Dr. Brendan W. Furlong
Dr. Wendy Leich
Dr. Margaret Mullin
Dr. Rachel Gardner
Dr. Christiana Ober
Dr. Sarah Gold
Dr. Misty Gray
Dr. Anne Ward
Dr. Stacey Ward
Dr. Patrick Biegel
Nadia Cook-Grisewood
Vicki Drew
Kathy Moffat
Hugo Silva
Kendra Merrigan
Our practice is comprised of 7 veterinarians from very diverse backgrounds and specialties. Please note that while all the veterinarians are based in New Jersey, Drs. Furlong, Leich and Mullin head to Florida in the winter to serve our clients that have travelled south for showing.
Dr. Furlong was born and raised on a horse farm in Ireland. He graduated from the Veterinary College of Ireland with honors in 1976. He came to the United States for a 2-year internship in 1977. Dr. Furlong then started his own equine veterinary practice in 1980, which has since evolved into one of the premier equine sport horse practices on the east coast. Dr. Furlong has been involved exclusively with performance horses, and the practice has grown to employ 7 veterinarians.
Dr. Furlong’s areas of special interest are in Sport Horse performance, especially lameness and loss of performance. Pre-Purchase exams are also a special interest of Dr. Furlong’s and his expertise and reputation have taken him all over the world to perform pre-purchase exams on behalf of his clients.
Dr. Furlong has served the United States Equestrian Team in various capacities over the last 15 years including:
Dr. Furlong has been married since 1983 to his wife Wendy, also a veterinarian in the practice. They have two teenage sons, Adam and Jonny; and the family lives on a horse farm in Pittstown, New Jersey, where they breed sport horses. In his spare time Dr Furlong enjoys farming and fox hunting.
Dr. Leich grew up in England and attended Cambridge University Veterinary School. She was on a holiday job in the United States when she met Dr. Furlong. After graduating top of her class from Cambridge University in 1983, the two were married and came to the United States.
Dr. Leich was instrumental in developing the practice from its early days where the office was in the basement of the house to the present hospital facility. She has been involved in the design of the first clinic including developing the anesthesia system for surgery and in the design and development of the present building. Dr. Leich has worked in all aspects of equine veterinary medicine.
Since 2000, Dr. Leich's professional interest has been primarily in the field of equine acupuncture. She is certified as a Veterinary Acupuncturist and as a practioner of Veterinary Orthopedic Manipulation (VOM). Dr. Leich has worked for the USET 3-Day Event Team as acupuncturist at many major competitions including the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2002 World Championships in Jerez. At this time, Dr. Leich works to integrate acupuncture with conventional veterinary techniques with a client population that varies from competition horses to geriatrics.
Dr. Leich is actively involved in breeding, training and competing sport horses from the Furlong's farm in Pittstown, NJ. They have two sons, Adam and Jonathan who both ride competitively.
Dr. Mullin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine Philadelphia, PA in 1996. She went on to do her intership at Mid Atlantic Equine Medical Center, Ringoes, NJ the following year. She has been an Associate Veterinarian at B.W. Furlong and Associates since 1998.
Prior to veterinary school, Dr. Mullin rode and trained hunters, jumpers, and equitation horses as well as riders in Annandale, NJ. While a veterinarian, she has had the honor of working for the United States Equestrian Team at such events as 'The Masters' at Spruce Meadows in Calgary, Canada, a 'CSI' event in Monterrey, Mexico, and various other international events. She has represented B.W. Furlong & Associates in Florida during the winter months for the past five years.
Dr. Gardner joined BW Furlong & Associates in August 2005 as the internal medicine specialist. As the internist at BW Furlong & Associates, she evaluates and treats horses for respiratory conditions, neurologic disorders, ophthalmic disorders and gastrointestinal disorders. She also investigates the causes of more subtle signs that horses may show, such as fever, inappetance, lethargy or weight loss.
Dr. Gardner received her undergraduate education at Cornell University where she was also a member of the Cornell University Women’s Polo Team. She graduated from veterinary school at Cornell University in 2001, then completed a one-year internship at Blue Ridge Equine Clinic, a private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. She returned to Cornell University for a residency in internal medicine, which she completed in July 2005. When not working, she still finds a way for life to revolve around horses and other animals. Her husband, Jason, is a small animal internal medicine specialist and they can usually be found riding their horses or hiking with their dogs in their free time.
Dr. Ober grew up riding and competing horses in Walkersville, Maryland. After spending her undergraduate years at the United States Naval Academy and the University of Virginia, she went on to veterinary school at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating at the top of her class, she completed a two year equine sports medicine and diagnostic imaging internship at Virginia Equine Imaging in Middleburg, Virginia. She then spent the next six years at that practice as an associate specializing in lameness, imaging, managing the competition horse, and pre-purchase examinations. She is now very excited to join the team at B.W. Furlong and Associates.
Christiana also has her FEI certification in the discipline of three-day eventing and has completed the IVAS (International Veterinary Acupuncture Society) course for equine acupuncture. She is currently serving as the head team veterinarian for the Canadian Three-Day Event Team (Olympics- Hong Kong 2008, Pan Am Games- Rio 2007, WEG- Aachen 2006) under coach David O Connor. Dr. Ober also works as an assistant to Dr. Furlong for the United States Three-Day Event Team.
