Sit in Dr. Corinne Sweeney’s office—the one with the big window overlooking the hospital barns at New Bolton Center—and you might see an Eclipse Award winner, a Paint horse, a leading stallion, an Appaloosa, a broodmare, a child’s pony, or a fast 2-year-old.
“People say that we take care of expensive racehorses,” said the executive director and associate dean of New Bolton’s hospital. “We like expensive racehorses and we take care of performance horses of all sorts, but on any given day you’ll see a little pony go by and it’s being led by a mother and father whose child rides it.” And New Bolton treats the pony.
The Chester County campus of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine sees some 6,000 animals a year in its George D. Widener Large Animal Hospital. Llamas, alpacas, zebras, sheep, goats, cows, and even pot-bellied pigs walk past Sweeney’s window and into barns, operating rooms, therapy facilities, and examination buildings. She oversees a staff of nearly 300 people, a property of 650 acres, and a hospital that produces more than $5 million in annual revenue. A specialist in equine respiratory diseases, she turned a childhood with horses into a lifelong career in veterinary medicine. Sweeney started at New Bolton as an intern in 1978 simply looking to expand her experience after veterinary school, and never left.
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