While reading Tasha Tudors Corgiville Fair as a young girl, I was enchanted by the lovely, though fictional, village of Corgiville. In her many children’s books, the New England native author often depicted life and scenes from historic, rural New England. Her artwork and stories were largely based on her own life in Vermont and surrounding New England areas -all rich with forests, farms, gardens, traditions, antique homes, slow living, and a fierce loyalty to their community. The villages Tudor wrote about were nothing short of emotive with little gazebos in the center and dirt roads lined with quaint shops and historic municipal buildings that were the prize of every town.
In addition to the idyllic settings, the characters in these stories were often varied -from upstanding, well put-on figures to mischievous miscreants who loved to stir up trouble. Town meetings were lively events where business was conducted successfully even if there was a bit of hearty debate and turmoil. Still, every character in these New England-based stories had a role and each was accepted for the order or lack thereof they added to their towns. As an impressionable reader growing up in a largely suburban, overdeveloped area where you had to drive to get to any real nature and any of us valley dwellers would have been floored to see so much a squirrel or rabbit in the yard, the world Tudor wrote about and drew hardly seemed real.
Years later, after sheer determination, a little pestering, and pure luck, I found myself with my own family settled in Massachusetts. Nine moves all over the country had resulted in the gift of finally living in the place I dreamed about as a girl. While no place is without problems and less than lovely characteristics can be found anywhere, overall New England exceeded what I had dreamed about for so long.
After a few years in Plymouth a search for pumpkins for the school harvest festival led me to seek out a farm called Sauchuk’s. On a quintessential autumnal afternoon I exited the freeway and suddenly found myself in what looked like the New England countryside I had read about in Tudor’s stories. I was instantly in awe of the towering pines and jewel-colored trees in lush droves along quiet country roads, the cozy antique Cape’s festooned with mums and pumpkins, a little gazebo on a town green that would make any Gilmore Girl’s Fan proud, thoughtfully curated farm stands dotting every street I turned on, and horses grazing in the autumn sun. I had found heaven -or more precisely, Plympton.
After that day I could not get that little town out of my head. When we began to look for a permanent home I had to add Plympton to the areas to search. Of course, anyone who lives here knows that there isn’t usually much available and I rather gave up hope of finding anything in that slice of New England heaven I had visited the year before. After a few months I decided to look one more time and there it was, the perfect place for my family to call home. When we purchased our home, now named Peaceful Pines Farm, we chose it strictly based on the surrounding area and land. What I could not have known or expected was that the townspeople in Plympton are just as special as the nature here.
Before moving in I connected with a few Plympton locals on an Instagram account I started for our farm. They noticed the hashtag “#Plymptonma” and had to “investigate” as one of them told me. Newcomers, even on social media, were noticed. Within months of settling into our home I was asked to be part of a barn dance committee to save at-risk land in our town from development. I was introduced to what I was told was “the belly of the town” in terms of residents who were known for frequently stepping up to offer their time and efforts whenever needed. After living in so many places all over the country I left the first meeting thinking that in all my nation-wide wanderings I had never met a group of people as welcoming and down to earth as the people I met that night.
Our little town was able to not only put together a never to be forgotten barn dance event for the community, but we raised enough money to help preserve the land that would have otherwise been developed. It was the first time I had seen a community rally together in such a way for the greater good of one another and their local environment. It was also the first time I saw what the people of Plympton are capable of. As an outsider and newcomer to the New England area (though I have never been made to feel like an outsider in Plympton) I have made some observations through the years about the many things, big and small, that greatly contrast any other place I have lived, and help Plympton give Tudor’s Corgiville a run for its money in terms of being a place where anyone is lucky to live.
As that first year progressed through the seasons, my family and I got to see Plympton’s magic further unfold. One of the first memorable Plympton events my family and I experienced was a holiday gathering at the gazebo featuring carolers and Mr. and Mrs. Claus followed by hot chocolate and cookies at the First Congregational Church. That same December, a Christmas tree farm in town was mentioned at a gathering with friends and that is how my family started our now annual tree hunting expedition and found that wandering Schatten Berg farm to search for the perfect Christmas tree feels more like exploring an enchanted Bavarian forest than just visiting a farm down the road.
