SHINING THE LIGHT ON AN UNSUNG SALE HERO

WRITTEN BY KATRINA PARTRIDGE

On sale day, as a record priced yearling is knocked down to spontaneous applause, a tidal surge of attendant media, and a beaming buyer there is one person not standing ringside. That individual has been instrumental in getting that yearling to sale day but rather than soak up the limelight they are back at the farm doing what they do so well - caring for the health of the equine herd as a whole and ensuring the next sales class is on track for success

They are the stud’s veterinarian.

One of Australia’s leading names in this area is recently retired Dr John Freestone BVSc, DACVIM (LAIM), FRCVS, MACVSc - a man defined by many as ‘irreplaceable’.

Dr Freestone [John] has embodied handson world’s best veterinary practice, and shared his dedication and commitment with the many people he has worked with, taught, trained and mentored throughout his distinguished career.

John says that the role of a stud veterinarian can be summarised as someone who is always available, an excellent team player, someone who is always willing to learn, and in a world of increasing specialisation - someone who is willing and able to be a generalist.

“If you’re a resident vet on a large farm you are always there. You have to be available,” he says. “You work alongside a large group including senior managers, the farm manager, farmers, and farriers. As a coordinated team your role is to establish that farm and then advance it. As a farm vet, if one of the horses gets sick it doesn’t disappear. It lives with you the whole time and you have to carry that responsibility. There is therefore a real benefit to having someone onsite full time, watching the horses and playing a pivotal role in full time care compared to the vet that arrives, treats the horse, gets back in their car and leaves. You can then rely on your resident staff to watch and treat your horses. What that means in practice is that a stud vet has to be responsive, available and be ever willing to watch over and care for the health and outcome of those horses you are responsible for.”

A graduate of Sydney University, colleague of the esteemed Dr Peter Rossdale OBE and equine veterinary medicine pioneer, Dr Doug Byars, DVM, John practiced in Canberra and completed a Large Animal Internal Medicine residency at the University of California before taking up the position of Associate Professor at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge - a part of North America he is the first to admit he ‘had no idea where it even was’. It was here that John achieved Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and was boardcertified as an Internal Medicine specialist in the UK and Australia.

A prolific researcher with many published veterinary research papers and an academic at heart, John has provided the highest level of equine care to thoroughbred horses in Kentucky, Newmarket, Ireland and Australia. Exposure to an extended international network of colleagues and high level mentors has underpinned his approach to equine care and training others; fortunately for those of us locally the call to bring that knowledge and expertise ‘home’ came in 1995 with a call from Coolmore Australia for John to join their new farm in the Hunter Valley; a role that commenced in May 1996.

“Working with Coolmore was a great experience. I worked with good people, good staff, good facilities and in a beautiful setting,” John reflects. “I take great pride and joy knowing there have been 58 individual Group One winners produced on the farm since I was there and I have had the opportunity to treat some of the best mares and of course stallions in the world from Sadlers Wells, Galileo, Storm Bird and Danehill who for me was the best of the lot. I can remember driving into the then Arrowfield [at Jerry’s Plains] when Danehill was there. One of the Irish lads was looking after him who I knew and he stopped and talked to me and he had Danehill walking next to him. Danehill put his head through the passenger side window of the car. That’s how quiet and gentle that stallion was. He was a fantastic horse.”

JOHN IS KEEN TO EMPHASISE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE STUD VETERINARIAN AND THE STUD TEAM AS A WHOLE WHEN IT COMES TO PRODUCING TOP LEVEL THOROUGHBREDS.

“You establish a team of individuals on a farm who become reliant on each other and with that reliance comes trust. So for example there will be a farrier who has been at farm a long time and when we have difficult foal orthopaedic cases or mares with bad feet then all those problems require that person involved as well as the unit manager; everyone looks at and discusses x-rays and move forward with managing that case. The farm manager is integral to developing the herd health plan in terms of vaccination, drenching, and nutrition - relying on input from outside people - so that communication is very important. The farmers are essential for soil health, pasture and weed management. If you don’t have faith or trust in someone in the group it becomes more difficult.”

John also regularly relied on his peers in his day to day work; relationships that were set in stone early in his career and continued to evolve over time.

“There will always be situations where you will need to ask your colleagues for advice. You come across things you haven’t seen before and it is sometimes easier to pick up the phone than go back through all the literature to try and figure out what’s going on. Particularly if it’s not in your area of speciality. If it’s a surgery question or a reproductive question in relation to a stallion with a rare reproductive condition then you rely on those specialists to lead and advise you.”

Past and present Coolmore staff celebrate Dr Freestone’s career and retirement

So is it possible to define the overarching role of a stud vet on a commercial farm? John says you could just as easily write a text book on the subject; something that becomes readily apparent as he details what is involved in producing a sale ready yearling.

