Greenwood’s Fascinating Trip Down Veterinary Memory Lane

[Wandering Eyes]

The Tuesday evening of Craven Week in Newmarket was notable not only for the buoyant trade at Park Paddocks during the first session of Tattersalls' Craven Breeze-Up Sale but also for a fascinating lecture given to Newmarket's Local History Society, which meets on the third Tuesday of every month. Titled 'The History of Veterinary Practice in Newmarket', this talk was given by Richard Greenwood MRCVS, who, prior to his retirement, was one of the world's (never mind just Newmarket's) most respected veterinary surgeons, esteemed internationally as a senior partner in the town's oldest veterinary practice. Now called Newmarket Equine Hospital (NEH), the practice is still thought of by many as Greenwood, Ellis & Partners.

Just as it is easy nowadays to forget how recently it was that the supposedly essential assistance of computers, mobile phones and the internet first intruded into our lives, so one can easily overlook how rapidly the veterinary world has evolved in the past few decades. Richard's personal and anecdotal stroll along the passages of time provided both a fascinating reminder of how things were and a series of logical explanations as to how and why they became as they are now.

We know that racing and training horses have been part of the fabric of Newmarket at least since early in the 17th century. So integral are vets to many modern training stables that it is easy to assume that there have always been veterinary surgeons here. Not so, as was made clear by an observation made in 1831 which has become part of local folklore: “No veterinary surgeon has been able to make a living in Newmarket”. In an era in which betting was all-important and in which any piece of information about a horse's fitness, soundness or health was a closely guarded secret, it was generally felt that any benefit which a vet might bring to a stable would be outweighed by the drawbacks of granting access to anyone who did not have to be there.

Vets did, of course, already exist by that time. The London Veterinary College was established in 1792 and a similar college was founded in Edinburgh. No veterinary surgeon, however, was able to gain a foothold in Newmarket until 1841, when one was able to start a practice thanks to an alliance with a profession which was already flourishing in the town: farriery. A farrier called Barrow had a forge in the High Street in March House and his brother set up a veterinary practice, the original fore-runner of NEH, on the same property. March House remained the base for this veterinary practice until 2008 when Greenwood, Ellis & Partners (as the practice had eventually evolved into) moved out of town into a purpose-built property by the July Course roundabout, with both the new property and the practice being given the name Newmarket Equine Hospital. 

A major boost to the status of veterinary surgeons took place shortly after the Second World War with the passing of the Veterinary Surgeons Act in 1948, which made it law that only a qualified veterinary surgeon (as opposed to one of the 'practitioners', of which there were many at that time) could perform acts of surgery on or dispense drugs for animals. This consolidated the position within Newmarket of what was at the time the town's only veterinary practice.

Wartime Influence 

During the 20th century, some of the most notable figures from the history of veterinary science joined the practice: Frank Potts in 1901, William Livock in 1911, Brayley Reynolds in 1924, Harvey Leader in 1930,  Fred Day in 1945 and Peter Rossdale in 1955. Unlike today, when academic instruction is considered all-important in most professions, these men learned much of their skill the hard way, often during wars.  For Brayley Reynolds in the First World War and Bob Crowhurst in the Second, hard facts of life and death, of survival or otherwise for both humans and animals, were learned more emphatically than could be the case in any classroom. As Richard Greenwood drily put it, Bob Crowhurst's time running a wartime military veterinary hospital in Italy when the only drug available to treat the sick and injured horses was salt water ensured that he “learned the benefit of conservative treatment”.

Nowadays, Newmarket's vets tend to specialise in either racing or breeding work, simply because there is a requirement for so much of both types. Previously, however, the town's vets would need to be masters of both subjects. Fred Day, for instance, is a legend within local racing folklore (and just ask Sir Mark Prescott if you need confirmation of that) but long-term his greatest influence has been felt on the studs, both locally and internationally, because it was he who first fully worked out the exact cycling timetable of broodmares, knowledge of which is crucial to the big-book practices of modern stallion management.

Having joined the practice in 1955, Peter Rossdale, apparently disappointed not to be offered a partnership, left in 1959 and set up a rival practice only a short way down the street, at the Beaufort Cottage property in which Dick Perryman had trained Airborne to win the Derby in 1946.  This was a massive disruption of the status quo but by this time there was enough work provided by the stables and studs in and around the town to allow two practices to thrive.  Peter Rossdale's new practice was further strengthened in 1961 when Michael Hunt joined him but Reynolds House's position was consolidated during the next few years by the arrival of Don Simpson in 1962, Robin McEnery in 1964, David Ellis in 1968 and Richard Greenwood in 1970. 

The arrival of Greenwood took the number of vets in the town to ten, split between two practices. How times change! Now there are three practices (subsequent to the arrival in the early years of this century of Baker McVeigh) with a total of over 100 vets, supported by a small army of support staff. Several factors have come together to mean that there is indeed demand for what one could now describe as a 'veterinary industry' in Newmarket.

 

Modern-day Newmarket vets have state-of-the-art facilities | Emma Berry

 

Since the Second World War, Newmarket has become an ever greater national and international focus for equine veterinary matters. In 1946 the Equine Research Station at Balaton Lodge was established (which subsequently became the Animal Health Trust at Kentford). Its importance was emphasised in 1972 when Mill Reef's broken leg was healed thanks to the pioneering surgery of Jim Roberts. Further consolidation of the area's veterinary reputation came in 1953 with the establishment of the Cambridge University Veterinary School, with strong links being established between that and the practices in the town.

The arrival of the National Stud (from its previous bases in Dorset and Sussex) in 1966 triggered an ever-increasing focus on Newmarket within the national bloodstock landscape, particularly as regards the standing of stallions. Tattersalls' consolidation in Newmarket further strengthened the town's veterinary position, not least because sales generate a lot of veterinary work.

Another factor which increased demand for veterinary services was a national rather than local issue. In 1977 Britain was hit by an outbreak of contagious equine metritis, a consequence of which was the introduction of the Code of Practice which has meant a slew of compulsory swab tests for breeding stock. All this is good business for vets and explains why NEH and Rossdales now have their own (busy) laboratories.

Dr 'Twink' Allen's Equine Fertility Unit pioneered the scanning of mares which has led to much more precision about covering times and dates, allowing stallions' books to be increased from not much more than 40 to the better part of 200. The use of X-rays, MRI scans, endoscopes and arthroscopic surgery are all innovations which were developed by vets in Newmarket, with the pioneering work on keyhole intra-articular surgery done with the help of David Dandy, a surgeon from the nearby Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Nowadays we take all these things for granted, in just the same way that we do with computers and mobile phones. But, as Richard Greenwood has reminded us, it is only recently that these mighty veterinary oaks have become facts of everyday bloodstock life and it is from tiny acorns that they have developed.

 

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