Brent Kelley is powering down his 'Veterinary Topics' column after making us laugh over the foibles of man and horse

by Don Clippinger

WITH THIS issue, we are bidding adieu to a good friend and an outstanding writer, Brent Kelley, D.V.M., who for more than a decade has regaled Thoroughbred Times readers with wonderful stories about horses, the people who own them, and the people who care for them. He has decided to retire from his column.

We bid adieu, not goodbye, not farewell. Just till another day, until we see him again, and we hope we will see him in these pages. Like players in any number of sports, including racing, he should have a chance to come out of retirement for a special event or even for another season.

Brent's columns have been a regular part of "Veterinary Topics," and you could find plenty about veterinary medicine in his writings. After all, he practiced for more than 30 years, most of them in Kentucky. In the latter years of his practice, he specialized in reproductive medicine, which kept him busy on the horse farms around Paris, Kentucky.

But, in addition to explanations of veterinary procedures, he delighted in telling the stories about animals and the people associated with them. He can spin a tale like few others, and he gave an acerbic twist to the foibles of man and beast. Think of James Herriot with a wickedly wry sense of humor.

A wonderful way to spend a few hours, or a few days, is to browse through his past columns on the Thoroughbred Times website, www.thoroughbredtimes.com.

Kelley is evidence that you do not need to succeed on the first try. He did not. After high school, he tried college and flunked out. Tried it again and flunked out again. After six years as a draftsman, he figured out that college was not so bad and completed both his undergraduate degree and his veterinary training at the University of Georgia.

Looking back over the years, his favorite animal story was from his veterinary school days, about a dog born with only stubs for front legs. The pup nursed on his hind legs, and he finally found a home in a residence for handicapped children.

Among his horse stories, his favorite was the miniature horse that he delivered in a field after its dam had died. The tiny horse followed the family's Labrador retriever around the farm and went to town with the dogs in the back of the owner's station wagon.

A personal favorite from a decade ago (November 2, 1996) was only remotely about veterinary medicine. It chronicled his travels with seven broodmares in an aircraft of questionable vintage and reliability to Jamaica. The website contains other gems. He won first place in the category of personal column in the American Horse Publications awards for a humorous piece he wrote (November 29, 1997) on a mysterious ailment that had baffled him as a student and then as a veterinarian.

Anyone who has looked at Kelley's author description could correctly infer that he is a baseball fan and specifically a Detroit Tigers fan. (It was a good year to be a Tigers fan, but too bad about the World Series.)

"I was a baseball fan since I was a little kid," he said. "If life was fair, I would have been a Hall of Fame baseball player, but we all know life isn't fair."

He was then living in Atlanta, which had the Atlanta Crackers minor-league team, and the nearest big-league team was in Washington, D.C., which was far away and not much of a team.

So which team would he follow? "When I was eight or nine years old, I bought two packs of baseball cards. They were the small ones, about 1 1/2 by two inches," he said. "In those two packs were two Tigers players. If I had two Tigers, I thought they must be the best team."

Kelley may not have played the game professionally, but he certainly wrote about it professionally. His book publisher asked him if he would be interested in interviewing several players from the old Negro leagues, where talented players toiled in obscurity even though they were the equals of players in the segregated Major Leagues. The result was several books that attracted wide praise.

"They were most receptive to being interviewed," he said of the retired players. "They had played all those years with little or no recognition. They all had stories to tell."

Yes, and Brent Kelley has stories to tell. We enjoyed them all over the years.

Don Clippinger is editorial director of Thoroughbred Times.