In 2008, Jennifer Selvig, DVM, of Cleary Lake Veterinary Clinic, in Minnesota, brought a bay Thoroughbred named Chief Magistrate home to her Stargazer Farm at the end of his racing career. She retrained him for eventing, and they found much success competing up to Prelim. Selvig never could have predicted, however, how much “Chief” would teach her outside the arena.
“He’s become the horse that has taught me all the things I never knew I needed to know in veterinary medicine,” she said.
Here’s what Chief and Selvig have been through over the past 17 years.
2008: Lacerated Extensor Tendon
Before Chief’s eventing career even started, he lacerated his right hind extensor tendon on a metal hay feeder. He underwent surgery at the University of Minnesota, followed by seven months of stall rest. Rehab involved a lot of walking in the arena.
“The surgeon had told me, ‘I really don’t think he’s going to be much more than a low-level jumper,’ ” Selvig recalled. “Well, nobody told Chief that. He went on to do a whole slew of preliminary horse trials throughout his career, including a couple of long-format events. During that time while he was competing, I don’t think he took a lame step.”
2020: Subchondral Cyst
About five years ago, Chief began coming up lame in his right hind after jump schools. Radiographs showed some fusion in his fetlock joint, so Selvig injected it with triamcinolone and hyaluronic acid. Shortly thereafter, the joint blew up and Chief was 4 out of 5 lame. She took him to the university for an MRI, which revealed a massive subchondral cyst in P1 that had become infected.
Two arthroscopies later, Chief returned home. Then began six months of stall rest and hand-walking—a period that Selvig said taught her about rehabbing injuries and the importance of walking.
“I always tell my clients that there’s so much benefit in walking,” she explained, starting with 5-minute outings and working up to an hour a day. “By the end of that six months of walking, this horse looked like he was ready to run another event. He built back up all the condition he’d lost strictly by walking around the arena for an hour a day, going over poles with me.”
She then gradually reintroduced turnout and flatwork, and Chief returned to soundness at the walk, trot, and canter.
“The things I got out of that experience with him were the value of being consistent every day with these tough cases. Just the process of getting him back out into the pasture and using the horse to tell you what they’re going to want and tolerate in their life,” Selvig said.
Early 2022: Strangulating Lipoma and Mesenteric Rent
Selvig came down to the barn one morning to find Chief upside down and cast in his stall. She examined him and confirmed colic—but not the type that was going to resolve medically. So Selvig once again took Chief to the university and made the challenging decision to send the now 22-year-old gelding to surgery.
On the table, the surgeons found a strangulating lipoma and a mesenteric rent. “The strangulating lipoma had actually started to break apart on its own … so he didn’t need anything resected,” Selvig recalled. “They removed the lipoma, they ran the whole intestine, they fixed the rent and basically stuck him in recovery. He got back up, and this horse never looked back. He had the easiest colic surgery recovery I think you possibly could ask for.”
Then began 90 days of stall rest and hand-walking again before Chief could return to his normal routine.
“I think what that taught me was age is not a disease, and you really have to look at the individual animal to make the decision about whether or not to take a horse to surgery, whether or not to go through the rehab,” said Selvig. “And that was an experience that I think was good for me to have, even as painful and horrible as it was for him. I’ve got first-hand knowledge of rehabbing a horse through colic surgery and can tell people exactly what it’s like and what you have to do and what to expect with it.”
Late 2022: Acute Laminitis
In December, Chief—now fully retired from work—came in from romping on the hard winter ground extremely painful and shuffling on both feet. He looked laminitic but had never shown any signs of endocrine disease; radiographs showed no rotation of P3 at the time. His pain, however, continued to worsen.
Selvig consulted with several veterinarians and surgeons to determine the best course of action for Chief. She put him in Nanric Ultimate shoes, got a crash course in venograms, and performed metabolic testing. Over time (and with three to six months of more rehab and hand-walking), she was able to transition Chief out of the specialized shoes into regular shoes and pads.
“This taught me a different way to look at laminitic horses,” said Selvig. “Not every horse that becomes laminitic is laminitic for the same reason, and they don’t all respond to the same types of treatments and shoeing setups.”
After a brief relapse at the beginning of 2024, Chief did ultimately test positive for insulin dysregulation and pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction. Selvig started him on SGLT2 inhibitors and said within three or four days he was completely sound. She said she continues to learn more about metabolic disease and how to monitor and manage it.
2025: Living His Best Life
Chief is 25 this year and still wakes up each morning like he’s about to run the Grand National, Selvig joked.
“I think this horse has made it his mission after he was done teaching me a bunch of things about eventing and competition to teach me all the things I didn’t want personal experience with in veterinary medicine,” she said.
In fact, she just recently had Chief immortalized in tattoo form on her shoulder, with the saying “equus experientia docet”—Latin for “horse experience teaches,” which is exactly what he’s done.
Listen to this episode of Daily Vet Life, brought to you by Dechra, to hear all the details about their journey.
About Dr. Jennifer Selvig
Jennifer Selvig, DVM, grew up in Webster, Minnesota, and after learning to ride on her mom’s Arabian and her own rescued pinto pony, began competing in eventing, dressage, and polocrosse. She was active in Pony Club, earning her HA rating, and spent several years in high school working at Equine Medical Center before starting college. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior in 2003, and with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2007. She joined Cleary Lake as a veterinarian in 2007 and worked several summers at Canterbury Park as a racetrack practitioner. In January 2023 she became an owner in the practice.
Selvig’s professional interests include equine sports medicine and rehabilitation, chiropractic, acupuncture, and working with off-track thoroughbreds. She is on the national board of CANTER USA, a nonprofit dedicated to finding second careers for ex-racehorses. She is also the current president of the Minnesota Association of Equine Practitioners. Outside of work, Selvig owns and operates Stargazer Farm, a horse boarding and training facility, with her husband Ben, a human physician. They have two fabulous kids, Riley and Zoey. In whatever time she has left, she still competes her horses in three-day eventing, loves to travel, and enjoys running, lifting weights, and yoga.
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