Eclipse Press “Equine ER: Stories from a Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital” by Leslie Guttman.

Leslie Guttman is an independent journalist and freelance writer. “Equine ER: Stories from a Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital” is her first book. It chronicles a year inside Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, one of the country’s largest hospitals for horses, located in the Bluegrass.

Not too long ago, I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area one block from a busy urban thoroughfare and across the street from a large black dog on Prozac for his depression. My backyard was the size of a parking space, one for a compact.

I traded it in to return to Lexington, Ky., where I grew up and where I still have family. Now I have neighbors with a different set of quirks, including an affinity for extreme lawn care, and a yard big enough for my dog to run around in circles until she’s spent. I’m in Lexington in part because of an unanticipated connection I made with a Bluegrass publisher during a visit home a few years ago, who asked me if I wanted to write a book chronicling a year inside one of the country’s top hospitals for horses.

Despite having grown up in the Bluegrass, I am not a card-carrying horse person, although I did ride a bit as a kid and take trail rides on vacation. I know my way around Keeneland, but so does nearly everyone else in the area; going to Keeneland is one of our social rites, whether or not you’re a horse lover. Stories I had written as a journalist in the several years up until that point had been about subjects such as at-risk children and homeless people. My publisher wasn’t worried about my lack of horse knowledge, figuring I’d learn on the job, however, I was extremely nervous about screwing up.

 

***Read the rest here.