The first winter in a new town could have been predicably isolating, but in Plympton it brought new connections and adventures with fellow townspeople through becoming part of the Plympton Historical Society Board. I was thrilled to learn that Plympton had its own compilation of tales published and available for purchase in two books, Tales of Old Plympton, Volumes I and II, compiled by Eugene A. Wright. Out west, where I grew up, I would have never heard of such a thing. Perhaps people from this area don’t realize that having a recorded collection of tales and events (a little fact mixed with a little amusing fiction) gathered from multiple people who lived in town is a bit of an American annal spanning generations and is a rare treat!
On St. Patrick’s Day, the Plympton Historical Society put on a potluck for the town with Irish dancers performing. The tables had craft paper runners on them and people were encouraged to write down an “Irish Blessing” for someone. When the event was over, the tables were full of wonderful sentiments and well wishes for our town and everyone in it. I was so moved that I took pictures of these sentiments to add to my personal town photo album.
The second year living in Plympton while there was still snow on the ground, I attended my first meeting for the Plympton Garden Club. I was introduced to some of the most inspiring gardeners I had ever met with decades of horticultural wisdom and experience combined. Years later, while starting the Plympton Flower Show, long-time members of the Plympton Garden Club loaned my Flower Show partner and I the old Plympton Flower Show program booklets for reference. We were astonished to see the rich heritage former generations of the Plympton Garden Club left behind. Today the Garden Club is equally stocked with an array of seasoned gardening and horticultural experts as well as people who are new to gardening and eager to learn from the sage wisdom in the group. Most places I lived before did not even have a local garden club so to find one that is such an integral part of the community made me swoon over Plympton all the more.
With warmer weather, spring sports season began for my children. I observed the behind the scenes efforts of a thriving town youth athletics program and was impressed with the dedication and energy voluntarily given by local parents to run the Plympton Athletic Youth Sports organization. Hours of time are freely given by mothers and fathers for practices and games as well as running an adorable Snack Shack (thank you for adding the Venmo for us cash- forgetting parents), picture days, and the much-anticipated Opening Day where all baseball, softball, and Tee-ball players march in uniform through the center of town to Holt Field for their first games and a cookout afterward. While private and competition sports leagues have their appeal, town sports programs like PAYS create a place where local children can feel they belong and are valued in their community as well as reaping the mental and physical benefits that team sports provide.
As a mother of four children, ages 19-8, and two decades of moving I was no stranger to enrolling my children in various schools across the country and seeing how each school coexisted in the community. After a few short weeks I immediately noted that the Dennett volunteer parent group, Community and School Association or CASA, work exceptionally hard to provide plenty of family-friendly events for the children of Plympton to enjoy throughout the year. With traditions like the annual Talent Show, the Harvest Fair, the Halloween Dance, Trunk-or-Treat, Thanksgiving Dinner for lunch, a Holiday Bazaar, and frequent Staff Appreciation Luncheons with meals and dishes donated by parents, CASA is consumed year-round organizing and hosting events that are meant to bring the families in our community together to have fun.
In addition to such town-wide effort to provide fun and enrichment for the families and children of Plympton, I noticed how very altruistic the first responders in our town are in supporting and interacting with the youth of Plympton in addition to excelling in their crucial duties to serve and protect our town. My youngest never missed a Touch-a-Truck event at the Fire Station and it was quite endearing to watch the Fire Department play the Dennett sixth graders in a neck and neck basketball game last winter. Each morning friendly police officers greet the children with high fives, words of encouragement, and sometimes cuddles from an adorable police dog as they enter the building for school each day. They have provided my son (and I’m sure many others) with a morning smile just by being friendly when coming to school.
