Salado’s dr. t’s equine clinic


this: Just before Christmas Dr. Theresa Dwyer found herself on her knees stitching up a pony’s cut by flashlight on a dark Friday evening. The temperature had dropped considerably and the cement on the wash rack was cold. Dr. Dwyer’s focus never wavered as workers at the barn went about their business--her eyes and hands remained trained on the task at hand. She had been educated at Texas A&M for this moment, having graduated from the school in 1980 and the job has never changed--a horse was in need and she was there to answer.


“Dr. T” to her many friends and clients. She wears many hats as the principal veterinarian of Dr. T’s Equine Clinic in Salado, TX.


around the horses,” Dr. T admit- ted when she spoke about her growing up years. Her father was a medic in the U. S. Army. “We always managed to have horses around,” she explained. “My brother was a roper.” At age 12 she started


“I just liked being Dr. Dwyer is known as It all came down to


broodmare facility in New Mex- ico called Buena Suerte Ranch for her externship. Times were good; it was the beginning of the ‘80’s and oil money fueled many aspects of the economy. Dr. T referred to that time as “the heyday of breeding.” She found herself assisting in up to a thousand breedings in one year. The Ranch stood the famous Quarter horse sires Easy Jet and Real Easy Jet. In the process of


all this [the medical aspect] but no one in my family was a college graduate at the time,” Dr. T said, so she quietly set a reasonable goal of becoming a biology teacher. During the next summer, at 15, she worked for a veterinarian who encouraged her to aim higher. She aimed for Texas A&M and was accepted. She worked at a large


horses’ minor medical needs. “I was interested in


THE HORSE GAZETTE By Ingrid Edisen


also developed an outside prac- tice. In the early years she felt no discrimination because she was a female vet, she said. “I’ve been lucky in my life,” she said. “I’ve had great people around me.” She moved to Fayette-


ville, Texas, to another breeding facility, Hoot Owl Hill Farm and formed an outside practice there as well.


air, though, and she married a medical resident at the Scott and White Medical Center in the Bel- ton-Temple area. Setting down permanent roots, she formally opened her Salado clinic eleven years ago. Dr. Beau Whitaker is her partner and a lameness expert. Her specialty remains breeding but both vets handle a full spec- trum of needs. “Once a week we have a visiting surgeon, Dr. Bill Stone, work at the clinic to handle routine surgeries,” said Dr. T. For the most part, the


showing Quarter horses in Texas when her family was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston. A couple of years later her father added race horses to his mix so she gal- loped and broke the youngsters. Because her dad already had medical training he tended to the


taking her board exams in New Mexico, she had to orally answer questions before a panel. As it turned out, her boss was also the head of this panel and one of the questions he posed for her at the review was why she was getting certified in his home state. With her typical low key aplomb Dr. T explained it was because she wanted to go to work for him. “I invited myself for


that job,” said Dr. T. She stayed at the Buena Suerte Ranch as a veterinarian for three years and


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large equine clinic can handle many surgeries such as throat, ar- throscopic, hernia, crypt orchids, eye issues. “We don’t do colics,” Dr. T said. “We don’t have the manpower. However, we can do certain types of emergency surgeries.”


interns [usually they keep one to three interns] are all wonderful. Dr. Whitaker and I switch off pretty much 50-50 for the ‘on call’ nights and days. Our crew is


“Our technicians and Romance was in the


problematic case, the vets refer out issues they know their clinic cannot handle or that need further investigation. Sometimes lame- ness or neuro-related MRI’s are handled at A&M. Dr. T forecasts that she will build a specialized indoor lameness area so Dr. Whitaker can have an easier environment to do his diagnoses and rehabilitations. She’d also like to construct an isolation ward with its own air conditioning and wash down system. Right now she refers cases that may pose infectious diarrhea and highly contagious illnesses to A&M so none of her other patients are exposed.


and Dr. Whitaker both do feeding program consultations with many of their clients. Supplements should be carefully considered, she believes, as sometimes they overload a horse’s system with certain vitamins and minerals when fed in addition to whatever the horse gets normally.


Dr. T mentioned she


facilitates any area of breeding-- frozen or cooled shipped semen and embryo transfer. The clinic also stands the racing stallion Sophastacat, Roo Star,an AQHA Super Horse and the barrel racing sire, Frenchmans Fabulous. When faced with a


After all her years in


the field, Dr. T has observed a huge trend in her clients becom- ing much more educated and observant about their horses--no matter what discipline they pur- sue. “Over all they are a much more intelligent crowd,” she said. She attributes this to horse own- ers going to more seminars and reading and researching things on the Internet more deeply. She appreciates the


help from horse owners when- ever they can tell her anything about their horse. “What is nor- mal for that horse?” she wants to know when approaching a case. Owners nowadays can tell her the temperature and respiration rates for their horses before she even arrives. They also can tell her if a certain swelling on any part of the body is normal for that horse or not; how often the horse normally lies down; if a hoof crack has always been there; if the urine is particularly dark. Information like this helps her


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and Dr. Whitaker. Today her fifteen-


year-old daughter, Taylor, com- petes in hunter/jumpers after having a long run with Quarter horses herself. Dr. T laughed at her-


great and make it so Dr. Whittiker and I can be ‘with it’ the next day after a rough night,” she said. Currently the clinic


self and told a story that shows this horse business is not all cut and dried...”We’ve leased out Taylor’s hunter horse for now and then I did the exact thing I always tell my clients NOT to do--we got a crippled horse that we are rehabilitating.” Taylor should be up and showing her new horse in hunters by this summer.


Equine clinic, visit www.drtse- quineclinic.com or call (254) 947-1292.


Dr. T observing a new foal and mare. (top left) Dr. T’s Equie Clinic Mare Motel. Photos:


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