Christiana is looking forward to servicing clients in Ocala, Florida for the upcoming winter season where she has been living for the past five winter seasons.
In her free time Christiana is a successful Ironman triathlete qualifying and competing in the World Championships in 2006 in Kona, Hawaii. She also enjoys relaxing and hiking with her two black labs Parker and Aston.
Born in Nuremburg, Germany, Dr. Sarah Gold grew up in Suffern, NY (Rockland County). Her involvement with horses began at age 9, when she began riding with Mindy Minetto at Stonehedge Farm. By grooming, training, and showing horses for Mindy in the hunter/jumper industry, she developed a strong background in horsemanship, and decided pursue a career in equine medicine.
Sarah graduated cum laude from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in 2000 with a degree in Animal Science. She also was captain of the Women’s Varsity Equestrian Team at Cornell. Dr. Gold was then accepted directly into veterinary school at Cornell University, where her primary interests were sports medicine, reproduction, and pathology. She completed a one-year internship at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. She joined B.W. Furlong & Associates in the summer of 2005 upon completion of her internship as an ambulatory practitioner, with a special interest in lameness, reproduction, and diagnostic imaging.
A B.W. Furlong & Associates intern for 2007-2008, Dr. Misty Gray grew up in a small town in north Louisiana. As the only horse lover in the family, she spent all of her spare time at a hunter/jumper barn in a nearby town. Misty attended Louisiana State University for undergraduate work where she rode on the equestrian team, and graduated from the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in May 2007. In her spare time, she enjoys riding, playing with her dog Abby, and getting to know New Jersey!
Dr. Stacey Ward was born in Reno, Nevada and grew up in southeastern Connecticut. She developed a love of animals when she was very young and had always wanted to become a horse vet. Stacey graduated from Penn State with a BS in Animal Bioscience and a minor in International Agriculture. She then continued her education at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. She is currently expanding her knowledge of equine veterinary medicine as an intern at our practice. In 2009 she will be married to a fellow Penn Stater and settle in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Patrick grew up in north-eastern NJ and competed in the in AQHA circuits in NY and NJ. He received a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Large Animal Science from Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture where he was a founding father of a chapter of the professional agricultural fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho, and competed on the equestrian team, serving as an officer for three years. He achieved his Masters Degree in Laboratory Animal Science from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2004 and then moved to Scotland where he obtained his Veterinary Degree from the University of Glasgow, graduating with commendation. During his time in United Kingdom, he worked as a veterinary technician at the University’s equine hospital and travelled extensively. When not working Patrick can be found helping on his family’s horse farm, golfing or fishing.
Jessica Stahle, Intern 2009-2010 VMD, University of
Pennsylvania (more soon).
Please take a moment to read about our hard-working support staff. These are the behind-the-scenes people that make the clinic run so efficiently.
Nadia grew up in and around the horse industry in Ireland. She has gathered experience from many different equine disciplines including Eventing, Show Jumping, Hunters (Both Field and Show Hunters) and Driving. She has traveled as a groom throughout Europe with Show Jumpers and has ridden competitively at shows and evented within Ireland and the US.
Nadia came to the US in 1985 to work for Dr’s Brendan and Wendy Furlong and decided to stay.
Since arriving in the country, Nadia has, again, accumulated many different experiences from Farming to Administrative duties and everything in between and has worked her way up the ranks at B.W. Furlong to her current position as Office Manager and administrator.
In 2000, she returned to Ireland for training in Equine semen freezing and collection at Hartwell Stud in county Kildare with Mary McCann and returned to the US with her knowledge. She continued with the stallions and formed the stallion station at B.W. Furlong and Associates and also formed Shelbourne Farm Stallion Agency, primarily for foreign stallions and later for local stallions belonging to clients of B.W. Furlong and Associates.
She now lives in Holland Township, NJ with her Husband, Ken and two daughters Kali, 12 and Taryn, 10.
In her spare time, she enjoys long walks on the beach and spends all her free time lying in the sun and reading trashy novels…. yeah right! …What spare time?!!!
Vicki completed a Masters Degree at California State University, LA in Speech and Language Pathology and practiced as a Traumatic Head Injury Specialist until 1989 when she went to the dogs and worked for 3 years for a small animal veterinary practice in Irvine, California. While in California she had horses at home and roped cattle for the Irvine Ranch. Vicki moved east in 1993 and began carriage driving. She competed in combined driving at the intermediate level. Vicki has been on the board of the Handicapped Riders in California, Rhode Island Driving Club in Rhode Island, and the Tewksbury Trail Association here in New Jersey. She is currently on the Tewksbury Equestrian Committee. Vicki has two Arabian horses at home with which she does competitive trail rides and Hunter Paces.
Hugo is a native of Honduras, and moved to the United States in 1995. He began working for Dr. Furlong in 1999. He currently performs all of the MRI scans of patients and referral cases. He also assists in stallion handling and collection, and is indispensable as the clinic “handyman”.
B.W. Furlong & Associates
101 Homestead Rd PO Box 16
Oldwick, NJ 08858
908-439-2821