Another noteworthy distinction for Plympton that I have perhaps more keenly witnessed as someone new to town and used to living in more overdeveloped areas, is the community outreach focus from the local businesses and farms of Plympton. It is encouraging to see how dedicated these entities are to providing not only high-quality services and goods to our town and beyond, but opportunities to gather and learn.
For example, every year our little town buzzes with the happy activity that Mayflower Market Days brings. This beautiful vintage and local goods fair brings people to Plympton from near and far to enjoy food, music, antique house tours, and also the opportunity to support local businesses selling their wares. I personally could not let an autumn pass by without wandering the bucolic open field to sit at a picnic table and listen to local bands while munching on food truck fare, or adding “just one more” vintage botanical print to my collection that hardly needs adding to. Be it community lectures on horse ownership and horse care at South Shore Equine Clinic or attending a 111 Love Yoga class from our resident Yoga instructor, Plympton business owners add a special touch and benefit to our town that the chain stores and strip malls I was used to prior to living here simply cannot.
My family and many of my friends do not live in New England, but in seeing the things I share about our town they have come to be intently curious about and enchanted from afar with Plympton. I am often asked to describe Plympton for them and one thing I always point out is that we are a farming community. The farms of Plympton are one of my favorite things about our town. Not one of the many places I lived had dozens of farms, big and small, in such a small area. I joke that if you need eggs and your local stand is sold out, all you need to do is go one street over and you will find more. The abundance of farm fresh food, easily accessible and offered at very affordable prices, within the boundaries of our town will never cease to amaze me.
In a modern-day society where there are many urban food deserts and fresh, local food is increasingly hard to come by, we are sitting on a gold mine of privilege here in Plympton. To be able to drive eight minutes across town to grab a few ears of Colchester Farm corn, or stop in Sauchuk’s for cider donuts and a box of peaches on the way home, or to take a five minute drive to Sunrise Gardens for annuals and perennials -these are luxuries that I have personally lived most of my life without and, prior to living in Plympton, only read about in magazines, books, or online sources talking about idyllic places to live.
I will never take for granted the memories of my children and I picking blueberries at the local patch or watching in awe as the cranberry bog down the street fills with water and turns crimson with floating red orbs. My family is forever enriched by the many joy-filled October days spent at the one and only Sauchuk’s where all my kids, no matter their age difference, PLAY together for hours on end. I fail every time to lead them successfully through the corn maze but all is forgiven and forgotten as we head out to the fields where hundreds of pumpkins await excited children and adults who step down from the wagons to choose the season’s best.
It is not only enjoyment and sustenance that I see our local farms providing, it is also education. As a rookie flower farmer I could not ask to be in a more supportive and inspiring community. There is no competition between us, only mutual respect, support, and camaraderie between the flower farmers of Plympton. Knowledge is not guarded, rather it is shared. Be it learning to make compost and grow flowers efficiently in a workshop at Just Right Farm or chatting with the Detterman’s about their vast array of seasonal crops, or picking up a roadside bouquet from the lovely Milkweed Meadows flower stand on the way home from school or eagerly planting the unique and well-bred dahlia tubers from Ten Oak Farm, I found a community of flower farmers and experts in Plympton that have freely shared their wisdom and consistently lent their support to my own growing little farm and encouraged me as I fumble through this new venture.
Lastly, I could not go without touching on what drew my family and I to Plympton in the first place: The land. Our local ecosystem is one of the healthiest and most undeveloped in Massachusetts. As someone who has oft lived in concrete jungles and places where the only vegetation left was the lawn in a parking strip of a mini mall, I cannot stress enough what a gift it is to live in Plympton’s environment. After over three centuries of being a town, Plympton remains largely untouched. Surveys given to our town residents by the Open Space Committee indicate that keeping our local ecosystems as pristine as possible is the top priority for most of the residents here. With our town relying on aquifers and wells for our water supply it makes smart sense to be concerned with the local environment, but the devotion to conservation and preservation goes deeper than the logistics of our water supply.
