The University of Louisville Equine Industry Program have announced that veterinarians Bill Rood, DVM, and Tom Riddle, DVM, have been chosen as the 25th recipients of the John W. Galbreath Award, given annually since 1990 to persons who have created and led successful equine business enterprises.

“We recognize people, and their organizations, who have impacted the horse industry in a positive way through the development of a meaningful business enterprise that serves the equine world,” said Tim Capps, PhD, the director of the Equine Industry Program. “We look for the difference makers, the innovators who saw opportunities and turned those situations into reality, and Bill Rood and Tom Riddle exemplify the entrepreneurial mindset.”

Today, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital is one of the most renowned equine health care facilities in the world, known for its clinicians, facilities, and service, but at its founding in 1986, success was far from certain.

The two veterinarians whose names are attached to the practice group had first started working together in 1982, when the Thoroughbred industry, and the horse industry in general, was experiencing an unprecedented boom. Foal crops were growing steadily every year, and commercial activity was at record levels, with auction average prices and stud fees climbing at sometimes double-digit levels. In fact, Lexington, Kentucky, home to their practice, seemed more like a mining town during gold rush days than a sedate southern city with a long heritage in the breeding of fine horses