Distinguished equine vet realizes dream

Above: Equine surgeon Patty Hogan, of Upper Freehold, looks at an X-ray on a large-screen TV in Hogan Equine, a horse clinic she recently opened at Fair Winds Farm in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold. Bottom: A look into the operating room from the observation deck created in the former hayloft of the stallion barn. UPPER FREEHOLD - Some days, Dr. Patty Hogan will still have a long commute to work, but most days she will merely hop on her golf cart and cross Red Valley Road.

The veterinary surgeon will split her time between the Ruffian Equine Medical Center at Belmont Park in Long Island, N.Y., and her new clinic, Hogan Equine LLC at Fair Winds Farm. Hogan hosted more than 200 people at an open house of her new facility April 21.

One of the foremost equine surgeons in the country, Hogan has treated many well-known racehorses. She is best known for saving the eye of Smarty Jones after he seriously injured himself at Philadelphia Park Racetrack in 2004. The racehorse went on to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2004, and narrowly missed the Triple Crown with a secondplace finish in the Belmont Stakes.

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff The New Jersey native received her veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1992. After an internship at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky and a three-year surgical residency at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, she returned to the Garden State and spent 11 years at the New Jersey Equine Clinic in Millstone.

When Hogan started looking for a local site to open a clinic after leaving the New Jersey Equine Clinic last year, her husband ran into their neighbor, Fair Winds Farm manager Mark Mullen, at a Kentucky horse sale. Mullen, whose family owns Fair Winds Farm, took interest in Hogan's project because the farm no longer stood stallions and had space available.

Hogan's husband, Ed Lohmeyer, a standardbred trainer, said that his wife designed the new facility, which was formerly the stallion barn and breeding shed at the farm. The clinic features an observation deck in the former hayloft, which looks directly into the operating room.

Lohmeyer, who met Hogan when she performed surgery on one of his horses, said she created the observation room so people could watch surgeries and learn as much as possible. Her practice consists primarily of treating standardbreds and thoroughbreds with occasional work on hunters/jumpers and other sport horses.

Hogan Equine will provide orthopedic surgery, including advanced arthroscopy and fracture repair, soft tissue surgery, laser surgery, endoscopy, gastroscopy, ophthalmology and lameness evaluations.

According to Hogan, the facility has 25 stalls that will be full from now until October because this is her busy season. She averages five surgeries per day, she said.

While currently the only veterinarian at Hogan Equine, Hogan may hire an additional vet next year while she works part time at Ruffian Equine Medical Center, a $17 million, state-of-the-art clinic scheduled to open this summer.

Although Hogan will be able to drive a golf cart to work at Fair Winds, she may get a chance to fly to Belmont Park. Her husband just received his helicopter license and flying would cut the two-and-ahalf hour commute down to 40 minutes.

Lohmeyer said his wife's new facility fulfills one of her lifelong desires.

"I'm so happy she could get it done," he said.

When looking around the new clinic, Jen Cycak, of Cookstown, who is now one of five vet techs working for Hogan, said, "She's a great person to work for."

Cycak grew up just around the corner from Fair Winds in Millstone and graduated from Allentown High School.

During his visit, Bob "Hollywood" Heyden, who hosts a TV show at the Meadowlands racetrack in East Rutherford and is a legendary statistician, said he first met Hogan in the late 1980s, when she was in her late teens and working at the racetrack.

"They're good people," he said of Hogan and Lohmeyer.

In 2006, Hogan testified before a congressional subcommittee in support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Earlier this year, the Equine Science Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick honored her with the "Spirit of the Horse" award. The award recognizes individuals whose lives have been profoundly changed due to their involvement with horses and who have acknowledged the impact on their lives by giving back to horses or the horse industry.