There is an underlying adoration by the people of Plympton for town lands and resources. Take a hike in stunning Cato’s Ridge and read the names of dozens of Plympton residents and families on the boardwalk who contributed time and money to preserving the land there. Ask a number of Plympton farmers about the local trees their farms are named after. Scan the town Facebook page where there are almost daily images shared of local wildlife -all met with comments of enthusiastic pride that we share our home with such amazing animals and creatures. Attend in person or watch the hours of meetings via televised footage that volunteers for groups like the Conservation Commission and Open Space Committee spend trying to enforce, draft, and preserve legislation to protect our local environment in the face of seemingly endless threats of development and land grabbing that could be detrimental to our natural resources.
I could go on for pages more about the merits of Plympton -this little unassuming gem of a place nestled in the New England forests that is filled with some of the hardest working, most talented, and generous people around. Instead, I invite all of you -Plympton residents or not, to reflect on the things that make your community unique. I could have moved to town and done as I had done nine times before -kept to myself and been friendly, but never really bother to get involved. When I drove through town that fateful autumn day, however, I just knew I was somewhere special -and for the first time, I am ashamed to say, I stepped outside of myself and my little world and started to learn about and work with the people around me.
I realized the utopic aspects of Plympton where not brought about through any measure of perfection, or by everyone always getting along and agreeing, or by an endless town budget, or by ease and everyone keeping to themselves. The best things in Plympton exist and are protected because of the people here. Plympton is not perfect, but it is made pretty darn near in comparison to many other places in the world because its imperfect residents love their community enough to work through issues that inevitably arise when running and inhabiting a town.
Plympton needs everyone in town to invest -to care, to offer their individuality. We need the long-time residents who were at the first Garden Club meetings, the new families with small children who just signed up for Tee-ball through PAYS, the single residents who are able to dedicate skills, time, and consistency that perhaps others can’t, and the teenagers who keep KKaties Express busy and play ice hockey on Bonney Pond in the winter. From our local astronomer to wood workers, from authors to chefs, and from farmers to female business owners, there is a place for everyone in our town and we sure do need you. Plympton would not be Plympton without US.
Take it from a few of our historic town heroes, Deborah Sampson, Samuel C. Wright, and Cato Freeman -no matter how inconsequential you think you may be, your choices and your voice are needed and absolutely make an impact for better or worse. Our town is what we make it but we have to show up. We need to root all of our differences in mutual respect and with a common ultimate goal for the best interest of this amazing little town. I have seen many times what happens when the small-town values and focus are lost -it is not hard to see it for yourself even in New England as towns like Plympton grow increasingly rare.
Decades from now I hope my children can take the exit off the freeway and still find the same instant transportation from the bustling modern society to the softer way of life in the Plympton countryside. I hope they find that there are fresh ears of corn waiting at the farm stands, that there is another lively town gathering at the gazebo on the town green, and that you still have to drive slowly and often wait for turkeys, chickens, deer, and horses to clear the road. My “Irish Blessing” for our town: “May the residents of Plympton be worthy authors of our towns story. May we continue to write new tales -ones that honor the past and ensure a peaceful future.”

Anyone who moves to Plympton hears it -the inevitable joke that there are more horses than people living there. Anyone who drives through a street or two will see enough evidence to think that may be true. Perhaps there is no town better equipped to house so many horses because in addition to being home to an impressive equestrian population, Plympton is also home to the renowned South Shore Equine Clinic and Diagnostic Center.
Founded in 2006 and run by Dr. Mark T. Reilly, D.V.M, Diplomate ABVP (Equine) and a team of six talented veterinary doctors, including his wife Dr. Linda J. Cimetti, South Shore Equine Clinic is a hub for the horse owning and loving community in Plympton and far beyond. As a young boy growing up in Abington, Reilly was exposed to horses through his father. “My father owned race horses,” Reilly says, “but he never touched them. He was just a huge fan of the sport. I rode at Briggs and rode a bit as a kid, but growing up I never had a horse of my own.” That is certainly not the case anymore as not only does Reilly have his own horse, Luche, who is referred to as the “babysitter” of the clinic, but Reilly is surrounded by horses every day and often nights, too.
