CSU's $1-million gift to benefit equine research

FORT COLLINS, COLO. — A $1-million gift to Colorado State University's equine veterinary program will support internationally known equine orthopedics and reproduction research at the university.

The gift was bestowed by Jon and Abby Winkelried of the Marvine Ranch near Meeker. Jon Winkelried is a president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs.

The gift will be evenly split between the university's Gail Holmes Equine Orthopaedic Research Center and the Equine Reproduction Laboratory.

The $500,000 dedicated to orthopedics will fund a researcher in musculoskeletal injuries and support an endowment for additional permanent faculty positions.

"The generosity of the Winkelrieds will benefit our ability to better understand, prevent and cure injuries in equine athletes across the globe," says Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith, director of the Orthopaedic Research Center. "This gift enhances our ability to recruit the foremost experts to study joint injuries and bone disease."

New facilities for client horses will be constructed on the university's foothills campus with the $500,000 dedicated to equine reproduction. The gift also will support research for the continued development of reproduction techniques.

The reproduction center conducts internationally recognized reproduction research with scientific breakthroughs that benefit both humans and horses, and also provides commercial artificial breeding services to the public, the university reports.

"Jon and Abby are great horse enthusiasts and have a sincere interest in the research at Colorado State. This gift allows us to greatly enhance our current facilities," says Dr. Ed Squires, equine reproduction expert and biomedical sciences professor. "We currently house between 100-120 client horses during our busy months, which means our barns are entirely full, and we occasionally don't have room for all of the horses we service. In addition, some of these facilities are more than 30 years old, and this gift allows us to replace them with modern, state-of-the-art barns."

The Orthopaedic Research Center at Colorado State is known worldwide for its research and clinical work to prevent joint problems in equine athletes such as cutting horses and for researching ways to heal orthopedic injuries including gene therapy and novel cartilage healing techniques, with some recently expanded work in human athletes.

Since its start in 1967, the Equine Reproduction Research program at Colorado State has obtained international recognition. The center's research breakthroughs include semen freezing, embryo transfer, egg transfer and frozen embryos that currently are used in the equine industry.