By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Sports
The little boy growing up northwest of Waco, Texas, had no idea his love of riding horses would turn into a career of caring for horses.
“My grandparents were in the Hill Country — that’s where I was born — and I was riding horses when I was four and five years old,” Bobby Hewlett said. “My parents couldn’t wait to get away from the farm. My brother and I both went back to farms. We like farms. I liked horses. I used to run barrels and poles on them when I was four and five years old.”
“Bobby” is now 67 years old, and known as Dr. Robert Hewlett. An equine veterinarian, his job is the same as your doctor’s job. The only difference is, what Dr. Hewlett sees in his “office” has four legs, a tail, and a lot of teeth.
“It’s very rewarding for me and for my clients,” Dr. Hewlett said. “That’s what drives all of us as veterinarians — to provide the best care possible for our patients.”
In practice more than 40 years, Dr. Hewlett has treated horses at Louisiana Downs. But he mostly sees patients at two training centers in Benton. Long ago, horses brought the Texas A&M graduate to northwest Louisiana, and he hasn’t left.
“I was working in a practice in College Station, and one of my professors called me up and knew I was interested in working with horses and said, “There’s a man in Shreveport that wants a full-time veterinarian to take care of his (200) mares and (eight) stallions.”
That man was an oil man. But when the oil industry went bust, Dr. Hewlett was out of a job.
“I remember it well. (Oil) was $40 a barrel and it dropped to $8,” he said.
But Dr. Hewlett liked the area so much he stayed. He and his wife own Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center on Old Plain Dealing Road in Benton.
“There’s something about the human-animal bond,” Dr. Hewlett said. “We have people come to our farm and they have thoroughbreds that are off the track. They just love to come brush — brush the horse. Get away from the real world.”
Dr. Hewlett says thoroughbreds are no different than any other horse when it comes to staying healthy.
“Good food. Good training. That all makes a huge difference. Exercise. Taking care of all their little physical ailments that can happen to any horse. Good legwork. Wrapping their legs and picking their feet. Shoeing them on time, not letting their feet get too long. Feed is important. They do get a bit nervous and upset sometimes. They can be a little bit finicky about their food. These are all little things, but easy to deal with. Very easy.”
But there are hard days for Dr. Hewlett—the days he has to put down a horse.
“It’s not easy at all. It’s not easy. Everybody is upset. Everybody. I’ve had people get so emotional that they just break down. It’s never easy to put any animal down … sometimes it has to be done. A horse can injure himself really easily. Or, they can be old, and you can see they’re not going to make a winter. It would be just terrible for them to get cold and die. It has to be done. It’s part of the job. Nobody likes it, though.”
Something like a broken leg can be painful and inconvenient for a person. For a horse, its life is likely over.
“There’s no blood supply,” Dr. Hewlett said. “All horses have these long, spindly legs. They break a bone — it’s too hard to immobilize them. A foal? I’ve seen them heal very nicely. But not an adult horse.”
According to Dr. Hewlett, thankfully, the number of horses dying because of injury is not what it used to be.
“It’s something that’s happening less and less on the racetrack. We’ve tightened up the rules for the safety of the horse. The AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) is doing a wonderful job of taking care of the welfare of the horse. It is constantly being discussed, and new procedures are being addressed.”
During his career, Dr. Hewlett has seen horse care, and human care, intersect.
“We’re using regenerative medicines so much now. Not just steroids, which reduce inflammation and help pain. They put it in people all the time. But now, we’re using stem cells and platelets,” he said. “It has exploded in the last five or six years. I’m talking regenerative (medicines) that help repair body parts, cartilage, bone. All of that. It’s unreal.”
But what is real is Dr. Hewlett’s love and compassion for horses. Love and compassion which he found as a boy, and practices as a man.
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