Reilly worked at the horse racing tracks in his youth as a groom and later as a veterinary assistant. He states, “Horses just came easy to me.” A growing passion for working with animals took him to the University of New Hampshire where Reilly earned a B.S. in Animal Science. He then attended Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and graduated in 1991. Upon graduation, Dr. Reilly set off to work on the East coast horse racing circuit with Dr. Richard Kester. He divided his time between working on the East coast and spending winters in southern Florida before moving to work at Delaware Park with racing thoroughbreds and racing Arabian horses. Reilly then settled on Cape Cod where he established a large animal ambulatory practice in 1995 that serviced both Cape Cod and the Islands and then spread northward to the South Shore. In 1997, Reilly combined his equine practice with a small animal practice, forming Mid-Cape Animal Hospital.
With the combined veterinary establishment, it became apparent that Reilly needed to expand in order to tend to his growing patients and this would require a lot of space and land. While seeing to some horses in Plympton one day, Reilly was explaining his plight to the horse owner who jumped in and said, “I know a place!” That place was the current location on Palmer Road. “We pulled up and it was a shell of a house in major disrepair and the ‘For Sale’ sign was hanging off the hinges,” Reilly recalls. Still, the outbuildings and land offered the perfect site that Reilly envisioned for an equine hospital and the land was purchased. The main house was unsalvageable and too close to the road so it was torn down, but construction began in 2005 and by 2006 South Shore Equine Clinic and Diagnostic Center opened to the public.
Now seeing approximately 1,500 horses a year, South Shore Equine Clinic and Diagnostic Center has become one of the most revered medical and diagnostic centers for the equestrian community not only on the South Shore but in the country. What started as a run-down but brimming with possibility farm is now a 7,000 square foot facility, with two six-stall barns, two ICU stalls, exercise areas, four different lameness surfaces for evaluation, an indoor trotting aisle, sand and grass paddocks, open field, standing MRI room, a laboratory and diagnostics center, a surgical suite, two induction and recovery rooms, and an outpatient area. With state of the art technology and services offered that can’t be found anywhere else in the area, Reilly has made South Shore Equine Clinic an invaluable part of the community.
Stepping inside the welcoming reception area it is easy to see that order and cleanliness are standard as is the love of all things horse with pictures and décor of the equestrian nature covering the walls. Beyond the reception area is a trotting hall -a nine-foot wide, long hallway that not only allows the horses to move about the hospital but to also be observed by the team to evaluate their range of motion -especially in bad weather. The floor of the trotting area is a deep shade of red. “The floor is red because when, say, black surfaces are wet from snow or rain, the horses think it’s a body of water or a puddle and they will try to jump over it. The red doesn’t look like anything to the horses so they can move about without feeling like they need to jump when they are possibly injured,” Reilly explains.
Leading from the trotting hall is an induction room that is padded and equipped with a rope system to gently lower sedated horses to a resting position and be hoisted up into the adjacent surgery suite. The surgical suite offers the latest and most advanced veterinary technology such as a carbon dioxide laser, and is equipped to house 4-5 medical staff as well as manage almost any type of elective surgery such as castrations, tumor removals, orthopedic procedures, arthroscopy, and soft tissue procedures. Surgeries are available for viewing via a “birds eye view” television if the horse owners wish to watch the procedures. The procedures are often recorded and made available as instructional resources for veterinary students.
Another service that sets South Shore Equine Clinic apart from other veterinary centers is the open field, standing MRI facility. It is one of only eighteen open field units in the country. The open field design allows horses to stand in a semi-sedated but weight bearing stance to image all the areas needing evaluation on the horse. This way of conducting an MRI reduces risks to the patient as well as expense to the owner. Additionally, this technology allows highly detailed imaging. Reilly explains, “I can do 330 images in an hour and a half of 3mm slices of a six-inch area, so it’s just like human medicine -you can see everything. It has revolutionized especially how we deal with lower limb lameness.” Reilly also explains that because the imaging is digital now images can be manipulated to show layers and angles and can be emailed to anyone on the care team for the horse.
