Feature
President Bob Bruininks and other dignitaries break ground for the new Equine Center as a team of Percherons, owned by Bryan and Mary Hagen of Kenyon, Minn., looks on.
Triumph of the neigh-sayers
There was horsing around aplenty when the University broke ground for a new Equine Center
By Deane Morrison
August 15, 2006
They didn't paw the ground or snort with impatience, but when
they got going the team of Percherons pranced along at a clip that
had photographers scrambling to keep up. Decked out in well-coiffed
manes and tails, the 1,800-pound black horses stole the show as
they not only broke ground for the University's new Equine Center
but plowed the soil into deep, straight furrows. Located on the
northeast corner of the St. Paul campus and due for completion in
fall 2007, the center will transform the ability of the
University's College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to care for
horses and discover new ways to diagnose and treat their ailments.
The crowd at the groundbreaking was packed with joyful horse
owners, including University President Bob Bruininks and his wife,
Susan Hagstrum, both of whom exhibited unbridled enthusiasm for the
project. Also watching the August 9 ceremony were Jess Mendel and
Marianne Scheel of the University Police Department's mounted
patrol.
By the numbers
The University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center treated 1,125
cases of sickness or injury to horses in 2005.
According to the American Horse Council:
*The horse population in Minnesota is 182,229, which puts Minnesota
19th among the 50 states.
*Throughout the United States, 9.2 million domesticated horses are
used for racing, showing, competition, breeding, recreation, and
work.
*4.6 million Americans are involved in the horse industry as
owners, service providers, employees, and volunteers.
*The U.S. horse industry provides 460,000 jobs and has a direct
economic impact of $39 billion a year.
--Sue Kirchoff, College of Veterinary Medicine
But no one was more ecstatic than Stephanie Valberg, director of
the Equine Center. "This new center will dramatically change the
way we'll be able to care for horses in the state of Minnesota,"
said Valberg, a professor of veterinary population medicine. "It
will provide new facilities to evaluate horses' performance,
research facilities to make innovative advances, and an indoor
arena and conference center for the equine community." The $14
million center will have all manner of special facilities to cover
every aspect of equine health. Perhaps the most spectacular will be
an indoor arena in which owners can ride their horses around,
allowing vets to observe all four natural gaits-walk, trot, canter,
and gallop-and spot any signs of lameness. Other sections will
house higher-tech operations. "There will be areas for imaging by
ultrasound, CT, and MRI," said Valberg. "A new surgery suite will
be specially adapted for arthroscopic surgery. There will also be a
high-speed treadmill and an underwater treadmill [for exercise and
rehabilitation]." Among the horse owners in attendance were many
who sported buttons reading "I [heart] the parking lot." That was a
reference to the difficulty of parking at the current facility,
where people in large vehicles pulling horse trailers must navigate
sharp, closely spaced turns on hilly terrain that's extra
treacherous in winter. The new center's lot eliminates that
headache. In his remarks to the crowd, Bruininks could not resist
drawing a parallel between guiding a saddle horse and guiding a
large university. "It's a lot easier to steer a horse in the
direction it's already going," said Bruininks, quoting John
Naisbitt, author of the bestseller
Megatrends. "That's a
good mantra for strategic positioning." Strategic positioning, the
term for the realignment of University colleges and other resources
for maximum efficiency and competitiveness, can only be helped by
the Equine Center. Already, as Bruininks pointed out, about 80
percent of practicing veterinarians in Minnesota owe their
educations to CVM. But, he lamented, the college has lost some
potential recruits "because this place was a dream, not a reality."
"This center will help us retain and recruit world-class faculty to
our equine program," said Jeffrey Klausner, dean of CVM. "It will
help establish the University of Minnesota as a powerhouse in the
equine world." He pointed to equine nutrition, genetics, and
muscular disorders as areas that stand to benefit from advances in
research and treatment. Klausner also expressed hope that the
center would become a home for the equine community in Minnesota,
including the We Can Ride program, a Minnetonka-based organization
that offers therapeutic horseback riding and cart driving to
disabled children and adults in the Twin Cities. The center has a
fundraising goal of $7.3 million, said Klausner, with the
University contributing the balance of the $14 million price tag.
At this point, nearly $5 million of the fundraising goal has been
met, leaving only a couple of million dollars for future donors to
pony up. CVM alumnus Patty Olson, president and CEO of the Morris
Animal Foundation in Englewood, Colorado, announced at the
groundbreaking that the foundation was contributing about $2.5
million for a new Equine Consortium for Genetic Research. Valberg
and fellow CVM professor Jim Mickelson will lead the consortium of
top equine researchers from around the world as it tackles the
genetics and other biological underpinnings of debilitating
conditions like musculoskeletal disease, laminitis (a common and
painful hoof ailment), recurrent airway obstruction, and bone
disease.
Read more on the
Equine Center.