Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Personality of the Month
for November 2006

Bridgette Jablonsky, DVM

Bridgette Jablonsky is the resident veterinarian and farm manager for the famed Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania--one of the most notable and respected Standardbred nurseries in North America.

The 1996 graduate of The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine spends her days at the 80-year-old Hanover, Pennsylvania facility treating broodmares, foals and stallions.

Bridgette Jablonsky

Bridgette oversees a broodmare band of 500 and nine stallions, along with 400 foals per season. All of the breeding is artificial insemination and in-house embryo transfers. With the large number of horses on the farm--almost 1000--Bridgette is forever busy.

Bridgette was involved in Standardbred racing even before vet school, and she once aspired to be track veterinarian. When in school she became interested in reproduction and spent two rotations in the neonatal unit.

“When I graduated, this job was available. No matter what your aspirations are, Hanover Shoe Farm is ideal. Imagine being drafted by the NY Yankees. It’s the pinnacle. There’s no place higher, no place more prestigious.”

She is the first female farm manager at Hanover, the largest standard-bred breeding farm in North America.

Jablonsky suggests that women should not let anything – such as size or gender – deter them from veterinary medicine.

“For reproduction and palpating mares, you would think someone taller would be good,” she says. “But with skill and determination you can overcome many things that are viewed as an obstacle, including being five feet tall, as I am.

“When I interviewed at Hanover. they said their only worry was that I was too small physically to do it. ‘Give me a try,’ I told them, ‘you can always fire me.’ For my first three years after graduation, I worked with the previous farm manager. When he retired they promoted me to his position.”

At School, she was pleased to work with Dr. Tulleners, who “took a group of students under his wing, students involved with independent study. He helped us on his personal time, and he was always keen about cultivating students who had special interests.”

At the time, her interest was surgery.

“All our horses are given Hanover as a surname. If you see a horse with a Hanover name win a race, you knew him before he was a horse, you knew him as a follicle. You go back that far with him. Chances are, you saw him being born, you raised him, you treated his sicknesses. The first Hanover horse I knew well won two million-dollar races in one year, both under the time of 1:50, which is the speed barrier. He was highest priced yearling of his year and sold for $250,000; he’s back here now to stand at stud in our stallion born. His first yearling will sell this year. I love this stuff."

“Every time I do a pregnancy test on a mare, I get a great sense of accomplishment. I’m helping create life," Jablonsky says.