Maintaining this cutting-edge technology is hardly carefree, however. “The MRI room has its own HVAC and has to be maintained at 66 degrees -give or take a few degrees. The bigger the magnet the more important the stability temperature,” Reilly points out, “So if something is off -the humidity or temperature, an orange light goes off and notifies our on-call HVAC company and they have to come out and fix it right away. There are days I come in and they are already here adjusting things. They can also tap into the program and adjust things remotely sometimes.”
Further exploration of the large, well-maintained facility leads to an evaluation area with comfort ICU stalls that have 24-hour monitoring, a stock to examine horses, and easy access from the outdoor unloading and evaluation areas where owners drop off the horses. When it comes to comfort for his patients met with logic and efficiency for the staff, nothing is overlooked by Reilly. “We have padded floors in the comfort stalls with just the right level of softness to keep it safe for the horses but also soft enough that we don’t have to put down four bags of shavings every time that have to be changed multiple times and between patients. With these floors we only need a half a bag of shavings.” Reilly goes on to explain, “If the horse is on IV fluids, we have the IV bags up in the ceiling and the lines are fed from there to the horse. That way we don’t have lines getting stepped on or tagled and the fluids can be managed from above the stall so as not to disturb the horse. So it is much more efficient in terms of less mess and also the horses can rest.”
Outside South Shore Equine Clinic, the attention to detail carries through to various lameness surfaces in the unloading area. Here, Reilly often asks the owner to demonstrate the issue by riding the horse if possible and observing the horses movement and reactions on five different surfaces which help Reilly evaluate lameness or other possible issues. Across from the unloading and evaluation are four different size grass paddocks, one small sand turnout, a riding ring, a lunge area, and a deep sand round pen. Housed off to the side of those areas is a large barn with three of the six stalls equipped for IV fluids and 24-hour monitoring. There is also an isolation stall for horses exhibiting things like a fever or other symptoms of being contagious. “Usually, we try to keep horses with fevers at their own barns to control exposure, but if we have to keep them here this is where they will be treated,” says Reilly.
South Shore Equine Clinic is not only a standing facility, it is a mobile practice as well. With a fleet of mobile veterinary trucks equipped with drugs, ultrasound machines, endoscopes, and various medical materials and instruments tailored to each veterinarian’s preference or specialty services, South Shore Equine services can often be on site in the horses familiar surroundings. “On any given day there are at least three of our vet trucks on the road,” Reilly says.
Overseeing the whole operation is Reilly’s beloved horse, Luche, who lives at the clinic. Luche came to South Shore Equine Clinic as a two-year-old lame racing horse. The owner at that time was immediately uninterested in the horse once they found out treatment was needed. “The owner said ‘Well I don’t want him anymore,’ and I said, ‘Well I do!’” Reilly then performed surgery, after treatment, and rehabilitation to bring Luche back to full form and he made himself at home. Referred to by Reilly as the “babysitter” of the barn Luche is eager to welcome and interact with any patient or human who happens to be nearby.
Perhaps one of the most consuming endeavors available at South Shore Equine Clinic is the practice of foaling. A serene and well-equipped foaling barn allows Reilly and his team to safely and successfully foal out 18-20 foals a year. Reilly also says he performs artificial insemination for breeding on about 20-25 mares each year. The mares are monitored throughout the eleven-month gestation period and close to the expected time of delivery they are brought to the barn and kept comfortable and monitored. Once the foal is born there are 24-hour surveillance cameras with infrared camera for night vision observation without disturbing the protective mares and their foals.
