On Wednesday of this week, Paynter underwent abdominal surgery and doctors removed an 15 inch external growth from his intestines, clearly the source of his fevers.

According to Bloodhorse, Zayat said the growth was "full of pus and bacteria--really nasty stuff."

"Thank God nothing went wrong," Zayat remarked. "Things went exactly as Dr. Southwood expected; she said it was easy for her to remove the growth, and there were no problems with his breathing or the anesthesia during the surgery or coming out of it."

As of today, all reports are good and Paynter is up and around, eating and hopefully on his way to a full recovery.

What an amazing horse!