"We are looking for what was right with Elmer, not what was wrong," said Lucy Hirsch, DVM, friend of Elmer Bandit, as she accompanied owner Mary Anna Wood on Elmer’s final journey, which was, fittingly, to a veterinary teaching hospital for a thorough necropsy. Were there special factors contributing to Elmer’s amazing, active longevity?

Elmer Bandit, pictured at age 35

Elmer in 2005 at the Three Barns Competitive Trail Ride.

Jerome Nietfeld, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVP, associate professor in Kansas State’s Department of Diagnostic Medicine, performed the necropsy on the 38-year-old lifetime competitive trail mileage record holder

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