Pegasus A One-Of-A-Kind Facility

Nestled on a dead-end street about 20 miles from downtown Seattle in Redmond, Wash. is a facility every horse person dreams of. Passing a training track with a view of the numerous barns on the property as you drive in the gate, the Pegasus Training and Rehabilitation Center is a state of the art facility that provides services from breaking horses to rehabilitation and everything in between.

Countless horses have visited the facility for a variety of reasons, including champions Shared Belief and Blind Luck, with the 12-year-old farm having an abundance of amenities for every horse, but it is rehabilitating horses that is one of the true passions of owner Dr. Mark DeDomenico and his staff.

“The attitude that we have is that if there's something that's not working for anybody else, we want a crack at it,” said Mike Puhich, Pegasus's trainer and Director of Horse Operations. “We don't think there's a horse we can't help. I know that's [our consulting vet] Dr. McIlwraith's attitude. There's not a horse he can't fix, there's not a life Dr. Mark can't save, and there's not a horse we can't fix at the farm. Maybe it sounds arrogant, but one thing about it is the effort's there and we're dang sure going to try.”

Following that thought, DeDomenico has made sure his team has exactly what they need to help any horse who makes the trip to Pegasus. Located just beyond the far turn of Pegasus's five furlong training track, the rehabilitation division has multiple barns with large stalls and numerous paddocks, but that is just the start of what's to be found.

Also within the fences of the rehabilitation division are a host of diagnostic and rehabilitation facilities from the Nuclear Scintigraphy machine, which allows staff to catch bone injuries that may not show up on x-ray, to a building that holds the Pegasus swimming pool, water treadmill and an indoor Eurociser. For horses who have to take their recovery process a little slower, equipment such as the Hyperbaric Chamber and Vibration Plate work their magic.

While those taking advantage of the rehabilitation services at Pegasus come in all breeds and sizes, the racehorses based at the farm also take advantage of the high-tech equipment just a few furlongs from the barns where they're housed. Puhich says that the training program for the racehorses has the same objective as any racing program in the world but does admit having the facilities at Pegasus does make some things a little easier.

“It's not rocket science, you want to get your horses as physically fit as you can and as healthy as you can and as mentally healthy as you can,” he said. “We have a lot of tools to work with but the objective is the same. Having the swimming pool and being able to change things up by taking a horse that's getting tired of the same old routine out to ride on the trails and go swim for a couple of days helps. So, the amenities we have are different but the objective is the same.”

As for why it is so important to have a farm like Pegasus on the west coast, Puhich points to an example of the time it takes to travel to Seattle versus the East Coast for West Coast clients wanting to see how their horses are training.

“When you're on the West Coast and want to see your horse gallop and how its going as its being broke, you're traveling a whole day getting there, then you're there watching them train for a whole day then you're traveling the next day coming home, so the quickest you're traveling is three days,” Puhich explained. “Being in southern California, for example, if you want to see your horse here, you leave out of Burbank at 7a.m., you watch your horse train, you have lunch then you're home for dinner.”

Though Pegasus is nearly as far northwest as you can get in the continental United States, that hasn't stopped horses from around the country shipping in to take advantage of its facilities. Racehorses from around the country have visited Pegasus for their rehabilitation and training needs with Puhich hoping that one day more operations around the country will offer horse owners what Pegasus has.

“We have horses who come from Kentucky for rehab, we've had horses come from New York, we have sport horses who have come from all over the country,” he said. “I think it's important to have what we have as kind of a guideline for what other places should start implementing. West Coast, Midwest, anywhere, I think it's important to have a facility like ours and I think we're fortunate there is something like this out here. I think it's nice to see someone like Dr. Mark who is passionate enough to be out here with the way the industry's going right now. He's out here and he's trying to fix things and get horses rehabbed and keep the longevity in racehorses. I'd like to see more people follow our lead.”