Due to foaling, the busiest time at South Shore Equine clinic is in the spring. “Horses give birth in the spring months because mares instinctively don’t want their babies to be leaving and weaning in the middle of winter. They instinctively want to mate between February to June and give birth around that time a year later.” Reilly explains that the clinic foaling barn is run rather like a hotel reservation service and mares are booked to come in around the time of delivery -which means a full house -or barn, rather, for a few months each year. “This year we had eight mares ready to drop their foals all at once because some of them were kind of holding on and not delivering…that’s a little intimidating,” jokes Reilly, “It was like hot potato deciding who was going to be on call each night for that because we knew they would all go close together.”
With so many services and comforts available at South Shore Equine Clinic, Reilly has also managed to provide a fully functional and valuable laboratory on site. The full in-house laboratory is located in a former outbuilding that was converted. “It was our Covid project,” Reilly jests. In the past, when blood tests were ordered and cultures needed, it was all sent out for testing. The on-site lab now allows immediate blood test results as well as culture evaluations and other test results to be determined much quicker and at less of a cost. Reilly demonstrates, “It used to take about five days to get, say, a culture back. Now, I know in 18 hours what antibiotic to use. In 36 hours I can call a test negative. It means better treatment for the horse and less expense to the owner in making sure the right thing is done right away. Especially with regard to antibiotic resistance its important to be accurate.”
It is not all about horses, however, at South Shore Equine Clinic. Reilly understands that a horse is best cared for when the owners are educated and equipped to handle the huge responsibility of owning a horse. During the winter months, usually on Mondays, Reilly and his staff hold gatherings, lectures, and classes for the community on horse care. “We hold presentations on things like common maladies, hot topic issues -we survey our customers to see what they want to learn about. Sometimes there are sponsors for these events and door prizes and discounts are offered depending on the topic,” Reilly says. These presentations also offer the chance for people to ask questions in a non-stressful setting. Reilly points out, “When people are here with a problem they often aren’t thinking clearly. When they come to these classes they can ask better questions in a non-emergency event.”
Reilly also explains that this is his approach with passing on after care instructions to horse owners upon discharge of their animal. “The biggest cause for post treatment failure is non compliance with discharge orders,” Reilly says, “We make sure all the discharge information is clearly and thoroughly presented in the discharge area before they exit to the waiting room where the bill awaits them so they can focus on how to keep their horse from needing more treatment from failure to provide proper aftercare.”
Amidst all the complexities and hard work to run a state of the art center like South Shore Equine Clinic, the foremost mission of all who work there is the love of horses and the desire to care for them and give them the highest quality of life possible, and to provide owners and surrounding veterinary centers the ability and opportunities to do that. “We are here to give the best treatment and comfort we can to horses and to give the owners peace of mind,” Reilly assures, “We make sure each horse has treatment tailored specifically to them. You could have two horses with identical issues or illnesses and the treatments for both could be entirely different because we base it on what each horse needs.”
When asked about the demeanor of horses under duress or feeling ill Reilly says, “Horses are honest. Dogs and cats? Not so much. Dogs want you to think everything is fine even if their limb is falling off and cats mask symptoms, too -but horses give you instant feedback. Horses also respond to the tone and behavior of the owner, so if the owner is causing the horse anxiety we also help to calm the owner. A calm horse is a safer horse.” The staff at South Shore Equine Clinic share Reilly’s goals to make what could be a difficult experience as stress free and assuring as possible. “Not all of our staff ride or own horses,” Reilly points out, “But everyone here has a true love for them. Owning a horse is a passion, you have to want that responsibility and love it.”
When asked what Reilly would like the community to know about South Shore Equine Clinic he responds, “We are a partner in the care of your horse. We are available 24/7, 365 days a year. We want the best outcome for everyone and we work hard, around the clock to provide that for every patient and human that comes through the door.” After witnessing the nearly incomprehensible amount of work and dedication from Reilly and his staff in just one afternoon their love for horses is undeniable. Reilly and all at South Shore Equine Clinic have built more than a prestigious, well-outfitted medical practice, they have built a thoughtful, peaceful, healing center for horses to get them back home in the best condition and as soon as possible, because anyone who truly loves horses knows that home is where your horse is.