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“Being able to do every kind of surgery makes you a better surgeon overall. It keeps you sharp and thinking about how to fix different things.”
ACCOLADES
OF
DR. HAYS
• Texas Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association board of directors, 2001-present; vice-president 2003-2008; president 2008-present
• Texas Horsemen’s Partnership board member 2001-present, chairman 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018
• American Quarter Horse Association life member since 1987, Texas director, Racing Council chairman 2012-2014, 22-year consecutive breeder
• Texas Quarter Horse Association, life member, board of directors 2004-present, president 2007
• Texas Thoroughbred Association member 1987-present
• American Association of Equine Practitioners, 1985-present
• Texas Equine Veterinary Association founding member, board member 2008-2010
• Texas Veterinary Association, 1985-present
• Texas Horse Organization for Showing and Eventing (H.O.R.S.E.) founding member, board of directors 2008-present, vice-president 2009-present
you do any good with him, you can send me some money for him later.’
“I said okay and sure enough, I got him all doctored up and he ended up winning
a bunch of shows; he was a really good sheep,” Dr. Hays says. “That was my only experience with sheep, but it turned out to be kind of a fun deal.
“I grew up very poor,” he adds. “My mother had cancer the whole time I was growing up, so my dad pretty much spent all his time trying to get her fixed up. She had cancer nine or 10 years and finally passed away while I was in vet school.”
He worked his way through junior
high and high school, where he earned the Masonic Lodge’s Most Likely to Succeed Student award, then college and vet school as well. “I paid my own bills and bought my own clothes and everything growing up,” he says. “It made me appreciate things. I did some bulldogging and roping in those years, but I didn’t have money to run up and down the road rodeoing.”
He attended Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma, and then, when
it came time to apply to veterinary school, the ranchers he’d worked so hard for wrote letters to help him get in. While in college, he worked at Masters Feedlot in Hooker, Oklahoma, sometimes riding daylight to dark and tending up to 70,000 head of cattle.
BUILDING HIS CAREER
When Dr. Hays graduated from Oklahoma State University’s veterinary school in 1985, his first job was with Elgin Veterinary Hospital, where he’s worked for the past 36 years. “When I got into the practice with Dr. Graham and Dr. Lewis, it
was a big racehorse practice and we did a lot of rodeo and western pleasure horses as well,” Dr. Hays says.
Where nowadays many veterinarians specialize, in those days, Dr. Hays says, he and Dr. Lewis did it all. So, he’s well versed in orthopedic, arthroscopic, soft tissue, upper respiratory and reproductive surgeries alike. “Being able to do every kind of surgery makes you a better surgeon overall,” he says. “It keeps you sharp and thinking about how to fix different things.
“But we were immersed in the racing here, so I really got into it,” he adds. “A lot of my clients were race guys, and I really took a shine to the racing part of it.
“I bought my first mare when I came here and started raising them. I loved it. I still do.”
Having top-notch horses as clientele has helped Dr. Hays achieve the level of success he has. “You can only make the horses come back and run as fast as they were to start with,” he says. “You can’t take a horse that wasn’t already fast and make him faster, normally. The key is to have good clients who trust you and entrust those animals into your care. If the people know you have skin in the game — that you care about what happens and you understand what they have to have happen for them to be successful, that helps. That’s all it is: just good client trust and relationships.”
Bob says that trust stems from Dr. Hays’ values. “I admire him as a person: his integrity as well as his skill as a vet.”
“He’s very intelligent and honest, and
very knowledgeable about the laws and what’s going on in the industry,” Bob adds. “He seems to know something about everything going on in the horse business because he’s
“He’s done a great job of leading the industry in Texas and that plus his veterinary skills are enviable.”
– Jerry Windham
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