CSU horse programs draw huge donations

These athletes, their accomplishments and the program’s potential have helped raise more than $50 million over the past year for facilities at Colorado State University.

Football players drawing interest in a new on-campus stadium?

Nope.

They’re horses.

Don’t consider that knock on the Rams football program, or the university’s $220 million stadium project, though.

CSU’s horse-centric fundraising success is different, highlighting the university’s reputation in equine care and research, as well as the field’s possible implications in translating to human health care.

“Our primary pipeline for philanthropy and giving has been grateful clients,” said Dr. Mark Stetter, dean of CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Philanthropists John and Leslie Malone in December donated $42.5 million to help create the Institute for Biologic Translational Therapies, which will investigate ways to treat musculoskeletal disease and other ailments through stem cell therapy and other regenerative processes. Since horses and humans have similar issues with joints, arthritis and cartilage problems, the research may translate to efforts to improve human health.

And this month, the Helen K. and Arthur E. Johnson Foundation donated $10 million for CSU’s effort to build a state-of-the-art equine hospital.

Following fundraising atop the $52.5 million pledged, those facilities are expected to be operational in a two- to five-year time frame.

For comparison, donations to CSU’s stadium have totaled $27.2 million.

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So why horses? And why CSU and not, say, Kentucky, a state virtually synonymous with the horse racing industry?

“Almost all of the expertise and strength of research is here,” said Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, who founded CSU’s Orthopaedic Research Center. “I know it sounds strange and it’s worthy of some explanation — we don’t have the elite horses, but we do have a global reputation.”

McIlwraith, a university distinguished professor widely considered as the father of arthroscopic surgery for horses — his patient, Spend A Buck, won the 1985 Kentucky Derby five months after McIlwraith removed a knee bone chip with the then unusual procedure — and his CSU cohorts frequently travel to operate on elite horses.

That group includes Dr. Chris Kawcak, CSU’s director of equine services, who will oversee a facility that has outgrown its home within the current veterinary hospital.

From fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2015, patient visits climbed by 124 percent for equine services, including 24 percent for the past year, to 4,969. There was a 49 percent increase in 2012, the first year of operation for the equine sports medicine and rehabilitation section.

“The vet hospital was built in the 1970s, and it still functions well, but it’s a confined space and operationally it isn’t ideal,” Kawcak said. “The new hospital is designed with several things in mind: to expand services, to have a rehab center within the hospital. … There’s functionality now, but we’re somewhat walking over each other to do it.”

There are more horses than just racing thoroughbreds, of course. The Malones’ background is in dressage horses. The Johnson Foundation has a background in rodeo horses.

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“If you know horse people, you know they are passionate about them,” Kawcak said. “They will put lots of resources into the well-being of those animals. … They’ve put a lot into trying to identify and manage those problems for the betterment of the horse.”

Said McIlwraith, regarding the Malones’ gift: “It’s the ideal combination. You have very smart people who want to see cutting-edge therapies, plus they have the financial ability and the philanthropic mentality. Those two don’t always go together.”

And, he said, they want results.

So maybe it seems unusual that world-class horse health care and research happens at CSU, far from what might be considered a likely location. But in some ways, it makes sense, too.

“Equine health at the college is over 100 years old, dating back to when there were no automobiles and everything was centered around horses, from plowing the field to transportation,” Stetter said. “Obviously, the horse industry has changed a lot over the years, and has gone from livelihood to recreation or sports. But in Colorado, so much of the culture is invested in horses and they are still a big part of what we do.”