Vet Proceeds at Gallop to Aid Ailing Patients

For equine veterinarian Kevin Abercrombie of Cypress, life is often a road show--dashing from one barn to another to treat 1,000-pound patients. But for four days last week, he stayed on the grounds of the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center in Huntington Beach as the official veterinarian for the California Coast Hunter-Jumper Show, an A-rated national competition.

As sleek thoroughbred hunters and jumpers trotted by--many of them his regular “patients”--Abercrombie reflected on the Orange County horse show scene. He works almost exclusively with showing and performance horses, but it wasn’t always that way.

“This is a totally different world for me,” he said. “I was raised on a 140-acre cattle ranch in New Mexico, where horses were used for work, not pleasure. I love horses--they are my favorite animal--but even now when a client offers me a horse to ride, I can’t get too excited about it. To me, riding was always work.

“People in California get very attached to their horses, like they’re a member of the family. That’s so different from my experience, growing up on a ranch with 30 or 40 head of horses and not even knowing their names.”

When it came time to leave the ranch and pursue a profession, Abercrombie decided not to follow his brother to medical school. He went to veterinary school at Colorado State University, interned at the Arizona Animal Hospital and moved to California three years ago to set up his practice in Cypress.

Making his rounds as veterinarian for a number of major show stables in Orange County, Abercrombie met his wife, Janene. She was riding show horses with hunter-jumper trainer Mike Nielsen at Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center.

“My wife understands horses and the demands that go with caring for them,” Abercrombie said. “There has been many a movie we’ve left and many a dinner we’ve never finished because I had to rush out and treat a horse.”

His heavy schedule--about 100 hours a week--cuts into the time he can spend with the couple’s 18-month-old daughter, Lauren. “There aren’t many days in the year that I don’t work,” he said. “It’s a seven-day-a-week job. But I think it’s the best job a person could have. You’re outdoors in the sunshine and spend most of your time in stables.”

Although horses are big animals, Abercrombie said they are very fragile. “When a horse gets sick, especially with digestive disorders, it can be critical. Colic can be fatal if it goes into the advanced stages,” he said.

Often Abercrombie gets three or four emergency calls at the same time and has to decide which to attend first. “Most of my clients are loyal to the point where they won’t use another vet, so they’re willing to wait until 2 in the morning for me to get there,” he said. “And the stables I deal with are so knowledgeable about horses that they know what to do until I arrive.”

When not treating emergencies, Abercrombie deals most often with sport horse injuries--pulled tendons, sore muscles, lameness and bruised feet. “All performance horses have basically the same problems that human athletes do,” he said.

Lameness and orthopedics are his favorite area of veterinary medicine. “If I could specialize or restrict my practice to any one thing, that’s what it would be,” he said. “But being a veterinarian is like being a general practitioner. You have to cover the whole spectrum” of ailments.

While he says the horses in California tend to be well cared for, Abercrombie said “the most important thing you can do for your horse is regular maintenance”--dentistry (also called “tooth floating”), worming, vaccinating and exercising.

“Horses need to get out and exercise just like people do,” he said. “Horses that are wormed and exercised on a regular basis tend to get sick less and colic less. All their (health) problems are greatly decreased.”

Abercrombie urges horse owners to use kindness and calmness in dealing with their mounts. “The calmer you are with a horse, the calmer he will be with you. As soon as you start to bully a horse, he will fight back and he will always win. It doesn’t matter how big you are; the horse is stronger. Horses know that and they’ll use it against you if you force them to,” he said.

Despite the serious nature of dealing with half-ton equines, Abercrombie said the practice has its lighter moments. He was once called to treat a mare who was showing several of the classic distress signs of colic: circling in her stall, lying down and getting back up.

When he arrived, Abercrombie noticed the mare’s distended stomach and asked if she was pregnant. The owner said no, but upon an examination, Abercrombie determined that the mare was in labor. “Eleven months before, a stallion had gotten loose and managed to breed the mare--and three others, it turned out--through the bars of a pipe corral,” the veterinarian said. That night he delivered a healthy foal.

Darlene Sordillo, an author of two books on horse training and competition, covers equestrian events for The Times. Her column appears every Saturday. Readers may send horse-related news to her at: Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626.