Monroe, Washington Veterinarians Announce New Exciting Location and Facility
by Brittany Davis, DVM
Spring is here and that means foaling and breeding season is in full swing. If you’ve been thinking about breeding your mare and dreaming of a foal in your barn next year, you need an experienced, proven veterinarian—or team of veterinarians—to support your dream.
Evergreen Equine Veterinary Practice (EEVP) serves Snohomish, King, and Skagit counties in Northwest Washington State. They have years of proven success with breeding horses as well as providing support for all types and levels of equine care—from high-performance sport horses to backyard retirees. EEVP’s team provides technically advanced diagnostics along with a passion for preventative equine medicine and a reputation for rapid response and compassionate care.
History and Team
Evergreen Equine Veterinary Practice was established in 2002 by doctors Ron Colton and Mike Howell. Together they began an ambulatory practice offering primary, performance, and reproductive care to horses throughout Northwest Washington.
Dr. Howell built the breeding program with improved ultrasound techniques to follow mares’ estrus cycles closely and using artificial insemination of fresh and cooled semen. This developed into more advanced techniques including stallion services, breeding mares with frozen semen, and performing embryo transfers.
Dr. Jerry Washburn had an ambulatory practice serving Snohomish County and offered reproductive services for nearly four decades. Since Dr. Howell and Dr. Washburn had practiced side by side for several years, they decided to join forces in 2021 and Dr. Washburn officially became part of the Evergreen Equine team.
Dr. Brittany Davis moved from an equine practice in Northern California to EEVP in 2013, bringing with her a wealth of background and experience in equine reproduction. She has continued to support the breeding program with Dr. Howell, and with his retirement in 2022, has now stepped into the primary role. EEVP was fortunate to add Dr. Rachel Micek to their practice in 2023. Dr. Micek comes from a rural practice with extensive reproductive experience.
New Location in Monroe
EEVP’s exciting announcement is that they are now located in Monroe, Washington at Woods Creek Farm, which many people know as the previous site of the Pegasus Training Facility. For several months EEVP has been working hard to transform this once-thriving thoroughbred farm into a new advanced breeding center for Evergreen Equine. This site gives them the ability to grow with the program and house up to 32 horses with large 12×24 stalls for foaling mares and ample turnout space.
Obtaining this facility was a huge step toward EEVP’s goal of better serving horse owners in the area by offering a safe place to closely monitor mares and foals and house stallions and mares when taking advantage of EEVP’s services.
EEVP is now fully into the 2024 breeding season at the new facility and reaping the benefits of all the planning and hard work that went into this project. They currently have 7 large foaling stalls equipped with cameras and staff on site 24/7 to oversee foaling mares. They have palpation stocks and a work bay available for both breeding work and haul-in primary or performance care. The stocks are thoughtfully equipped with a foal pen near the head of the mare that safely contains foals while “mom” is receiving care. They have a breeding phantom for stallion collections and a lab is equipped for processing fresh, cooled, and extended semen for shipment and for processing and storing frozen semen.
They will also be vitrifying embryos for the first time this year, allowing clients to plan for future implantation into a surrogate mare. Their embryo transfer program is going strong, allowing for both shipping embryos to a farm with a recipient herd or transferring immediately into a surrogate mare.
Securing this farm enabled EEVP to offer haul-in care for the first time. This allows the veterinarians to book appointments and use the facilities at their convenience to provide services to clients outside of their ambulatory coverage. It also gives current clients the option to haul horses in for their convenience or safety.
EEVP values caring for horses through all stages of life. Whether you have a young growing horse, performance horse, an older companion, or you’re breeding mares and stallions, they are there to help you provide the best health care for your horse.
Evergreen Equine Veterinary Practice Team
evergreenequinevet.com
Email: [email protected]
Office: 360-568-1114
Veterinarians: Jerry Washburn, Brittany Davis, Rachel Micek
Breeding Manager: Sam Mackey 425-877-9603
Foaling Manager: Jackie Decato
See this article in the April 2024 online edition:
April 2024
The Northwest Horse Source is an independently owned and operated print and online magazine for horse owners and enthusiasts of all breeds and disciplines in the Pacific Northwest. Our contemporary editorial columns are predominantly written by experts in the region, covering the care, training, keeping and enjoyment of horses, with an eye to the specific concerns in our region.
