Photo Gallery: Follow a Vet as He Gives Horses Their Spring Checkups

Dog and cat owners are familiar with the routine of taking furry creatures to the vet for annual vaccinations and check-ups. Horses need vaccinations, too, and typically get them twice a year—fall and spring.

Where most small-animal veterinarians are affiliated with clinics, equine vets tend to work out of their trucks. In extreme cases, when horses have suffered major injuries or need surgery, they are often trailered to an equine hospital. 

In this area, horse owners typically go to either  UC Davis Veterinary Hospital or Pioneer Veterinary Hospital in Oakdale. For routine exams, vaccinations, colic, injuries, etc., it is the local equine vet who is called and drives to the barn in his or her truck to care for your horse.

Cory Soltau is such a vet. He is the equivalent of the family doctor—the one you can call in the middle of the night when your horse is sick or injured.  

Like other equine vets, Dr. Soltau has spent many long nights tending to horses that are colicking.  (This is the same word that we associate with babies who have colic and cry throughout the night from painful gas and indigestion. With horses, colic can lead to surgery; in fact, it is a common cause of equine death. So it is something horse owners take very seriously.)

In addition to veterinary practice, Dr. Soltau breeds Arabians at his ranch—Blackhawk Arabians. He provides educational clinics to help horse owners understand their horses’ health, works as a vet at endurance rides, and is also a well-known, respected horse-show judge—locally, nationally, and internationally.