Insight

Spring 2008

Equine integrative therapies chair

When humans undergo orthopaedic surgery – whether to replace knees or hips, restore torn ligaments, or repair broken bones – follow-up rehabilitation and physical therapy are considered integral components of a successful treatment. Now, equine patients at Colorado State University can look forward to receiving the same rehabilitative benefits thanks to a $3 million gift that will help advance research in equine integrative therapies.

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences announced in November a gift to establish a third university chair in equine orthopaedics. A gift from Abigail K. Kawananakoa, of Hawaii, has created the Abigail K. Kawananakoa University Chair in Equine Musculoskeletal Integrative Therapies that will reside in the Orthopaedic Research Center. The chair follows the August announcement of a chair in equine reproduction, marking two such $3 million gifts to the College to support equine research and medicine in 2007.

“This gift supports important research at Colorado State that benefits both horses and humans,” said Dr. Lance Perryman, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “The Orthopaedic Research Center is known internationally for its innovative research that addresses orthopaedic injuries and osteoarthritis including better methods of early diagnosis and new therapeutic targets. In addition, faculty and staff at the center apply that knowledge to equine athletes and share their discoveries with experts in human orthopaedic medicine.”

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

“This chair completes our strategic plan in acquiring scientific support for rehabilitative manipulative therapies for musculoskeletal conditions, an area that is lacking in scientific based evidence for the horse,” said Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, Director of the Orthopaedic Research Center and the Barbara Cox Anthony Chair in Equine Orthopaedics. “I have had a long and rewarding relationship with Abigail and we are pleased and honored to house the chair in Miss Kawananakoa’s name and look forward to the research discoveries and treatments to equine and human athletes the chair will support.”

Kawananakoa has bred and raced multiple champion quarter horses. Her horses have won the two biggest quarter horse races in the United States; the All American Futurity with A Classic Dash and the Los Alamitos Million with Evening Snow. Both of these horses had arthroscopic surgery by Dr. McIlwraith.