At Equine ER, we love quotations, whether they are horse-related Ð "If you get up in the saddle, you better be ready to ride (cowboy proverb) Ð or not Ð "There are no traffic jams along the extra mile (quarterback Roger Staubach.) Throughout the writing of Equine ER, we picked up some nice quotes from the equine vets we followed. Here are two of our favorites:

 1) "Nothing is uneventful, even if it is uncomplicated." Ð Equine orthopedic surgeon. Al Ruggles. Ruggles was talking about Surely Awesome, the Quarter Horse mare featured in Chapter 13 of Equine ER who suffered a severe fracture of her long pastern bone while pregnant. Ruggles operated on the mare, and he said the above quote right after surgery when discussing what, on the surface, would appear to be a straightforward healing process for Surely Awesome.

(We also found this quote applies to the task of an author trying to get some busy equine vets to fact-check a few sentences for her from medical sections of Equine ER. Picture her hanging onto to the outside of the car door of a vet’s truck as he or she pulls out of the clinic.

2) "Time is trauma." Ð Equine surgeon Rolf Embertson. Dr. E, as he is known, said this when discussing the importance of getting a severely colicking horse into surgery as quickly as possible. Waiting too long can result in a gastrointestinal rupture, he said