“From the 1st August the season starts with the first foal. Once that foal is on the ground we have everything in place for preventative medicine for that foal to grow and be the best athlete he or she can. From leg assessment to chest ultrasounds, parasite control, herd health in terms of weight and nutrition, vaccination and systematic x-rays and if required - surgery, endoscopic examination, and extensive handling - everything is focussed on producing the best product for the sale ring and racetrack some years down the track.”

Veterinary science has certainly changed over time and technology has revolutionized not just the world generally but veterinary science and its practice specifically. John points to three major developments in the past 30 years:

“Ultrasound has been a diagnostic game changer for an animal that doesn’t talk. Ultrasound is your life. You can rule things out that might not be diagnostic but they are in the sense that you can ultrasound a chest and say ‘lungs look fine- that’s not the problem.

“Back in 1983 during my first year residency at UC Davis ultrasound for use in reproductive equine practice had just been developed. One of the small animal vets raised his hand and asked if you really needed to do the examination internally [with your arm in their rectum] - could you not just attach the probe to a stick? That was the start. From there it went to using ultrasound to look at internal organs and assess everything we can now.

“When I went to Kentucky in 1992 the senior vets in that practice were still not using ultrasound. They had magnificent tactile skills so would assess the feel of a follicle to diagnose potential oncoming ovulation and uterine tone to assess pregnancy. During my time at that practice it would evolve to become the most skilled at assessing foetal sexing but it was obvious that the older guys were potentially going to get left behind as you couldn’t tell by tactile manipulation if there were twins. There was so much more information available with ultrasound.

RADIOLOGY HAS ALSO BEEN LIFE CHANGING. WE NOW HAVE CORDLESS X-RAY MACHINES AND PORTABLE PLATES, MRI AND CAT SCANNERS BEING USED DIAGNOSTICALLY AND THAT WILL PROBABLY JUST CONTINUE TO GROW AS THEY ADAPT KNOWLEDGE FROM HUMAN DIAGNOSTICS AND MODIFY THOSE SYSTEMS SO THEY CAN BE USED WITH HORSES.

“There has also been a revolution in the specialization of vets. When I came back from the USA there were no roles for specialist equine medicine personnel in equine practice. So I redefined my career from internal medicine to becoming a resident vet. Now all the big practices have employed specialists all the way through.”

John agrees that the introduction of radiographs has transformed yearling sale practices.

“There have been great advances in the use of transphyseal screws for defects in foals’ fetlocks and knees. Some of those horses will race absolutely fine without the intervention but it sort of becomes a bit of a beauty pageant where you want a horse with the best leg conformation. If a buyer has three horses on his list and he has to pick one he will probably pick the one with the best legs so a lot of time and effort is spent trying to get foals’ conformation correct.”

The interpretation of x-rays is always a matter of opinion but John says that as time goes on the repository of knowledge has translated to a shift in general opinion.

“We are learning more all the time,” he says. “Originally the reports came out of the US on what was a significant lesion. As time has gone on, more x-rays have been taken and more experience gained as horses have raced with lesions that we know about, accordingly the advice on what is significant versus what is not significant has changed. There are lots of other little things that occur on a set of repository x-rays that years ago would have been deemed as significant but these days are not seen that way. It’s been a case of looking at these changes,

watching these horses race and saying ‘only one in ten seem to be impacted by this change so if I have a horse at a sale and a trainer comes to me and says this horse has x or y lesion then I can confidently say you have a 90% chance of that being fine based on the past decades of research’. There may still be differences in opinion - one surgeon out of that group may have had two or three horses who did have problems with that particular lesion so he might say a horse is at moderate risk when others will say it is low. The majority of time everyone knows what the significant lesions are and are on the same page.”

Beyond the horses he has cared for John says the thing that gives him the greatest career satisfaction is the number of younger vets he has been able to supervise.

“I have been able to mentor a large number of vet students when I was teaching at the uni, I have helped train a large number of vets and have tried to be a good teacher and mentor to the staff and let them learn. Those staff have left Coolmore and moved to other farms and the information they have and share has grown from there. That’s probably the best thing that I have done as a vet.

As Dr Freestone’s career well demonstrates the role of a stud veterinarian transcends diagnosis and application of equine medicine. An individual’s thirst for global knowledge and ability to share that experience and learning with others ensures that they play a major role in acting as a key player within a large on-farm group of experts. Beyond their sheer love of the animal these dedicated practitioners demonstrate an unfailing desire to provide every horse under their care with every opportunity to succeed.

CONSIDER THIS: WOULD THE YEARLING YOU ARE SO EXCITED TO BE OFFERING AT THE SALE THIS YEAR BE WHERE IT IS WITHOUT THE BEHIND THE SCENES WORK OF SUCH PEOPLE?