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BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

Four longtime Peterson Smith Equine Hospital + Complete Care veterinarians are retiring, with a special celebration in mid-January. As a sad note, however, Dr. John Peterson (one of the co-founders of the practice more than 40 years ago) passed away on Christmas night.

“This will put a damper on the retirement celebrations, but we are all honored to have worked for him,” Dr. Donnie Slone (one of the retiring four), said.

Dr. Matthews was born in Reno, Nev., went to college at University of Nevada at Reno and veterinary school at Colorado State University.

“In the winter of 1981, just before I graduated, I met Dr. [John] Peterson and Dr. [Johnny Mac] Smith, who were solo practitioners at that time. They planned to form a partnership and offered me a job. They signed their partnership document and I signed my employment agreement on the same day in August of 1981,” Matthews said.

At that time, there was a large Thoroughbred population around Ocala and a few other breeds—many large farms, breeding and training facilities—and not many veterinarians.

“We were extremely busy. The plan was to build a surgical and medicine facility, hire surgeons, internists, medical staff, and build a clinic. There were only a couple small clinics in that area, and no board certified surgeon or internists,” Matthews said.

By 1982 they’d hired Dr. Kevin Hahn.

“We opened our clinic in 1984 and were so busy that we began hiring one or two more veterinarians every year,” Matthews said. “After we reached about 20, hiring slowed, but we are still hiring new ones today. We were always very busy but it was also very gratifying.

“I think we became successful because we were willing to work hard; all the veterinarians who came to join us had a very strong work ethic. We were able to tackle problems, work with many farms and generate a large footprint.”

Matthews said trust among and long lasting relationships with clients was key to the success of Peterson Smith.

“Many clients became friends and we had lasting relationships. I worked for many people for 20 and 30 years or more.”

Peterson Smith became a very successful surgical facility.

“Dr. Slone took on starting the hospital,” Matthews continued. “He was the first surgeon we hired and he hired interns under him.

“It grew quickly because he was a very proficient surgeon. In my mind, he is the best equine surgeon of his generation—which is saying a great deal, because there are some really good ones. He did everything from colic and other soft tissue surgeries to orthopedics and had a great success rate. He gained the trust of the community.

“Dr. Hahn was an ambulatory veterinarian like myself. Dr. Tim Lynch is the other veterinarian retiring with us. He joined us later and came to us from the Miami racetrack, from Tom Brokken’s practice there. He is also a board-certified surgeon and has been very successful.”

Matthews did ambulatory work when he joined the practice in 1981.

“We did everything—lameness, medical patients, neonates, delivered foals, and whatever else was needed.

“I always enjoyed reproductive work the most and kept leaning that way, with a large reproductive practice. For many years, I managed about 700 to 800 mares, their babies and all the yearlings that came with that. I also enjoyed stallion work and did a lot of the stallion fertility work in the Ocala area for a long time,” he says.

“In 1999, after practicing for 19 years, we opened a reproduction clinic south of Ocala, called the Peterson Smith Advanced Fertility Center, specializing in reproductive work. We did embryo transfer, stallion and mare fertility, and now also do in-vitro work and ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection).

“This facility has grown from just being me, and then me and an intern, to four fulltime veterinarians.”

Matthews did this along with ambulatory work for about a decade but in recent years focused on reproductive work at this facility.

“It has grown, and now produces about six times the revenue it did when we started it in 1999,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of good years here at Peterson Smith and many veterinarians have come through over the years as interns and associates. We have expanded our services a lot and now have

30 veterinarians,” he says.

Matthews is also quick to point out that the practice has not only had a beneficial impact on the horse industry in Florida, but in other states as well.

“We get referrals from Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, Maryland, New York, Maine and New Jersey,” he said. “We are very proud of what we do and try to serve our clients well. We work hard, care about our patients, advocate for our clients and this has helped us build a strong veterinary business.

“It has been a great career for me and I owe Dr. Peterson and Dr. Smith a lot for giving me an opportunity.

I have enjoyed the relationships with all the veterinarians I practice with. It’s fun to be successful and to have grown this much, although that came with many challenges and much hard work.

“I was pleased to spend the past 40 years with Dr. Hahn and Dr. Slone and part of that time with Dr. Lynch. It’s been a good group and I am excited about the future of this practice. We have good veterinarians coming in to replace us who are already doing an excellent job and will continue our tradition of excellence. I am excited about the future of Peterson Smith; it will go forward strongly and that will be fun to watch,” he said.

“I owe a lot to all the veterinarians I worked with for 40 years who helped and advised me. And I hope I was also a small measure of help to them. It’s been a great team. We survived in this business because we all worked toward the business first; our personal agendas came second.”

Matthews plans to stay busy after retirement. He breeds and raises Thoroughbreds and commercial cattle—mostly Angus with his wife Karen.

“I want to do more traveling and work on my farm. I haven’t been able to pay enough attention to my own animals because I’ve always been paying attention to other people’s horses,” Matthews said. “Like the shoemaker’s kids having no shoes—I plan to make more shoes and spend more time with my own animals.”